When they returned, Charles Scott had the floor. ‘The first witness we’ll call is Jack Laskin, captain of the Brunton Country Fire Authority.’

The court reminded Caleb even more of a church when Jack swore on a Bible. Then he described working his way through CFA ranks to captain, and encouraging Caleb to join. ‘I thought it might give him purpose.’

‘It’s true you’re involved with his mother? Perhaps biased?’ Charles asked.

‘Brunton is a small town. Everyone knows everyone else.’

Or they leave, Caleb thought. Escape.

‘And was he interested in learning about fire?’ Scott asked.

‘It’s the job. He was interested in many things,’ Jack said. ‘Like operating the radio.’

‘Interested in learning how fires behave? The prosecution has a copy of your training manual. It shows the CFA taught Caleb about vehicle fires, grass fires, structural fires. Is this true?’

‘All recruits receive this training.’

Jack described the week before the fire – weather forecasts, meetings with police, State Emergency Services, planning for contingencies. Caleb blinked and was back there. Watching Bernie Lippard checking that people had buckets of water on the ready. Mops. Buckets and mops! He should have been telling people to go. There were old people. Kids. What good would mops be? And Caleb relived meeting others in the station where they checked their protective equipment, discussed crew safety, hydration, escape routes. They listened to the ABC news, were called out on false alarms, assisted with a grass fire at Linlithgow.

‘It was tense,’ Jack said. ‘We were braced and waiting. Sweaty. Nervous.’

‘Describe what happened when Caleb went missing.’

‘At 4 pm I asked if anyone wanted tea. Some wanted it on record they wanted beer. Caleb normally enjoyed that humour. I asked where he was. Amanda said he’d left.’

‘You didn’t search for him?’

‘I was called away. Fences had blown over, animals were loose and scared. I got emergency fencing at Doonan’s Hardware. I looked for Caleb for a few minutes when I got back.’

‘You returned to Brunton just after 4.30, and received a report of fire spotted from Setback Mountain.’

Caleb leaned forwards, listening intently. He and Jack had practised this.

‘The engine needed refuelling. I went out to investigate a plume of black smoke.’

‘You say that at around 4.50, you passed the defendant on his bike. Where was this?’

‘He was nearly in Brunton. A distance from the ignition point. Far more than twenty minutes in that heat. I asked him to come with me. He said something about Penelope.’

‘And you rejoined the others? How were they responding to this situation?’

Jack looked uncertainly at the magistrate. ‘You want to know what we said?’

Nina smiled, like a kindly, older teacher. ‘Don’t worry about your language, Mr Laskin. We’ve heard everything here.’