I didn't know if he'd meant to intimidate me, but I stepped sideways and pointed out the window. `New horse.'

  He smiled looking completely relaxed. It must have been my paranoia. Fuelled by being run off the road on purpose.

  `Is it? Nice animal. Looks like a thoroughbred.'

  `Old racehorse,' I guessed. `She rescues them.'

  His phone rang and he stepped away to take the call. He murmured into the phone then checked his watch. `Time to go. Meetings. It took me well over two hours to get up here, how long do you think it will take to get back to the city, do you think?'

  `Depends where you're going. Melbourne's a big city.'

  He was heading for the CBD and I gave him a rough guess, with traffic but no rain, downhill and not searching in unfamiliar terrain, about two and a half hours.

  He shook my hand, smiled and said, `You and Anna must join me for dinner while I'm here. I tried to persuade her last night but she was a little reticent. Still, I'm sure we can work something out. Goodbye for now.'

  I walked him out to his car. `Nice wheels.'

  `Yes, hired of course. Oh, I hope you can find yours.'

  The faintest sneer gave him away again. I nodded. `It wasn't much of a loss, but yeah, we’ll go and look for it later. At least it's not raining now.'

  I really and truly did not like Mr. Michael Bentford.

  I hunted around and finally found a jumper of Anna's that sort of fitted. Luckily I'm skinny. I found her Driza-Bone raincoat that was hanging in the utility room too. It was tight but it would do. It was bitterly cold outside, colder than you'd expect for July. Whether the snow I could feel in the air would fall here or wait till it got to Lake Mountain and beyond, who knew.

  With hunched shoulders and hands in pockets, I wandered about looking for her. She wasn't in the barn or the chicken pen where the chooks were fluffed up and staying in their perches. They weren't silly. Free range meant cold range today. The llamas and the horse were down near the dam, and Charles the donkey was in the home paddock, but Anna was nowhere to be seen. I checked the small shed where she kept her UTV, that she'd bought to replace her quad bike.

  `I don't need any more broken bones and anyway Lara didn't fit on the quad,' she said when I teased her about being staid.

  It was still there. I started to get restless. Someone had tried to kill me just the night before, and a strange, probably bad man had stayed at her place overnight. What was his call about? Business he said but did that business have something to do with Anna? Or me?

  After the rough times we'd had with murderous crooks six months earlier, anything that even faintly resembled a threat had me on high alert. We'd both nearly been killed back then, and now three more attacks meant something was up. I was damned if I was going to let either of us go through that again.

  I hurried back to the barn. If Anna wasn't there I'd call the police. This time instead of just giving the place a perfunctory look I stood at the door and yelled. Good way to start a search I thought. And it was. Anna's head bobbed up above the door of her newly built horse stall. It quickly disappeared only to reappear a minute later as she opened the door and walked out carrying a bucket and a long-handled scrubber.

  Once again I looked silly around her and her animals. The first time was when her llama Rosa was falling in love with me, terrifying me in the process. A llama is a tall animal and to have one chewing one's hair and snuffling into one’s face is a challenging experience when you've never met one before. I avoided her grin as she came towards me. She was obviously remembering that day too. My face burned. I needed a diversion.

  `New horse,' I said, waving vaguely at the open paddocks. The animals were mere spots at the furthest edge of the home paddock. Only Charles, the donkey was nearby.

  Anna's grin got bigger. `No, that's Charles. He's a donkey.'

  `Yeah, right. I saw it through the window. Faster moving than Dixie was.'

  The minute I said it I knew it was stupid. The pain of Dixie's death was still raw and Anna's face froze over. That's it, I thought, but I was wrong. After looking away for a minute, she straightened her shoulders.

  `Yes, he is. It's all right Harry. You were right. I do have enough love for another horse and Billy is it.' Her eyes gleamed but not from tears. `Isn't he beautiful? You'd never know he's nearly seventeen. He can run like the wind and I can ride him. I never liked to ride Dixie. She was just too old. Now, with Billy, it's fabulous. You can ride him too. You're skinny and—'

  `Thank you for that, Anna, but no thanks. A racehorse, even a retired one, is asking too much of my non-existent horsemanship skills.'

  `I'm offering to teach you. Idiot.'

  She put down the bucket and came over to me. I slipped my arm around her waist and she slipped hers around mine as we walked back to the house. It was comfortable, like an old coat. Like old married people get, I guess. But we'd never got to the first flush you have before you get to that point. Still, if Anna was happy with that, it would do.

