Caruso had written down a list of fellow protesters—people she’d been with on Thursday and four years ago. A few of them had lasted the distance and would know about Martin Ross. But it seemed a long shot. The voluntary assisted dying bill was due to be introduced into the House of Representatives on Monday and the protesters would want as much coverage as possible of their objections to the legislation. Not Bella’s disappearance on the front page. Still, it was another line of inquiry.

Meanwhile, investigations into the CCTV footage in Civic hadn’t turned up anything. None of the shop assistants remembered the pair. Perhaps it was simply a mother and daughter who looked like Bella and Lexie. They’d got additional footage from a nearby petrol station. A similar white car with two kids in the back seat—a boy and a girl. Could be the same mother and daughter or another family altogether. However, when he’d checked over Brendan Parrish’s townhouse, Caruso had noted a white Subaru high-performance sports car in the garage with a similar body shape to the one on the tape. But the CCTV footage only showed the passenger door, with no marks to identify the make of the car. Parrish had said he was at school all day, from eight in the morning until four in the afternoon. Suze was going through the six sets of security tapes from the Merrigang shops again to see if Brendan Parrish had been captured on film at any point.

Hassan had got the info back from the hospital. The ER notes indicated that only the father had brought Bella into Emergency on the afternoon she’d broken her wrist. Mrs Parker did not accompany them nor did she receive medical treatment for her injury. And the information from Chatswood police station showed the Parkers had lied by omission.

Caruso was keen to rule out individuals so they could narrow the focus of their investigation. Natalie Alvarez had an alibi but they needed to check on her colleagues. He also wanted to speak to Brendan Parrish’s colleagues—had any of them actually been with him during the school recess time when Bella had disappeared?

This morning, though, Julia Fleming was first on his list. Could the playgroup organiser shed any light on the Parkers’ relationship and their deceased child?

Caruso and Suze parked outside Julia’s house. The Flemings were doing all right for themselves: a large two-storey house in Merrigang with a pool, the front garden manicured, hedges trimmed. Julia appeared in a white blouse over a denim skirt. Short brown bob, round face and heavily pregnant. Her husband had taken the kids to swimming lessons so she was home alone, resting.