The boy watched them walk ahead of him through the dark. He realised that the other boy with Carmody the night he found the bullet must have been Mohr.

They left the school by a gate between the front fence and the limestone wall. The moon hadn’t come out, the boys had to feel for the latch.

‘Careful, there’s a gully,’ Carmody said. The boys stepped over a black shadow that snaked by the side of the road, gravel crunched under their shoes. Then they were walking on the bitumen of the road. Through the trees the Leggett house glowed gold.

‘We have a question to ask you, Harper,’ Carmody’s voice floated in the darkness. The boy looked in Carmody’s direction but he couldn’t make out any features. They walked, angling away from the Leggett house, to avoid the gully at that side of the road.

‘It’s an important question, you must be honest with us.’ Again Carmody’s voice without a face.

The boy continued sliding his feet down the gradient of the road. He was rarely in this degree of darkness unless he was on the farm. He felt comfortable in the dark.

‘Do you want to catch the person who shot Captain Edmund?’ Carmody asked.

‘Catch him and send him to jail?’ Mohr added.

The boy hadn’t thought of that, it was the bullet that killed Captain Edmund. He thought of his father shooting roos.

‘No,’ the boy said.

‘We were very sad when Masters killed himself, we didn’t do enough, we knew and didn’t do anything, we didn’t really understand what was happening, but Lockheed told us. Have you heard about Lockheed?’ Mohr asked.

‘He was expelled last year,’ the boy said.

‘Do you know why?’ Mohr asked.

The boy thought about that. It had to be bad, he’d heard lots of things, but they were second former things that even third formers thought stupid.

‘No.’

‘He tried to tell on Edmund,’ Mohr said.

The boy felt a chill in his stomach. He couldn’t even conceive what words would be used to tell on Edmund. The tears he felt now were for Lockheed, he was glad it was dark and they were walking slowly.

Mohr continued, ‘He told the school and the school did nothing about it, so he was able to continue hurting other boys. We’re glad Edmund is dead, we think the person who shot him did a good thing.’

‘What do you think?’ Carmody asked after a while.

The boy shrugged then said he didn’t know.

They were opposite the front verandah of Leggett’s house. The surrounding air was damp and had a muddy smell. The front gate creaked when the boy pushed it closed behind them, he jumped at some leaves that brushed his face. The verandah steps were in shadow and he stumbled on them.

‘You okay?’