‘There’s lots of things I hate,’ he said softly. ‘But going up the mountain’s not one of them. It’s Isaac’s home. He was a great old guy.’

He was. She remembered Isaac the night of the accident. Of course he’d heard the crash; he’d been first on the scene. He’d been cradling Ben when she’d got there.

All the more reason to love his dog. All the more reason to face down her hatred of the place.

‘You know, you can’t block it out for ever,’ Raff said. ‘Work it through and move on.’

‘Like you have.’ She heard the anger in her words and flinched.

‘Like I try to,’ Raff said evenly. ‘It always hurts but limbo’s not my idea of a great time. You want to spend the rest of your life there?’

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

‘Meaning you’ve never come back,’ he said. ‘You’re as damaged as Sarah is in your own way.’

She shook her head. ‘No. No, I’m not. I’m fine. Just find my dog, Raff.’

‘I’ll do my best,’ he said gravely. ‘You know, taking Kleppy’s a great start. Kleppy’s forcing chinks in your lawyerish armour and I’m not so sure you can seal them up again. Let’s see if we can find him so he can go the whole way.’


Isaac’s place was locked and deserted, a ramshackle homestead hidden in bushland. Through the fence, they could see Isaac’s garden, beautiful in the moonlight, but they couldn’t get in the front gate. The gate was padlocked and a cyclone fence had been erected around the rickety pickets.

‘Isaac’s daughter’s worried about vandalism before she can get the place on the market,’ Raff said. ‘She sacked the gardener, hired a security firm and put the fence up.’ Raff headed off, striding around the boundary, searching the ground with his flashlight as well as through the fence. Abby had to run to catch up with him.

The ground was unsteady. Raff’s hand was suddenly holding hers. She should pull away-but she didn’t.

‘Call him,’ Raff said.

She called, her voice ringing out across the bushland, eerie in the dark.

‘Keep calling.’ Raff’s hand held hers, strong and warm and pushing her to keep going.

‘We’ll call from the other side,’ he said. ‘If he’s down nearer the road…’

Near the road where Ben was killed?

Move on. She did move on, and Raff’s hand gave her the strength to do it. How inappropriate was that?

But she called. And she called. And then, unbelievably…

Out through the bush, tearing like his life depended on it, Kleppy came flying. Straight to her.

She gasped and stooped to catch him and the little dog was in her arms, wriggling with joy. She was on her knees in the undergrowth, hugging. Maybe even weeping.

‘Hey, Klep,’ Raff said, and she could hear his relief. ‘Where have you been hiding?’

She hugged him tight and he licked her…then suddenly he wrenched out of her arms, backed off and barked-and tore back into the bush.

Raff made a lunge for him but he was too fast.

He disappeared back into the darkness.

‘You could have held his collar,’ Raff said, but he didn’t sound annoyed. He sounded resigned.

‘Oh, my…’ She started to run, but Raff put his hand out and stopped her.

‘We walk. We don’t run. Wombat holes, logs, all sorts of traps for the unwary in the dark.’

‘But Kleppy…’

‘Won’t have gone far,’ he said, taking her hand firmly back into his. ‘You saw him-he was joyful to see you. This is Isaac’s place, Kleppy’s territory, but I reckon you’re his now. It seems you’re his person to replace Isaac. That’s a fair responsibility, Abby Callahan. I hope you’re up to it.’

‘Just find him for me,’ she muttered.

Kleppy’s person?

She didn’t want to think about where that was taking her.

She didn’t actually want to think at all.

Kleppy had headed back down the hill. Towards the road. They were now within two hundred yards of where the cars had crashed.

It had rained this week. The undergrowth smelled of wet eucalypt, scents of the night, scents she hated.

She’d never wanted to come back here.

‘Move on,’ Raff said, holding her hand tightly. ‘You can.’ She couldn’t.

The thought that it had been Raff, the man holding her hand right now…

Raff…

She could not depend on this man. This man was dangerous; he always had been. He’d been dangerous to Ben. Now suddenly he seemed dangerous in an entirely different way.

But he was the one searching for Kleppy, not Philip.

That would have to be thought about tomorrow. For now…just get through tonight.

‘If he’s gone back down to the town…’

‘Why would he do that? This is Isaac’s place. You’re here. Everything he knows is here.’ And then, before she could respond, his flashlight stopped moving and focused.

Kleppy was fifty yards from the road. Digging? He was nosing his way through the undergrowth, pawing at the damp earth, wagging, wriggling, digging…

‘Kleppy…’ she called and started towards him.

