Free Tell the Truth by Katherine Howell

wasn’t for him being with Stacey I wouldn’t be his friend, probably. I sometimes feel like he’s laughing at me, you know? I don’t know why. I said to Stacey that I don’t think he likes me, and she brushed it off. But he rang me last week, and asked me about Rowan.’
    Ella sat further forward, one ear on Murray. Keep Marie out there! ‘What did he say?’
    â€˜He wanted to know how he and Stacey got along. I said great, as far as I’d seen, since I hadn’t been on the station for long,’ Paris said. ‘He asked if they worked together much, if they spent nightshifts together. I didn’t really believe what he was asking, and must’ve sounded surprised or shocked or something, because then he laughed and said he was joking, couldn’t I tell that? He can make you feel really silly.’
    â€˜What day was that?’
    â€˜Tuesday,’ Paris said.
    â€˜Did you tell Stacey?’
    Paris shook her head. ‘It felt stupid.’
    â€˜I have to ask,’ Ella said. ‘Do you think Stacey could be seeing Rowan? Or anyone else?’
    â€˜No,’ Paris said. ‘I can’t imagine that she ever would.’
    She sounded certain – as certain as a niece could be about her aunt, at least. Ella nodded. She could hear Marie and Murray coming back. Time to shift to a safer topic. ‘So this last weekend, did you talk to Stacey on the phone?’
    â€˜I talked to her on Saturday morning. She’s been helping me with work stuff, going over treatment procedures and protocols, and I asked if we could get together and do some more. She was busy and said she’d call me back and let me know if she had time. But she didn’t call.’
    Murray brought in a tray of tea things and placed it on the coffee table.
    â€˜She tell you everything you needed to know?’ Marie asked.
    Paris took an Iced VoVo and bit into it with her head down, avoiding her mother’s gaze.
    â€˜She did great,’ Ella said.
    â€˜How wonderful.’ Marie reached for the teapot. ‘Milk? Sugar?’
    â€˜Actually, we need to get going.’ Ella put her card on the table. ‘Please call any time if you – either of you – think of anything else that might be helpful, even remotely. And thank you.’
    Outside, Murray nudged her arm as she unlocked the car. ‘What did you get?’
    â€˜Paris and Stacey are closer than Paris and her mother.’ She told him about Stacey crying and mentioning problems at home, and about James’s questions about Rowan. ‘Ties in with James eyeing Rowan off when we were at the scene, and the feeling that there was something between them.’
    Murray clipped in his seatbelt. ‘So has James done her in because he thought she was having an affair?’
    â€˜And put the car there for Rowan to find, to set him up somehow? I don’t know.’ Ella started the car and pulled out.
    Murray looked back at the house. ‘I thought that passing out thing was a total furphy.’
    â€˜Really? So did I, but you looked like you’d swallowed it hook, line and sinker.’
    â€˜Nah, I was all over it.’ He checked his notebook. ‘Next stop the friends?’
    â€˜Sounds good.’ But Ella was still thinking about James, and Rowan, and what might really be going on.

SIX
    A imee Russell opened her front door with a surprised look that turned into a smile. ‘Rowan, right? Wow. How are you? It’s been ages.’ A girl of about three peered around her leg.
    â€˜He nodded at them both, and remembered the child’s name was Charlotte. ‘Do you have a minute?’
    â€˜Well, sure. Come in.’
    They sat in the kitchen. Aimee wore jeans and a black T-shirt with a cartoon chicken on the front, and her feet were bare. The little girl ran off, and he could hear Play School on in another room. He said, ‘This is Imogen.’
    The women smiled at each