‘At this time would the defence like to call any witnesses?’ Nina asked.

‘We’d like to request a short adjournment,’ Douglas said. ‘Then the defence will introduce its case.’

Charles Scott stood. Like everyone, Caleb faced him. ‘Somewhat unusually, you’re about to hear from the defence,’ Charles told the magistrate, as if she might not know.

‘Yes,’ said Nina Haynes dryly. ‘The court assumed you’d have something to say about that.’

‘I do,’ Charles confirmed. ‘In a few moments, the defence will attempt to find discrepancies in the prosecution case. They’ll give an alternative version of events and maybe invent excuses for Caleb Wharton’s violent crimes – directing the blame to a different place. They’ll try to confuse the timeline the prosecution has established. Nevertheless, people know what they saw. We won’t let the defence hide the truth behind a smokescreen of doubt. Brunton has already seen enough smoke.’

Douglas stood and Mum read along while he recited a list of the charges and claims that Caleb would admit to. Denials hovered in the air about his mouth, unutterable. He thought now of Kafka’s Gregor, in that later part of the story, when he nearly forgot that he’d once been human, and only his mother’s voice brought back his senses.

Douglas had already opened and, like Charles Scott, he started with photos. So much in this case depended on images and how things looked! Mum stared at her thin fingers like she didn’t understand them. All week, she’d been even more obsessed than usual.

It hadn’t surprised Caleb when the manna gum reignited; fire slept within the tree as it did within him. Once, he’d been in his room when Mum called out that it was time to come inside. In the kitchen, he found her at the window, calling to the silhouette of that tree.

‘Mum?’

Mum had jumped, staring wildly at Caleb then at the tree. They laughed, realising. The man-size tree with its outstretched arms really did resemble Caleb. If only he could be so very, very still. Later, to extend the joke, he’d draped a school shirt over the tree, then drawn himself as the tree. And Penelope as a dryad. He loved her. He needed to know she was safe. He’d searched for Penelope everywhere, even in Mum’s books on Dad’s shelves. Odysseus built the Sanctuary of Athena after winning his own Penelope. Caleb drew Penelope as Athena. He drew a Penelope who loved him. In his art, he fixed everything wrong with the world. Sean walked. Even better, Sean flew.

One photo tendered as evidence of his guilt showed Caleb, trapped in time, trying to evade a photographer. Pauly Romer – the guy who’d prepared for bushfire by partying at a pub – lurked in the background, mocking him.