Shirl said, ‘It was Mark Delaney who cut those trees. He used to do it in his underpants.’

Bill said, ‘Shirl.’

Shirl said, ‘Well, it’s true, Bill. He’d come out in his old underpants – leg elastic gone, the type I wouldn’t hang on the line – and he’d clip away all afternoon, with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth.’

I said, ‘Did he ever talk to you?’

Shirl said, ‘Not a word. Wouldn’t even look up and wave. I’d be up here, feeding Tony Abbott –’ she meant the budgie ‘– and I might catch his eye and I’d wave, but no, nothing. I’d get nothing back.’

I said, ‘What about when you were on the street, maybe getting the mail?’

Shirl took a good drag on her ciggie and shook her head, ‘Nothing. He was a rude man, in my opinion, and the woman – Snow – she was a bitter one. Never laughed. Never smiled. No, they kept to themselves.’

I said, ‘How long do you think the police were in there?’

‘Oh, they were there right through lunch. I know that,’ Bill said, ‘because around noon Shirl said, “I better put on some sandwiches,” and she was getting the ham out of the fridge when I said, “Uh oh, better come out, Shirl, there’s movement at the station.”’

Shirl said, ‘It was the ambulances. The ambulances came first.’

‘That’s right. There were ambulances. Count ’em! Six. They came in a convoy. No lights. No sirens. Nice and quiet and orderly, but in a convoy, being waved through by the cops.’

‘That must have created a scene!’ I said.

‘Too right. Every man and his dog was out in the street, or out on their balconies to see it. The poor Nine cameraman – he was lucky not to knock Shirl’s cuppa over, the way he jumped up to get a shot of it all.’

I said, ‘And what did the ambulances do, just pull up outside, or . . .?’

‘That’s right. They just pulled up outside, and the doors swung open and the ambos got out – they had on those white jumpsuits they wear and they were carrying those red plastic boxes – and they went in the gate.’

‘Were they running, Bill?’

‘No, they were walking pretty calmly down the path, past those funny trees. And then we noticed a few more cars coming into the street. White cars, like the old Telecom cars. Same deal, nice and quiet and orderly, but instead of cops getting out, people in suits were getting out – people with clipboards, like government people – and they were going down the path too.’

‘And all these people, they disappeared inside Delaney House?’

‘That’s right, they went inside, and the front door was shut behind them. Then it was just the cops outside again, the uniformed cops, and all these empty ambulances and empty government cars parked out the front. Of course, every stickybeak in the neighbourhood was out, speculating, wondering, us included. You know how it is.’