Tom saw her before she saw him. A tall woman with a mess of brown hair, some strands turned gold by the back verandah spotlight. The elbow of her moss-coloured cardigan was torn and leaves clung to the grubby wool.
‘Tom?’ She hammered on his back door, then she walked along to the kitchen window and rapped on that, too. Then she called through Poe’s gap, ‘Tom, are you in there?’
‘I’m here,’ he said quietly from the shadows.
She whirled around. Grime and tear trails streaked her cheeks and she’d bitten her lips raw. Her eyes were red-rimmed, huge and shining with tears as she found him in the darkness.
He was across the verandah in two strides, pulling her against him. There were no words in his mind, only an urgency to wrap her up, hold her safe. Find a way to soothe whatever had upset her, the way he’d done that day under the tree. But this wasn’t like before. She wasn’t simply rattled. Something had happened and by the look of her, she’d borne the brunt of it. He gently touched her face.
‘Honey, what is it?’
‘I found Shayla. Thanks to you, in a way. That document you sent put me on the right trail, and I found her. She’s alive and safe with her mum, thank God, but she—’ Her face crumpled. ‘And Lil was . . . she’s— Oh, Tom.’
Taking her hand, Tom led her over to the redwood bench where – exactly a week ago – she had confessed her fears for a young girl’s life. But tonight as he sat beside her in silence, she unravelled a different story. How she had found Frankie’s diary, and then confronted Lil about what she’d read in it. How she had followed Lil and finally found the logging hut. And then afterwards, when Lil had understood the truth of what she’d done . . .
As Abby finished speaking, she deflated like a rag doll. Tom drew her against him, smoothing her hair as she nestled close. After what Abby had been through tonight, she would need time to heal. Time to let the scar tissue grow over her heart. To process what had happened and make her peace with it. And as much as he wanted to hold her close and comfort her, to safeguard her with everything he was – he also understood that there were some things a person just had to face alone.