Cardilini felt he knew the answer for himself: the overwhelming realisation of your boy taking his own life was too terrible to think about. If a constable could avoid plunging the parents into that hell by simply writing ‘accidental’ he might just do that. Cardilini wondered if he would. Speculating on suicide and consequently looking for physical evidence to support it wouldn’t serve anyone. And if you discovered the boys staged their deaths to look like accidents, why betray that young man’s last desperate attempt to save his parents from the agony he was suffering?

‘No positive proof and they won’t speculate when writing reports,’ Cardilini answered. ‘That’s for the coroner to do.’

‘Okay, we can do all that,’ Sheppard concluded.

‘That could take forever. We don’t have that much time,’ Mrs Lockheed said. Frightened faces turned to her.

‘Cardilini,’ Sheppard prompted when no one spoke.

‘Bring Edmund’s killer to justice,’ Cardilini offered.

‘Oh you stupid man,’ Mrs Lockheed blurted.

Sheppard stood. ‘Right, how about that cup of tea? We’ll just smoke outside,’ he said as he nodded sharply to Cardilini and Doney.

‘Off you go, boys. Enjoy yourselves,’ Mrs Lockheed called to them as they left.

*

The rectory had flowerbeds bordering the buildings. Six pencil pines standing as upright sentinels emitted a sharp, sappy scent. A solitary gum tree grew in the middle of a drying lawn. Its branches, free of decorum, twisted one way then another, centuries from the rigour of the pencil pines. At night the branches were dark silhouettes against the points of light gathering millions of miles away. Cardilini thought the gum tree’s branches thrown high and awkward as if in horror reflected what the Sheppards, Doneys and Masters were going through. He wondered how they were coping.

Doney leant against the trunk of the gum and commenced rolling a cigarette. Sheppard took a cigarette from Cardilini’s offered packet.

‘I know Senior Constable Saunders had his suspicions,’ Sheppard said.

‘He played footy with Colin.’

Cardilini inhaled deeply, he wanted to be home with Paul, he wanted to put his arms around him and never let him go. But Paul was working.

‘I know what Peter did,’ Doney replied hollowly.

Sheppard looked to the ground and pushed some leaves aside with his shoe. Cardilini’s eyes wandered to the rectory windows glowing gold, framed by shadow. He could see Father O’Reilly standing surrounded by the three women, Mrs Lockheed laying down the law and Father O’Reilly slowly nodding.

After a pause Cardilini said, ‘Mrs Lockheed told me she was shut out from the St Nicholas community.’

‘That was shameful. We didn’t help, did we, Doney?’

Doney sighed.