‘That was Charlotte. She’ll be here in the hospital visiting a friend soon. She’d like to come by and offer her condolences,’ he said, looking at Liam.

‘Which one’s that?’ Mason Campbell asked in a stage whisper.

‘Is that Charlotte from the supermarket?’ Max said at the same time that O’Brien said, ‘The youngest one.’

‘Right.’ Campbell relaxed back into his bed.

Jake was now itching for some privacy so he could listen to whatever was on the recording in his phone. O’Brien had said at the police station that he couldn’t recall the names of any of the girls in the home, yet he knew who Charlotte was by name. And Campbell cared about where she sat in the order of children. Should Jake see how they reacted to a different name?

‘Another one of the girls from the home is here too, if you’d like to see her? Amelia?’

Both O’Brien and Campbell stiffened slightly. That was the thing about older people when they attempted duplicity—their bodies tended to betray them.

‘No, no, one’s enough,’ O’Brien said, pressing one hand to his chest again. ‘I’m tired and will need to rest soon.’

‘I’ll take you back home then, if you like?’ Max said. ‘I’m leaving soon.’

‘That would be great, Max. Thanks.’

Jake returned to asking Mason Campbell questions about how he’d ended up on the floor of his kitchen. It became clear he had nothing further to offer.

He left the hospital and hurried to his car. Finally, he was able to play back the recording on his phone. He heard himself telling Campbell and O’Brien he was going outside to speak to a doctor, then …

‘Castlemaine.’ That was O’Brien’s voice.

‘What?’ Campbell.

‘I don’t have to say anything else,’ O’Brien said. ‘We agreed. Something was done to Ava …’

‘So? That’s no reason to go weak at the knees.’

‘I’m telling you—it’s time. I’m calling it.’

‘I’m in the bloody hospital man, how the hell am I supposed to get you anything right now?’

‘Get that son of yours to help you,’ O’Brien said.

‘Aren’t you overreacting?’

‘This isn’t up for debate. I want the amount we agreed on and I want it now.’

‘Is it this new copper?’

‘I would have preferred the Murphy kid, but no. I don’t have to justify this. It’s over and I want my money.’

‘It was over a long time ago,’ Campbell grumbled.

‘You had your fun.’

‘And you got to live the life of Reilly …’

Both men fell silent after that. The rest of the recording consisted only of background sounds: machines beeping, muffled voices from the corridor outside the room, rubber-soled shoes squeaking against lino; until Jake and Max had entered with Mason's coffee and Jake had surreptitiously retrieved his phone and stuffed it in his pocket.