‘The RFDS base. The doctor’ll be sick of us. I’ll just alert them that we’ll need a pick-up at Alloway in about . . .’ He held his watchface towards the faint light from the tent. ‘It’s midnight now. Say four am. That ought to give them enough time.’

‘And it means you have no backup,’ Tilly said anxiously. ‘So how exactly do you plan on “dealing with” Wilmot? Don’t Territory cops carry guns?’

‘I think all cops do these days.’

‘Don’t dodge the question,’ she said sharply. ‘I don’t want to be humoured, Connor. What do you plan to do? You’re not armed, so what happens if he decides to kill you?’

‘He won’t, love. What would be the point? When he learns Mercer’s been arrested and is out of reach, along with the body of the man he killed, I imagine he’ll run for it. Especially if, as I fear, he’s already done for Burns.’

‘And you won’t try to stop him?’

‘Not if he’s waving a gun at me,’ Connor said. ‘I’m not an idiot. Anyway if Burns is dead, the police won’t stop till they’ve hunted him down.’

‘So the rest – the ones Matt organised to meet him – will get away too?’

‘Can’t be helped.’ Connor shrugged. ‘Look, in an ideal world we’d catch all the villains, but crime would still go on. Now, you should try and get some rest, love. You must be exhausted.’

‘While you do what?’

He exhaled patiently. ‘I thought I’d poke down to the homestead. Wait for him there. It’s what we arranged on the phone. Don’t worry – I won’t let on that we’ve rumbled him. I’ll just tell him the doctor picked up Mercer too, when he came for Luke.’

It wasn’t a bad plan, Tilly thought. Wilmot would be free to leave, but that was a small price if it kept Connor safe. ‘Okay, that should work. But it would be better if we were there too, Sophie and the professor and me. He might get suspicious if you’re all alone in an empty house. And the presence of witnesses should stop him doing anything stupid, like killing you.’ Unless he decides to kill us all. She didn’t say it.

He sighed, head tipped to one side. ‘Are you always this managing?’

‘It makes sense,’ Tilly said stubbornly, ‘and you know it lessens the risk. Anyway, I’m going if I have to walk.’

He gave in. ‘All right. Get the others. We’ll leave the Land Rover here for now.’ He checked his watch again. ‘Another hour, hour and a half till he arrives, I reckon. We could even catch a bit of sleep.’