‘Nowhere.’ Dan sighed and shoved his hands into his pockets. ‘Because they can’t identify him the police have never been able to find his next of kin, so he’s still in a mortuary in Perth. If he just didn’t have family, we could give him a burial in Ragged Point, but the law states a person must be identified before they can be buried.’

‘It’s so sad that no one’s ever come forward. Surely someone knows something about him.’

‘You’d think,’ Dan said with a slightly bitter chuckle. ‘Forensics did the usual taking of samples and running of tests when he first died, but his DNA didn’t come up in any of the national databases.’

I took a few more photos of the damage and forced myself to ask questions related to the cyclone damage, as that’s what my article was supposed to be about, and then we finally started heading back to the boat.

On our way, Dan stilled, then reached out and touched my shoulder. ‘Look.’ He nodded ahead, and I sucked in a breath at the sight of three sea lions frolicking in the shallows just off the shore.

‘Oh my goodness, they’re adorable,’ I gushed, grinning as a little head poked up out of the clear green water and looked at us like we were exhibits in a zoo.

‘Yep,’ was all Dan said.

As we headed back to shore, he remained almost silent. I had more than enough information and photos for the article, but there was one more question I wanted to ask. Not for the paper but to satisfy my own curiosity.

‘I agree the island and the castle are pretty special, but why do you care so much about saving all of it?’

Dan took his time replying, then when we were almost back to the shore, he said, ‘Because I cared about Bill, and sometimes I feel like he was the only person who ever really cared about me.’

Chapter 33

33

Perth

It had been a busy week in Ragged Point. Thankfully Payton’s soccer team had a bye, which meant I’d been able to stay the whole weekend to finish my article and help Jedda put together the cyclone edition of the Reporter. Come Thursday, the town had been swimming with insurance assessors, among them one who Wei had taken out a policy with when he and Meili inherited the shack. Turned out he was smart as well as good-looking—no wonder Hayley was smitten.

The assessor declared the ceiling replacement straightforward and was happy for the team already booked in to go ahead. I’d left the key with Jedda, who promised to let them in, and now I was heading back to the city, ready for a rest.