‘Come on, Dad, let’s go. You don’t need to listen to this.’

Dad ignores me, keeps his focus on Roberts. ‘I don’t think you know a single thing, son, or you’d have charged someone by now. I think you’re hoping to provoke me or Charlie into saying what you want to hear. But that’s not going to happen.’

Roberts glares at me. ‘Your father was engaged to her. How can you cause her death and then shop for . . . Weet-Bix . . . with him? How can you lie to him?’ Then returns his attention to my father. ‘John, you know what I’m saying is true, don’t you? That’s why you left your daughter’s house and came back to the farm, isn’t it?’

‘The farm is my home. I never intended to stay with my daughter forever.’

‘Why on earth aren’t you speaking up? You loved her. I’ve interviewed every person who ever saw you two together and they all say you were in love. She was carrying your child! Why are you letting them get away with it?’

‘They’re not getting away with anything,’ Dad says, and in a strange way that’s true.

I walk to the checkout, Dad and Roberts following me, and pile one item after another in front of the checkout chick as fast as I can. Her badge says Tansy but I don’t think that’s a name. ‘Tansy,’ I say. ‘We’re in a real hurry. How quickly can you guys get this stuff in a bag?’

‘You didn’t know right away, did you?’ Roberts says to Dad. ‘I saw how you greeted them, how your daughter baulked at the word fiancée. You didn’t know then what they’d done, but you do now.’

I turn my head around. ‘Man, this is harassment. You need to stop. You’re not even on duty.’

He ignores me. ‘Don’t you want justice? Let me do my job.’

‘You can’t bring her back,’ Dad says. ‘And that’s the only thing that I want.’

‘Am I missing something?’ Roberts says. ‘Tell me, sir, please. Because for the life of me I can’t imagine why a man would take this. How much can a father forgive? Surely not this.’

Outside the supermarket, the squall is gathering strength. Wind batters at the windows, slanted rain hits the panes. On the road, cars have slowed to a crawl, heads down against the waves of water. Thunder rumbles and lightning cracks across the sky. For an instant, the power fails in the supermarket and the lights go off, then flicker back to life. The checkout girl and bagger gawp at us shamelessly, ignoring everything else.

I take out my wallet and ask Tansy how much I owe. She looks at me like I’m mental. ‘I haven’t rung anything up yet.’

‘Why?’ Roberts stands behind my father. ‘Why stay quiet?’ He’s staring at Dad with hunting-dog concentration.

‘How much?’ I say to the girl. ‘Roughly?’

‘You want me to make up a number?’

‘Yeah, do that. How much?’