I let out a manic laugh and tugged on Charlie’s leash to stop him going any further.

‘Maybe we should go around the back way and see if this little ceiling disaster is throughout?’

‘Little disaster?’

She smirked as we backed out and went around the side of the house. The beach no longer looked like a postcard image; there were branches, bits of driftwood, seaweed and other rubbish strewn across the sand.

‘Bill’s canoe,’ I said, halting as I stared out at the ocean.

‘Huh?’ Jedda asked, hitching Bindi up her hip.

‘The one Dan uses to get out to the island … it’s not there.’

‘It could be halfway to Africa by now, but don’t worry, the Emersons aren’t exactly short of sea transport.’

The rail on the steps leading to the back porch had snapped off, one of the steps had disappeared and the wood was drenched through. We stepped gingerly across to the door and this time I held my breath as I pushed against it.

But blessedly the door opened easily. The small dining area between the kitchen and living room had soggy carpet, but thankfully the water hadn’t made it into the kitchen or the bedrooms, and I’d been planning to rip up all the floor coverings anyway.

I bent to lift a corner of the carpet to see how bad it looked underneath but Jedda shrieked, ‘Don’t touch anything until the insurance assessors have been out. They’ll want to see the damage for themselves.’

I shuddered. ‘I don’t even know if Wei and Meili have insurance for this place. Or if Xiang did. Do insurance policies continue after someone dies?’

Jedda shrugged. ‘How the hell should I know?’

‘I guess it’s a good thing the ceiling hadn’t been replaced yet,’ I said, glancing around.

‘What’s more of a good thing,’ she replied, ‘is that you’ve already got a tradie booked to come fix it. It’ll be near on impossible to get anyone now.’

I sighed. ‘Then again maybe if it had already been fixed this wouldn’t have happened.’

‘Who knows. Anyway, I’m going to head back to the cafe to make up some sandwiches and see what else I can cobble together for the SES.’

‘I’ll come help.’ It wasn’t like I could do anything at the shack until I’d spoken to Wei, but I wanted to do my bit for the community I’d grown to love.

‘That’d be great. Thanks.’

‘Is there any way I can contact my family and let them know I’m okay?’ I asked as we walked back towards the main street.

‘I’ll try to find someone with a satellite phone for you.’

One of the kind men from the SES let me borrow his phone and even though it was during business hours, Adrian picked up on the second ring.

‘Hey Adrian.’