‘What do you mean, take out the shells? If I’d wanted a club, I’d have bought a club.’

‘No shells,’ said Chandler. His dad mumbled under his breath but popped the barrel and removed the cartridges. Chandler took them and passed them to his mum. He trusted her not to let him have them.

His last action was to go and kiss the kids goodnight. Sarah let him kiss her on the forehead but waved him out of the room as she stared into the glowing screen of her phone. Jasper was asleep and he was about to creep out and leave him be when the young boy awoke.

‘Why are you going, Daddy?’ he asked, his voice drowsy.

‘I have to help the town.’

‘Because of that serial killer?’

‘Yes,’ said Chandler, hoping that Jasper wouldn’t ask any difficult questions.

‘Why does he hurt people, Daddy?’

‘I don’t know, Jasp. Some people are just bad people but Grandpa and Nanna will keep you safe while Daddy catches him. Now it’s time to get some sleep. We’ll go out on the go-kart again tomorrow.’

Chandler left his son smiling at the thought. In the living room his dad was perched by the front door, staring out the front window.

‘Chances are—’ started Chandler then stopped. He didn’t know what the chances were of Gabriel coming here so he settled upon, ‘Just keep calm, okay?’

‘I am calm,’ said his dad, adjusting the empty shotgun across his knees.

37

Back at the station Nick brought Chandler up to speed on the hunt. The initial search in town had been fruitless; garages, gardens, sheds, shacks, houses and stores on the main street had been searched and in some cases, ransacked. That had taken a while. There’d been plenty of them to clear; the once numerous small, independent stores abandoned, as dried up as the desert beyond. The latest reckoning was that Gabriel was still in the outback, bedding down up there, possibly in an emergency hide-out of some kind.

Chandler joined the rest of the team in Mitch’s office.

‘Kids all right?’ said Mitch with a cheerless smirk.

Chandler nodded. ‘Find our escaped suspect yet?’

Mitch dropped the smirk.

Mitch carried on. ‘Come daylight we’ll send the plane and chopper up. Exmouth are lending us theirs too. Hopefully we’ll spot some movement or sign of a camp.’

‘What about sending a group in tonight? Catch him cold,’ said Roper, his head bandaged after being taken down by Gabriel earlier.

‘We’d see nothing,’ said Chandler, ‘and the last thing we need on top of this is a case of friendly fire.’

Mitch weighed in. ‘Besides, he’ll be too smart to light anything.’

‘Unless he tries to destroy evidence like last time,’ added Tanya, sending a murmur of possibility around the room.