"Radio for more cars. I want all entrances sealed off. No one gets in or out, and we need more people to search the place. Every floor."

"Sure, Sergeant."

Duncan got out of his car to hear Senior Sergeant Stanley Wolfe barking orders to the uniformed officer. But Duncan wasn't concerned with procedure at the moment. He made a beeline from his car to where Nick was crouched beside a woman's body. And, as he got closer, he could see that standing a few feet away was another woman, her arms crossed around her body and her eyes trained on Nick.

He'd never seen this woman before. She was about average height, maybe a little taller. Golden skin on display in the short dress she was wearing, and only a bit of the hem of it was visible under the oversized zip-up jumper she wore wrapped around her. Her hair was blonde and shiny and hanging around her shoulders. Her eyes were wide and possibly blue from where Duncan was standing. Her mouth was elegantly shaped and pressed into a thin line of concern.

Wolfie approached Nick and he stood up. "You're wasting your time," Nick explained to the sergeant. "Whoever shot her took off."

"Okay, work with uniforms. There's nothing we can do until crime scene and pathology arrive," Wolfe conceded.

"I'll talk to security," offered Rhys Levitt, approaching as well.

"Shots came from over there," Nick explained, pointing to the far end of the garage. As Rhys walked away in that direction, Nick turned to Duncan to hand him his gun. "You'll want this. Evidence bag. It hasn't been fired."

Duncan nodded and motioned to a uniform to get an evidence bag for the gun as he took a short walk around the body. "So what'd you see, Nick?" he asked.

"She met someone. A man, I think. I didn't sight him. They just started to talk and there was a shot. A bunch of shots."

"A bunch?"

"Four," he estimated. "First shot took her down. I heard a car door slam. I came running down the ramp, I didn't see anyone." Nick turned back to Wolfie. "I-I want my hands swabbed for residue. We don't want any unanswered questions here, sir. Juliette was working on a story that might implicate me in corruption."

Wolfe sighed in disappointment. "By the book," he agreed. "And who's this?"

They all turned to look at the woman standing out of the way, serious and silent. She didn't say a word. She just looked to Nick.

He answered on her behalf. "This is Jennifer. She was in my car when it happened. She didn't see anything."

"Jesus, Nick," Duncan scolded. "You bring a date to a shootout?"

"It's more complicated than that," Nick defended.

More cars arrived, bringing crime scene and pathology and more uniforms. Wolfie ushered them all to the side as the police tape started going up. "Why don't you explain it over here?"

Duncan led Jennifer to follow Nick and Wolfie over to a spot out of the way. She was still quiet. Rigid. Probably scared out of her mind, the poor thing. What Nick was doing bringing her to something like this was beyond him. Nick wasn't the sort to do things like that. But Nick had been a little off recently. Maybe it was the Dane Majors stuff being dragged up again. Maybe it was this Jennifer.

"An explanation, Detective," Wolfe prompted.

Nick nodded. "Juliette Gardiner called me this evening to say she was meeting her source. She told me where and when. She didn't say for me to come but that was the implication. I'd given her a hard time of it with this source of hers, and this was her way of cooperating. I was trying to work out who was feeding her information about the Dane Majors case."

Beside Duncan, Jennifer gave a sharp intake of breath. An odd reaction. He'd explore that later. There was no way this woman was going to get away without a formal interview. She was a witness to a murder. Even if she didn't see anything, she might know something. And if Nick was going to be implicated for corruption, bringing this woman to meet a journo and her source did not look good.

"That case has been closed for ten years," Wolfie said to Nick. "She was writing about Majors' time in jail, wasn't she?"

"Yeah," Nick confirmed. "Turned out to be a bit more than that."

Wolfie nodded. "Buchanan, you and Miss…"

"Mapplethorpe," Jennifer volunteered. It was the first time she'd spoken. Nick seemed surprised by her words.

"Miss Mapplethorpe." He beckoned over their heads to someone. "You two are going down to the station and straight into interview. Detective Kingston and I will handle things. Freeman and Levitt, finish up here and then go right to the newspaper office to get all of Juliette Gardiner's notes and files on this story so we know what we're up against."

Allie came over to take Jennifer in her car. Nick went with the sarge. Duncan went to rejoin Rhys and get to work.

Jen sat quietly in the back of the strange car with the strange woman. Nick had warned her that if she stayed, the police were going to talk to her. She'd been terrified during the shooting, which Nick explained afterwards. She had curled herself up in the seat of Nicks car and shut her eyes tight and went invisible in fear and confusion. And then it was silent. Everything was deathly eerily silent. The next thing she knew, Nick was calling her name. She remembered how to breathe and knew that he wouldn't call to her if it wasn't safe, so she let the invisibility fall away and got out of the car. Her legs were shaky as she went to him. He told her to stay far away from the body, and he said that he had to call the police and take care of this and if she wanted to leave, she had better fly home now. But Jen could not leave him. She wanted to help him in any way that she could. And if having her there would help, if she could do anything at all, even just be there with him, that was what she would do.

And, of course, Jennifer would be lying if she said she wasn't just a bit curious about how all of this police business worked. This was what Nick did and she wanted to see what happened.

