Vera gesticulated wildly, almost theatrically. ‘This country’s had droughts, fires, floods and cyclones, our kids are self-harming and suiciding, and where’s all our money going?’ she asked, before answering her own question. ‘To countries who wish to cause us harm, and to housing queue-jumping criminals.’

Clearing his throat again, Manolis said, ‘A lot of these asylum seekers are stateless.’

Rex shook his head. ‘I’m sorry, but that’s crap too. No one’s stateless, everybody comes from somewhere. Asylum seeking is organised crime. It’s a racket, worth hundreds of millions.’

‘A Royal Commission into Islam,’ Vera proclaimed. ‘That’s what we need, a bloody Royal Commission. Molly’s death can be the reason. Can you order that, Detective?’

Manolis gave her a long, ponderous stare. ‘Leave it with me.’ A blowfly circled his head sluggishly; he batted it away like a floating balloon.

‘Don’t get me wrong, Detective, I’m a strong believer in being compassionate, yep,’ Vera said. ‘But our compassion should end at our borders.’

He wanted to ask when compassion had become a geographical concept, and what was its precise latitude and longitude. Instead, he ate some peas.

‘If we take in these people, we encourage more to come,’ said Rex. ‘Cut off one head, another grows in its place.’

Manolis was loath to admit it, but the old man made practical sense. The global flow of human traffic was enormous, and criminals were exploiting and profiting with every rickety boatload.

‘But have you actually seen the detainees’ conditions?’ Manolis asked. ‘I’m not sure where you heard they have air conditioning and flat-screen TVs. I’ve just seen the exact opposite. In some respects, it’s more depressing than prison.’

Rex swallowed another mouthful of syrupy lamb. ‘I don’t believe anyone who says detention centres are harmful to a person’s mental state. What mental conditions did they have before they came here?’

The detective found himself nodding. For all Rex’s intolerance, at times he came across as rather informed.

‘In that respect, you’re right,’ Manolis said. ‘It’s likely that most experienced significant trauma before their flight – torture, imprisonment, separation, rape, kidnap, murder. And probably deprivation of food, water, homelessness. But to make it worse through housing them in cruel, inhumane conditions…’

Rex listened with reluctant ears, his brow tense. ‘Sorry, but I still think a lot of it is behavioural. They don’t get their own way so they act up. It’s the same with children.’

‘Hmm,’ said Manolis, remembering Onions’s insider assessment.

‘Pa’s right,’ Vera added. ‘When you stop the boats, you stop the deaths, yep.’ The words sounded like poison on her lips.

Sparrow sucked his teeth. ‘Dunno about that, Mrs Boyd. They still die. You just stop them dying at sea.’

She looked flustered, her face pink with defiance, anger.