“I…I wanted to ring Mel yesterday before tea time,” said Georgina between tears, receiving a glare from her husband, confirming Bear’s suspicions that Sam had stopped her from reporting Stan missing and had possibly killed him by his actions.

‘If only there was some way I could charge you with murder!’ thought Bear.   But he knew there was no law to cover it.   He wondered whether it would be better or worse for Georgina to lose her husband as well as her brother?   But seeing her two black eyes, despite the dark glasses she wore and realising she was a bashed wife, he thought.   ‘Better off!   You’d definitely be better off without this bastard!’   He made a mental note to question Georgina again later when Sam wasn’t around, knowing, however, that there was little chance that she would testify against Sam on a wife bashing charge.   And even less chance that with Victoria’s biased laws that he could ever get a conviction against Hart.

*      *      *

The black wolf had been travelling at a steady pace for the last hour or so and was about a kilometre outside Westmoreland when he heard the distant crackling, which he recognised as a bushfire.

The wolf stopped, puzzled by the sound.   He knew the fires were not in that area.   ‘Surely I can’t have got myself that turned about?’ he thought.   Ernie had lived in the region all his life and had the bushman’s exceptional sense of direction; as the black wolf his senses were greatly heightened, so there should be even less chance of him getting lost in the dark.

The black wolf stood still for a few moments, listening to the sound, before being forced to concede that it definitely was fire crackling.   ‘But out this way?’ he thought, starting forward to investigate.

After a few minutes he came to an area where a bushfire had burnt clearly as recently as the previous day.   He trampled through the black, charcoal forest, which looked like a bizarre negative of a white Christmas scene.   Black trees stood in a forest blanketed in a black “snow” of burnt leaves and pine needles.