‘Don’t be sorry,’ Jack said. ‘What you guys are going through is awful. No one should have to go through that. Especially with someone so young.’

‘He doesn’t want to die.’

‘No one does.’ He moved close again and patted her shoulder. ‘When you are in this situation right now, you think it’s never going to end. It’s very hard to see past the moment you’re in. But it does end. And there is life afterwards.’

‘You lost someone?’

‘My dad. When I was fifteen.’

‘I lost my dad too.’

‘I know,’ he answered softly. ‘Sometimes life really sucks.’

That made Zara smile. A handsome, burly policeman telling her life could suck.

‘I’d better get back.’

Jack nodded. ‘I’ve downloaded the footage and saved it to my hard drive. If I see the car around, I’ll certainly have a chat with them. Now I’ve got the numberplate I’ll be able to watch out.’

‘Thanks, Jack. I just thought it was worth mentioning.’

‘All information is good info, as Dave would say.’

Zara slapped her knees. ‘Oh, can you tell Dave what’s going on. I think Kim would want to know. And Mum might need a bit of support in the next little while.’

‘Sure, although he was here yesterday when I found out from the footy club that things weren’t good.’ Jack hesitated and then said, ‘I’ll give you my number in case anything odd happens out there again. I don’t want you having to worry about this on top of everything else.’

‘That’s really kind, Jack. Thanks.’

Jack smiled. ‘I guess we got off on the wrong foot, didn’t we? I don’t like journos much. It’s sort of ingrained in us as soon as we start training. And Dave has certainly instilled it in me, although he does always say, “Journos have their uses when we need to get information out there.”’

‘And you think we like you lot? You’re hard to deal with when we want details for a story.’

‘Then we’ve done our job,’ Jack laughed. ‘Friends?’

‘Until the next story!’

‘Sounds like a plan.’

CHAPTER 17

Chapter 17

‘What’s happening?’ Dave walked through the door of the station and found Jack staring at his computer. ‘What’ve you got there?’ He bent down to look at the screen.

‘Zara Ellison brought it in earlier today.’ He swung his chair around and looked at Dave. ‘Will doesn’t sound good, from all accounts.’

‘I thought that might be the case when I saw him. Well, maybe it’s not days, maybe a week or two. Infections hurry things up a lot.’

‘Zara wanted Kim to know, in case her mum needed some support.’

‘I’ll text her again.’

‘Anyway, this is what she brought in. Got three sightings of a white station wagon with Victorian numberplates.’