Amanda had been banned from participating in the official interview of Stephanie Neash at the Crimson Lake police station. That was fine. Amanda had been banned from things all her life. In Year 5 a bunch of girls had banned her from sitting on the sandstone ledge outside the library where she had liked to pore over Where’s Wally? books in the sunshine, because they’d decided they liked to use the ledge as a stage to practice their dance routines. All the cool girls seemed to be enrolled in dance classes, but Amanda knew not to bother with that sort of thing. Her sense of direction was all twisted up. Sometimes she would see the ball coming at her during a game, when she was forced to do sport, and while her brain willed her toward the ball her legs would, of their own volition, turn and move in the opposite direction. Amanda thought sometimes she belonged in an upside-down place, somewhere identical to the one she lived in now, only where left was right and right was left and people felt cheerful when their hearts were broken. Big smiles spread on bright faces in mortuaries, people laughing over graves.

She’d stood in the foyer of the police station with Ted after he’d brought Stephanie in, Sweeney seeing the young woman to a waiting room and getting her a tea to calm her nerves. Ted had been twitching, nervous, pacing restlessly as he conveyed his tale about the confession.

“How ’bout that,” Amanda had said brightly. “If this turns out to be the truth, we’ll be all wrapped up by tea time.”

“Not me,” Ted had said, lowering his eyes as a patrol officer walked through the glass doors, giving him a glowering look. “I’ve got to head down to Sydney. I told those podcast people I’d come speak to them.”

“Oh, what?” Amanda said. “Why the hell did you do that?”

The big man sighed heavily. “I don’t know. They’re on my side, I guess? The Innocent Ted people, they’re my supporters, and I may be in desperate need of supporters if this second accusation doesn’t go away. If I have to go to trial again I’m going to need to hire Sean, and Fabiana mentioned something about being able to raise money through the podcast to help with that. I don’t want Kelly and Lillian going without because of me. And besides all that, I have to go and do the appearance, because I may need them and because I said I would. I don’t like to let people down.”

“You’re a man of your word.”

“I try to be.” He looked at her. “But I’m sorry. Because I also gave you my word that I’d be here for this case.”

“You’ve got dramas.” Amanda waved dismissively. “Maybe one day I’ll have dramas and you can cover for me.”