Not that he’d ever need to dive commercially again. Ivy had been smart enough to have the abalone business set up in a family trust. All the legitimate assets had no link to the Business – the Proceeds of Crime Act couldn’t touch them.

But, even better than that, until Forest was old enough, Mackenzie would be helping manage Dempsey Abalone – a job that came with a generous salary. And there was a lot of work to do for the company to adjust to the new landscape. Mackenzie was excited about the idea of converting some of the abalone fleet into running conservation and diving tours. The town was excited by that too. The Bone Cave was drawing people from all over the world to Shacktown – more sites and artefacts were being discovered almost weekly.

There was no chance of Mackenzie going back to prison. De Corrado had spoken to the prosecutor, and they’d agreed to drop the charges against him. They’d all been in the hospital room when De Corrado broke the news. Although it was expected, in that moment Mackenzie seemed to regain some of his lost youth. Ever since then, it’d been hard to find Mackenzie Dempsey without a smile on his face. A genuine smile.

Mack came limping over to the bar and slid a large white envelope across the desk. ‘She’s signed it.’

She.

Shelby.

He’d just come from the remand prison.

‘How was she?’ asked Ahab.

‘Better today. She’s looking forward to seeing what this does.’ He tapped on the paperwork. ‘Fiona was with her, so she wasn’t too bad. It’s exactly one month today.’

The four of them fell silent. A month since Mack had killed Davey. Only Ahab and Forest knew the truth; De Corrado believed it had been Tranquil, and Shelby hadn’t said anything to contradict that version of events.

Shelby was looking at serious prison time for killing Ivy, but with all the extenuating circumstances, there was the potential for a lighter sentence, or at least bail. Fiona was acting as her lawyer, and this had been her idea. The paperwork Mackenzie had brought was the key.

Forest opened the envelope and pulled it out: forms that would make Shelby his legal guardian.

With Forest to look after, and the high-profile nature of the case, Fiona thought Shelby had a chance of having the murder charge reduced to manslaughter. Of course, Forest planned to live with Mackenzie, even if Shelby did get bail. But for now he’d agreed to pretend, to help her case.

Thankfully, none of the other crew had come forward, or mentioned anything about her. Forest felt angry knowing all of Ivy’s crew were out there somewhere, including Tranquil, but especially Frankie. He hoped one day he’d be able to find her and repay her for what she’d done to him, but he suspected De Corrado would find her first.