I walked a circle around Ben’s desk, not sure what I was looking for. It was neat and ordered: a pair of fountain pens, a printer and work trays alongside the two iMac desktop computers. Front and centre was a short Samurai dagger mounted on a rack with an inlaid brass plaque on the base that read: ‘The truth of the battle is whatever the victor deems it to be’ – Sun Tzu. Alongside it, a block of black marble with military insignia I didn’t recognise, and the words: ‘Two is one, one is none.’ I had no idea what that meant.

I listened for any sound on the stairs, heard nothing, and quickly opened the top drawer of the desk. More pens, paper, a box of business cards, half a dozen silver memory sticks with stickers on them bearing handwritten notes – Financial, Property, Legal, Phone conversations, Email convs, and so on. A stack of multi-coloured Post-it notes with something written on the top sheet. I tore off the top few sheets and took a closer look, realising it wasn’t ink but the indentation of something that had been written before. I held it up to the light. Looked like one word and a question mark, but it was difficult to make out. The waste bin under his desk revealed the original square yellow note, scrunched up into a tight ball. I unfolded it. Four letters and a question mark.

STEB?

What was STEB? Or where – was it a place? I had no idea.

I shoved the note in a pocket and resumed my search of the desk drawer: there were a handful of credit cards in a clear plastic wallet, a stack of books about business and a bottle of aftershave. A box of condoms, the cellophane wrapper open. I shut the drawer and moved away from the desk.

The pictures on the wall seemed to be mostly of Ben’s family when he was younger: mum, dad, Ben and a younger girl I assumed was his sister. One showed them tanned and relaxed in a beachside restaurant, deep-blue sea behind them. Another of them arm-in-arm at Disneyland, all four of them grinning at the camera with the towers of the Magic Kingdom rising behind them. In another family shot, they were in Sydney with the Opera House as a backdrop. A school picture – larger than all the rest – showed Ben, big fringe and glasses and ‘Prefect’ badge on his lapel, accepting a framed certificate from a teacher at his school in front of an ancient-looking stone building. The teacher wore a black gown like something out of Goodbye, Mr. Chips.

None of the pictures rang true.