‘No, not yet,’ she said. She went out into the passageway with him.

‘He’s broken down,’ Wayne whispered. ‘Said he killed Zhang Li in self defence. He’s coming with me to Central to make a full confession. He’s just getting changed.’

Stevie cocked a surprised eyebrow. ‘That didn’t take long.’

‘Well, he’s no Aidan Stoppard, is he?’

‘What about Kusak?’

‘Said he’s never heard of him.’

‘Where’s the mother?’

‘Not here.’

Stevie felt her anger flare. ‘For God’s sake, that woman is too much. Is she just oblivious to everything that’s going on around her? I’m looking forward to a word with her ... wilful neglect, what do you reckon? Can we charge her with that?’

Wayne raised an eyebrow. ‘Save it Stevie, ranting at her isn’t going to do any good. Breightling took her to the hospital first thing this morning; apparently she OD’d on sedatives last night. She’s done it before, he says, when he brought up the D word with her. Seems she knows just the right amount of pills to take to avoid the nasty side effects.’

Maybe this was part of the reason Breightling stayed around, Stevie thought, the old leave-me-and-I’ll-kill-myself-trick.

She put her head back through the bedroom door and told Emma to get dressed as Wayne headed off to hurry up Breightling. Wayne was right, Stevie thought as she slumped against the wall of the mezzanine landing. Maybe it was just as well Miranda wasn’t here right now. Dishing it up to Miranda might make her feel better, but in the long term it would only make communication with the woman more difficult than it was already. And wilful neglect on top of the possession charges might make the authorities question Miranda’s suitability to keep her child. While the woman was no paradigm of motherhood, she was probably better than no mother at all.

She went back into Emma’s room. ‘Wash your face Emma, you’re coming with me to Central.’ It was time for some answers.

‘Are you okay?’ she asked as they headed to the front counter at Central.

Emma shrugged. ‘When are they letting Mum out of hospital?’

‘Later this afternoon, hopefully.’

‘Can I stay at your place tonight, just in case she can’t come home?’

Good God no, Stevie thought, and fill Izzy’s head with those weird stories? She shook her head and squeezed the girl’s arm. ‘I’m sorry, hon, it wouldn’t be appropriate. You have an aunt in Westminster, don’t you? I can give her a ring, just in case. Do you have her number?

Emma heaved a heavy sigh. ‘No, we hardly ever see her.’

Stevie was leaning across to ask the desk sergeant for the phone book when she overheard a well-dressed middle-aged woman ask for Sammy Nguyen’s paperwork which had been left there for her to collect. Stevie gathered from the conversation that this woman with the kind, grandmotherly face was Mrs Jenkins, Sammy’s case officer from child welfare.

Seizing the opportunity to get the interview with Emma started as quickly as possible, Stevie introduced herself to Mrs Jenkins. The social worker said she would be pleased to sit in on Emma’s interview.

‘I seem to be getting quite good at this,’ she said, smiling at Emma as she pulled up a chair at the interview room table. She placed the manila file on the table in front of her and removed some unused pages, writing Emma’s name at the head of the top sheet. Emma slumped next to the woman, her chin in her hands, her dark hair spilling like a veil over her face.

‘Come on now dear, get your hair from your eyes and sit up straight,’ Mrs Jenkins said.

Emma did as instructed. Stevie decided she liked this woman. She switched the tape on, stated the time and the names of those present.

‘Emma,’ she said. ‘Last night you told me you’d done a bad thing, but you wouldn’t tell me anything else about it. Was it something to do with Miro Kusak, the man who killed your friend Bianca? You see, your father has admitted to killing a man with his gun and it turns out that it was the same gun that was used to kill Mr Kusak. Did you tell your father about him, Emma? Did you tell him what Miro Kusak had done to your friend? Did you and your father go to the lookout and kill him together?’

Emma took her glasses off and shook her head wildly, her hair once more falling over her face. But when she spoke it was in an even and unemotional tone. ‘My dad had nothing to do with Miro Kusak’s murder. I took my dad’s gun from the safe and I gave it to someone else. You’re right, I planned it, but not with my father.’

Stevie glanced at the social worker. The woman had her eyes fixed on Sammy Nguyen’s file in front of her. Perhaps she was beginning to regret volunteering for the job. It wasn’t every day one became involved with a child accused of murder.

‘Emma, who did you give the gun to?’ she asked.

Emma bit at her bottom lip.

‘Who did you give it to?’

‘Bianca’s dad, Mr Bennett. Nick Bennett.’

But Stella said she hadn’t seen Bianca’s father since the conception! Stevie’s mind filled with questions, but she forced herself to let the girl continue without interruption.

‘He was very angry about Bianca’s death. He’d been having sex with her you know. In secret. He said he’d kill her if she told anyone, even her mum. But she told me. He saw her as his property, you see—he could have sex with her, but no one else could.’

The social worker squirmed in her seat. Stevie thought her discomfort was probably less about what was said, than how it was said. Emma’s matter of fact tone even had Stevie suppressing a shiver.

‘I wanted to kill Kusak when he killed Bianca, but I knew I couldn’t do it on my own, so I got Mr Bennett to do it for me.’

‘How did you manage to contact him?’

‘Bianca told me. We were going to write a story about him, just pretend, you know, but I still like to get the details right. He lives in a scungy block of flats in Mosman Park. He’s been to jail where he learned IT stuff and he’s fully into computers. He has the words love and hate tattooed on his knuckles, they look gross. Bianca gave me his email address and his phone number because we were going to write a story about stalking him and getting revenge—we called him Count Luvanhate.’ The memory caused a brief smile to flick across Emma’s face. ‘I also had all Daniel’s details—Daniel is Miro Kusak—because Bianca forwarded me his emails too, including one with his mobile number. I just called Kusak and arranged to meet him in Shenton Park, just like Bianca did. It was easy.’

It must have been when Kusak was on the run from the police, Stevie thought. Would the man have taken such a risk?

Emma seemed to sense Stevie’s incredulity. ‘I think he couldn’t believe his luck, having another girl so soon after the last one.’ She giggled, and the sound sent an icy tingle up Stevie’s back. Mrs Jenkins looked across at her, wide eyed.

Emma seemed to have no idea of the effect she was having and went on. ‘I said I was a friend of Bianca’s and that we had something to discuss. He thought I was stupid enough to come alone and try and blackmail him, because that’s what I told him. But you know about creeps like him, they can’t control themselves once they get horny. I wore a short skirt and a tight top, not my usual stuff.

‘I counted on him thinking he had nothing to lose. Neither did I, I knew Mr Bennett would look out for me.’ She looked up at Stevie. ‘Don’t think I was stupid. I knew he probably wanted me for himself, anyway. But I decided I’d sort that problem out later. I just felt that I had to at least try and do something to avenge Bianca, I couldn’t let that creep get away with it.’ Emma flicked the hair from her face. ‘I got into his car and he tied me up and put me in the back. I was a bit scared so it wasn’t much of an act and I can cry on demand anyway—’ Emma broke off abruptly, for the first time she looked uncomfortable, directing a sheepish look at Stevie from under her dark fringe.