Wozza jumped in. ‘Boss, we need to speak to Lachie Murtog. Jack made a call to him at ten past four.’

Wheels turned on him. ‘Do the maths, Detective Harvey. Pollard’—the disdain when he said my name was palpable—‘could have pushed him from the cliff after he made the phone call at four ten and still been at the doctor’s fifteen minutes later. You said it takes fifteen minutes to get from the cliff to the car park. Maybe she ran faster than that.’

‘But the phone call she made at four sixteen—’

‘I’ve seen those earbud devices. We can’t rule out she made that phone call while she was running.’

Wozza tried again, desperate. ‘We can interview the person she rang—’

But Wheels had made up his mind. He held a hand up to stop Wozza, then stood up and formally suspended the interview. ‘You will need to remain here while we make further inquiries,’ he said. He left the room, gesturing for Wozza to follow. Wozza cast a dismal look in my direction.

Wheels left me sitting in the interview room for over an hour. The sun sank in the sky outside the small window. The cicadas began their evening symphony in the bushes outside. The phone in the muster room rang. A murmur of conversation. The sound of voices. Urgent footsteps coming in my direction. The interview room door flung open.

And suddenly, Wozza was there. ‘Are you okay?’ he said. His face was flushed.

‘What’s going on out there?’ I stood up.

‘God, you’ll never guess what’s happened.’ Wozza took a hanky out of his pocket and mopped his forehead.

‘What?’ I could tell from his expression that something was really wrong.

‘The magistrate, Charles Buckley—one of his daughters didn’t come home after lunch with her friends at the pub. He’s just called it in. He’s frantic. Her friends told him that they all had a couple of drinks after lunch with some local blokes and they lost track of Mandy Buckley. They’d arrived in two cars and each assumed the other took her home. Her phone’s off. Buckles is on his way here to monitor the search. It’s all hands on deck.’

‘Including mine?’

‘Wheels’s orders. Buckles has friends in high places. An inspector’s just arrived from Melbourne.’

Daniel.

I followed Wozza out of the interview room and joined everyone in the muster room. I ignored the embarrassed looks from my colleagues. I especially ignored the quizzical look from Daniel, who stood up the front next to Wheels. Beads of sweat appeared on Wheels’s forehead as he outlined the disappearance of Mandy Buckley. Then he ordered the uniforms to check on all pubs and surrounding parks and any spaces where a girl could be hidden. He was just about to include Wozza and me in the search when Daniel stepped forward and spoke.