Ghost Child

The past is always close behind. On November 11, 1982, police were called to a housing estate an hour west of Melbourne. In the lounge room of an otherwise ordinary brick veneer home, they found a five-year-old boy lying on the carpet. His arms were by his sides, his palms flat. The paramedics could see no obvious signs of trauma other than an almost imperceptible indentation to the boy's skull, but he died the next day. The boy's mother said a man had attacked her son on the way back from the shops but few people were surprised when she and her boyfriend went to prison for the crime. Police declared themselves satisfied that justice had been done. And yet, for years, rumours swept the estate and clung like cobwebs to the long-vacant house: there had been a cover-up. The real perpetrator, at least according to local gossip, was the boy's six-year-old sister, Lauren.