Free An Astronaut's Life by Sonja Dechian

not have cared less about my business anyway.
    ‘And have you done much to the yard since you moved in? Any landscaping?’
    ‘Yeah, at the back. We put in grass and the decking. Not the front, though, we haven’t
gotten around to it.’
    They took some notes and turned off their recorder.
    ‘I think we have all we need.’
    ‘So, can I ask something?’ I said.
    ‘Of course.’
    ‘Is this a murder investigation? Are you homicide cops?’
    ‘Yes, we are.’
    I hadn’t expected them to tell me, so I pushed for more. ‘Is this related to those
drug murders in the news?’
    But they were back to their script after that minor admission, and although I tried
a few more questions, I could not get them to tell me another thing.
    Lucas was back a few minutes later, wide-eyed about all he would have to tell his
class, as if things were not already bad enough with the school without the mention
of cops at our house. Victor stood by him, attempting a casual demeanour.
    ‘But remember, catching bad guys is not the job of our dogs. These dogs are trained
exclusively for detecting certain types of objects, via’—he pointed his finger to
the kid’s nose—‘smelling, with their noses. That is what they are here to do.’
    Lucas wriggled with laughter. ‘Remember when I used to have my puppy?’ he said. ‘He
was called Wifty, he was cute, only he got killed.’
    He pronounced it kiwwed , since he could not make an l sound.
    ‘I’m sorry, mate,’ Victor said. ‘Sorry to hear about poor Wifty.’
    ‘No, Wifty ,’ Lucas said.
    Victor looked at me, confused.
    ‘Do you mean Lifty ?’ I said. It was the problem with the ls again .
    ‘Yes,’ he sniffed. ‘My precious Wifty.’
    I presumed this whole thing was a story. We’d never had a dog, and what kind of name
was Lifty, anyway?
    ‘Thank you very much, detective,’ I said, and offered my hand, to suggest he should
probably go.
    ‘Please, best to just call me Victor,’ he said.
    I made breakfast for Lucas and put on coffee for myself and considered whether I
should offer coffee to everyone. But how many of them were out there? I’d spotted
at least six cops by now, it was too many; we probably didn’t even have that many
cups. I sat down with Lucas and we looked out the window as two women led dogs into
our backyard.
    ‘That’s Gravy,’ he said.
    ‘What is?’
    ‘The dog. It’s her name.’
    ‘Good. How’s your Rice Bubbles?’
    ‘Those dogs are searching for objects, you know.’
    ‘Are they?’
    One of the cops looked over. I wondered if they could see us given it was much brighter
outside than it was where we sat in the kitchen. I smiled, in case. The cop was quite
young and pretty so I tried to catch her eye. I was thinking, how does someone so
young come to do this sort of thing, and then I saw her say something to one of the
male cops, and he crossed over the yard and came to my window. He tapped his knuckle
against it.
    ‘Yes?’ I said.
    He gestured: roll down the blind.
    ‘Are we in trouble?’ Lucas said.
    I pulled the blind down and explained we weren’t in any trouble, the police were
just here to find something that was lost.
    ‘I know that,’ he said.
    ‘So, why did you tell the police you had a dog?’ I said.
    ‘What dog?’
    ‘You said you had a dog. You said he was called Lifty.’
    ‘Oh yeah, he was my dog.’
    ‘But when did you have him?’
    There was still a small chance he’d had a dog I hadn’t heard about, maybe before
my time.
    ‘Well, I don’t know when, he was just my imaginary dog,’ Lucas said.
    ‘I see. But you said he got killed.’
    ‘Yep.’
    ‘So why would you imagine your own dog got killed?’
    ‘I don’t know. That was what happened.’ He chased the last Rice Bubble around the
edge of the bowl. ‘He always just wanted me to feed him.’
    I was about to say I knew how he felt when I heard Gina thunder in the front door.
    ‘What the hell?’ her voice broke.
    I hadn’t realised it was so late.