Forest was caught off guard. The note. Where was the note? He looked down – still crumpled in his hand. He couldn’t let them see it.

‘Forest? What happened? Are you okay? Did someone take you from Ivy’s?’

‘No,’ he said, fighting to show her the beaten boy she expected to see. It wasn’t hard tonight – he was rattled.

He closed his eyes.

‘I went for a walk,’ he said. He put his hands behind his back, slipping the letter down the back of his shorts. ‘I wanted to . . . what’s the point being free if I can’t walk around my home town?’

‘What do you mean, free?’ she said. ‘Were you kept locked up before?’

Shit. He didn’t want to give them any hints that they might take too seriously. Unless . . . could he use this?

‘I . . .’ Think, Forest. Think. ‘I feel safe in Shacktown. Not like Hobart. That’s a . . . bad place. I didn’t like being stuck in Hobart. I had to get out of that city, I had to run away . . .’

‘Hobart?’

‘Please,’ he whispered. ‘I want my grandmother.’

‘Yes, okay,’ said Linda gruffly, dragging him to the door. ‘Stick by me, can’t have you running off again.’ He heard Zeus barking, and then the dog came bounding up to him. Lights in Safe Harbour flicked on.

The immediate threat averted, Forest’s mind returned to the note he’d been given. And who it was he might have seen down by the boulder field.

CHAPTER 23

AHAB

Ahab sat on his balcony, smoking a cigarette, his morning swim complete. He shared the view with a bleary-eyed De Corrado, who was sipping a coffee.

The lights of Shacktown shimmered in the rising twilight, the roof of the Mermaid’s Darling creaking as it warmed up.

‘So they’ve all just left?’

He’d watched a number of unmarked police cars drive out of town – the inn was on one of the major thoroughfares.

‘Not all of them, but most,’ said De Corrado. ‘We’re not beat cops, we’re CIB. Given how the boy has relaxed after coming back to Shacktown, it suggests being in Hobart was causing him all that distress we observed. That means Hobart’s the place to pick up the trail, and so that’s where the resources are going.’

She pulled her knees to her chest, resting her heels on the seat of the chair, her black hair tangling in the wind.

‘I just hope being here and feeling safe means Forest will open up soon. I still think that’s how we solve what happened to him. But we can’t have one of ours with him all day. Although even when there is a detective or a uniform with him, Ivy keeps getting in the way.’

‘She has a right to,’ said Ahab.

‘You’re defending her?’