Surprisingly, Pearl had managed to get up in time that next morning. Anna arrived at eight o'clock and watched Pearl eat her breakfast.

'Don't watch me eat, it's weird!' Pearl said in between mouthfuls.

'You watched me.'

'Yeah, uh…' Pearl raised her eyebrows, 'It's a little different, don't you think?'

'Yeah.' Anna grinned, then heard shouting from the upper landing.

'Pearl, who have you let in? What time is it? Shouldn't you be going to school?'

'It's Anna, mum. We're leaving in a minute.'

'Who's Anna?'

'A friend of mine.'

'You should ask me before you let random teenagers in here!'

'Oh, give it a rest mum, we're leaving now anyway!'

Pearl got up and put her plate in the dishwasher.

'Fancy!' Thought Anna as she watched Pearl press a few buttons, and the machine started to whir with the flow of water.

'You ready?'

'Yeah.' She followed Pearl out the house, once again examining the pictures on the wall.

'Anna, do you ever get worried?'

'I worry all the time, dear, what about?'

'People finding out that you…what you eat?'

''Course I do.'

'Has anyone ever found out before?'

'Not as such.'

'It's just, I was there last night, and I had this dream about the police finding out and arresting both of us and-'

'Did you touch it?'

'Did i-no, you were there!'

'Exactly, you won't leave DNA, then. You were far enough away, it's fine.'

'What about you?'

Anna laughed.

'Right, and whose DNA will they compare it to? Even if they did run it through the system nothing would come up and there was no one else there so it's fine.'

'I guess.'

Pearl was right to be concerned, for when they got to school that morning, an assembly was called straight away.

'Now, pupils, you will probably have seen on the news that there's been another murder. This time, the victim was a member of staff here at this school.' The head teacher paused, allowing the news to sink in and the murmuring and gasps to die down. 'The police have been given a description-' Anna felt Pearl tense and heard her heart rate increasing next to her. '-of two people leaving the area last night. This is a very vague description but they wish to speak to any students with blonde or dark hair, as this is all they have to go on right now. A police officer will be in each classroom of students from year nine and above this morning in registration to take the names of anyone matching this description. Thank you for your cooperation and sorry that we have to tell you this, and for any inconvenience this may cause to both students and staff. You are dismissed.'

Whispering followed Anna and Pearl back to the classroom.

'Shit, Anna, I knew something was wrong!'

'Calm down, love. Did you hear that? Vague. And if they're going for thirteen year olds and above then they clearly 'ave no idea. Keep cool, you'll see.'

'How can you be so blasé?' Pearl sounded incredulous.

'Call it experience.' Anna answered wryly, pushing her way through the crowds to take the handle of the classroom door.

'Christ…' Pearl breathed when she noticed two uniformed police officers already waiting. They both let their eyes linger on Anna and Pearl for a moment before going back to their conversation. Anna was already sitting down at a table looking thoroughly nonplussed.

'Do your parents know you were out?'

'No. If they knew, they'd kill me!'

'There's your alibi.'

'I hadn't thought of that.'

Their teacher called the register, Anna was aware of the police officers taking down names in a small notebook as they went, both paused when they heard,

'Anna Lovett?'Followed by Anna saying,

'Yeah.' In her very obvious cockney accent.

'Laugh it up you cheeky buggers.'

Hope answered the door. Anna had been expecting it, all evening she had been expecting it and now the moment was here. She listened to Hope being asked questions.

'Ms. Jacobs?'

'Yes?'

'You are the foster carer of Anna Lovett, is that right?'

'That's right, what's the problem, officer?'

'There's no problem, but a member of staff from Anna's school was murdered last night, and a description was given of a young girl with dark hair and a young girl with blonde hair leaving the area around the time of the incident, so we're just checking up. It's procedural, you know.'

'I see. Shall I get Anna for you?'

Anna sat up, ready to face the questions, but lay back down again when she heard:

'No, no, leave her for now; we need to ask you some questions first.'

'I see. Would you care to sit down?'

'Thank you.' Anna heard them making themselves comfortable on the sofa. 'Now, Ms. Jacobs, Anna.'

'Yes?'

'It says in her file she has no recollection of her past?'

'No, she doesn't. They found her in the street, poor girl.'

'And how old was she?'

'It was only last year. She was almost sixteen.'

'So fifteen?'

'Yes.'

'Has Anna ever shown violence in the past?'

'Not since she's been with me no. She's very quiet actually, one of the more placid children I've looked after!'

'And where was she between…' Anna heard him consulting his notebook, the pages shuffling as he rifled through. '11:30pm last night and 1:30am this morning?'