Kleppy looked up at her-and headed back in the direction he’d come from. Back to Isaac’s.

Raff sighed.

‘You don’t make a very good cop,’ he said. ‘Letting the suspect go. Sneaking up and then breaking into a run at the last minute.’

‘What’s he doing?’ They were following him again, back through the undergrowth. Once more, Raff had her hand. She absolutely should let it go.

She didn’t.

‘I suspect he’s one very confused dog,’ Raff said. ‘He knows where Isaac lived but he can’t get in. He’s forming new bonds to you but his allegiance will be torn-he’ll still want Isaac. And what’s back there buried…who knows? Some long hidden loot, or a wombat hole, or something he sniffed on the way past and thought was worth investigating. But now… He’s weighed everything up-you, wombats, Isaac-and decided he needs to go back to his first love.’

And Raff was right. They emerged from the bush and Kleppy was waiting for them-or rather he was waiting for someone to open the gate.

His nose was pressed hard against the cyclone fencing and he whimpered as they approached. He was no longer running. He was no longer joyful to see them.

Abby knelt and scooped him up and he looked longingly at the darkened house.

‘He’s not there any more,’ she whispered, burying her nose into his scruffy coat. ‘I’m sorry, Kleppy, but I’m it. Will I do?’

‘He’ll grow accustomed,’ Raff said, and his voice was a bit rough-a bit emotional? ‘You want me to take you both home?’

She looked at the darkened house, then turned and looked out towards the road, to where Ben had been snatched from her.

He’ll grow accustomed.

Ten years…

Her parents would never forgive Raff Finn. How could she?

‘It’s okay, Kleppy,’ she whispered. ‘We’ll manage, you and I. Thank you, Raff. We’d appreciate it if you took us home.’


He drove them down from the mountain, a woman and her dog, and he felt closer to her tonight than he had for ten years.

Maybe it was what she was wearing. The normally immaculate lawyer-cum-Abby was wearing old jeans, a faded sweatshirt and her hair had long come loose from its normally elegant chignon. She still had flour on her face from pasta making. There were twigs in her hair.

Her face was tear-streaked and she was holding her dog as if she were drowning.

She made him feel…

Like he’d felt at nineteen, when Abby had started dating Philip.

He and Abby had been girlfriend and boyfriend since they were fourteen and sixteen. Kid stuff. Not serious.

She hung round with Sarah so she was always in and out of the house. She was pretty and she laughed at his jokes. She was always…there.

Then he’d come home and she was dating Philip and the sense of loss had him gutted.

He should have told her how he felt then, only he’d been too proud to say, Okay, Abby, wise choice, I know at seventeen you need to date a few people, see the world.

He’d been too proud to say that seeing her and Philip together had made him wake up to himself. Had made him realise that the sexiest, loveliest, funniest, happiest, most desirable woman in the world was Abby.

He had known it. It was just… He thought he’d punish her a little. He and Ben had even been a bit cool to her-Ben had hated her dating Dexter as well.

They’d backed off. The night of the crash, where was Abby? Home, washing her hair?

Home, being angry with all of them.

That probably saved her life, but what was left afterwards…?

The sexiest, loveliest, funniest, happiest, most desirable woman in the entire world had been hidden under a load of grief so great it overwhelmed them all. Then she was hidden by layers of her parents’ hopes, their fixation that Abby could make up for Ben, and their belief that Philip was the Ben they couldn’t have.

He’d watched for ten years as the layers had built up, until the Abby he’d once known, once loved, had been almost totally subsumed.

And there was nothing he could do about it because he was the one who’d caused it.

He felt his fists harden on the steering wheel, so tight his knuckles showed white. One stupid moment and so many worlds shot to pieces. Ben and Sarah. And Abby, condemned to live for the rest of her life making up for his criminal stupidity.

‘You know I once loved you,’ he said into the night and she gasped and hugged Kleppy tighter.

‘Don’t.’

‘I won’t,’ he said gently. ‘I can’t. But, Abby, if I could wipe away that night…’

‘As if anyone could do that.’

‘No,’ he said grimly. ‘And I know I have to live with it for the rest of my life. But you don’t.’

‘I don’t know what you mean.’

‘I mean you lost Ben that night,’ he said. ‘For which I’m responsible and I’ll live with that for ever. But Ben was my mate and if he could see what’s happening to you now he’d be sick at heart.’