‘You gotta keep this going,’ Colin whispered. ‘Make sure you fight the good fight. For me. For our kids and the future.’

Gerard was standing back, fear on his face.

‘It’s okay, Col, you’ll be all right. The ambos are on their way, aren’t they, Gerard? Just hang in there.’

‘It’s not …’ Colin stopped talking and there was nothing but deathly silence in the clearing.

‘Col?’ the leader whispered. ‘Col?’ he looked at Gerard. ‘Fuck, what’ve I done?’

Chapter 1

Zara Ellison looked around the Melbourne courtroom. The public gallery was nearly full, and the lawyers were seated at the front of the room, looking deadly serious.

Outside, a crowd of demonstrators were waving placards and shouting slogans. As if their protest was going to influence the jury’s findings. The protesters wanted to shut down the forestry company. One of their own had been killed during a covert mission that had been designed to cause mischief rather than anything too destructive. The accused was also one of their own. According to them, if the forestry company hadn’t been harvesting trees, then the men wouldn’t have had to demonstrate and no one would’ve been killed.

In one way, the death of the protester, Mr Colin Grawd, had been fortunate for the activists. The logging had been stopped while his death was investigated. Although, a month later, Zara had reported in one of her stories that they were hoping to start again once the court case had been concluded. Not just the protesters and families of the deceased and the accused were hanging on the verdict; the word on the street was that the logging company had lost millions in downtime since Colin Grawd’s death. This had pleased Voices for Animals, according to their spokesperson.

At the start of the case, the court had heard that Gerard Hooper had been the one who had disabled the machines and removed the hydraulic pump from the rear of the tractor in order to profit from its sale. The charge was manslaughter. The Crown lawyers had spoken of Colin Grawd as an impressive man of integrity. He had long been involved in animal rights, which often crossed over to environmental causes. He had a unique ability to bring people together to work for a common cause. None of his integrity or good character had helped him, though, when the loader bucket had fallen on his legs, severing them. He’d bled out for a cause he’d inadvertently managed to stop. For the time being.

In Zara’s mind, a man of integrity shouldn’t have been trespassing on someone else’s land, but she was a journalist and kept her opinions to herself. She was very clear on never letting her perspective come through in her writing, which was why she was one of the most respected journos for the Farming Telegraph. Last year, she’d been shortlisted for a Walkley News Report Award. She’d ticked all the boxes, making tight deadlines, completing research, showing great storytelling and writing ability, but she hadn’t won that category. What she had won was the Feature Writing Award for a story she’d written about the personal journey of a farmer who’d been paralysed from the waist down when a boom spray, which had been jacked up, had fallen on him. His determination to keep farming, and the adjustments he’d had to make so he could, had been described with empathy and skill. Lachy Turner, her editor, had been so proud of her that night that she thought he’d been going to burst!