I told her, ‘She left here two days ago!’ She sounded like that didn’t make sense and in the end I had to tell her that it wasn’t my business what her mum was getting up to in Sydney, plus I was busy washing all the sheets and towels because of all the red dust that had come into the house.

Next thing I knew the cops had come knocking, which freaked Mark out because he didn’t like police coming to the house and I always assumed it meant he’d done something wrong. I didn’t let them past the front door. They said, ‘We’ve been asked to have a look at this missing person’s report.’ I said, ‘Don’t tell me she’s still missing?’ Because I assumed she must have just taken a day trip or something.

The cops wanted to know what taxi company we’d called, and they said they were trying to track down the cab driver who took Agnes back to the hotel, but they also knew all about Dad’s will and how Agnes had come out to Australia to talk to me about it and they seemed to find that very fascinating.

I said there was no problem about the will because Agnes didn’t want any money, and if they didn’t believe me they should ring Doug and he’d set them straight. I said, ‘He’s drawn up the papers for her to sign, making sure I get the estate, which is mine after all, and she was happy to do that.’

Ten days later, or maybe two weeks later, I got another phone call from Ruby saying she was in Australia and could she come and see me because she was worried sick about her mum. I said there was no point coming to visit me because I didn’t know anything, and I said, ‘I’m sorry, Ruby, I realise you’re worried, but I have children here, special-needs children, and I can’t spend all this time on the phone speculating about this. I have my hands full, thank you very much.’ And from memory I have never spoken to her since.

Snow

Chapter Eighteen

I can’t say for certain when New South Wales police decided that Snow Delaney was the prime suspect in the disappearance of her sister, but it was obviously earlier than my contact at Rose Bay let on because according to evidence given at Snow’s trial, police had surveillance on Delaney House from the second week of October.

By surveillance I don’t mean blokes in vans. I mean they put bugs in the intercom in the front fence, and near the doorbell; and they had taps on Snow’s mobile phone and on Mark’s too. They got absolutely nothing of interest from any of the conversations they overheard, which pretty much told them everything they needed to know.

Think about it: if your sister, whom you’d only just met, had gone missing shortly after visiting you, wouldn’t it be a topic of conversation in your house?