Chapter 3

I can tell Rin knows something is wrong when I walk back into the bedroom but don't sit right next to her. Instead, I'm thinking about what the policeman said to me.

"She's our prime suspect for a recent murder."

Rin looks at me inquiringly. I look back at her and think, Is this the murderer of some poor person? NO, I tell myself, It comes down to whether I trust Rin. And I do.

I trust Rin or I wouldn't have told the policeman I'd never seen her in my life before.

"Rin, are you a murderer?"

The question slips out before I can control it. Rin looks hurt. "Len, do I look particularly murderous to you?"

I try to fix my mistake. "No- It's just- the policeman said- prime suspect- probably not- I don't believe him-"

I feel the warm press of her lips on mine. Rin's kissing me. Then she draws back.

"Len, if there's one thing I know for sure, it's that I did not murder someone, before or after the crash."

That's great. Now I feel really bad about hurting her feelings. Rin must understand, because she says, "And you haven't really hurt my feelings. I was just pretending."

Then she kisses me on the forehead and leaves me alone to my thoughts.

The policeman's message lingers in my mind, but more recent events dominate my head.

I guess I do like Rin after all.

No matter how good Rin was at convincing me that she's no murderer, a second police visit to the house a week later does not seem like a good sign.

"Are you sure you haven't seen this girl?" asks the policeman, "I've been informed quite recently about a witness account that says she was spotted with a boy about her height."

I knew the park trip was a bad idea. I decide to play it safe.

"I've never seen her before. How would I know her height?"

The officer nods. "Fair enough." He leaves, but the sick feeling in my stomach doesn't.

I turn around to see Rin watching me silently from a room out of the view of anyone at the front door. She nods and smiles, but in a sad kind of way.

"Hey," I say, "Cheer up. Tomorrow will be much more fun."

Rin looks sceptical. "Why?"

"My Mum's coming back from Cambodia. You can meet her."

Rin looks horrified, which kind of insults me.

"I might get you into trouble," she says, panicking, "I better leave." I frowned.

"Mum should be fine with you staying here. She's all for helping the –um- 'disadvantaged people'." Rin doesn't look convinced, but she hasn't met my mum yet.

I got Rin to look the best she could, but there's a limit to how good you can get while wearing my sister's old clothes. Ugh.

Still, Rin bypasses all expectations and the two girls (if you could call my Mum a girl) get along so well they were probably wondering where the other girl was all their life.

It's late, maybe eleven at night. Usually I don't stay up this late watching TV, but with Mum distracted by Rin, it's a one-in-a-lifetime chance to have an all-nighter. I've only done an all-nighter once, but I was kind of cheating, considering the large amount of coffee I drank.

There aren't any good movies on, so I go to the news channel.

A plane has crashed in an ocean somewhere, smog levels in Beijing are reaching new peaks, rhino population is declining due to poachers, bla bla bla bushfire bla bla terrorists…

It's ironic how they say 'Good Evening' before all of this.

I'm zoning out when I hear: "In the city of Kyoto, a girl's fingerprints have been discovered at the scene of a murder." They're showing a live video of the current investigation, with police tape and policemen weaving in and out of the camera's view. "Two bodies were found at the scene, both with severe wounds to the head. The prime suspect has been identified as-"

I changed the channel quickly, to a wrestling match between John Cena and some other guy. I could hear my heart pumping furiously. I glanced behind me and saw that Rin, too, had gone still and slightly pale.

She walked over to me and sat next to me, but before she could speak, I said, "Don't worry, Rin. I don't think it's you." Rin nods and smiles and I touch her cheek, "You wouldn't ever do such a thing."

Just then my Mum came back into the room carrying a vase and saying, "This is the very one, actually, he made-"

Seeing Rin with her head on my shoulder and me touching her cheek, she just said, "I'll just leave you two," and she walked away mumbling, "My son's growing up."

I wonder how long we can keep this secret going.