There were even more roos at dusk. Manolis saw several pairs of boomers boxing by the roadside as he drove back to the tourist park. He found Rex asleep in a camping chair outside the demountable office building. Beside him, a hammer and box of nails. Above him, a gulp of scraggly hot magpies on dead branches aired out their rumpled wings, their mouths half-open as if panting. Manolis closed the car door lightly but it still rattled on its loose hinges and woke the proprietor, his ear attuned to a sound so familiar.

‘Sorry,’ said Manolis. ‘Just returning your car.’

‘It’s your car now, Kojak,’ said Rex, rubbing his eyes. ‘For as long as you need it.’

‘Thanks. Better to park it here, though. Cars spontaneously combust near me.’

Rex chuckled. ‘I was just getting some kip after trying to fix a fence. Bloody thing’s rotted, is about to fall over. How’d you go today?’

Manolis sighed heavily and leant against the rusted fender. ‘First impressions. Every time you come into a case cold, there’s a lot to get your head around.’

‘I can imagine. Make it up to the brown house today?’

Manolis paused, considering his answer. ‘I did, actually.’

‘How was it?’

He was careful with his words. Rex had an obvious interest in the case, but the investigation needed to proceed without any further intervention.

‘Quiet,’ Manolis replied.

Rex cleaned his ear with a black-rimmed fingernail. ‘Ma can go on. Sorry about that. She doesn’t want to admit it, but she loved Molly, she really did. Personally, I think she was heartbroken.’

‘Heartbroken?’

‘Because we’d drifted apart since Patrick’s death. But it was always on the cards. After all, there was no blood between us.’

Manolis nodded. ‘Can you think of anyone who’d want to hurt Molly?’

Rex shook his head. ‘Not a soul. The entire town was at Patrick’s funeral. Having already lost her husband, everyone knew that Molly had suffered enough.’

Manolis momentarily thought of Kerr. A town of widows, like in war.

‘What about this Joe bloke, do you know him?’

Rex snorted a laugh. ‘You mean Joe Shrewsbury? He’s harmless. He and Patrick were mates. Molly saw him as a friend, but that was all.’

Manolis rubbed his coarse chin. ‘Hmm. Okay. And was Molly’s recent behaviour at all different in any way?’

Rex exhaled. ‘Couldn’t tell you. Honestly, we hadn’t seen her round here for a while. We’ve been flat out dealing with the new arrivals, no pun intended. Ma can go on about that too. But the truth is that without all this extra business, we’d have closed the park yonks ago.’

Looking around at the scene of dilapidation and disrepair, Manolis wanted to say perhaps that wasn’t such a bad idea.

‘Be a shame to lose all this local history,’ he said instead.