‘Apparently, they changed their name,’ Lynette explained. ‘I read about it in the paper. When they moved to Canberra, they became Parker.’

Trevor shook his head and swigged another mouthful of VB. ‘A leopard can’t change its spots.’

His dad had a saying for everything. His most common saying for Brendan was: It’s not whether you fall down but whether you get back up. Brendan had to get back up. And the best way of doing that was by destroying the phone and getting rid of the library bag. Could he smash the phone into pieces in the shed after dinner? He should have run over it with the lawn mower.

REDDIT

Unresolved mysteries: Martin and Lexie Ross

The Weekend Wrap program shows those two are guilty again.

Hope the police are watching!

Why don’t they just put their kids up for adoption instead of killing them?

Does anyone know if there’s a court order against the dad?

35 MORE REPLIES

40 MARTY

40

MARTY

ELISSA?! WHAT WAS SHE DOING IN HIS HOUSE?

The wavy chocolate hair, the full pouting lips, the curves. It was definitely Elissa. As though he’d conjured her up with his wish to talk to her. Marty wanted to take her in his arms and clutch her tight against him, a drowning man saved by a lifebuoy. At last. His friend was here to help.

But why was she calling herself Mel?

And she was pretending not to know him. Why, for fuck’s sake? He’d fantasised about her, sure, but nothing had ever happened. Marty managed to keep the question inside his head while he stared at Elissa. Glancing back at his wife, he tried to understand what was going on. Lexie had a scrunched-up tissue in her hand and her cheeks were blotchy from crying, but that was normal since Bella had gone missing. Her mouth was moving but Marty couldn’t hear the words.

‘What did you say?’

‘Have you met Mel before? She’s from playgroup.’

‘Mel?’ Marty stuttered over the name, unfamiliar on his own lips. ‘From playgroup?’

‘Mel, short for Melissa,’ the other woman explained, cocking her head. ‘I seem to collect nicknames—Mel, Lis, Elissa.’

She was communicating something to him. Marty rubbed his forehead to rearrange the confusion on his face.

‘And you’re a mum at playgroup?’ Marty asked.

‘Yes, my little boy Sammy is great friends with Bella.’

‘Sammy … oh … yes, Bella has talked about him.’

‘How’s the night search going? Lexie said you were at playgroup just now.’