Ten minutes later, he pulled into a side road and drove a little way down. That heightened Zara’s anxiety. Still, she flicked on her blinker and followed him.

The car had barely stopped when she was out the door, walking quickly towards Dave. ‘What the hell is going on?’ Her voice was high with tension.

Dave walked towards her, his face set, and he was pointing at her. ‘Give me your camera.’

‘What?’

‘Did you get photos of Jack? Give me your camera now.’

‘Yeah, I got photos. You can’t delete them, if that’s what you’re thinking. There’s a freedom of information act, you know.’ She was pissed off with his high-handedness.

He stopped in front of her and poked a finger at her. ‘You will delete them, otherwise you’ll be putting one of my men at risk. Give me your camera. Or I’ll watch you delete them.’

‘Risk from what?’ Zara persisted. ‘I’m not frightened of you, Dave. Pull whatever sort of shit you want to, but I’m not—’

‘You listen to me, girlie. My only concern is for my officer. Jack is undercover, and if you blow that, you don’t want to know what I’ll do to you.’

That stopped her. She’d been in the right, but the fact that she might put Jack in danger—well, that was a sobering thought.

‘How is a photo going to put him in danger? He’s at the protest, and I assume doing what he should be doing. I’m not going to out him as an undercover cop.’

‘If you put that in the paper and someone who knows him sees it, then he’ll be in trouble. We don’t want anything linking back to him. I want you to delete the photos.’

‘All right, all right, I will,’ Zara snapped. ‘Stop the bad cop act. I know you better than that.’

‘It’s a serious thing he’s doing, Zara. The bad cop act is so you are under no illusion as to what is going on. You need to forget you’ve seen him. If you go to another protest and he’s there, don’t even make eye contact with him. These people are not to be messed around with.’

‘Has this got something to do with the feedlot accident the other day?’

‘No comment. I just need you to do as I’ve asked.’

‘Of course I will. I like Jack, he’s a nice man. Unlike you when you want to be a prick.’

Dave looked at her. ‘I’ve been called that more than once. Sorry if you think I was a bit heavy-handed. I needed to get my point across.’

‘I’m deleting the photos now. Do you want to watch?’

‘I wouldn’t mind seeing what you’ve got.’

‘Ah, so you need me now? How about a bit of quid pro quo?’