‘Head still hurts. The nurse came when you were at the cafeteria and they want to keep me in overnight.’

‘What about your hip and your back?’

‘I think those painkillers were good ’uns.’ He winked at Claire. ‘We should get some of them!’

She laughed, popped open the lemonade can, stuck a straw it in and held it out for him to drink. Claire really was something. She didn’t believe that deranged dad for one second. And if she had any concerns about Brendan being involved in the little girl’s disappearance, she wasn’t showing it. No, Claire had sympathy for the girl’s parents (They must be going mad with worry) but was furious that the father had focused his attention on Brendan (Especially when you did those photos as a favour). She thought it was all about the photos—Brendan hadn’t told her he’d been spotted at the bakery at the same time as the disappearance. Detective Sergeant Caruso had grilled him when he was trying to make a complaint about the father breaking into his house.

‘Yes, I got a coffee that day,’ Brendan admitted. ‘It wasn’t a lie—I just forgot. All the days at school run into each other. I thought it was Tuesday that I went to the bakery.’

‘Did you go anywhere other than the bakery?’

Brendan should have been prepared for the question. Since that deranged dad had shouted it at him, he knew the police would ask. But fear had fogged his mind and he couldn’t think straight. Were there any cameras at the bottom of playgroup and around his townhouse? Did his neighbours have security cameras? If he said yes, he’d gone home, what then? Would they take his house apart? Track down his friends? Talk to the rugby lads? Plaster his photo across the news as the main suspect? Destroy his career?

‘I can’t remember,’ he said finally. ‘I don’t think so.’

Even to his own ears, his answer had sounded lame.

Claire told him that she’d cleaned up everything inside the house. Put the clothes back in the wardrobes, remade the beds and picked up all the stuff off the floor. She wouldn’t have snooped around the study, would she?

‘Jeff rang while I was at the cafeteria,’ Claire said. ‘He finished fixing up your shed and locked it all.’

‘Great. I owe him one. And you too.’