Such sudden inexplicable worry, along with an icy-cold fear that chewed inside her. As if she could feel the angst inside her husband through some telepathic bond.

Jock had been saying nonsensical things about letting the family down, the responsibility of being the fourth generation, of losing Setabilly. Making it all his fault. She suspected that despite Jock’s euphoria over their coming baby, the responsibilities of being a new father could very well tip him deeper into the spiral of depression, and she wasn’t having that.

For some reason she remembered him saying she would be excited to find out the sex. As if he wouldn’t be there. Hana pushed the throttle on the bike a little harder to increase her speed.

She saw the Polaris as she rounded a bend, rolling erratically down the hill, and then it came to a stop. Her breath eased out. Unconsciously, she slowed until she saw the vehicle was empty, oddly parked at the bottom of the hill, as if it had driven itself there. She glanced to the top of Lone Tree Hill.

When Hana first saw the thing hanging from the tree, she thought a branch had come down. It looked odd, misshapen, and it swung, jiggled, and suddenly, the full horror dawned on her.

Hana began to swear as she gunned the engine, bounced wildly across the rock-strewn paddock from rock to rock, roared up the hill and aimed for the lump. Angry, incredulous, heartbroken words poured from her lips as she swung the bike under the swinging body of her husband as he hung suspended above the ground, and she tried to let the bike take his weight.

She threw open the small tool chest on the back of the bike and reached in for the knife that was always there. When her fingers closed about the hilt, she dragged herself up until she stood, swaying unsteadily on the seat of the bike, and sawed at the tight rope at his neck, the tiny gap opening as she kept his weight off the rope. Seconds mattered. She kept her eyes on the rope, strand by strand as it separated, eyes away from Jock’s hideously purple face, and sawed, and sawed. Her grunts gasping from her mouth, her whimpers getting louder. Finally, the rope separated from the branch and Jock’s body toppled with an appalling thump onto the ground. He took her down with him, and with a gasp she fell forward and landed on top of him with a painful, solid slap and lay there stunned.

Until she heard it, under her cheek. She could hear his heart beating.

Chapter Forty-one

Zac

For Zac, no miracle had arrived with the morning he’d spent with Ava. No memories. Despite all of Ava’s efforts, Zac remembered nothing since Sydney prior to waking in the hospital in Alice Springs.

It was time to leave.