He pulled the curtain back from the small window. The sun was up. A wide blue sky with nothing in its way. The beach was empty; just a few gulls down on the shore. They didn’t see many people: the odd surfer, or the occasional tourist clambering down over the dunes from the road. The locals knew to avoid this stretch of water, where the Snowy River flowed out to sea, meeting waves ten feet high from the south. You never knew when the current would shift, when a southerly would pick up. More dangerous than beautiful, to most people’s minds.

Mandy had loved it here. He’d brought her down to be sure she was the woman he should marry, to see how she felt about this place that for him was perfect. She hadn’t wanted to leave.

‘Come on, then.’ He lifted William onto his knee. His nappy was wet but he was hungry, so he let him drink his milk. ‘Wait there,’ Steve said, once he’d finished. He sat the boy down on the floor with the empty bottle. ‘Let me get your clean nappy. Get you nice and dry.’

William sat with his legs outstretched and hit the bottle against the timber floor, laughing at the noise. Steve stood and watched him. He’d be crawling next. All that strength in his small body, all that life.

‘You’re getting big, mate,’ Steve said.

The boy held one arm in the air and shrieked in reply.

‘Getting noisy, too.’

William laughed. He had a helpless laugh when he got going. Steve leaned forward and tweaked his little nose between his fingers, making him laugh harder.

‘You’re a big, noisy bloke, ain’tcha?’

The boy fell quiet and his face became preoccupied. There was a bad smell.

‘Oh, mate. You didn’t.’

He did. The stink was something shocking. Steve opened the door and let a cool breeze in off the ocean. The clean nappies were strung out to dry at the window, so he lifted one down and caught a clear view of the beach. There was somebody there, crossing the sand. A man was walking towards them purposefully, looking up at the cabin, moving with great, slow strides. It was like looking at himself. Ankle boots, blue uniform; police badge.

Steve dropped the nappy to the floor. Fear thumped hard inside him.

William looked up at him and laughed, cocked his head, expecting a response. Steve considered, in a panic, whether he could hide the child, if he could keep the cop outside, if he could meet him on the beach. William squealed, loud and high-pitched.

The cop saw him through the window and quickened his pace as Steve made for the door. The latch was stiff; he pulled it down but he knew it wouldn’t hold and there was no time to find the key. He heard the cop’s feet in the sand, getting closer. His grunt of effort as he shoved the door from the outside. The latch snapped under his weight. Steve pushed back against him from the inside, feeling his equal force, his strength. The door inched open and the cop jammed his boot in the gap.