‘I haven’t. Not since…’ She paused. Tried to go on. Couldn’t.
Tonight she’d walked a deserted shopping mall. Tonight she’d fronted a group of very drunk youths down at the harbour to ask if they’d seen her dog.
But the place with the most fears was Kleppy’s home. Isaac’s place.
Up the mountain where Ben had been killed. To go there at night…
The last night she’d been there would stay in her mind for ever. The phone call. The rain, the dark, the smell of spilled gasoline, the sight of…
‘It’s just a place, Abby,’ Raff said gently. ‘You want to stay home while I check?’
‘I…no.’ She had to get over this. Ten years. She was stuck in a time warp, an aching void of loss. ‘I’m sorry. You must hate going up there, too.’
‘There’s lots of things I hate,’ he said softly. ‘But going up the mountain’s not one of them. It’s Isaac’s home. He was a great old guy.’
He was. She remembered Isaac the night of the accident. Of course he’d heard the crash; he’d been first on the scene. He’d been cradling Ben when she’d got there.
All the more reason to love his dog. All the more reason to face down her hatred of the place.
‘You know, you can’t block it out for ever,’ Raff said. ‘Work it through and move on.’
‘Like you have.’ She heard the anger in her words and flinched.
‘Like I try to,’ Raff said evenly. ‘It always hurts but limbo’s not my idea of a great time. You want to spend the rest of your life there?’
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
‘Meaning you’ve never come back,’ he said. ‘You’re as damaged as Sarah is in your own way.’
She shook her head. ‘No. No, I’m not. I’m fine. Just find my dog, Raff.’
‘I’ll do my best,’ he said gravely. ‘You know, taking Kleppy’s a great start. Kleppy’s forcing chinks in your lawyerish armour and I’m not so sure you can seal them up again. Let’s see if we can find him so he can go the whole way.’
Isaac’s place was locked and deserted, a ramshackle homestead hidden in bushland. Through the fence, they could see Isaac’s garden, beautiful in the moonlight, but they couldn’t get in the front gate. The gate was padlocked and a cyclone fence had been erected around the rickety pickets.
‘Isaac’s daughter’s worried about vandalism before she can get the place on the market,’ Raff said. ‘She sacked the gardener, hired a security firm and put the fence up.’ Raff headed off, striding around the boundary, searching the ground with his flashlight as well as through the fence. Abby had to run to catch up with him.
The ground was unsteady. Raff’s hand was suddenly holding hers. She should pull away-but she didn’t.
‘Call him,’ Raff said.
She called, her voice ringing out across the bushland, eerie in the dark.
‘Keep calling.’ Raff’s hand held hers, strong and warm and pushing her to keep going.
‘We’ll call from the other side,’ he said. ‘If he’s down nearer the road…’
Near the road where Ben was killed?
Move on. She did move on, and Raff’s hand gave her the strength to do it. How inappropriate was that?
But she called. And she called. And then, unbelievably…
Out through the bush, tearing like his life depended on it, Kleppy came flying. Straight to her.
She gasped and stooped to catch him and the little dog was in her arms, wriggling with joy. She was on her knees in the undergrowth, hugging. Maybe even weeping.
‘Hey, Klep,’ Raff said, and she could hear his relief. ‘Where have you been hiding?’
She hugged him tight and he licked her…then suddenly he wrenched out of her arms, backed off and barked- and tore back into the bush.
Raff made a lunge for him but he was too fast.
He disappeared back into the darkness.
‘You could have held his collar,’ Raff said, but he didn’t sound annoyed. He sounded resigned.
‘Oh, my…’ She started to run, but Raff put his hand out and stopped her.
‘We walk. We don’t run. Wombat holes, logs, all sorts of traps for the unwary in the dark.’
‘But Kleppy…’
‘Won’t have gone far,’ he said, taking her hand firmly back into his. ‘You saw him-he was joyful to see you. This is Isaac’s place, Kleppy’s territory, but I reckon you’re his now. It seems you’re his person to replace Isaac. That’s a fair responsibility, Abby Callahan. I hope you’re up to it.’
‘Just find him for me,’ she muttered.
Kleppy’s person?
She didn’t want to think about where that was taking her.
She didn’t actually want to think at all.
Kleppy had headed back down the hill. Towards the road. They were now within two hundred yards of where the cars had crashed.
It had rained this week. The undergrowth smelled of wet eucalypt, scents of the night, scents she hated.
She’d never wanted to come back here.
‘Move on,’ Raff said, holding her hand tightly. ‘You can.’ She couldn’t.
The thought that it had been Raff, the man holding her hand right now…
Raff…
She could not depend on this man. This man was dangerous; he always had been. He’d been dangerous to Ben. Now suddenly he seemed dangerous in an entirely different way.
But he was the one searching for Kleppy, not Philip.
That would have to be thought about tomorrow. For now…just get through tonight.
‘If he’s gone back down to the town…’
‘Why would he do that? This is Isaac’s place. You’re here. Everything he knows is here.’ And then, before she could respond, his flashlight stopped moving and focused.
Kleppy was fifty yards from the road. Digging? He was nosing his way through the undergrowth, pawing at the damp earth, wagging, wriggling, digging…
‘Kleppy…’ she called and started towards him.
Kleppy looked up at her-and headed back in the direction he’d come from. Back to Isaac’s.
Raff sighed.
‘You don’t make a very good cop,’ he said. ‘Letting the suspect go. Sneaking up and then breaking into a run at the last minute.’
‘What’s he doing?’ They were following him again, back through the undergrowth. Once more, Raff had her hand. She absolutely should let it go.
She didn’t.
‘I suspect he’s one very confused dog,’ Raff said. ‘He knows where Isaac lived but he can’t get in. He’s forming new bonds to you but his allegiance will be torn-he’ll still want Isaac. And what’s back there buried…who knows? Some long hidden loot, or a wombat hole, or something he sniffed on the way past and thought was worth investigating. But now… He’s weighed everything up-you, wombats, Isaac-and decided he needs to go back to his first love.’
And Raff was right. They emerged from the bush and Kleppy was waiting for them-or rather he was waiting for someone to open the gate.
His nose was pressed hard against the cyclone fencing and he whimpered as they approached. He was no longer running. He was no longer joyful to see them.
Abby knelt and scooped him up and he looked longingly at the darkened house.
‘He’s not there any more,’ she whispered, burying her nose into his scruffy coat. ‘I’m sorry, Kleppy, but I’m it. Will I do?’
‘He’ll grow accustomed,’ Raff said, and his voice was a bit rough-a bit emotional? ‘You want me to take you both home?’
She looked at the darkened house, then turned and looked out towards the road, to where Ben had been snatched from her.
