Hessel watched the letters for a moment longer, as if they might move, before he spoke. ‘She is bad. Pretty bad. She is staying at the vet,’ he said. ‘I have left the float. I will go back first thing and fetch her home.’

I quickly pulled a notebook across the desk and opened it out over the letters.

‘Oh,’ I said. ‘I’m so sorry she’s so bad. Do you need something – can I do something?’

Hessel blinked. And then he looked at me while the music box tinkled on and on. ‘You should be asleep,’ he said.

‘Yes, Hessel. I’m going to bed right now.’

Hessel looked at me a moment longer. His eyes narrowed. And then he turned and left.

Ding dang dong, ding dang dong

13 January 1996

The weekend before that day

Cathy had hoped that on the day her father took her little brother to the city for his fourteenth birthday, he might find something to like about Danny. All that evening she tried to imagine what they might be doing: watching a film, eating some dinner, drinking a beer . . . But then Hessel came home early. And as he pulled up outside the kitchen window it was obvious to Bette and Cathy that he had come home alone. Bette said nothing as Hessel stumped in through the kitchen, and as he went through the double doors into his Dutch Room, slamming them behind him, she quickly busied herself at the sink. So it was up to Cathy to open the double doors and approach Hessel where he sat reading alone among his old dead artists.

‘Dad, where’s Danny?’ she said.

‘The boy’s an idiot,’ said Hessel. ‘He doesn’t understand film culture. He doesn’t understand anything.’

‘Dad? Where is he?’

‘I do not know where Daniël is. You should not care where he is.’

‘Is he in Melbourne?’

‘You are an idiot like your brother.’ And Hessel grabbed her arm and pushed her roughly into the kitchen, then shut the double doors against her.

Bette was standing right outside the doors, but she sprang back as Cathy was ejected.

‘Mum!’ Cathy said. ‘Why don’t you do something?’

Bette stood hesitantly for a moment and then she said, brightly, ‘Perhaps we should all just leave it until the morning, talk about it in the light of day, when we’ve all had a sleep and cooled down a bit,’ and then she went without another word to the back of the house, to the bedroom she shared with Hessel, and closed the door.

Cathy walked out of the house. She did a circuit of the outside in case Danny was hiding out there in the dark. ‘Danny,’ she whispered. But there was no answer. She’d try calling Leonie, but the phone was in the Dutch Room with Hessel. Across at the old house she opened the door in the dark and shone a torch up the stairs. Cathy hadn’t been over there since they were kids. She had an idea to look in the secret room up the stairs where Cathy and Danny had always played hiding games. It was also where Danny went when he was hurt or sad or scared.