He got a fright when a gust set a Coke can clanking down near the road, and remained spooked as he got close to the 1680 lot.

You’re not a real journalist. You’ll look a total fool if this turns bad …

But Harry didn’t give in to his doubts.

There was no boundary between Tire Maxx and the trailer home. The land alongside the house had evolved into a junkyard: faded sections of a kids’ plastic garden fort, an enclosed towing trailer with two flat wheels, the rusted hulk of a washing machine and enough other junk to give decent cover.

Harry snapped a couple of wide shots, thinking someone might want pictures of the house if it turned into an important part of the story. The spinning fans of roof-mounted air-conditioners ran full blast, but their grumbling wasn’t enough to mask the kid bawling inside.

He edged further round the junk, trying to glimpse the far side of the house. Harry’s idea – that he’d get here before the cops – blew up as he saw two parked police cruisers. One had a plain-clothes officer sitting with the passenger door open, finishing off a cigarette.

The trailer’s aluminium door crashed as Harry raised his camera. A cruel-looking cop came out, hands over her mouth as she jumped two wooden steps to the ground. Harry aimed his camera round the side of the trailer, flipped to continuous shooting and took a dozen shots as she bent forward, dry heaving.

‘You want some water?’ the smoking cop said, grabbing a bottle out of the cruiser’s door and striding to her aid.

‘Stank in that dump to start with – now the crazy kid has shat himself.’

‘Are you kidding me?’ the smoking cop moaned, shaking his head as he stubbed his cigarette out under his shoe. ‘Where’s child welfare? They should be here already.’

A third cop came out, gasping for air as a huge scream erupted and something heavy thudded against the wall inside.

‘Kid just screams no attention and that he wants Charlie, over and over and over,’ the new arrival said. ‘Gimme that bottle of water.’

The cop drained the water, then flung the plastic bottle away, which landed in the junk a few feet from Harry.

‘What a day! What a day!’

The cop paced angrily towards Harry’s hiding spot, hands on hips as he hacked phlegm in the dirt. Harry buried his face, gulping as the cop turned back towards the cruisers, two steps from where he’d have noticed Harry’s trailing leg.

This isn’t worth the risk. That lieutenant at the school seemed suspicious, and if they catch me here … At the very least they’ll arrest me. Kirsten’s face would be a picture at the police station.