‘How long were you married, Mrs Lamberte?’

‘Ten years, five good ones and five very bad. Michelle was born in the happy time, she’s eight. Shane is only four. We’ve been separated for six months. I’m claiming custody of both kids.’

‘You referred to your work. What do you do? And what does your husband do?’

‘That’s diplomatic. Not many men would put the questions that way around.’

‘I’m learning,’ I said.

‘Patrick is… listen to me. I’m a partner in a small travel agency. I used to be an air hostess. We specialise in business travel. Patrick’s an architect and he has interests in other things.’

‘I gather the divorce isn’t amicable?’

‘Far from it. In the last few years before we separated we fought about everything.’

‘Such as?’

‘Money, me working, the kids, drugs, lovers real and imagined.’

I leaned back in my chair. ‘That’s a rich mixture. Perhaps you’d better tell me about this package and we can work back from there.’

‘Right. Well, we… Patrick… God knows what you say under these circumstances. We have four acres in the Blue Mountains, at Mount Victoria. I heard that Patrick had been spending time up there so I knew he must have built some kind of a house. The land was worth about thirty thousand and that’s how it appeared in the preliminary settlement documents, so I went up there yesterday to check it out. Sure enough, he’d built a nice little timber and glass cabin looking out over the valley towards Bell’s Line of Road. D’you know the mountains, Mr Hardy?’

‘A bit. It sounds pretty good.’

‘It is. I’d say that property would be worth five times as much as Patrick has stated. That kind of fraud is typical of him.’

‘You searched the cabin and found the bullets?’

‘No. God, no. I wouldn’t do anything like that. I’m trying to play it very straight so as not to give him anything he can use to challenge the custody claim. That’s why I’m here.’