As she sat back down, Trevor said, ‘I like it. Nice to be out, talking, not wearing the uniform.’

‘While I appreciate this whole thing, Sharon,’ Robert said, ‘I’m not sure it’s such a good idea. It leaves the town without police.’

‘It’s Newbury,’ Sharon said. ‘What’s going to happen?’

‘You never know.’

‘Nothing ever happens.’

‘When I was first a policemen here—’ Robert said.

‘Tell what it was like when those kids were kidnapped,’ Jack interrupted.

Robert took a moment. ‘No, I’ve told that one to death. This one I don’t think I’ve ever told anybody. I was around twenty years old. Yeah, I would’ve been. And one of my first callouts.’ He swallowed. ‘I went down by the prison, but it wasn’t a prison back then.’

‘What was it?’

‘It wasn’t anything back then. Was just an empty paddock. But it was around the area, you know. I was only twenty, I think. I was called down there because boys had been throwing rocks at cars.’

‘How old were you then?’

Robert laughed. ‘You bugger.’

Sharon said, ‘What year was this?’

‘Would have been the mid-sixties, I think. Maybe late sixties,’ Robert finished his cake. Dabbed at the corners of his mouth with his handkerchief, enjoying the attention, however sarcastic it might be.

‘They were throwing rocks at cars. Just being kids. As I drove up I could see smoke. I went over the hill and saw a car smashed into a tree. Really banged up. The whole front crumpled in on itself like a sandwich. You ever seen a crash like that?’

All three nodded.

‘Then you know what it’s like. Going up to the car.’

‘What did you do?’ Jack said.

‘Well, I went up to the car and my first thought is there are probably dead people inside. And I was just new on the job. So I hesitated a little. By myself, you understand? Just the first on the scene. But I radioed back and then I found my legs a bit and walked up to the car. And there was a couple in there. She was crying, he was knocked out. There was blood. He looked dead, is what I first thought. So I went to him and found his pulse and pulled him from the car while she’s screaming about her kid.’

‘Was there a kid in the back?’ Sharon asked.

‘Turned out she was pregnant. She lost that kid, was the thing of it. Yeah,’ he said, not meeting their eyes. ‘So I think about me hesitating on approach and what those moments could’ve meant to that little kid in there.’

‘The crash probably killed it on impact,’ Jack said.

Robert breathed in, leaned back. ‘So I’m saying things do happen in Newbury. Sometimes they do.’

‘It wouldn’t’ve mattered, you being there quickly,’ Sharon said. ‘A couple minutes more wouldn’t’ve made a difference.’

‘You never know, though, do you? I got her out quick.’

‘We’re just a phone call away if something happens tonight.’