‘Yeah, a bit,’ said Con. ‘Shoots me a message every now and again when he’s in my area. I reckon you hear more from him than me: he’s really proud of you, did you know that?’ said Con. ‘How was church yesterday? Get anything good out of it?’

‘Well, I zoned out a bit, kept thinking about today. But there’s some good people there, and they took me out for lunch. At the start it was only because . . .’ He hesitated. ‘I promised God if he brought back Jasmine, I’d go to church, so I’ve been going to church . . . you know, out of faith.’ Murphy squeezed his mug. ‘But I’ll probably keep going. Even if she doesn’t show up today.’

He glanced up at the clouds in the azure sky. Murphy had prayed for this day often enough, so God better bloody well be listening in right now.

‘I’m glad that it’s working for you, mate,’ said Con.

‘It is,’ said Murphy, then softly, ‘What will I do if she doesn’t come?’

‘Don’t think about that. Tell me about work.’

Murphy gave a wry grin. ‘I don’t know why I ever stopped doing landscaping. I’m the bloody best there’s ever been. There’s a bloke that sub-contracts for me, but the last job he did, the owner refuses to have him around anymore because his work’s not as good as mine. I mean, it’s a compliment, but it makes my life difficult. Not that I’m worried about money.’

Con was well aware that he received a lot of financial support from Butch, but what Con didn’t know was that Butch was still in the drug game and making more than ever. It helped that Doble had been removed from the force, but bizarrely he had teamed up with Madison Mason. She had dropped out of school on her YouTuber wage, but was also earning money from selling Butch’s weed on the dark web. They marketed it as The Hungry Man’s Bush Bud.

Madison was at least doing a lot of other stuff with her channel now – raising money for better causes.

Murphy, while not happy about the whole situation, still took the extra income Butch sent his way. He wanted to prepare the perfect house for Jasmine’s return, the perfect life, and he now had a two-storey house right on the beach, with wide open windows and a rocky path to the sand, a pool, a home cinema, the cleanest kitchen, outdoor swings, a rooftop bar, and three cats – Gus the Muss, Mickey Mouse, and Meredith.

Plus the best landscaped garden in all of Port Douglas.

All it was missing was Jasmine.

And, after Jasmine returned, maybe an engagement ring on Penelope’s finger.