Mackerel bristled at her tone. ‘You’re not supposed to use that language anymore. It implies drug users are dirty.’

‘Watch it,’ she snapped. She tipped the rest of Mackerel’s urine down the sink, wrapped up the cup in her glove and put it all in the bin.

Mackerel washed his hands and followed her out into the lounge room.

The two detectives stood in the middle of the lounge, chatting to each other. Big Mane hovered at the doorway, looking between them and Mack. Mack felt bad for bringing all this into his life – the uniformed officers were one thing, but these two city detectives in their tailored suits were something else again.

Before they could explain their presence, Ahab appeared at the open front door. Big Mane had called him, then.

‘Why are you here?’ said De Corrado to Ahab. She frowned. ‘Don’t tell me you followed me from the inn?’

Ahab snuck a glance at Mackerel. Mackerel shook his head, trying to get the message across. No, don’t tell them he’s here, it’ll look bad for me.

‘Because Forest Dempsey is here,’ Ahab said anyway.

Mackerel put his head in his hands.

‘Forest Dempsey? Here?’ De Corrado scrambled through the house. ‘Forest? Forest!’

They all gathered in the lounge. Big Mane had hurriedly moved some dirty jocks off the couches so Mackerel and Forest could sit. He didn’t offer Linda a seat.

Forest sat beside Mackerel, Ahab rocking impatiently in an armchair. De Corrado and Smith perched on chairs taken from the dining table. Linda leaned against the wall, arms folded.

‘You’re drunk, Mr Dempsey,’ observed Smith.

‘His brother just died,’ snapped Ahab.

Smith inclined his head to indicate it was a fair response.

‘And Forest . . .?’ said Detective De Corrado. ‘How did you get here? Why did you come to Shacktown?’

Mackerel noted with interest that she hadn’t yet called Ivy, given the conversation they’d had at the hospital that first day. But he didn’t like the tone she took with his nephew, and slung an arm around his shoulders protectively.

‘I heard Davey died,’ the boy said. ‘I wanted to be with family, so I came to Mackerel’s. Seeing as no one would let me come.’

‘I’m sorry, but things have to . . . happen in the right way, Forest,’ said De Corrado.

She was struggling to find the right words, and Mackerel had a sudden suspicion that De Corrado didn’t know how to talk to kids. That thought made him start to grin, but he quickly wiped it off his face. This was not the time to be smiling. Shit, he needed to sober up fast.

‘I know it’s tough right now, but you’re what we call a “key witness” in a pretty important criminal investigation,’ De Corrado said.

‘I know what a key witness is,’ said Forest dryly.