Chapter 4 Summary
⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.
Summary
The chapter opens on Christmas Eve, 1959, in the Adelaide Hills, with Percy Summers being interviewed at the Tambilla police station. Sergeant Peter Duke, sent from Adelaide, is questioning him about the discovery of the Turner family at the water hole on the Wentworth property. Local constable Hugo Doyle observes from the wall.
Percy, who runs the grocery shop with his wife Meg and has supplied the Turners for about fourteen years, recounts his movements. He was returning from a delivery down south and took his horse Blaze to the creek for a swim, a routine detour. He noticed the Turner family's picnic laid out under a tree and decided to approach to say hello. As he walked up the hill, he felt a strange, still sensation—a sixth sense he'd experienced before in the bush. Everything felt lifeless.
He found Mrs. Turner not breathing. He didn't check the children or the baby's basket hanging in the tree. He rode immediately to the Hughes house, where Alastair Hughes telephoned the police and drove him back to the scene. By then, Sergeants Kelly and Doyle had arrived. Percy recalls watching the police photographer document the scene when a frantic call came from beneath the willow: the baby's basket was empty. The baby was gone.
Sergeant Duke presses Percy on details: whether he noticed anything disturbed, any boot prints, any sign someone else had been there. Percy recalls talk of recent animal attacks in town—hens taken from coops, a lamb at the McKenzie place—and realizes the implication. He couldn't remember noticing prints.
The interview is interrupted by the approaching storm—thunder, lightning, the smell of rain on parched earth. Percy is impatient to join the search party, thinking of Jimmy Riley, the best tracker this side of Alice Springs, and young Eric Jerosch, a probationary constable and scout master who knows the Hills well.
Before releasing him, Sergeant Duke asks Percy to leave his boot type and size at the front desk. Lucy Finkleton, the office clerk, takes the details and traces an outline of his boot. She tells him Blaze is stabled at the Hughes place and that she's telephoned Meg to say he'll be late. She expresses her shock that such a wicked thing could happen in their town.
As Percy is about to leave, Sergeant Duke calls him back with one more question: was his son involved with the eldest Turner girl, Matilda? Percy says they were school friends. Duke asks for his son's name. Percy hesitates, feeling the weight of the name—Kurt—as if speaking it aloud is a betrayal. He gives the name reluctantly, and Duke dismisses him.
Key Events
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Percy Summers is interviewed by Sergeant Peter Duke at the Tambilla police station
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Percy recounts finding the Turner family at the water hole and Mrs. Turner not breathing
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The revelation that the baby's basket was empty—the baby is missing
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Percy's account of riding to the Hughes house for help
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Sergeant Duke's questions about boot prints and recent animal attacks
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Percy's boot details are recorded by Lucy Finkleton
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Duke's final question about Percy's son Kurt and Matilda Turner
Character Development
Percy Summers: The chapter reveals Percy as a patient but deeply shaken man. He's cooperative despite exhaustion and frustration, understanding the police have a job to do. His reflections on Ernie Staffsmith, the town's former constable, reveal a man contemplating the impermanence of life. His protective hesitation when naming Kurt shows a father's instinct to shield his son from suspicion.
Sergeant Peter Duke: Methodical and unreadable, Duke represents the outside authority descending on a small town. His scarred forearm, rolled-up sleeves, and patient repetition of questions suggest experience and a probing nature. His final question about Kurt hints at a developing line of inquiry.
Hugo Doyle: The local constable is sympathetic to Percy, offering quiet apologies for the top brass from Adelaide and walking him out with a supportive hand.
Lucy Finkleton: A childhood acquaintance of Percy's, Lucy is visibly distressed by the events, her attempt at a comforting smile falling short. Her quiet comment about the wickedness of what happened underscores the community's shock.
Themes, Symbols, or Motifs
The impermanence of life: Percy's sudden wave of missing Ernie Staffsmith—a childhood institution—becomes a metaphor for how fleeting sunny afternoons, happiness, and human life can be. This reflection directly connects to the horror of the Turner family's deaths.
Intuition and the sixth sense: Percy's description of the strange, still feeling before approaching the picnic suggests a form of intuition that the rational Sergeant Duke probes but cannot quite dismiss.
The storm: The approaching thunderstorm—with its lightning, wind, and rain—mirrors the gathering tension of the investigation. It also threatens to hamper the search for the missing baby, adding urgency.
Kaurna Dreamtime mythology: Percy's recollection of the ancestral giant whose body formed the Mount Lofty ridgeline, told to him by Jimmy Riley, grounds the story in the deep history of the land and hints at themes of loss and transformation.
Suspicion and community: The chapter establishes how quickly suspicion can fall on members of a small, interconnected community—Percy's boot prints are recorded, and his son's connection to Matilda Turner becomes a point of police interest.
Why This Chapter Matters
This chapter establishes the investigative framework for the central mystery. It introduces the key fact that the baby was missing—not dead—which becomes the driving question of the narrative. It also plants the first seeds of suspicion around Percy's son Kurt, whose connection to Matilda Turner will likely prove significant. The chapter's focus on Percy's perspective—his exhaustion, his protective instincts, his reflections on the town and its history—grounds the mystery in a deeply human context. The storm's approach adds urgency and atmosphere, while the Kaurna mythology and references to the search party expand the world beyond the interview room.
Study Questions and Answers
1. Why does Percy hesitate before giving Sergeant Duke his son's name?
Percy feels the name Kurt is weighted with all possible love, hope, and dreams. Speaking it aloud in the context of a police investigation feels like blasphemy—as if he's handing his son over to suspicion. He wants to catch the name and keep it for himself, away from the gaze of the policeman from the city. This moment reveals Percy's protective love for his son and his dawning awareness that the investigation may turn toward his family.
2. What does Percy's reflection on Ernie Staffsmith reveal about his emotional state?
Percy's sudden wave of missing the old constable—despite the hidings and stern warnings he received as a boy—reveals a man grappling with the fragility of life. Staffsmith's absence feels like a metaphor for the impermanence of everything: sunny afternoons, happiness, a human being's life. This reflection shows Percy processing the trauma of his discovery by reaching for the stability of the past, and it underscores the chapter's meditation on mortality.
3. How does the storm function in this chapter?
The storm serves multiple purposes. It creates atmospheric tension, with thunder and lightning punctuating the interview and the smell of rain on parched earth signaling the weather's approach. It also adds urgency—Percy is impatient to join the search before the weather breaks, and the storm threatens to hamper the search for the missing baby. Finally, the storm mirrors the emotional turbulence of the day, as the calm of the interview room is repeatedly interrupted by flashes of lightning and gusts of wind.
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