‘I’m not sure I do, either.’

‘You didn’t arrest Leggett.’

‘I didn’t believe him for an instant.’

‘But he confessed.’

The pool of light before them weaved effortlessly with the curves of the road. They could have been alone on the planet, or on another planet, following a pool of moving light.

‘Did you believe him?’ Cardilini asked.

‘Have we missed the main road turn off?’ Paul asked.

‘Don’t think so. Did you believe him?’ Cardilini repeated.

‘No. And I don’t think he cared if he was believed or not,’ Paul eventually said.

‘I think you’re right.’

‘So, you’re not going to find Edmund’s killer?’

Cardilini felt they had been released from the real world, left to meander through a tunnel of trees until the end of time, or until Betty joined them.

‘Did you take the bullet Harper found?’ Paul asked hesitantly.

‘No.’

Insects, struck by the car lights, glittered.

‘Do you think I’ve done the wrong thing?’ Cardilini asked Paul, and Betty.

‘Why didn’t you take it?’

‘Leggett was correct in everything he said about what would happen.’

‘You can’t know that. Things have surely changed since he was practising law.’

‘You’d like to think so but people’s attitudes haven’t changed. No, I believe the conclusions the school reached would just be reinforced.’

‘That’s terrible.’

‘Yesterday I went to the farm where the shot is thought to have come from.’

‘And?’

‘One hundred per cent possible that the shot came from there,’ Cardilini said and received a nod of approval from Betty.

‘The bullet would have proved it, you should’ve taken it.’

‘If it was the actual bullet? We don’t know that, and never really will. Maybe Harper just wanted to boost his popularity. He’s a cadet, maybe he picked it up from a rifle range after target shooting.’ He felt like he was lying to Paul even though what he was saying was plausible.

Paul considered this as they watched the tunnel disappear over their heads.

‘We haven’t done this in a while. Maybe we should do a trip away,’ Cardilini said.

‘Aunty Roslyn might like that.’

‘Yes, she would. Let’s do it around Christmas.’

‘We’re having a staff party at the drive-in on the twenty-third.’

‘After Christmas then?’

‘They’re going to give me more work.’

‘As long as it doesn’t interfere with the academy.’

‘So, I’m definitely going to the academy?’ Paul asked.

‘I think Leggett is as mad as a cut snake but I believe him. So, yes,’ Cardilini said with some relief.

‘What about the boy, Mossop?’

‘I believe that’s all over now, too.’

The car rose and fell over the depressions in the road’s surface, and then the road veered to the right, away from the river. Up ahead on the main road into the city they could see streetlights.