Venus and Mars

Perhaps you should take this thing seriously. The poor guy's life's been threatened. He's got a wife and kids. How do you think they feel?

– Caroline Blake (Brooke Williams) after Detective Grant Nicholls (Craig Hall) asks her for information about Brent Garner

Look, personally I don't think he's a Satanist. I think he could be flat-out crazy  and he's probably pretty dangerous, but fire? . . . So maybe you should be checking out pyromaniacs instead of devil worshippers.

– Religious Studies Professor Peter Debenham (Fraser Brown) advises police on the suspect

...all the satanic rubbish is bringing out all the weird stuff from the public. Crazy, most of it. The problem is we have to follow up on every call.

– Detective Ross Grantham (Joel Tobeck) on a flood of misleading reports from the public

He set fire to my house, that's what happened! I just thank God the girls weren't there. I only just made it out myself.

– Police officer Brent Garner (Ande Cunningham) describes an arson attack against him

I think I've given them everything I can. Maybe if I get to see more —statements, evidence, notes — maybe it'll shake something else loose.

– Police officer Brent Garner (Ande Cunningham) asks for access to the investigation

We're going to mount a second inquiry, beside Operation Venus: Operation Mars. Like the Wings album  . . .  Venus continues as per, and we continue to work on it. But we're going to take some different angles as well.

– Detective Grant Nicholls (Craig Hall) announces a second investigation unit

What happens when we catch this bloke, and it goes to court? Who do you think the main witness is going to be? Brent Garner. And if he's had access to the investigation, any evidence he gives is going to be tainted, isn't it? Any lawyer worth his salt would get that evidence chucked out.

– Detective Grant Nicholls (Craig Hall) on the decision to keep Brent Garner away from the investigation

The event brought with it a huge amount of fear in Ashhurst and the wider community . . . It also brought great concern among police officers. They were saying 'who's next?' . . . The saddest thing was the fear in the young school children. We had some teary children and some anxious parents

– Detective Inspector Doug Brew on the impact of the 1996 crime on the community, The Dominion Post, 20 August 2015

You can't discount the possibility that some disaffected individual got up one morning thinking this was a way of seeking retribution against the police.

– Detective Inspector Grant Nicholls on his initial response to the 1996 crime, The NZ Herald, 9 August 2015