Arrest Warrant

Three cars of police parked right in front of the Woadhill's orphanage. Their cars ignited curiosity from passers by, wondering why the authorities came to the orphanage. A middle aged man who acted as security guard for the orphanage, frowned upon seeing two officers walked towards him. His eyes then fixed on the other officers who stayed in their vehicles.

"Goor afternoon, Sir. How may I help you?" Ask the guard.

"We are here for someone." Replied the officer, who was none other than the chief of police himself. "Willow Dean."

On hearing the name, the guard furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. What could have a good girl like Willow done? He wondered in his mind. "I believe there's a misunderstanding here." After knowing Willow for so long, the guard did nothing but being defensive over the girl.

At the same time, a young man came to deliver a package to the orphanage. He nodded to the guard and the officers before he entered the place.

Meanwhile inside the orphanage, Sister Anne just came to the front desk to collect a few documents of children's profile. Her intellectual eyes caught a commotion at the entrance of orphanage. After identifying the vehicles of police, she rushed to the front and press the green button to open the sliding door.

Hearing the door open, the two officers and the guard turned their attention to the woman.

"Good afternoon, gentlemen. How can I help you?" Greeted Sister Anne, smiling politely but her eyes looked at the police apprehensively.

Without wasting anymore time, the head of police showed his badge and the arrest warrant letter to the woman. "Chief Boyle. We are here for Willow Dean. I believe she is one of the children here."

Sister Anne held an utter shock in her face. "What has Willow done?"

"Miss Dean is currently held as main suspect for a murder case of Eleanor Ridgeway that took place last night. So, I hope you can cooperate with us."

Due to shock, Sister Anne step aside. A gasp escaped her mouth as she placed her right hand on her chest. This action was misunderstood by the police as a sign of the woman letting them enter the police. They took this opportunity straight away and stepped inside the place. When they realised that neither the woman nor the guard followed them, Chief Boyle halted his step and turned to the two people who seemed not have recovered from their shock.

He then inquired, "Would you be kindly take me to where Miss Dean is?"

"She is not here." Someone informed. The person was Sister Bella who had overheard what the officers and her superior spoke about. "Willow is currently not here, officer."

Chief Boyle turned to the woman who stood next to the front desk. His expression turned sour. "Where is she?"

"She went to the town hall an hour ago." Informed sister Bella.

The Chief turned to his subordinate beside him and instructed him to go to the town with two other officers. "And bring one of the nurses here." His eyes fell on to sister Bella who nodded her head and went with the police willingly. Two vehicles then left the site. "Unfortunately, I would have to continue with the investigation, starting from searching Miss Dean's personal space. After you, Sister."

Still in shock, Sister Anne obliged and walked ahead of the police, leading him to Willow's bedroom. In her mind she never stopped wondering how Willow got involved in such a crime — murdering — how impossible!

As the head of the orphanage, Sister Anne held the spare key to each room in the whole building. With her spare key, sister Anne opened the bedroom door for the police.

The room was tidy and clean. Willow had always kept her room nice and tidy. She was very organised regardless of busy she was. She always maintained to keep her room clean. That was one of the good quality that Willow had, that made all the sisters, including sister Anne, proud of her.

Chief Boyle stepped into the room right away and began his search. The first thing he collected was a sketch book that was put on top of wooden desk. He opened the book and was ecstatic to see the list of the clients on the first page. Opening the next page, which was a sketch of a necklace and earings, he showed the page to the woman who stood by the door.

"Do you know that she works as a freelance designer?" Asked Boyle.

Sister Anne shook her head. She was not surprised to see the sketch book as she had been aware, like any other sister and teacher here, that Willow loved to draw. However, she did not have even a slight idea that Willow had a job. She thought that the girl just spent her last year before moving out of the orphanage volunteering to help them taking care of the orphanage.

"You must have been mistaken, Chief Boyle." Said sister Anne. There was a helplessness traced in her voice. "Willow would never do such a crime. She is innocent. I have known her for so long."

"However you do not seem to be aware of her recent job. Don't you think it's odd, as the head of this orphanage, shouldn't you keep track of all the children's agenda here?"

Sister Anne was about to argue but since she did not know anything about Willow's other job, she was helpless.

"How secured is the security here when comes to keeping the children safe?" Came another question from Boyle. He continued to search and collect what he thought could be used as an evidence.

"Very tight." Replied Sister Anne shortly. "Any intruder would have been caught right away as we had three guards patrol around our site the whole night. We also have rule that has not been broken by any of our children here. It is to respect the bedtime. No one leaves their bedroom after 9 o'clock. That is our curfew. We have CCTV that closely monitor the corridor, the front entrance, the back door and the stairs. My guards have never been lenient towards anyone breaking the rules."

