‘Well in this heat, people tend to go a little troppo. Look at the town itself if you want proof. Though, I admit that a lot of it in the centre is behavioural. If the detainees don’t get their way, they act up. I’ll concede that. And between you and me, I don’t blame them. The legal system and courts and bureaucracy in this country are all obscenely slow.’

The detective nodded sagely. Onions was humming a familiar tune. Manolis had seen criminal lawyers add extra storeys to their palatial homes with every extra year that a murder case was dragged through the court system. Defendants died before they saw their trials completed. Their defence teams blamed the prosecution, the prosecution blamed the judges, the judges blamed the politicians, and everyone upgraded their postcodes.

Manolis leant forward in his chair, cupped his hands. ‘Now, I understand that most of these boat people —’

‘They’re not “boat people”,’ Onions interrupted. ‘They’re not people “made of boats”. They’re people who come to Australia in boats. Officially, they’re referred to as “irregular maritime arrivals”.’ His voice was full of menace, of annoyance, of a history correcting people.

Manolis held up a palm in apology. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘I was merely being brief.’

‘If you must do that, be brief, please call them “IMAs”.’

‘These IMAs,’ Manolis said, starting again, ‘I understand they haven’t arrived by proper means.’

Angry red smudges appeared on Onions’s cheeks. He tightened his eyes into thin slits.

‘But that, Detective, is not breaking the law. As an enforcer of the law, you should know that. IMAs simply haven’t arrived with the right paperwork. If you ask me, when you’re fleeing a war zone that’s not really the number one thing on your mind, now is it? It’s an administrative issue. Arriving without a visa is not a criminal offence, and these people are not criminals.’

‘That’s not what I was insinuating. I meant to say —’

Onions interrupted again; he wasn’t having a bar of it.

‘I can tell you there are over two hundred people in this detention centre, which includes nearly a hundred children. I’ve met each one of them individually, I’ve heard their stories and I can assure you, they’re absolutely harrowing. I don’t for one second believe that a single person in this facility could possibly be responsible for what you’re investigating. It’s ludicrous.’

Manolis paused, waited. He wanted to make sure Onions had finished speaking before risking being cut off again.

‘With no disrespect,’ Manolis finally said, ‘people like the ones you describe sound like they’ve got nothing to lose.’

Onions turned back to the window, to the slowly fading light in the day. He chuckled to himself.