Murphy felt a swell of relief in his chest. Dave Llewellyn, his dad’s old lawyer, from back when Dad ran the business. In his mid-fifties and always somewhat toadlike, today he looked particularly pale and unwell.

‘Get me out of here, Dave,’ Murphy croaked.

‘Sorry I’m so late. Butch called me this morning, but I had to come all the way from Hobart. Lots of bloody corners between here and there.’ Dave wiped his sleeve across his face and sat beside Murphy. He glanced up at Detective Badenhorst, took in his wet shirt, his tousled hair.

Badenhorst introduced himself and his partner – Detective Sergeant Gabriella Pakinga – before starting his questioning. ‘I know this is a difficult time, Mr Murphy. Please remember these are just standard questions, okay?’

Murphy only scowled.

‘Does your daughter have any enemies, that you know of?’

Murphy glanced at Dave, who nodded. ‘I think you better answer their questions. Go ahead.’

‘No,’ said Murphy. ‘No enemies.’

‘Do you have any enemies?’

Murphy looked straight at Doble. ‘None.’

‘Do we have permission to grab Jasmine’s DNA from her toothbrush? And release a photo of her to the media?’

‘Yeah,’ said Murphy.

‘And can you think of any reason someone might want to kidnap your daughter? Maybe because of some sort of . . . product you provide?’ said Con.

‘Don’t answer that,’ said Dave.

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ said Murphy.

‘Listen, my client is bleeding,’ said Dave. ‘Are the cuffs really necessary, Detective?’

Con sighed. ‘Sergeant Doble, remove the cuffs.’

‘You can’t be serious,’ said Doble. ‘He assaulted two policemen up at the search. He just went bloody apeshit right in this room. No.’

‘Bloody hell, Murph,’ muttered Dave. ‘Again?’

‘Sergeant Doble, the cuffs, please,’ said Con.

‘No, I won’t,’ snapped Doble.

‘Very well,’ said Dave, swelling up like a bullfrog. ‘Then I’m taking my client out of here. He hasn’t been charged with anything and he needs to go to the hospital to have his injuries attended to.’

‘Alright. Fair enough,’ Con said, sounding tired.

‘What?’ said Doble. He looked between Dave and Con. ‘Like hell he’s leaving.’

‘If you’d listened to me before, we wouldn’t be in this mess.’ Con stood up. ‘As the superior officer in this room for this case, I asked you to remove the cuffs. You refused. Under the police brutality laws, Mr Murphy is now free to leave.’

Doble’s mouth widened and closed. ‘Bullshit,’ he finally said.

‘Sergeant Doble, if you don’t unlock those cuffs right now, I’m going to have to take this to the commander,’ said Con.

Doble’s jowls flushed pink, rising up into his cheeks until they burned red. He unlocked Murphy’s cuffs.

Murphy stood, feeling his bleeding wrists to judge the damage.

Con reached his hand across the desk, a peace offering. ‘Let’s try this again. I’m Detective Con Badenhorst.’