Chief Boyle frowned when he heard this. He then turned to the woman who seemed to be hesitant to enter the girl's bedroom and chose to remain standing at the door.

"Where was Willow Dean last night?" Asked Chief Boyle. His grey eyes watched the woman carefully.

"She was here. In her very bedroom." Came the confident answer of Sister Anne.

"Would you be able to prove that to me?" Challenged the officer.

"Certainly." Sister Anne stepped away from the door and started walking towards the direction they came.

Chief Boyle followed her closely behind. His eyes secretly inspecting the area around him. In his career, this was his first time stepping his foot into the orphanage. The place had always been out of his radar. It had made the orphanage looked like nothing but a place that held religion high. So, when he found that the girl from this orphanage involved in a murder case — even become the main suspect — Charlie Boyle wasted no more time but to come to this place.

Right at the centre of Victoria, Willow and Mabel were enjoying the art exhibition that the town hall held. They were occupied with a range of abstract paintings that mesmerised them. It took them a while to finally called an end to their appreciation towards those magnificent works. Even though Mabel still chose not to speak, Willow caught the little girl's eyes lit up with excitement every time they stood in front of different paintings. Willow did not mind to the talking. She voiced her thoughts verbally to Mabel.

"Shall we get something to eat, Mabel?" Asked Willow when they stepped out of the town hall.

The little girl looked at Willow and then looked around the town. Her eyes searched for any food stall. Sadly, she saw nothing but the crowd of people and traffic.

Willow smiled at Mabel, knowing what the girl was searching for. She tugged the little girl's hand and said, "Come on. I'll take you somewhere."

But before they could move from there, a rough hand grabbed Willow's shoulder harshly and then dragged her away from the crowd, away from the town hall, along with the little girl who turned shocked upon seeing the man.

Willow was about to protest but when she saw who the person was, she frowned. "What are you doing, John, grabbing me and dragging me away like that?"

The man called John stopped walking and turned around. His eyes then looked around his surrounding before they met Willow's green eyes.

"What's wrong, John?" Questioned Willow.

"Someone is framing you." John whispered. His eyes kept darting left and right. "The police came to the orphanage to arrest you. They said you have murdered someone."

"What?!" Willow's eyes widened in shock. "Are you serious?"

John nodded. "Someone called Ridgeway. Ring a bell?"

Willow's face turned pale upon hearing the name. Her body turned stiff. She was indeed familiar with Ridgeway. That was her last client.

Seeing her reaction, John shook his head. "Tell me you have nothing to do with the murder?"

Willow opened her mouth in shock. She could see doubt in John's eyes. His voice held nothing but accusation towards her. "What do you think, Jonathan?"

John sighed. He ran his hand through his hands and at the same time, he caught two police cars approaching the town hall from the main road.

Quickly, he put his baseball cap on Willow. He grabbed Willow's shoulder and looked her in the eye. "Listen to me, Willow. I need you to walk towards the direction of the train station. Do not turn around. Keep looking straight and go inside the train station. Board any train. Do you hear me? Board any train."

Willow was overwhelmed with the whole situation. She had been holding her breath as she listened to John. She felt like she was going to collapse but the fear and worry in John's eyes kicked her adrenaline in and she nodded to him.

The man let go of Willow and stepped aside. He grabbed Mabel's hand and mumbled, "leave her with me."

Willow listened to John without responding and started to walk towards the train station. She did not turn around even though she was wondering how Mabel was after she left.

That afternoon, she continued to move forward and left everything behind. She did not turn around. Not even once. Her eyes began to wet. She was starting to feel like crying but she fought the tears back.

When she arrived at the station, she went straight away to the customer service centre to purchase a ticket.

"What's your destination, Miss?" Asked the lady behind the counter.

Willow did not know where she was going to go. 'Board any train'. John words rung in her head.

"The one that is about to depart…" she trailed, unsure with her own words.

The lady frowned but she printed the ticket for her without questioning further. "It's $50."

Willow nodded and quickly pulled out the money from her wallet. She gave the money to the lady who handed a yellow ticket to her.

"It's on Platform 4d. Departing in 5 minutes." Informed the lady. "Have a safe journey."

The girl had no idea where the train on Platform 4d would take her to. She did not know what awaited her on the other side. All she could think about was to escape from the town of Victoria that had turned to be unsafe for her.

Little did she know that her destination was going to be far worse than the town she came from.