‘What time is lunch?’ Cardilini asked.

‘Twelve thirty.’

‘Who sent the cleaners home?’

‘The principal can answer your questions.’

‘Bullshit. Everyone answers my questions,’ Cardilini glared at Robson. Robson looked nonplussed.

‘We don’t swear at St Nicholas College. It’s considered coarse.’

‘And what do you consider a criminal record for withholding information?’

‘You don’t pay my salary, Detective Cardilini,’ Robson replied coolly.

Cardilini regarded Robson for a moment, smiled, and then grimaced as he stepped out into the sun to cross the quadrangle. Robson and Salt quickly followed.

‘We don’t need you anymore, Robson,’ Cardilini dismissed the deputy without turning.

‘I’ve been instructed to stay with you,’ Robson said. Cardilini didn’t respond and headed directly across the lawn to the line of gum trees he’d viewed from Edmund’s room.

‘We are required to walk on the paths as an example to the boys,’ Robson said as he stepped right to one of the diagonal paths. Cardilini ignored him. Salt stuck by Cardilini’s side.

Robson quickened his pace getting ahead of Cardilini and picked up a sheet of paper by one of the gum trees. ‘Litter,’ he uttered sharply. Cardilini went to the tree where Robson had retrieved the paper. He stood beside the tree trunk and looked up at the window he had left open, then started to examine the tree and the surrounding grass before he began a slow descent of the embankment to the bordering limestone wall.

Clicking heels alerted Robson and Salt to Miss Reynolds’s arrival. She called from the path. ‘There is a telephone call for Detective Cardilini.’ She paused for a moment and stared at Robson until he nodded his understanding.

‘Detective Cardilini, there is a telephone call for you,’ Robson said. Cardilini ignored him, his attention focused on the limestone wall.

‘What’s down behind this wall? Cardilini asked.

‘There is a call for you,’ Robson repeated.

‘Tell them to call back. What’s down here?’

Robson turned to Miss Reynolds who stood staring. ‘It’s his superior,’ she called.

‘It’s your superior,’ Robson relayed to Cardilini.

‘Salt, jump up on the wall and draw a picture of what you see. Then, stand at that tree, where Robson picked up the paper, and let no one near it. You got that?’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘Let’s go,’ Cardilini said and started across the lawns. Robson and Miss Reynolds zigzagged at pace along the paths.

‘Where’s the telephone?’

‘The principal’s office,’ a breathless Miss Reynolds called.

Cardilini ignored Principal Braun when he walked into his office. He sat in the chair he had previously occupied and pulled the phone towards him. ‘Cardilini,’ he stated. He sat and listened eyeing Braun who keenly moved documents from one side of his desk to the other.

‘Yes. Yep. Yes, sir. Yep. Yep. No. No,’ Cardilini said at intervals before he finished with, ‘Would I do it any other way, sir?’ and hung up. ‘How about that?’ he mused, ‘Somehow, he knew exactly what I was doing?’ and feigning amazement he asked, ‘How could you account for that?’