‘There’s need for change!’ A woman’s voice rang out this time and something flicked within the crowd. They became restless and started to chant: ‘Need for change. Need for change. Stop murdering the animals!’

Zara watched as another protestor bumped into Jack and he stumbled. Another person came into view—the person who had pushed him.

Cloudy Eye. Oh my God! What is he doing here?

She frantically clicked the camera and took some closeup shots of him. He was wearing sunglasses as usual, but she knew they hid a cloudy left eye. It was the man who had sat in the courtroom all through Colin Grawd’s case.

The protesters kept up their chants, stamping their feet and shaking their signs.

A truck rumbled into view. It was carrying a load of sheep and the protesters joined hands to form a human chain across the driveway.

The driver had to slow to a stop.

Zara watched as Jack banged on the door of the truck. ‘And you’re helping the bastards kill them,’ he yelled, looking wide-eyed and out of control. Zara moved closer and took more photos. As Jack turned, he caught her eye and a look of shock crossed his face. Then he ducked into the crowd and disappeared.

The police started to move in and surround the protesters.

‘We told you we wouldn’t interfere unless things got rowdy,’ one of the coppers yelled. ‘Pull your heads in.’

But it seemed to Zara that Jack and the others who had called out had unleashed something within the protesters.

‘Save our animals!’ they chanted over and over. With their arms linked, they kept moving forward, surrounding the truck until the driver couldn’t get out if he’d wanted to. One of them went to the back where the gate was and tried to unpin it, to let the animals out.

‘Enough!’ yelled the police and they forced their way through the human chain and stood in front of the gate, protecting it.

Zara’s eyes were everywhere but a movement outside of the crowd caught her eye. She turned and saw that Cloudy Eye had left the group and skirted around the edge of the cars then disappeared. Clearly he didn’t want to be caught up in any trouble.

Zara hurried after him. ‘Sir!’ she called to him. ‘Sir, I’d really love to be able to tell your side of the story. Would you talk to me? Sir?’

He didn’t stop until he got to a car, and yanked open the door. He started it and slowly pulled out onto the road and drove away. Zara tried to snap a photo of the car rego but it had all happened too quickly and the car was out of range by the time she managed to get the camera to her eye.