As she looked out the window into the Melbourne night flying by, Jen realized that the police were going to ask her a lot of questions she might not be able to answer. Her name, which she'd made up based on a story she'd heard Sir Terry tell once about a human family he'd encountered in the woods, and where she lived and who she was. She would need to figure out what she could say. What she could do to back up her story. She could not tell the truth. And she could not bungle things too much. That would only make things worse for Nick.

Jen was taken out of the car and led into a building. It was the biggest building she'd ever been inside before. And there was a set of shiny metal doors that the woman, Detective Kingston, led her to. The doors slid apart to reveal a very small wooden room. Jen was confused, not knowing what that little room was for. But she followed Detective Kingston anyway and watched as the woman pushed a button on a panel by the doors. The button lit up and made a chiming sound. The doors closed and the entire room lurched into motion. Jen had to use all her powers of restraint to keep from being visibly frightened. What was this thing? Where was it taking them!?

The doors opened with another chime and a much larger room was revealed. They walked through it and down a hallway and Jennifer realized this must be higher up in the building and that moving wooden room was how humans got up and down their tall buildings. Much more efficient than stairs. And since they couldn't fly, this must be how they did things. Very clever. Dishwashers and cars and moving wooden rooms. Humans were a rather ingenious lot to progress and cope so well without magic.

"Miss Mapplethorpe, if you could sit down here," Detective Kingston said, leading Jen into a small room with a table and chairs. "This is a full interview with police. The interview will be recorded with audio and visual. You are not under arrest and you have not been charged with any crime, but you are entitled to have a lawyer present on your behalf if you wish."

Jen sat down where the detective indicated. The other woman sat down across from her. Jen did not really know what a lawyer was or why she'd want to have one present, so she just shook her head.

"Can I get your full name, please?"

"Jennifer Mapplethorpe," she replied.

"No middle name?"

Jen shook her head again. She realized that the police might have files and things about people, that Detective Kingston wanted her name in order to look her up and find out more information. With a slow exhale, Jen pushed her magic out and hoped that her vague intention of having 'Jennifer Mapplethorpe' be confirmed as a real person would be enough to work.

"Jennifer, why were you in the car park with Nick Buchanan when Juliette Gardiner was shot?"

"I was with Nick when Juliette called him. He had been upset about the story she was working on about an old case of his."

"The Dane Majors case," the detective interjected.

Jen nodded. "He hadn't told me that, but I know that now. We had been talking about how he wasn't sure if there was more to it than he believed at the time. Juliette had been saying she had a source who put his work into doubt, and he didn't know where that was coming from or if it was true. So when Juliette called him saying she was meeting with her source, I told Nick that he needed to go so he could have his questions answered."

"So why did you go with him?"

"He asked me to." And that was the truth. But Jen felt the need to expand and say, "I told him he needed to go and to not worry about me, I offered to stay at his house or to go home to mine or to go with him if he wanted me to. And he asked me to go with him."

Detective Kingston looked dubious about that. "You and Nick Buchanan are involved in a romantic relationship?"

"Yes."

"For how long?"

How long had it been? Jen wasn't entirely sure. In so many ways, it felt as though she'd known Nick for years. And obviously the romantic nature of their relationship had not begun as soon as they'd met, when he'd rescued her from that net in the woods. "A few weeks," she replied.

The detective nodded again. "Tell me what you saw when you were with Detective Buchanan in that parking garage tonight."

Jen relayed the events as best she could. She did not think she could be of much help, but hopefully she wouldn't make anything worse. As far as this story went, she had nothing to hide. She said, "Nick parked the car a little ways from a blue car. He told me to stay where I was, that he didn't know what was going to happen and wanted me to stay safe. He had a gun in his hand and got out of the car. I saw Juliette Gardiner get out of her blue car. I didn't know who she was at the time but obviously I know now. Nick was going toward her, walking slowly. And then the shots rang out. I didn't know what was happening and I was afraid so I shut my eyes. The next thing I knew, it was quiet. And then Nick called out to me. I got out of the car and went to where he was crouched by the body. He told me not to get too close and that he was going to call the police. And then everyone arrived."

"Thank you," Detective Kingston said kindly. Jen could tell this was not a woman to whom kindness came naturally. It seemed like it was a chore for her. The detective forced a smile and asked, "Can I have your home address please, Jennifer? Just for our records. In case we need to get in touch with you."

Jen's mind whirled as she tried to remember any street name and number nearby her woods, anything that would be plausible in case she needed to explain where she and Nick met. "Yarra Street. Number eleven. Warrandyte."

"And what do you do out in Warrandyte?"

"I'm an assistant," she answered, hoping that was a sufficient response.

"Okay. Thank you for coming in for interview. If we have any other questions, we'll be in touch." She looked up at the blinking red light in the corner of the room. "Interview terminated nine-thirty p.m."

Jen stood up as Detective Kingston did and followed her out.

"Right, so that's all. You're free to go."

"What about Nick?" Jen asked.

The detective grimaced slightly. "His interview will take a bit longer."

Jen just nodded. She would not wait around here for Nick—she was rather sure she wouldn't be allowed to—so she decided to go back to his house. Assuming she could find it. And she'd wait for him there. There was quite a lot they needed to discuss.