True Crime Story(24)
FROM THE OFFICE OF RICHARD FLOWERS (CBE), DATED 2019-09-08:
Mr. Flowers does not wish to make any comment on his relationship with his estranged son Andrew at this time. Furthermore, Mr. Flowers has no information on the disappearance of Zoe Nolan and no interest in the case beyond that of a citizen wishing to see justice done. He will make no further statements on this topic, nor on the subjects of his deceased wife, his current wife, or his three other children. He would urge readers to address their attention to Andrew’s criminal record and to disregard unverifiable and emotionally presented “facts.” Finally, Mr. Flowers requests that the press respect his privacy and that of his young family.3
ANDREW FLOWERS:
Clearly, with hindsight, I shouldn’t have been at university a few months after all that, and I certainly shouldn’t have been dating any young women, least of all ones as troubled as Zoe. I shouldn’t have been allowed within fifty feet of anyone at all. It’s funny to think that in all my protestations that Zoe and I had nothing in common, I was overlooking our two recent suicide attempts. Well, not funny ha-ha.
JAI MAHMOOD:
I’d never seen someone change like that before, fucking Jekyll and Hyde. Andrew goes from this swaggering kind of cocksure danger man to this ice psycho, literally at the mention of these charges. He stands up slowly, in this way that makes me think he’s about to smack someone, then he storms down the hall to his room and slams open the door. He demands that they search it, which they do, but then they start asking about my room.
Well, I haven’t hulked up and lost my shit, so I just say, “Do I have to?” I didn’t massively care, but it seemed weird to let the cops go through my stuff based on nothing. Then they see the “Do Not Enter” sign I’ve stuck up on the bathroom and want to go in there too. I’m blocking the door, like, “I’d rather you didn’t,” telling them it’s a darkroom. So they go, “Why? What kind of photos are you taking anyway?” I kind of shrug and one of them snatches the picture I’ve got out of my hand. It was the one from the roof the night before, Zoe standing with one foot over the edge. At the time, I didn’t know this was anything to do with her. I mean, we’d been through a lot of rooms the night before, but their eyes start bulging, like, “Anything you wanna tell us, son?”
KIMBERLY NOLAN:
To me, Liu calling the police felt over the top. I thought it might seem like the right thing if you’d read a textbook on how to live life, but it didn’t consider the victim or the context we were living in. And it for damn sure didn’t make Zoe safer. I mean, one of those policemen who came for a statement was cracking on to her, he gave her his number. “If there’s anything you need, day or night, even if it’s just someone to talk to.” I cut in like, “Is this you laying the law down, pal?”
LIU WAI:
Listen, on the one hand, I can be quite laid-back and analytical about these things. On the other hand, if pushed, I’m sorry, but that’s when my Virgo comes out. You know, if pushed, I can be critical, clinical, precise. I’m not saying anything radical here. Women shouldn’t have to put up with this shit.
LOIS BEST:
Kim and Liu argued, Zoe shrank down. I thought it was bizarre. Twins and missing underwear and the police and everyone fighting. It felt like everyone’s worst traits were coming out within three or four days of knowing each other. Mine too. We were all just kids trying to adapt to our surroundings, except our surroundings seemed hostile toward us. Like, while I lived there, there was never a normal day. I never felt like myself. I don’t think anyone else did either.
ANDREW FLOWERS:
The police pushed Jai a bit about looking into his room, about looking at the rest of his pictures. They’d taken a photo of some girl from him, then started asking, “Who’s this? Who is it?” And Jai was like, “I don’t know, I didn’t get her name.” To which they’re saying, “Oh, you like taking pictures of girls without their consent, do you?” Essentially calling him a pervert. I realized belatedly that I’d sort of set all this in motion by losing my rag, so I finally piped up and suggested that they come back with a warrant, which is funny because I didn’t even know what a warrant was. They gave us their best hard man stares and said it wasn’t over. Then they walked out with the picture that Jai had developed, which I thought was pretty shit of them. I tried to apologize, but he just shrugged. He shrugged like I was the sort of person you expected to fuck you over. Then he went back into the bathroom, closed the door on me and carried on working.
KIMBERLY NOLAN:
It had been this high stress day—the theft, the police, the fight about it all—then we got woken up, just after midnight. Screaming coming from one of our rooms. I realized it must be Lois sleepwalking, having her night terrors again. I got up and went into the hall, saw Liu, Alex and Zoe, then I opened Lois’s door and turned on the light. She was standing up in her pajamas, holding a glass bottle by the neck with one hand and holding her wardrobe door shut with the other. She kind of shouted for help and said she’d heard someone in there. I think I’d started to say something like, “There’s no one in there,” when the rest of us heard it as well.
LOIS BEST:
I didn’t want to open it or look at it or anything. I wanted to get out and call the police, but Kim was trying to reassure me. And she was acting less scared than she was, which only made it worse. So I moved and stood back in the doorway while she looked.