Amid unbearable silence, Belinda and Andrew Prestney watched the daytime turn to dark.

They’d been cooking dinner when news of a tragic crash on the Eastern Freeway came across the television. Frantic calls and messages to their police officer sons, Constables Alex and Josh Prestney, followed. Alex soon confirmed he was OK. But there was still no word from Josh.

“Everything just went quiet,’’ Andrew said.

“No phone calls. No texts. By this stage dinner was just done, abandoned. Belinda and I sat in the front room in the dark just with this dread.”

Belinda had earlier phoned Nunawading police station, where Josh, 28, was working just his second day with highway patrol, only to be told they didn’t know anything and would call back.

“Andrew had been walking laps around the driveway and he came in and he said: ‘Something’s wrong. They are not going to call us. They’re going to come and tell us’,’’ Belinda said.

“I think at that point I’d never felt the feeling of having no hope.

“It was like at that point: ‘I think we’ve lost him’.’’

A couple of hours later the pair saw headlights outside.

“I pushed past Belinda, ran down the driveway and the police car was parked in front of the neighbours,” Andrew said.

“By this stage Steve Noy (Detective Inspector) and Reverend Jim (Pilmer) had got out of the car and all Steve said was: “Andrew, I’m so sorry”.

“We just both fell to the footpath.”

“After that I don’t remember.”

Belinda said: “You were yelling. You just kept yelling: ‘No, no, no’ over and over again.”

‘I THINK AFTER THE 30TH TIME I TRIED TO CALL HIM I KNEW’

Across town Alex, who’d earlier been on shift at Prahran Highway Patrol, was at home. The unfolding events were eerily familiar.

“I heard it from a few colleagues, saying three or four police were dead on the Eastern Freeway.

“They were saying it was Kew and highway patrol involved. The wheels just kept turning faster.

“All I had, to know that it was or wasn’t Josh, was calling him. And I think after the 30th time I tried to call him I knew.

“I was just praying that after the 10th ring he’d pick up — that there would be something else rather than just the same old ringing out.

“It was just that haunting feeling of knowing somehow.

“I went upstairs to bed and just sat up in bed. It could have been 30 seconds or it could have been 20 minutes of sitting up in bed and then the doorbell rang. And I was just like: ‘There it is’.

“It was a weird sort of knowing what the process is. It’s like that section of Groundhog Day where he knows what’s going to happen in the diner — so mum and dad are going to find out first, the reason that I haven’t heard anything from anybody is because it's him and I'll have someone from my office come and knock on my door to tell me as well, because that’s the process. And that all just happened.

“We packed a bag and we got in the highway patrol car and they drove us up. I was just like a zombie.”

‘I REMEMBER WHAT HE WAS WEARING, AND THAT WAS THE LAST TIME’

Belinda Prestney, a teacher, will forever treasure the final week with her son. The duo, keen on fitness like the rest of the family, spent their days walking the dog and exercising.

“I was lucky,’’ Belinda said.

“I got to spend every day with him for the previous week.

“We’d get up and we’d walk the dog up for our coffee walks in the morning and go for a run.

“That Wednesday, because his shift wasn’t starting until 3pm, I had decided I’d go for a bike ride and when I got back he was in the front room where we’ve got our little gym set up and he was doing some weights.

“I lent on the back of the green chairs in there and watched him and had a bit of a chat with him and then we had some lunch.

“I was sitting here and he came into the kitchen, grabbed his keys and he said: ‘Right, I’m off’. And I remember looking out and saying: ‘Have a good shift’.

“He just said: ‘Yep’.

“I remember what he was wearing. And that was the last time.

“Often, and it’s the same with Alex and even with Andrew, I would watch them leave. I didn’t do it that day. I wish I had of, but I didn’t.”

For Andrew Prestney, a builder, it’s the little things he misses most.

He and Josh went to Bali on boy’s trips and travelled to Western Australia for the Ironman — a challenge Andrew plans to again complete at Hawaii in October next year in his son’s honour.

But it was at home, at each others side, when the duo’s unspoken bond shone through.

“In the summertime, we’d be outside watering the garden and he would walk straight through, grab a beer, walk straight outside and just stand with me,’’ Andrew said.

“In the winter time, it was the same, open fire, standing around watching the footy.

“We’d be walking past the spare room which we call his music room upstairs and he would be jamming away. I’d pop my head in and say: ‘Hi mate’. He’d just give the nod because he’d be playing furiously.

“It’s just the every day things, the mundane things, which everyone takes for granted. But you shouldn’t because they vanish in an instant.”

