‘Yes.’ Robson took a butt from his tin. ‘There’s no point asking me about Mossop. The principal’s handling it.’

‘Do accusations such as the one made against me often find their way to the police?’

Robson scrutinised Cardilini. ‘Who said there were other such accusations?’

‘Mrs Lockheed.’

Robson took a deep inhalation on his cigarette and butted it out on his tin cover. ‘They’re going to find out smoking is bad for you.’ He tapped his tin on the wooden bench and replaced it into his coat pocket.

‘How do you know?’

‘I’m a scientist. I do know that in the right dosage fifty per cent of what you inhale could kill you within hours.’

‘Tough.’ Cardilini inhaled and, sated, expelled the smoke.

‘I never believed John Lockheed or his mother,’ Robson said.

‘Why?’

‘I’ve worked with Edmund for four years.’

‘Which told you?’

‘It was abhorrent what the boy said. Ridiculously fanciful. Malicious.’

‘What part?’

Robson turned to Cardilini’s expressionless face.

‘Standing with a rifle above their heads was practised before Edmund came to the school. I’ve seen them do it. Edmund stood them in front of the window facing the quad. He was a military man.’

‘Was he? As an instructor of school cadets his rank was honorary.’

‘When I say military man, I meant he affected all things military. He was rejected by the services.’

‘How do you know?’

‘He told me. Some medical reason, I didn’t enquire. He always had the boys’ best interests at heart.’

‘And he’s not capable of the things John Lockheed said?’

‘No. Talk to other people who knew him.’

‘The parents of the boys who’ve since passed away, do you mean?’ Cardilini cocked his head quizzically.

Robson turned his attention to the cricket. ‘Carmody’s bowling. He’s the first eleven captain. He made fifty-eight runs.’

‘Was he in the first eleven when Bradley Williamson was captain?’

‘What’s that intended to prove?’

‘Carmody would have been a fourth form student?’ Cardilini pushed.

‘Then, yes, Carmody is one of a handful to make the first eleven while in form four.’

‘Were the boys close?’

‘Williamson was a mentor to Carmody. Williamson was a real leader and a very loyal student,’ Robson said.

They both sat watching the cricket. Cardilini remembered boys at his school playing cricket, the posh boys.

‘Bad luck,’ Robson called. ‘Carmody was hit for a four,’ he informed Cardilini.

Cardilini clapped and said, ‘Bradley Williamson won the state school boys’ shooting titles two years running.’

‘I know, quite a marksman. Why the interest in Williamson?’

‘No interest. Just, he was a cricket captain, like Carmody.’

Robson shrugged.

Cardilini asked, ‘The boys who passed away: 1963, 1964, and tragically the boy who took his own life this year were all cadets, some discharged for disciplinary reasons. We know the discipline. What part couldn’t they manage?’