‘Iced coffee?’ I offered, placing a tall glass on the island bench and adding a fourth scoop of vanilla ice cream. Chanel swung herself up onto a stool next to Fanta, and I leaned casually against the dishwasher. At the other end of the bench, the application form lay face down in a plastic sleeve. ‘There’s something here that Ivy has to sign,’ Chanel told Fanta, touching the plastic lightly. ‘Just one of those formality forms. The thing is, she needs a witness, so we wondered if you … What do you think of the cake?’

Fanta said something made indistinct by ice cream. We waited with patient smiles. Eventually we heard, ‘Is the Amendment?’

‘That’s it,’ I said in a carefree, sunlit voice. ‘Has Ivy brought you up to speed? It was so thoughtful of Bram to suggest that course of action. It’s important to take expert medical advice on board, isn’t it?’

‘Ivy telling me everything always,’ said Fanta. She licked her spoon, drawing back her upper lip. Her teeth are as white and even as those of celebrities or the children of dentists. Since Fanta is neither, they must be false. ‘You not wanting Ivy,’ she went on. ‘I know.’

‘You’re so funny, Fanta!’ said Chanel. ‘Where’d you get that idea?’

‘I signing,’ said Fanta, ‘because Ivy want. She have too much pain here.’ An industrial-grade fist thumped her chest. ‘How good is Australia! Ivy can taking Amendment. My country, people having only this pain and situations of war. This pain is world turn to orange and room go spinning round.’

‘It’s no use,’ said Ivy, coming into the kitchen, adjusting her tracksuit pants. ‘I don’t know why I even bothered to try – it was the two of clubs this morning, obstacles to success. What are you guzzling there, Fanta?’ She sank down on the couch in the home-entertainment zone. Almost at once her head tipped back and she was asleep. Fanta has taken to putting combs in Ivy’s hair, holding it back from her face. Sleep turned her face soft and full – it looked as it does in the photo with the blue dress, as the freshly dead are said to look.

Fanta slurped the last of her coffee. Ivy’s head jerked upright with a snort, and she wiped her mouth with her hand. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Chanel reach for the form.

There was a terrifying development at work last week. On Thursday an email arrived from the minister himself, informing the whole Department that a breach of security had come to light. Consequently, an external investigation team had been appointed to examine our case files and check our findings over the past seven years. If anyone had even the slightest suspicion of irregular activity within the Department, we were to report the matter in confidence using the phone number provided.