‘Cassie doesn’t think it’s a waste. I think she’s enjoying it, Mr Bennett. Aren’t you, Cassie?’ I knew she was enjoying it. She was leaning into the brushstrokes and I could feel a deep vibration coming from her body that reminded me of a cat purring. She seemed a lot more relaxed. So was I. It was mutually beneficial. It wasn’t quite the same as rubbing down a horse and admittedly, seeing as I wasn’t the tallest of people and she was fairly sizeable, I was only reaching the lower half of her body for now. But I loved the feel of Cassie’s skin, dry, rough and with the texture of cabbage-tree bark. She smelled kind of warm and earthy.

Terry Bennett managed a smile before continuing on his purpose. He wasn’t easily deflected. ‘I told you I keep a tight watch on my crew, there are no shirkers. We’ve nothing to do with these murders. You haven’t found anything, have you? You’re on the wrong trail here and you know it.’

I put down the brush, patted Cassie on the rump and moved over to where he was standing. ‘Well, Mr Bennett, even you would have to admit some in your company are not entirely blameless. There’s been a fair amount of narcotics and banned substances found and some very unsavoury behaviour towards some of your animals.’

His face creased into a scowl and I noted his fists clenching and reclenching. I was expecting a tirade back when I felt a soft thump on my shoulder. I turned my head to the left and saw a slightly bristly, mottled-looking proboscis parked there. I laughed. I didn’t know elephants could sneak up. When I turned right around to look, Cassie had stretched out to the full extent of her chain to reach me.

‘You feeling left out, old girl?’ I gave her trunk a wee tickle.

‘Looks like you’ve made a friend,’ Bennett said. He cocked his head. ‘Maybe I underestimated you. Elephants aren’t too bad a judge of character.’

‘I’ll take that as a compliment,’ I said, ridiculously pleased with Cassie’s gesture. ‘Look, the bottom line is a young woman is dead, as are several other people that could be related to this case. We will follow every lead to its conclusion to find the killer or killers. We would be doing the victim a huge wrong if we didn’t. This isn’t about you or your circus, and you know it. It’s about accountability. Whoever did this has to be brought to justice. Surely you must understand that.’