'Well, she was here of course, in bed!'

'You know this for a fact.'

'Of course I do!' Anna heard Hope's voice rise in a defensive tone, they'd slighted her ability to keep her guard up.

'So there is no way Anna could have left the house at these times without you knowing? Or gone out beforehand without you realizing?'

'No.' Hope said flatly. 'Both front and back doors are alarmed; I turn the alarms on when I go to bed. Whenever someone goes in or out of the house, the alarm will go off, so I'd have known even if she HAD gone out before without me realizing as she wouldn't have been able to get back in. I went to bed at about 11:00, so the alarm would have gone off the moment she put her key in the door. I checked on her before I went to bed. She was in her room reading.'

'Any way she could have used the windows rather than the doors?'

'No. They windows are fitted with safety locks on the ground floor. The key is kept in the safe in my bedroom.'

'What about Anna's bedroom window? How safe is that?'

'Well, there's no safety lock on that!'

She saw them exchange a look.

'But I doubt anyone could get out of there without getting hurt! It's a sheer drop with a concrete landing, there's nothing to break a person's fall or even a window ledge on the outside. And there's even less chance of being able to get back in that way. There's no drainpipe or anything!'

'I see. Could we see?'

'This way.'

Anna picked up a random book and pretended to read. There was knock at her door.

'Anna? May I come in; the police want to ask you a few questions about the death of a teacher from your school.'

'Yeah, feel free.' As they entered, Anna put down her book, marking the page with a small fold of the corner. She had no intention however, of reading it.

'Hello, Anna. We just want to have a look at your window.' One of them said. 'We can manage Ms. Jacobs.'

Hope dithered for a moment, before going back downstairs.

The officers were peering out the window.

'No chance of getting in and out of there, is there now, Anna?' They gave her a fake smile and one of them kept their eyes on her for a little too long. 'May we sit down?'

'Of course.' Anna shifted up on the bed, making room for one of them, while the other sat on her desk chair.

'My name is DI Gross and this is DC Biggs. You know why we're here, I take it?' Said the one next to Anna on the bed.

'Yeah.'

'So Anna, we need to ask you a few questions.' DC Biggs said from the chair.

'Okay.' Anna smiled slightly, keeping her mouth closed, inexplicably self-conscious of her canines, which were a little too sharp even when she wasn't eating or about to eat.

'Where were you between 11:30pm last night and 1:30am this morning?'

'Here.'

'Okay, good.' Another smile.

'Do you own a white dress, Anna?' Anna froze. This was not a question she had expected. She paused.

'No. No, I don't.' She looked from one to the other, they looked a little suspicious, they'd noticed her hesitance. 'I do have a baggy white t-shirt, though.' She smiled innocently.

'How long is it?'

'Ahh, about…' Anna gestures mid way up her thighs, '…this long?'

'May we see it?'

'Sure.' Anna opened up her wardrobe and located her Iggy Pop t-shirt, she handed it to them. They smirked a little at the band.

'Hold this up to yourself, will you, Anna?' She complied.

'Okay, thank you, that's all. You can keep your t-shirt.' They added, before leaving.

'Thank you Ms. Jacobs.' They said as they got to the door, Hope bustled out of the kitchen. 'Oh, are you done? Will you need to come back?'

'Yes, and no, that won't be necessary. Thank you for your time, Ms. Jacobs. And thank you to you too, Anna!' They called up the stairs, Anna walked to the top of the stairs.

'That's 'kay.'

They shut the door behind them, Hope gave Anna an odd look, and Anna heaved a sigh of relief as she went back into her bedroom.

'They ain't comin' back.'

Later, Anna's phone rang.

'Anna! Are you okay?'

'Of course I am. Are you?'

'Yeah, the police have been round.'

'Same.'

'They said they wouldn't need to come back to my mum. Did they say that to you?'

'They said that to Hope. Pearl, you sound upset, are you okay?'

'Yeah, just a bit freaked out by the police thing and my mum and me just had an argument but…'

'Oh. I'm…sorry to hear that?'

'You're good, Anna!' Pearl laughed gently.

'Sorry, I don't know what to say in that kind of situation.' Anna laughed back.

'I'm glad they're fine with you.'

'Yeah, you too…' The phone beeped, Anna lifted it away from her ear a bit.

'Damn you!'

'Anna?'

'Sorry, Pearl, I have to go, my phone is running out of battery. Meet you at the park tomorrow?'

'Yeah, cool. Eurgh, mum's shouting again. See you tomorrow!'

'Bye.'

'Bye.'