I followed the spine more carefully, down to the pelvis, the bent knees, feet (small skeletal birds) tucked above the larger skeleton’s hip, as if sheltering against it. Clutching. It looked like that famous Rolling Stone cover of Yoko Ono and John Lennon. C-grade biology student or not, there was indeed one aspect of the whole scene that was undeniable. The thin circumference of the bones. This was someone small. Young.

Michael had brought this coffin all the way here to show me this: the body of a child curled up against the bones of a policeman. Now I had to ask him why. I took a half step towards the rear door.

That was when the truck started to move.

The first jolt was only enough to give me a slight wobble, to rock me back on my heels. My stomach did a little bungee jump as my organs tried to match their newfound velocity to my stationary feet. Encased as I was in the dimness, it took a couple of seconds for my brain to be happy I was still balanced. I edged forward on sea legs. It was only a few metres, but I want you to know that everything that happened next happened in seconds. There was a series of urgent thumps on the truck’s flank.

‘Ernie, get out of the bloody truck!’ Female. I couldn’t tell if it was Erin or Sofia.

I tried to hurry while keeping my balance. I had a strange feeling of walking uphill, which meant the truck was moving forward and I was going against the current to get to the back door. The canvas straps hanging from the walls lilted towards the front cab. The thumping on the flank continued, but the rumble of the now quickening wheels was drowning out the voice that went with it. I knew what they were saying though: hurry. I’d already figured that out. The truck was headed down the hill. And the only place the mountain plateaued was in the middle of a frozen-over lake . . .

A slit of light appeared as the door shuddered up half a metre. Erin poked her head in, puffing, walking to keep up. ‘Come on, Ernie. Hurry up! The slope just gets steeper.’

‘What the hell is going on?’ I yelled, staggering over to her against the tilt of the floor.