By this stage I had begun thanking my editor for asking me to attend the press conference. ‘Sisters who hadn’t met before’ – that’s obviously a good story all by itself, without the added drama of one of them now being missing. I was about to stick my hand up to ask a few questions but a reporter from The Herald got in ahead of me: ‘And can I ask you what you think happened to your mother? You said she went missing in the dust storm, so are you thinking she got lost, or she fell or . . .?’

Ruby looked at Detective Croft, maybe to see if it was okay for her to answer a question like that, which essentially called for speculation. He nodded and she said, ‘The police have asked me whether I think it’s possible that Mum was frightened by the dust storm, but I can’t honestly see that happening. Mum is the kind of person who takes everything in her stride. I don’t think she would have been frightened, and anyway, from what I understand, the dust storm wasn’t frightening. People were milling about in it, and marvelling at the wonder of it. So I suppose my answer to your question is, I think Mum must have got lost or taken a fall, and perhaps she’s injured, wandering disoriented, and obviously the longer it goes on . . .’

If you watched any of the press conference – on the news, I mean – you’ll know that Ruby broke down at this point. People say the media can be mongrels, and maybe that’s right because the cameras went mad, but then we all waited for her to compose herself before jumping back in. One of the Herald reporters asked, ‘And was it your mum’s first visit to Sydney or had she been here before? Did she know the place at all?’

Ruby said, ‘Mum spent many years in Western Australia – she met my father there – but she’d never been to Sydney. She had only been here for a few days when she went missing. So, no, I suppose I’m trying to say that she didn’t know Sydney . . . this was her first visit.’

The first journo, the one from the Telegraph, jumped back in, asking what I wanted to ask: ‘Your mum’s sister, the one you’re saying she just met up with . . . Did you say her name was Snow?’

Ruby looked over at Detective Croft, who cleared his throat and said, ‘Yes, Mrs Moore’s sister’s name is Snow. That is S-N-O-W as in . . .’ and he made flurries with his fingers, like snowflakes coming down.

I said, ‘And is Snow here today?’

Detective Croft said, ‘No, I’m sorry, Ms Delaney – that’s her last name, Delaney – isn’t actually here today. As Ruby was saying, the sisters met up a little ahead of the dust storm, and from what we can tell they had lunch at Ms Delaney’s house in Bondi and then Agnes went back to her hotel on Market Street. She had a chat to some of the staff there, went back to her room, and settled in for the night. Then she came out at around 5 a.m. and wandered into Market Street. We’ve interviewed Ms Delaney, and she’s been very helpful in letting us know when Agnes left the lunch, and we know what time she got back to the hotel and so forth. So at this point we’re trying to trace whether anyone saw her after she left her hotel room. Market Street is obviously a fairly busy street in the CBD, and while the dust storm that day did make things a bit difficult in terms of visibility, we are hopeful that somebody might remember something.’