JOSH WAS DESTINED TO BE A POLICE OFFICER

Josh Prestney worked at the MCG and bike stores before joining the force. But he always had the hallmarks of a good cop.

As a boy he’d organise backyard soccer, cricket and basketball tournaments for the family. Each had to sign up and agree to follow the rules, meticulously laid out in a book for absolute clarity — although somehow Josh was always paired with his dad for a slight competitive advantage.

“He was highly intelligent — and very discerning,’’ Belinda said.

“Always as a kid my mum would say: ‘He’s so earnest’. He was very serious.

“He was his own person. And very self assured.

“He had a lot of integrity — so if you told a little white lie or didn’t tell things quite the way they were he’d pick you up on it. You couldn’t get away with anything.”

It was on Christmas Eve 2016when Josh told his family he’d decided to join the police force.

Alex said: “We were just sitting out the back — talking about the job itself and what I was doing. Then Josh said: ‘Just to let you guys know I’m going to apply as well’.”

The brothers last spoke over text message the Monday before Josh’s death.

“Our last exchange. It was your classic Josh message,’’ Alex, 27, said.

“He didn’t say much. When he texted I said: ‘When do you start highway patrol placement?’ And he said: ‘Tomorrow’.

“I sent him a screenshot of a Simpsons quote that says: ‘Stay off the west side’ because that’s our patch. And that was it.”

THE KINDNESS OF STRANGERS

As Josh’s funeral procession made its way from the chapel at Xavier College, where the brothers had attended school and their mother taught at Burke Hall, people stood on the roadside, silent in the rain and cold.

At Kew Junction traffic stopped.

The Prestneys, following their son’s hearse, looked across to see motorists in tears as the motorcade drove past.

“A lot of people genuinely saw it as a human loss,’’ Alex said.

“It wasn’t just because they were four police officers. It was good to see people saw past that. People knew it as four people just doing their job — with lives. And in the circumstances it was it could have happened to anybody.”

Simple gestures have helped the Prestneys know they are not alone. A neighbour left a loving note on the front doorstep, alongside flowers from her garden.

Another woman, whose son was in the police academy, messaged to say her husband had seen Josh and colleague Senior Constable Kevin King on the Eastern Freeway the day of the crash — noting how Josh gave a respectful nod of thanks as the passing traffic slowed down.

“The outpouring from the community that we’ve had was absolutely humbling,” Belinda said.

“It was just not your immediate friends, family and colleagues and things like that — but strangers.

“We’ve always respected the police and had a great admiration for the police and for me it acknowledges that there are a lot of other people that feel that way.”

‘OUR LIVES WON’T EVER BE THE SAME, IT’S NEVER GOING AWAY’

Without Josh the emptiness is at times unbearable.

“Our lives won’t ever be the same. It’s never going to go away,’’ Belinda said.

“But the realisation, which is terrifying, is that we have potentially 30 years or more of life ahead of us without him which is more than we had with him.

“Because he lived here especially, there are empty spaces. The chair where he played the guitar. The stool he would sit on in here or out there. Those empty spaces. The chair. His room.”

Andrew said: “It’s hard and confronting because now his music room, the chair where he sits and the desk where it is. On that desk now is a wooden box. I can’t even say it.”

Alex plans to return to the force, but is unsure if it will be highway patrol, and is adamant it must be for his own reasons.

“I can’t remember the big things but I can remember the little things,” Alex said.

“It’s just as simple as a smell. A song. A look. A time of day. Just time that we spent together. And because they are so everyday they remind me again.”

The raw sadness is that Josh had found happiness, both through his work and with partner Stacey Ryall.

In July she took delivery of a puppy Josh had ordered at the start of the year, with the Prestneys taking another, a brother, from the litter, which arrived the day before Josh’s birthday.

“He wanted to be a dad and a husband,’’ Belinda said.

“This is one of the things that is so tragic.”

Belinda Prestney catches herself thinking about her regular morning coffee walks with Josh.

“After he died, I very rarely say that word, I had a dream,’’ Belinda said.

“He was sitting up here on one of the stools and he asked me to wake him up. And I couldn’t.

“He just looked so bereft. So lost and so in pain. Because whatever we feel here, wherever he is, he is feeling it too. He would have been: ‘What the hell. I’m just getting my life together. I’ve got my girl. I’ve got my life. I’ve got my career. Why now?’.

“He would be belting down the door to get back as much as we would be looking for him to walk through it.”

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The names of the four police officers killed in the Eastern Freeway tragedy will on Tuesday be officially added to the Victoria Police Memorial.