‘Stick around, mate, I’m not finished yet,’ said Con. ‘Up in the mountains, when you first realised the girls and Eliza were missing, did you see anything unusual?’

‘Nothing at all, mate. Same as I told you yesterday. Those storm clouds came in a lot quicker than we expected, but you get that in the Tiers – sometimes we’ll get thunder on a calm blue day. You just can’t pick it.’

‘What can you tell us about Madison?’ said Gabriella. ‘What we’re picking up is she’s a bit of a local celebrity . . . was she a bully as well?’

Both Tom and Eliza nodded.

‘Who were her main victims? We should talk to them,’ said Gabriella.

‘Good luck,’ said Eliza. ‘The last person to come forward was Yani Hugh, the pastor’s daughter. As much as we tried to protect her, the backlash she received outside of school was pretty bad.’

‘Like what?’ said Gabriella.

‘Online harassment from a bunch of strangers,’ said Eliza. ‘All of whom just happened to be followers of Madison’s accounts. But since it wasn’t Madison herself, there was nothing we could do.’

‘Yani had come to us saying Madison was collecting nude photos of girls at school,’ said Tom. ‘But after the online abuse, Yani took all that back. She claimed she’d made it up, that it was a lie.’

‘Except it may well be true.’ Eliza sighed heavily. ‘After she came forward, a picture of Yani was circulated online . . . thankfully everything but her face was blurred, but it was clearly a warning.’

‘Madison sounds like a sociopath,’ said Gabriella frankly. ‘She was collecting nudes?’

Con’s phone buzzed. The commander was calling. ‘Excuse me a moment . . .’ He walked into the hallway, the phone to his ear.

‘Cornelius,’ came the cool, refined voice of Commander Agatha Normandy.

‘Hello, commander. Everything all good?’

‘I’m sorry, but I’m afraid I miscalculated.’ Con closed his eyes: he knew what was coming. ‘There would have been questions if I didn’t assign this case to you, given your expertise. But all the same, there are some who doubt you’re up to it, if you’ve recovered from the Sydney case. I thought this was just a case of some girls lost in the bush. I thought it’d help you get some runs on the board . . . Forgive an old woman her mistakes . . .’

‘Ah, shit . . .’

‘Yes, I’m afraid so. The helicopters have found a body.’

There was a faint whine in Con’s head. The commander was still speaking, but he couldn’t quite catch it. He forced his breathing to slow. Get it together, mate.

‘. . . Cornelius, did you hear what I said?’

‘Sorry, I think we’ve got a bad line,’ he said, a touch too late.

‘Very convincing. Are you okay to go see the body? You can say no.’

Con took another deep breath. ‘No. It’s fine. I’ll go.’