"I was always prepared to be interviewed," Chris Dawson said, sat at a small desk in a Queensland police station.
"I'm sure you were," responded the homicide detective across from him.
It was January 15, 1991, and Chris Dawson's first thorough police interview since his wife's disappearance nine years earlier was nearly over.
The interview was last week released by the NSW Supreme Court, where Mr Dawson is on trial for allegedly killing Ms Dawson, 40 years since she vanished.
Mr Dawson, then 42, had recounted events of the days before he claims Lynette Dawson decided to leave their family.
He was pressed on perceived gaps in stories he told to Ms Dawson's loved ones about alleged contact with her and sightings relayed to him by friends.
The school teacher also strongly refuted what were, at the time, fresh claims that he'd considered hiring a hitman to kill Ms Dawson in 1981.
"Complete and utter fabrication," he said.
Now approaching his 74th birthday, Mr Dawson has pleaded not guilty and maintains his 33-year-old wife walked out on him and their children in January 1982.
Back in 1991, Detective Sergeant Paul Mayger and Detective Senior Constable Stuart Wilkins travelled from Sydney to Queensland armed with new information with which to interrogate Mr Dawson.
They met at Beenleigh police station in Brisbane's outskirts, about a half-hour drive from Mr Dawson's Yawalpah home.
The court has heard his second wife JC, once the Dawson's babysitter, had recently come forward with claims which included the hitman allegation.
Detective Sergeant Mayger started by asking Mr Dawson to outline the events leading to his wife's disappearance from their Bayview home.
Mr Dawson said prior to his wife "leaving me" the couple had "some matrimonial problems" and he took "some time away from home to ... clarify how I felt".
The court has heard he went to Queensland with JC, with whom he was having an affair and later married in 1984.
On his return, he and Ms Dawson sought counselling but she seemed "disturbed by the results of that", he told the detectives.
She "sought comfort" talking to a man, who Mr Dawson claimed was "tied to a religious sect of some sort", who was building a shed next door to their Gilwinga Drive home.
Then came the day Mr Dawson says she left, instead of meeting him, their girls and her mother, Helena Simms, at Northbridge Baths, where he worked as a lifeguard.
He claimed to have dropped her at Mona Vale bus stop in the morning so she could go shopping in the city, and expected she would arrive at the pool with Ms Simms.
"I sort of [was] asking where my wife was," Mr Dawson said.
"Um, the girl that worked in the shop called me over and said there was an STD phone call for me, she had taken the call.
"I went there, took the phone call, it was Lyn. She said she needed time away like I had had prior to um, that day and she'd ring me in a few days' time after she'd had time to sort things out."
In the days that passed, he told police, Ms Dawson called him on at least four occasions and updated him on her mindset.
"Then after about the third phone call she said she needed a lot more time, she didn't know if she would be returning to me."
He agreed during one call, he'd asked Ms Dawson "how much more bloody time do you need?", as had been relayed to police by Ms Simms.
Mr Dawson said he asked police friends, including Ms Dawson's brother Greg Simms, to help him track down the mother of two.
She was reported missing in February 1982.
Mr Dawson said his wife's calls stopped but claimed a former detective told him at a high school reunion in 1985 that he'd heard Ms Dawson was in New Zealand.
The police interview played to the court turned to the topic of JC, who was then Mr Dawson's wife.
Mr Dawson denied that he called JC at a caravan park the night Ms Dawson vanished, saying JC called him "several days later" and asked him to pick her up.
Later, the police questioned him about claims from JC that she came with him to a pub south of the Sydney Harbour Bridge where he'd tried to hire an assassin to "kill Lyn".
Mr Dawson rejected this and said it was "very convenient" for JC to say this, four days before they were to meet in court as their marriage disintegrated.
"Um, the whole purpose of [JC] raising the allegations is to slur my character with an upcoming custody battle which has turned extremely nasty and bitter," he said.
"And [JC] wouldn't stop at any means whatsoever to win that battle and I, I just think it's a fairly obvious, these allegations are being raised from her for such a purpose."
In the interview played to the court, Mr Dawson told police he still "lay awake crying my heart out hoping for some contact from Lyn" but wouldn't tell JC as they were trying to work on their marriage.
Mr Dawson said he bagged up Ms Dawson's clothes to take to her mother's in an effort to "appease" JC, who he claimed got "hostile with any sort of thing to do with Lyn".
"I'm extremely upset that [JC] has got to this stage where she's sort of turned around now and sort of lied and sort made serious allegations both in this matter," he said.
He said the Dawsons had walked out of their counselling session in January 1982 holding hands and he was confident they would save their relationship.
But the day before she left, he claimed, Ms Dawson had "a bit of an emotional breakdown" and tossed their young daughter onto the bed.
She was upset because their counsellor was "blaming it all on me", Mr Dawson said.
He said his wife was usually "dotty" with her two children, and her disappearance was "extremely out of character".
Mr Dawson also denied allegations made by Ms Dawson's colleagues at the Warriewood Children's Centre, and which they later gave evidence about at the murder trial.
Police told him one had said Ms Dawson told her that before their counselling session, Mr Dawson grabbed her by the throat and said, "If this doesn't work I'm getting rid of you".
"No. Not at all," Mr Dawson said.
Another had claimed Mr Dawson told her he'd received a letter from Ms Dawson saying she was in Queensland.
He wouldn't have told them about a letter, he said, because it didn't exist.
He said the women may have "misconstrued" things he told them, or that he'd rushed through conversations because he was embarrassed about his "floundering" marriage.
"I'm not saying they're lying either."
It took another 27 years before police believed they had gathered enough evidence to charge Mr Dawson with his first wife's murder.
The Crown now alleges Mr Dawson killed Ms Dawson on, or around, January 8, 1982, to pursue a relationship with JC.
The trial before Justice Ian Harrison continues next week.
