I could have loved Jack. I stood once in hot dam water while steam rose. I gasped for breath when all the oxygen was sucked from the air. Jack came for me then. Could I have survived on my own? I didn’t know. But I had to survive this.

Looking uncertain, Jack re-entered the witness box. ‘Captain Laskin, you’ve been recalled to answer one more question,’ Douglas told him. ‘You say you saw Caleb near Brunton?’

Jack nodded.

‘There’s something we didn’t ask you at the time.’

My world teetered. Until Jack admitted that Shirley was near the fossicker’s hut, the magistrate could easily believe I lied to protect my son.

‘Your tanker was sent to a blaze at Linlithgow. But you were in Anzac Avenue, Brunton.’

‘Yes.’

‘You weren’t with your tanker?’

Jack gripped the stand. He’d realised where the questions were going, and why. I knew his body. I was sure his heart was racing, that he was aware of a

thump thump thump

beneath the careful creases of his white shirt. There would be prickles of sweat along his hairline.

‘I wasn’t with my tanker,’ he said. ‘I was in another CFA vehicle conducting inspections…’

‘At 4.30?’

‘Yes.’

‘Conducting an inspection because of…?’

‘Because we received a report of smoke coming from Anzac Avenue.’

‘Captain Laskin, I’m passing you a record of phone calls made that afternoon. I’ve highlighted one particular call.’

Jack looked down.

‘What time was that phone call made, Captain Laskin?’

Jack had frozen.

‘Phone records say the phone call was received at 4.20 pm. Is that correct?’

Jack nodded and needed a reminder to speak. ‘Yes,’ he said.

‘You were in fact near Anzac Avenue at the time? And as you came into Anzac Avenue, driving to the flames, did you see anyone leaving the area?’

Jack’s skin had gone white, the way I hadn’t seen it blanch since the heat of the fire. ‘I did,’ he admitted. ‘I saw Caleb Wharton.’

Several faces gazed at the dock. Caleb blinked, slowly.

‘This isn’t what you said before. You have a relationship with the accused. Are you telling the court everything now?’

Charles Scott stood, looking perplexed. This evidence seemed likely to clear rather than convict. ‘Does my learned colleague have a specific question?’

Douglas glared at him then focussed the expression on Jack. ‘You saw Caleb Wharton near the fossicker’s hut? The court asks, what were you doing there?’

Silence. Nina’s eyebrows slowly rose. Charles’s confusion fled, replaced by outrage.

Douglas continued. ‘Your mother was seen in the vicinity. I suggest that what you were doing was…’

‘My mother was seen…?’ Jack gave me a desperate look that asked for help, perhaps because I understood mothers and sons. He didn’t know what I’d already told the court. His ignorance couldn’t last.