Dinner that night was burgers, so section two didn’t have a lot to prepare. They sliced tomatoes, chopped lettuce and dumped chips onto baking trays. Jake wasn’t there—he’d been moved back to section one, at my request. But Shaun had allowed him to use the zipline. ‘Just to show him what he’ll be missing out on if he doesn’t mend his ways,’ Shaun had explained to me. ‘Thrills. Camaraderie. Teamwork.’

There was an air of mounting excitement around the campfire that night. Shaun talked a lot about lessons learnt and insights gained. He handed out badges to everyone except Jake. Matt and Ali and Zac were loaded down with badges. Flynn got an empathy badge because he was the only boy who ever bothered talking to Bruno—though whingeing to Bruno was probably a better way of describing it. Dean received a tidy badge. Bruno’s badge was for following orders, Connor’s was for trust and Nathan’s was for courage (presumably because he hadn’t burst into tears when wrongly accused of sticking nails through my floor).

Aaron’s badge was for leadership; he’d taken charge of his team during the hunt for cache number two. He accepted the badge without even looking at it. I’d noticed how preoccupied he was. Something seemed to be weighing on him.

I wondered if he was dreading his return home.

‘Tomorrow you’ll be leaving Finch Island,’ Shaun declared. ‘It’s been a pretty confronting week for all of you. There have been accidents. Punishments. You’ve been physically and mentally challenged. But you’ve also learnt a lot of things and made a lot of friends. And I’m hoping you’ll take these lessons back into your everyday lives. I’m hoping you’ll remember that with discipline, self-respect and trust in your mates you can achieve almost anything you set your mind to.’

Inspiring words. But just a few minutes later, Connor tripped Ali. And then Dean threw Nathan against a wall.

‘For some of these kids, it’s a work in progress,’ Shaun admitted, once the boys were in bed. We were sitting in my office, discussing how we were going to seat, feed and control Saturday’s crowd of visitors. ‘We’ve made inroads with Connor, but he’s not there yet. I might talk to his parents about our follow-up program.’

‘What about Jake?’ I asked. ‘Is he graduating?’

‘No. He won’t be getting a dog-tag tomorrow.’ Seeing me frown, Shaun said, ‘There’s no family coming, so I doubt he’ll care. Bill Khatri will be collecting him. Bill’s the copper who referred Jake and Nathan. I’ll be asking Bill to send Jake back next month.’

‘Do you think he will? Once he hears about Tyler?’ Warren was slouched on a spindly kitchen chair, arms folded.

‘It’s a camp,’ Shaun pointed out. ‘People get hurt. That’s why we have insurance.’