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the natural, inquisitive nature of police officers, vital that they are allowed to talk to each other, exchange information. 'It's that that keeps them on their toes, keeps them hungry. It's ludicrous to take that away.' The Macro team, he says, was so focused on their task, they could have sworn on anything – a dictionary or copy of the criminal code – and they would have stayed silent. They were hot-wired to do that.
    The Rimmer family is appointed two liaison officers to answer any inquiry: Peter Norrish and John Leembruggen.
    In June 1996 police circulate up to 100 copies of a questionnaire to select people that pointedly asks where they were when Sarah Spiers disappeared from outside the nightclub. The questionnaire is given to those people who have, in some way, attracted police interest. But there is a problem. The question 'Describe in detail what you did from midday Saturday, 26 January to midday Sunday, 27 January 1996' is incorrect. Sarah disappeared on the 27th. Embarrassed by the error, the police scrap the questions and start again. But it is the second part of the quiz and the questions 'Did you abduct or murder Sarah Spiers?' and 'Should we believe your answers to these questions?' that creates controversy and no little hilarity.
    Paul Ferguson was quick to point out that the people who were asked to fill in the questionnaire were not suspects, but could have information that would help their inquiries. And individuals could refuse to fill in the quiz. Police would know if they did.
    The questionnaire is based on the Scientific Content Analysis (SCAN) technique, which changes a verbal interview into a written form. This then is assessed by the interviewer, to ascertain whether a face-to-face meeting with the person is required. The writing of answers can be done in the interviewees' own time and place and saves unnecessary time in interviewing people who are clearly telling the truth. Supporters of the questionnaire claim success in solving numerous cases in Australia and overseas. Developed in 1984 for the army, it was first used to survey soldiers who had failed urine analysis tests for traces of drugs in their bodies. Requesting a lie-detector test to show there was some error in the test results, the soldiers were asked to also fill out the questionnaire. The results were forwarded to headquarters without the polygrapher knowing the questionnaire results. Twenty-eight per cent of the people who filled out the questionnaire showed incriminating responses.
    But many in the legal profession regarded the questionnaire as a ludicrous waste of time. How likely was it that a guilty person would either fill it out or tell the truth? Lawyer Richard Bailey encapsulated the general feeling. 'You're hardly going to get somebody writing in and answering the question "Did you abduct or murder Sarah Spiers?" with a "Oh yes, I've done it" reply, then sign it "Merv" or whatever and send it back to police. The concept is absurd.'
    Overt criticism of the questionnaire was met with serious admonishment. An academic at a Western Australian university whose work was funded by the police was warned that unless he stopped publicly criticising the form, his funding would be withdrawn. Unchastened, he chose another path. He left the state.
    WA Council for Civil Liberties President Peter Weygers – a distinctive-looking man in his mid-60s, with a stocky build and standing 192 cm tall – was Claremont mayor between 1985 and 1997. A man of means with a substantial property portfolio, including a unit overlooking the street where Sarah Spiers was last seen, and a reputation as an eccentric, he was known as the 'Super-mayor'. Depicted in press cartoons wearing a red and blue suit, complete with cape and a huge S on the front, nothing in his career could compare with the publicity he received when he, too, was outed as a person of interest by the Macro taskforce. He was also the only individual publicly named in The West Australian