Mitch was unrepentant. ‘I’m here to get results. Sometimes you have to apply force to get what you need.’

‘Not in my station.’

‘Remember who you’re talking to, Sergeant.’

‘I know full well who I’m talking to.’

The friend who shared his teenage dream of becoming a motocross champion. The friend who had dragged him out of Sully’s Gorge after he’d taken a spill and torn most of the skin from his leg. The friend who had dated Kelly Freeman’s half-mutant sister just so he could go out with Kelly.

‘My friend with the melted chocolate in his pocket who looked like he’d shit his pants,’ said Chandler.

Mitch paused. His eyes narrowed. It wasn’t a story he wanted rehashed. A story forever to hang over his head. Mitch spat back.

‘Yeah, well I’m not that boy now, Chandler. I happen to be the man who’s seeing your ex-wife.’

Ex-wife . . . what was he? The words made sense individually but as a collective Chandler was convinced he must have missed something.

‘What are you talking about?’

‘I’m seeing Teri.’

‘What do you mean?’ said Chandler, the implications of the words still unclear.

‘What more clarification do you need, Chandler? Teri. And I. Are a couple.’

Teri and Mitch? A couple?

‘Since when?’

‘Since we got the call about an attempted car-jacking up in PH. From a Teri Pagonis. I tagged along to see if it was the same Teri Pagonis I used to know.’ The familiar beaming grin had returned to Mitch’s face. He was delighted at having sprung this on Chandler. He had probably been itching to tell him since he had arrived.

‘How many Teri Pagonises do you think there are?’ spat Chandler.

Mitch’s shrug suggested he didn’t care. ‘She said that the two of you weren’t together any longer. She still looks pretty hot. We’ve been seeing each other since last August. Just over a year now. She’s cleaned up her act a lot since I knew her. Moved into her own place. Decent job in admin, decent prospects. But you know all this.’ It was delivered with a snideness that suggested he knew Chandler didn’t know, and he was correct in that assumption.

Mitch continued, ‘Well, we decided to meet up for a drink, got to talking and found that we had more in common than we thought; we both like our own space, she enjoys order and I like things to be in order. We talked about this place a lot.’ He looked at Chandler. ‘Mostly about missing her kids.’

‘She was the one who left us.’

‘Let me finish,’ said Mitch in typical reproachful fashion. ‘She misses the kids but doesn’t miss the place. Neither do I.’ He leaned in to whisper, ‘It’s a bit of a shithole, frankly.’

Chandler let the disparagement of their home town pass.