“Jesus Christ Almighty! Where was the bloody surveillance?” He went on through a stream of obscenities that would have made even a street kid’s eyes pop. “I’ll have someone’s neck for this—” “Get off the boil, Inspector,” said Clements, waiting till the fury at the other end of the line had eased a little. “Scobie, you’ll be wasting your time looking for someone’s neck over this. It’s just been a monumental cock-up and I dunno you could find someone specific to point the finger at. The sergeant in charge of the detail at Penrith had enough on his hands—he needed every man he could muster to handle what’s been going on out there, the town’s a madhouse. He informed West Region at Parramatta, he comes under them, not us, what he was doing. They were to inform us, which they say they did, but it was lost somewhere in the computer. They couldn’t supply anyone to keep watch on Kelpie—they had to send men out to Penrith to help there. Kelpie and his wife would still be alive if the Panthers had lost.”
