Tara remembered all the times Lexie had made her feel like a terrible mother. For swearing in front of the kids. For Facebooking when she should have been playing with Zoe. For not having perfect hair and clothes. For being tired and grumpy and fat. For fuck’s sake, how many times could you play peekaboo with a baby and paint with a toddler? It was shitfully boring.

‘You think it was a mask?’

‘Well, she must be a very good actor. How could she just pretend to us that she’d never had a first baby? It’s strange.’

‘Have you been to her house?’

‘Lexie never invites anyone over. She’s got a beautiful house.’

A memory flickered. The small hours of Friday morning in Lexie’s lounge room. After coming back from the search, Lexie had stood motionless clutching baby Daisy against her breast, her face distraught, her body sagging. Lexie hadn’t been acting then.

‘Do you think she’s hiding something at home?’ The reporter leant forward. They were two friends gossiping about another mother.

‘Yeah, maybe.’ Tara pushed the memory away and concentrated on her new friend Evelyn. ‘The house is huge. It would’ve cost heaps.’

‘And did you ever meet the teenage daughter from Martin’s first marriage?’

‘No. But we heard about her going missing.’

‘The teenager went missing too?’

Tara was surprised the reporter didn’t know that titbit. Some extra gossip to share.

‘Yeah, a few weeks ago. She was here for Father’s Day. The girl and a friend went for a walk and didn’t come back. When Lexie told us about it, she was trying to make it into a funny story. You can’t keep them locked up like toddlers, that’s what she said.’

‘What do you think she meant by that? Locked up like toddlers?’

‘Fuuu—ah, far out!’ Tara narrowly averted saying the word fuck. ‘Do you think she has Bella locked up somewhere?’

Ideas were ticking over in Tara’s mind. Why had the teenager run away? Was Lexie really an evil stepmother who was always mean to the kids? Not Little Miss Perfect after all?

‘Was there anything else that seemed odd?’ Evelyn asked, her tone conspiratorial.

‘Bella came to playgroup with a broken wrist. Lexie said she’d fallen out of a tree but it didn’t sound true.’

‘How did Lexie behave about Bella’s broken wrist?’

‘Well, she just left her at playgroup with us and went up to the shops to buy biscuits, so she can’t have been too worried.’

Please don’t ask why Lexie went to get biscuits.

‘Did Lexie often leave Bella unattended at playgroup?’