Mrs Wallace says it took some time to detach Polly’s fingers from around her neck as she tried to leave. ‘That bothered me, but again, it was the first time I’d ever left Polly overnight so why wouldn’t we both be upset? But at the same time, if it were not for the fact that I was flying to Queensland to bury my father that afternoon, I’m not sure I would have left Polly there, and I can tell you now, the minute I got home from burying Dad – I rushed through all the paperwork and I organised an earlier flight home by the way – I went straight there to pick her up.

‘Brad warned me against it. He said, “But we’re not supposed to go until tomorrow morning.” I said, “I’m sorry, but I won’t wait.”

‘I must have broken some land-speed records getting around to Delaney House that afternoon, and Snow was definitely startled to see me. I said, “I’m sorry, I know I’m not supposed to be here until tomorrow but I’ve been missing her so much. I hope you don’t mind!”’

I asked Mrs Wallace how Snow reacted to her early arrival.

‘Oh, she was put out! She was definitely put out,’ she said. ‘But I didn’t care. I stood my ground at the door, waiting for Polly to come running, and that was another strange thing: Polly didn’t come running! I thought, “Okay, it’s a large house, and perhaps she hasn’t heard me.” I said, “Goodness, is she having a nap? Or she’s down in the garden, I bet!”

‘Snow said, “Wait here and I’ll get her.” Just like that: “Wait here, and I’ll get her.” She went down the hall, and I heard a series of doors open and close. She was gone something like five minutes and I didn’t hear any of the usual sounds, like Snow saying: “Come along, Polly, let’s get your things,” or “Your mum’s here, run and say hi!”

‘Eventually, she came back down the hall with Polly, and this is not my imagination, Polly was walking quite strangely, as if she were dazed. She still didn’t run toward me, as I would have expected. I held out my arms and said, “Polly!” She didn’t react. I moved toward her and when I took her into my embrace, she was stiff like a board.

‘It was so obvious to me that something was wrong. I looked up at Snow and I said, “Has she not been well?” Because her reaction was odd, like she was completely out of sorts, but Snow said, no, she’d been sleeping. Sleeping! I don’t care if she was sleeping, she still would have been so pleased to see me.’

I asked Mrs Wallace how long Polly seemed to be, as she said, ‘out of sorts’.

‘She was subdued in the car, and coughed up phlegm,’ she said. ‘I kept trying to make eye contact with her in the rear-vision mirror but she was looking out the window, with the edges of her mouth drawn down. I thought she might snap out of whatever it was quite quickly but for a long time afterwards she was clingy. I was tempted to take her to the doctor, I was that worried about it, but I suppose I put it down to her being distressed at my having to leave her.’