On 29 October Prime Suspect was celebrating. His mum had cooked him a nice dinner in honour of finishing his year 12 classes, and then driven him to Vermont for a swot-vac party. When she arrived back home she pottered around for an hour and a half, feeding her old dog Lizzy and tidying up. At 11 p.m. she decided to call it a night.
Not much later, Lizzy barked.
`Are you home so soon?' Prime Suspect's mother called out. `Party not much fun?'
No-one answered.
She sat up in bed. When there was still no answer, her mind raced to reports of a spate of burglaries in the neighbourhood. There had even been a few assaults.
A muffled male voice came from outside the front door. `Ma'am. Open the door.'
She stood up and walked to the front door.
`Open the door. Police.'
`How do I know you're really the police?'
`If you don't open the door, we'll kick it in!' an exasperated male voice shouted back at her from her front doorstep.