Free Hunting Lila by Sarah Alderson

and I were so similar it was amazing. I had never noticed before, because my dad didn’t keep many photos of my mum in the house. I had my dad’s chin and straight nose, but from this photograph, it was obvious I was my mother’s daughter; we had the exact same colour hair and eyes but it was clear that I also had her oval-shaped face and high cheekbones. I had always thought of my mother as beautiful, and the shock of realising I had inherited some of her features genuinely startled me.
    ‘You know, you look just like her,’ Alex said, reading my thoughts again.
    I got up off the sofa and came to stand next to him. ‘I haven’t ever really seen it before, but now I do.’
    I could feel the heat of Alex’s body radiating against my side. I only came up to his shoulder and it was so tempting to lean against him.
    ‘Jack’s angry with your dad for not fighting for her. As he sees it, the fight doesn’t stop until the people who did it, who killed her, are caught.’
    I was speechless for a few seconds and then gathered myself, stammering, ‘But that’s ridiculous. The police tried. They didn’t catch them. What could my dad do?’
    Alex was standing only inches away from me. I could feel his breath on my hair. Then he turned and sat down on the sofa, his arms resting across his knees.
    ‘Nothing, Lila. Your father couldn’t really do anything. Jack knows that deep down but until he finds the people who killed her he’ll keep blaming your dad. He’s his scapegoat.’
    I didn’t say anything as I absorbed this information. Then something dawned on me. ‘You said until he finds the people – what do you mean? He’s looking for them?’
    Panic started to invade me, making my breathing hike. I staggered forward and knelt on the floor in front of Alex. He slowly lifted his eyes from the ground to meet mine.
    ‘Tell me, Alex,’ I pleaded. ‘What do you mean? Are you looking for them?’ If it was true, Jack wasn’t doing it by himself. That much I knew.
    He stared into my eyes for a few seconds, weighing his answer. But I could see it before he spoke. ‘Yes. We’re looking for them.’
    My voice shook. ‘And have you found them?’
    I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear the answer. It was like walking a tightrope and knowing that whichever way I fell, to the left or the right, the result would still be the same. I’d be paralysed.
    ‘Yes.’
    My heart lurched into my mouth. It seemed impossible. Five years had gone by and everyone had given up on getting answers. It felt like there were only three people alive – four if I counted Alex – who even cared any more whether my mother’s killers could be found.
    ‘How? How do you know who did it?’
    ‘We got intelligence,’ Alex answered simply.
    ‘I don’t understand. What intelligence? From where?’
    ‘The Unit. We find things out through the Unit.’
    ‘What things? What does your unit have to do with my mother or her murder? I don’t get it.’
    ‘The Unit has nothing to do with it.’ Alex paused again, weighing his words carefully. ‘Jack and I just managed to access some intelligence through the Unit that helped us to find them.’
    ‘And now you’ve found them . . . what are you going to do?’ It felt like all the blood in my body froze then started to churn.
    ‘We’re going to catch them.’
    ‘Why didn’t Jack tell me any of this?’
    ‘He doesn’t want to bring you into it.’ Alex’s voice was low and calm, I had the feeling that he was trying to reel me in.
    ‘Why are you OK with telling me then?’
    Alex bit his bottom lip, thinking, then after a second or two he said, ‘Because I don’t like to see you hurt and I think you need to know.’
    We stared at each other wordlessly, his gaze holding mine, his focus tight, trying to anticipate my next question.
    It was one I hadn’t ever thought I’d get an answer to. ‘Who are they? Who killed my mum?’
    He didn’t answer me. Just continued to stare into my eyes. I could