‘I’d … um … have to check my class roll to be certain but I know she was away for most of last week. I think she was there on Monday.’

Had any of the other teachers overheard him saying to Jeff: Happy times, my friend, the Tiny Terror has been away for four whole days!

‘And where did you last see her?’ Sergeant Simpson asked.

‘It would have been in the classroom. The children stack their chairs on the desk for the cleaners, then I say good afternoon while they’re standing up. They go outside, grab their bags and meet their parents.’

‘Did Fox meet her parents that afternoon?’

‘She catches the bus.’

The two policemen looked at each other and then back at Brendan.

‘She never got on the bus,’ said the other copper.

‘What do you mean?’ Brendan could hear his voice rising. ‘She disappeared between my classroom and the bus stop at the front of the school?’

‘Yes, sir, that seems to be the situation,’ Sergeant Simpson said. ‘Can you tell us about that Monday afternoon? What did you do after the children left the classroom?’

‘It would’ve been the same as any other Monday. I finish tidying up and then go to the staffroom for a meeting at three thirty.’ Brendan tried to recall last Monday. Before the missing toddler, before her crazy father had attacked him. ‘Probably I spoke to Julia Fleming—she’s a parent who’s always coming in to talk about her daughter’s reading.’

Brendan waited for the next question but the coppers didn’t speak. He squirmed in the silence. He had to mention Ray—it would seem strange if he didn’t.

‘Have the police spoken to her Uncle Ray?’ he asked. ‘Fox sometimes stays with him in Canberra rather than going back out to the farm.’

The last time Brendan had seen Ray Hensley was about ten days ago. Ray had handed over Fox’s library bag with the same book that had gone back and forth to school all year. Reckon her reading’s improving, the ponytailed man had joked. Then he’d smirked and slapped Brendan on the shoulder. A bonanza is coming up. Reckon I’ll get meself a new car. A fast one, just like yours. Brendan deliberately didn’t ask any questions of Ray. And the less the cops knew, the better.

‘Thank you,’ Sergeant Simpson said, writing it down in a notepad. ‘I’ll pass that on. Sergeant Caruso has asked for you to return to Canberra. One of his team will be here shortly to meet you.’

Brendan kept his hands under his thighs. Would the cops take him in right now if they saw how much he was trembling?

‘I was going to stay here for the week. Do I need to go back earlier?’