‘Come around the back, Hunter,’ Kelly said as he rose and led Jake to the side of the expansive house. ‘Both my sons are over, you should meet them. Want a beer?’

Jake cautioned himself before responding. Asking for a glass of wine was probably not the done thing here. ‘Sure.’

‘Trent, Kayden, come and meet my new detective,’ Kelly said as he opened a bar fridge in the extensively equipped outdoor kitchen.

Two hulking replicas of Kelly looked up from their supervisory duties at a smoking barbeque plate, reaching out to shake Jake’s hand one by one. The first son, Trent, wore a buttoned, collared shirt of fine blue-and-white checks. Kayden, on the other hand, wore a buttoned, collared shirt of fine blue-and-white stripes. Jake scrutinised them while taking a miniscule sip of his beer … they might actually be identical twins.

A child’s shriek echoed across the backyard, soundly ignored by the three men in Jake’s company. A petite woman in high heels came hurtling through the back door with an answering cry.

‘Daniel! Get off your sister!’

Jake saw a small boy of around eight or nine years old standing on top of a girl of around eleven or twelve, one foot in the middle of her back, holding her by the ponytail, the front of her neck stretched to breaking point as she screamed.

‘He’s fine, they’re just playing …’

The woman whipped around and glared at Trent- in-the-checked-shirt.

‘Daniel, let her go,’ he growled.

The boy complied, causing his sister’s chin to hit the grass. He ran off with another boy, laughing.

‘Come on inside,’ Kelly said, leading Jake through the back entrance and down a long corridor to a significantly sized study. ‘So, how’d you go today?’ he asked, closing the door.

The room had been designed for drinking as well as work, with large built-in bookcases housing strange artefacts, neat rows of matching book spines and a well-stocked bar.

‘Not sure I’m making much headway, to be honest.’

‘Scotch?’ Kelly offered, lifting a small pineapple-cut crystal decanter.

‘I’m technically on duty,’ Jake shook his head. ‘Couldn’t get anything useful out of the MacDonald or the Murphy girl.’

‘I’ll work out your vice sooner or later,’ Kelly said as he poured himself a decent slug into a lowball glass.

Jake flashed him a grin. ‘I’ve already told you, sir, it’s rock climbing.’

‘Hardly a vice.’

‘Addictive, expensive, time-consuming and the cause of broken marriages?’

Kelly laughed. ‘So, nothing useful from those two?’

‘Not apart from some disagreement over one’s love of watching daytime soaps. That’s apparently what Ava O’Brien was worrying over when she saw her brother on Wednesday night.’

Kelly looked perplexed. ‘Is that all?’

‘That’s all I’ve been able to find so far.’

‘Women, hey?’

Jake chose silence.

‘Anything further on cause of death?’

‘Unlikely before Monday.’

‘Anyone from the campground with priors?’

‘Nothing yet, but Murphy should have an initial report on everyone who was there by tonight.’

Kelly gave Jake another look he couldn’t quite interpret. ‘You’re really by-the-book, huh?’