‘It had better be mine,’ Tilly said, adding dryly, ‘The shock to our stomachs might be a bit much if we start with either of the men.’

Chapter Thirty

The first words out of Luke’s mouth as he entered the kitchen that evening were, ‘Did they come?’

‘Right here.’ Tilly handed him the package from the chemist. ‘How was your day?’

‘Hmm? Oh, you know.’ He ripped the packet open and was flipping through the photographs, giving a brief crack of laughter at one, frowning at another. ‘Not enough light,’ he muttered. ‘Shit! That – ah! Got ya! That’s a good clear one. Okay, now let’s see . . .’

He vanished into the lounge, reappearing some ten minutes later and saying triumphantly, ‘I knew it! It is different. Look, Tilly. You compare them, tell me I’m not dreaming.’

Holding the spoon she’d been stirring the mince with, Tilly studied the two pictures. ‘They are similar, but yes, I can see a difference. The nose shape is less pronounced. Wait, though – what if it’s just a gender thing, or age? I mean, if an alien compared a teenage boy with a man, it might not realise they were the same species, don’t you think?’

‘In the matter of colour, possibly, but I can’t see how it would affect the shape of their ears, say. Every species has a pattern it grows to, and unless I was unlucky enough to catch a freak . . .’

‘You’re probably right then. So what will you do now?’ Tilly dipped the spoon again and stirred, before lowering the gas. ‘Dinner’s about five minutes off.’

For once food failed to interest Luke. ‘I’ll ring Darwin – somebody at the university will know who to contact. I’ll send him the pic, but I reckon they’ll need a live specimen to be certain. Maybe I should start figuring out a bat trap? I daresay they’d have ideas on that too.’

‘Very likely. I’m about to ring the dinner bell, Luke. Just warning you.’

‘Huh? Oh, right. Where’s Sophie? I’ll get her to check it out. She—’

He darted off, leaving Tilly to cast up her eyes and turn off the heat. Dinner was plainly going to be late.

The following day, Matt, despite his grumbling, was rostered onto kitchen work.

‘Which fits nicely,’ Sophie said, ‘because we’ll be getting a load of steel out and you can show the men the best place to unload. Somewhere it’ll be easy to get at, Matt. It’s the supports for the boardwalk. It seems that the company’s moving pretty quickly on the project. I thought it would be months before they decided anything.’