Douglas continued. ‘Phoebe Wharton testifies that your mother escaped – sorry, left – her retirement community, across Damper Creek from the Wharton residence, and that you were in fact looking for her.’

‘She saw me?’ Confusion, circling the courtroom like a buzzard, settled on Jack. ‘She never mentioned that before.’

‘Are you saying you weren’t there?’

For one long moment, Jack faced a decision. ‘I was there,’ he admitted, finally. ‘Yes. I was looking for my mother.’

Douglas sucked in his breath. I sucked in mine. I looked at the magistrate. Don’t miss the significance of this. The court audience was wide-eyed. One reporter silently moved her lips. Two scribbled furious notes.

‘The fire wasn’t arson.’ Jack addressed the magistrate directly now. ‘Caleb isn’t an arsonist. Neither is my mother. The fire had natural causes. As I testified before.’

‘Your Honour, the Crown cannot be successful in proving that my client committed arson,’ Douglas summarised, before Nina Haynes made her final decision. ‘The Crown asks, if Caleb is not guilty, then why did he react the way he did to being questioned? The defence responds that Caleb was a young man trapped and confused and out of his depth. He simply didn’t know what to do.’

He encouraged the court to look at Caleb, who managed to project confusion like it was his art form.

‘Now it turns out, there is doubt about whether the fire was deliberately lit at all,’ Douglas continued. ‘If it was arson, there is more evidence about other suspects than about my client. Therefore, you should acquit Caleb Wharton of all charges.’

Sadie Riley laughed, apparently playing a game on her mobile phone.

Jack strode towards his ute. I grabbed his arm. ‘Jack, I’m sorry.’

He shook me away. ‘I’m sorry too. I trusted you.’ The gesture wounded me, not physically. In every way, he had only ever been gentle with me.

‘Don’t be like—’

‘Don’t be like what?’ He concentrated on his car lock. ‘Phoebe, I have to get to the Retirement Home. There are reporters there, trying to speak to Mum.’

Wow.

I stepped closer. There would be no more mornings waking up with my head on his chest, feeling safe. ‘I am sorry. I had no choice.’

Jack sat in his seat, turned on the ignition. ‘There are always choices. Always consequences. By the way, thanks for returning my mother’s poems, my bulldog lighter. Now you need to return everyone else’s things.’

I was frozen to the spot.

We could have loved each other.

‘You aren’t subtle.’ He held my eye now. Fiercely. Angrily. This was hatred. Perhaps always waiting on the other side of love. ‘I’m pretty sure Leanne Beckwith also knows about your theft. I had hoped to help you. Once this blew over.’

I couldn’t bear it.

‘You were going to let Caleb go to jail.’ My words came out, deep and full of poison.