Gabrielle: Hmmm, I wouldn’t say the entire school community is grieving. That might be a stretch.

• • •

Celeste saw the man trip while he was checking her out.

Maybe she should have an affair. It might make something happen, push her marriage over the cliff it had been inexorably creeping toward for so many years.

But the thought of being with any other man besides Perry filled her with a heavy, listless sensation. She’d be so bored. She was not interested in other men. Perry made her feel alive. If she left him, she’d be single and celibate and bored forever. It wasn’t fair. He ruined her.

“You’re holding my hand too tight,” said Josh.

“Yeah, Mummy,” said Max.

She loosened her grip.

“Sorry, boys,” she said.

It hadn’t been a good morning. First, there was something cataclysmically wrong with one of Josh’s socks that could not be rectified with any amount of adjusting. Then Max couldn’t find a very specific little Lego man with a very specific yellow hat that he required right at that very minute.

They’d both wailed and wailed for Daddy. They didn’t care that he was on the other side of the world. They wanted him. Celeste wanted Perry too. He would have fixed Josh’s sock. He would have found Max’s Lego man. She’d always known that she was going to struggle with the school-morning routine. She and the boys were late sleepers and generally out-of-sorts in the morning, whereas Perry woke up happy and energetic. If he’d been here this morning, they would have been early for their first day at school. There would have been laughter in the car, not silence, interspersed by pitiful shudders from the boys.

She’d given them lollipops in the end. They were still sucking on them as she got them out of the car, and she’d seen one of the kindergarten mothers she recognized from the orientation day walk by and smile sweetly at the boys, while flicking Celeste a “bad mother” look.

“There’s Chloe and Ziggy!” said Josh.

“Let’s go kill them!” said Max.

“Boys, don’t talk like that!” said Celeste. Good God. What would people think?

“Just pretend-killing, Mummy,” said Josh kindly. “Chloe and Ziggy like it!”

“Celeste! It is Celeste, isn’t it?” A woman appeared in front of her as the boys ran off. “I met you and your husband at the uniform shop a few weeks ago.” She touched her chest. “Renata. I’m Amabella’s mum.”

“Of course! Hi, Renata,” said Celeste.

“Perry couldn’t make it today?” Renata looked around hopefully.

“He’s in Vienna,” said Celeste. “He travels a lot for work.”

“I’m sure he does,” said Renata knowingly. “I thought I recognized him the other day and so I Googled him when I got back home, and that’s when it clicked! The Perry White! I’ve actually seen your husband speak a few times. I’m in the funds-management world myself!”

Great. A Perry groupie. Celeste often wondered what the Perry groupies would think if they were to see him doing the things he did.

“I’ve got some invitations for the boys to Amabella’s fifth-birthday party.” Renata handed her two pink envelopes. “Of course, you and Perry are most welcome to come along. Nice way for all the parents to start getting to know one another!”

“Lovely.” Celeste took the envelopes and put them in her bag.

“Good morning, ladies!” It was Madeline, wearing one of her beautiful signature dresses. She had two spots of color high on her cheeks and a dangerous glitter in her eyes. “Thank you for Chloe’s invitation to Amabella’s party.”

“Oh dear, is Amabella handing them out?” Renata frowned and patted at her handbag. “Oh dear. She must have taken them from my handbag. I did mean to hand them discreetly to the parents.”

“Yes, because it looks like you’re inviting the whole class except for one little boy.”

“I assume you’re talking about Ziggy, the child who left bruises on my daughter’s neck,” said Renata. “He didn’t make it onto the invitation list. Surprise, surprise.”

“Come on now, Renata,” said Madeline. “You can’t do this.”

“So sue me.” Renata shot Celeste a glinting, mischievous look, as if they were in on a joke together.

Celeste took a breath. She didn’t want to be involved. “I might just—”

“I’m so sorry, Renata,” interrupted Madeline with a queenly look of apology. “But Chloe won’t be able to make it to the party.”

“What a pity,” Renata said. She pulled hard on the diagonal strap of her handbag, as if she were adjusting body armor. “You know what? I think I might terminate this conversation before I say something I regret.” She nodded at Celeste. “Nice to see you again.”

Madeline watched her go. She seemed invigorated.

“This is war, Celeste,” she said happily. “War, I tell you!”

“Oh, Madeline,” sighed Celeste.

Harper: I know we all like to put Celeste on a pedestal but I don’t think she always made the best nutritional choices for her children. I saw the twins eating lollipops for breakfast on their first day of school!

Samantha: Parents do tend to judge each other. I don’t know why. Maybe because none of us really know what we’re doing? And I guess that can sometimes lead to conflict. Just not normally on this sort of scale.

Jackie: I, for one, don’t have the time to be judging other parents. Or the interest. My children are only one part of my life.

Detective-Sergeant Adrian Quinlan: In addition to the murder investigation, we expect to be charging multiple parents with assault. We’re deeply disappointed and quite shocked to see a group of parents behaving this way.

19.

Oh, Madeline,” sighed Ed.

He parked the car, pulled the keys from the ignition and turned to look at her. “You can’t make Chloe miss her friend’s party just because Ziggy isn’t invited. That’s crazy.”

They’d driven straight from the school down to the beach to have a quick coffee at Blue Blues with Jane and her parents. It had been Jane’s mother who had suggested it, and it had seemed so important to her that Madeline, who had an overly ambitious list of things to achieve on the kids’ first day at school, felt she couldn’t say no.