‘I took your advice and called in to the Gilbert Gallery,’ he said. He told her how he’d been shown the original sketch of the cemetery with Herbert Buchanan’s grave. ‘John Gilbert told me your family once owned the property, and you lived there as a child. We’re just checking that he has his facts straight.’

Wendy smiled. ‘He’s right, Detective. Herbert Buchanan was my great-grandfather.’

‘Okay, next question. We’ve heard that Lewis Buchanan is a councillor on the Snowy Valleys Council. Is he related to you?’

‘Lewis is my nephew, he’s Cate’s brother. Cate made your coffee yesterday.’

‘Ah, gotcha. Where can we contact Lewis?’

‘He’s head of science at the high school here. You just missed him, he came in to get his coffee mug filled up. He mentioned a meeting, but I didn’t ask if it was at the council or the school.’

Ryder took a business card from his pocket and handed it to her. ‘There’s no urgency for us to speak to him, but would you ask him to call us, please?’

‘Of course,’ she said, looking at the card. ‘I’ll send him a message with the details.’

‘There is one more thing,’ Flowers said, lowering his voice. ‘We’ve heard there have been tensions between your family and the Lorrimers in the past. Is there any truth to that?’

Wendy gave a resigned sigh. ‘Yes, there were bad feelings in past generations. As for me personally, I don’t know any of the younger Lorrimers, and I hold no ill-will towards them. They are the legal owners of my childhood home.’

Flowers nodded. He was looking forward to hearing the Lorrimers answer the same question.

‘We’ll let you get back to work,’ he said, satisfied they’d managed to track down Lewis Buchanan so easily. ‘Thank you for your time.’

Wendy walked with them to the door.

‘Cate not in today?’ Flowers asked, more to fill the silence than anything else. Wendy Buchanan wasn’t one for small talk.

‘She was in earlier. She’s up at the hut now.’

‘One of the alpine huts?’ Flowers asked.

‘Yes.’

‘Sergeant Collins was telling me about them the other day.’ He looked at Ryder. ‘There are more than a hundred of them scattered across the mountains, apparently.’

Wendy nodded. ‘They’re so precious, and so historic. We take their maintenance and restoration very seriously. Cate’s a volunteer with the Hut Association. She’s passionate about the one my family built. She’s gone up to re-stock the provisions and make sure the storm hasn’t caused any problems up there.’

‘That’s cool,’ said Flowers. ‘I’d like to check out a few of them one day.’