Leon frowned. ‘How long has that been going on?’

‘Maybe a few weeks.’

‘The family isn’t very well off. Maybe he doesn’t get pocket money.’

‘Someone left ten dollars on the counter a couple of weeks ago. I thought it might have been him.’

‘Could have been,’ Leon said. ‘I gave him ten dollars. Maybe he’s trying to make amends. Do you think he could be stealing to impress his mates? Boys do that sometimes.’

‘I don’t know. It’s not like him. Could you talk to him?’

‘I can try.’

‘That would be great. I’d hate him to get into trouble.’

The road had been climbing as they drove, and now it broke from the forest onto a rolling plain where peaks with jagged spines poked out of the heath like bones. Miki drew breath, and her thoughts about Max melted away. She’d never been above the tree line before, and it was like being lifted to another level, as if the lid had been peeled off the landscape. She could see the whole sky.

The weather seemed to be clearing. Tendrils of mist still clung to the tops, but most of the cloud had dissolved. The plain was studded with grasses and low bushes, the occasional white outlines of stunted dead trees. It was stark but beautiful. She loved the way the mountains seemed to graze their shoulders against the sky. ‘It’s amazing.’

Leon was smiling. ‘You like it up here?’

‘I love it.’

‘Let me show you something then.’ He pulled over at a turnout. ‘Come on. We have to walk a little. It’s not very far.’

She followed him along a trail that plunged through tall heath before opening onto a boardwalk, winding across the plain where the scrub grew low and spiny. Clumps of grass shivered and swayed, and Miki thought of the moors above Wuthering Heights where Cathy and Heathcliff had roamed. They had loved country like this; it had connected them. Jane Eyre had loved it too: she had traipsed the wild moors near Thornfield Hall where she’d met Mr Rochester and frightened his horse. Later, she had fled across the high country with a bruised heart after discovering his secret. Later still, she’d heard his ghostly voice on the wind just as St John Rivers was asking her to become a missionary. Now Miki could see why these characters had loved the high country so much. It spoke to her soul. She felt energy and strength in the wind and the rocks.

As Leon strode ahead, she noticed lightness in his gait. He must like it up here too. Maybe this was his place.