Mitch tried to ignore her. ‘Everyone ready in ten minutes.’

Tanya continued regardless. ‘He knows the region. You both do. You want to find those graves, don’t you? Then you have to bring him.’

It was an impassioned speech from a loyal colleague. Pride shot through Chandler.

Mitch paused, licking lips the colour of the evening sky. ‘You are right, Senior Constable. Any personal differences Chandler and I may have will be put aside.’ Mitch looked at them all. ‘Let’s solve this case.’

Chandler was back in the inner circle.

‘If we do go searching for the graves,’ Chandler said, ‘we can’t go by what they stated in the interviews.’

‘And why’s that, Sergeant?’ asked Mitch.

‘Because their info is vague. Maybe even misremembered.’

‘It’s the only information we have,’ Mitch reminded him.

‘I know. That’s why I think our only option is to drag one – or both of them – up there to guide us. We need their eyes.’

‘That’s—’ started Mitch.

‘– a risky strategy,’ interrupted Chandler. ‘I know. But it’s the only one we have.’

He expected immediate disagreement but Mitch seemed to have been thrown off-track. There was no dissent from the others either, all waiting to take their cue from Mitch. It seemed like an age before anyone spoke.

‘Which one do we take?’ asked Luka in an unusually reserved tone, staring at Mitch rather than Chandler.

The question allowed Mitch to find his voice. ‘We take Mr Johnson,’ he stated. ‘Mr Barwell cannot be trusted. He’s already tried to escape custody.’

‘So has Mr Johnson,’ reminded Chandler.

‘But Mr Johnson is calm.’

‘Too calm.’

‘Tired, I reckon,’ said Mitch.

‘Or displaying the unruffled temperament of a killer.’

Mitch straightened his lapels. ‘Or, Sergeant, he’s a guy who has accepted that he has been caught. If you are so worried about letting him escape again, we could do it over video link. Use the new body cameras.’

Chandler had received the memo that Port Hedland were pioneering the cameras, the images downloadable and available as evidence. And Mitch’s plan was sound apart from one – major – flaw, which he explained.

‘You won’t get any signal for a link-up there.’

Mitch stuck his chin forward. ‘Then in that case we have no choice. We take Mr Johnson. I’m not having both out at once. And we move now. Five minutes.’

But in those five minutes another hitch occurred. A pair of court-appointed lawyers landed into the station, flown in from Newman on a chopper. Both were respectable practitioners who were delighted to be involved in such a tasty case. As such, both entered the station in much the manner Mitch had: demanding to see their clients, demanding to know what they were being charged with and finally demanding that they be released. They received nothing other than time in the interview room to brief their clients and, Chandler assumed, record their clients’ numerous grievances.