CANARY CRY [pretty little liars]

18. person of interest

"Detective, I don't mean to be rude or anything, but Adaline wasn't there when they found it or when they turned it in, so why is she here now?"

The detective gave Adam a clearly fake smile and tilted his head almost mockingly. "We're making sure that Adaline and the rest of the girls aren't hiding anything."

"They didn't do anything wrong," Adam said exasperated. "Unless making an understandable mistake is suddenly illegal."

The detective dropped the smile and looked directly at Adaline. In his hands, a file laid opened with the officer's notes from Adaline's past questioning. "What did your friends tell you about the trophy."

Adaline looked between her dad and the detective before answering. "Um, Spencer called after they turned it in. She told me about finding it with the other props. For weeks now, we've suspected Ian had something to do with Ali's murder, so them finding it with a shock, but not so shocking."

While pursing his lips, the detective glanced back down at the file and back up at Adaline. "Why would a star-athlete like Ian Thomas, who was dating a beautiful woman like Melissa Hastings, date Alison, who was barely fifteen years old?"

Adaline shrugged. "He could've had a thing for younger girls, I don't know."

"Did Alison ever tell you she was dating him?"

"Yes," Adaline said quietly, her fingers tapping quickly on the table. "That summer she told me and Spencer that she was with an older boy, but I knew it was Ian for a long time."

"How long?"

"Since the night Alison disappeared."

Detective Breyer leaned back into his chair, suddenly more interested in what Adaline had to say. "Why hasn't this come up before?"

"Because I was scared!" Adaline said loudly. "I was the only person who knew Ali was going to see Ian that night. Her telling me she was going to talk to him at the Kissing Rock was the last time I saw her alive. I put two and two together and guessed that he killed her. If I spoke up about it, and nobody believed me, I thought he would hurt me too."

Silence filled the air after Adaline's answer. Clearly Adam was beginning to worry even more about Adaline and the detective was on the path to believing her. She was an excellent liar, but her fear could convince a skeptic man.

"And the video?" Detective Breyer said, referring to what the other girls mentioned while in their interviews.

"Was sent to us anonymously. Probably the same person who sent the first part of the video to you. We were going to turn it in, but it was gone. We were in shock and by the time we processed what we saw, Spencer's laptop was gone and when she found it, the video was completely gone."

Suddenly, Adam's phone began ringing quite loudly. Though Adaline's first thought was A, she wasn't going to be silenced anymore.

"I need to take this," Adam said, motioning to his phone. "No questions until I get back."