‘What the hell do marijuana and condoms have to do with their disappearance?’ Dave leaned forward now. ‘Check the rooms of half the girls in this town and you’ll find the same. Out here, you can get marijuana one of two ways – you can grow it yourself, but it’s reasonably priced and way less risky to buy it from the supplier who works at this very station. Not that your lot care one whit about that.’

This station? thought Con, falling silent for a moment.

‘You don’t know that Sergeant Doble is a weed dealer,’ said Murphy flatly. ‘Oh this is just fucking perfect.’

‘I’m not here to talk about anyone else,’ said Con, thrown off balance. ‘We’re talking about you.’

‘How about we talk about you?’ said Dave. ‘I’ve done some research. You did a good job with the Jaguar case in Sydney, no one’s denying that, but in Tasmania the rules are different. And in the meantime, I’ve had an interesting text message come through from Butch. You have sent police to check the property for this supposed crop, haven’t you?’

Con didn’t reply. Truthfully, he hadn’t: he didn’t expect to find anything more than the other searches had, and besides, he didn’t like the stir it would cause. Murphy already attracted a crowd outside the station that wanted to beat him to death, it wouldn’t help to have uniformed officers scouring his property.

‘I’d appreciate it if you kept your phone switched off while in this room, Mr Llewellyn.’

‘Because Butch reported a break-in.’

‘What?’ said Murphy. ‘Is he alright?’

‘Which surely wouldn’t have happened if you’d had your officers there.’ Dave stood up. ‘So you didn’t search it, nor did you think to send officers to guard the house? Considering the mob that’s outside this place?’

‘What mob?’ said Murphy.

‘You’re just as bloody useless as the rest, aren’t you, detective? Let’s go, Murphy. Someone’s broken into your house, and your brother needs you.’

‘You’re sure you have nothing else to tell us, Murphy?’ said Con.

‘Does “fuck you” count?’ said Murphy.

Con made a dismissive gesture, but they were almost to the door when he said, ‘Use the western exit. You don’t want to leave through the front door. Exit code is 9779.’

He heard Murphy hesitate, then the door shut behind him.

Immediately Con was on the phone, calling Gabriella.

‘Hey, how did you go at —’

He didn’t even finish his question before he got an explosive rundown from Gabriella about everything that had happened at the Lenahs’ house. ‘They haven’t tracked down Carl yet – I hope they do, I’ve already got a bruise where he bit me.’

‘And the diary?’ said Con.