  I often wondered what happened in her marriage. Surely she must have been in love with her husband. At least for a while. Before she found out about the mistress and worked out he'd married her family not her. Given that as well as the loveless childhood, no wonder she was so wary of any kind of relationship. At this stage I was happy enough with a sexual relationship that was pretty good and the occasional crumbs of affection that I got. But I longed for her eyes to light up when she saw me as they'd lit up when she talked about her new horse, Billy.

  But last night she'd come up to me and kissed me. Was that to tell her visitor, Michael Bentford that she was spoken for, or to tease him in the hope of something with him in the future? She was certainly more flirtatious last night than I'd ever seen her. Maybe I should play hard to get. But I didn't dare.

  She laughed as I struggled to get out of the too tight Driza-bone coat and together we carried in the wood to feed the fire. While I stirred the embers and got us some coffee, she sat down to a pile of papers. We didn't speak for a while but then she looked up.

  `What did you think of Michael?' she asked.

  I hedged my bets. `I don't think anything. I hardly know him.'

  `No really. You must have an opinion. You're always quick to pick up on people, so tell me.'

  `You first. Where does he come from? I mean how do you know him and when did he appear?'

  `Ah, there speaks the pressman. The `what' first. Get the facts straight ma'am, just the facts. Then we talk about the `who.'

  `And the why?'

  `The why?'

  `Yes, what, who and why is he checking you out?'

  `He's not…checking me out. His parents knew mine, that's all.'

  `Okay. Do you remember him?'

  `No.'

  `Do you remember his parents?'

  She didn't remember anything about Michael Bentford. Not even the name. He hadn't contacted her until three days ago. But he said he'd been in the country for a couple of weeks and that a girlfriend of hers had given him her number. If he was on a mission from his parents to look her up, why had it taken so long for him to contact her, and who was the girlfriend? Was she a random contact? Did he know her from somewhere and look her up specially?

  It all looked dodgy to me. Maybe there were no parents or a girlfriend? Or there were parents, but no mission from them. It was easy enough to track this down.

  `What did he say when he contacted you?'

  `Do you mind not interrogating me? I just want to know your first impression of him. Then we go look for your car.'

  `Why didn't you just ask?'

  She threw a box of tissues at me and laughed. I had a problem though. If I said I didn't like him she'd probably think I was jealous. If I didn't say I didn't like him I'd be lying and Anna's antenna for lying was as sharp as anyone I'd ever met. Especially on emotional issues. I threw caution to the wind. I'd tell her everything I thought and leave it with her.

  So I did. I went back over the attacks in Kashmir and last night and about my suspicions that the three were linked. It was a way of clearing my own mind about the sequence of events and I was revelling in it. I paused for breath eventually.

  `I only asked about Michael.'

  `Oh, yes. I don't like him or trust him.'

  She leaned back and breathed out. `Good,' she said, `I don't either.'

  11

  I stared at her, my mouth hanging open.

  `Let's go and find your car. I think Michael knew what had happened to you.' She didn't wait for me to respond. `I think he got a big shock when you walked in. He wasn't supposed to know you at all but he did. At least that's what I thought. Did you spot his reaction? What an oily bastard. So calm and smooth and all the time he knew someone was running you off the road.'

  I was speechless. I thought I was the sophisticated specialist at picking up tiny clues. Here was Anna, totally inexperienced at it, seeing straight through someone I thought was very skilled at keeping a poker face. Though perhaps a life where nobody ever said what they believed or expressed any honest emotions whatsoever had honed the same skills in her that I'd gathered from searching for hidden facts.

  I followed her out the door to get the Driza-Bone again. `What did you see?'

  `Things that shouldn't have been there. Surprise. Anger.'

  I hadn't spotted the anger. Made sense though. She was better than me. And that dropped me several notches. My smug sense of superiority at my skills was fading fast.

  Anna snatched the oilskin out of my hands. `You can't wear that, it’s too small and anyway I want to wear it.'

  She slipped it on then turned to me and cupped my face in her hands and kissed me gently on the lips. I nearly burst but held back and let her make the pace. It was the first time she'd ever offered real comfort and it was for my bruised ego. I almost, no, I did have tears in my eyes, but I blinked them away. I hoped she didn't see.

  I waited until she was walking ahead of me before I wiped my eyes. Then I pointed out that it was freezing outside and that I didn't think her too tight jumper was going to save me from hypothermia.

  `Just get in the car,' she said. `I've got it.'

  But there were no other warm clothes in the car.

  `Oh for heaven’s sake, trust me, Harry. I don't want you to freeze to death any more than you do. We're going to town first.'

  I sat back grinning. Normally it was me who said trust me. It was great she said it even if it was to tick me off. Marysville, as the last stop before the snowfields, had a couple of well stocked shops that sold exactly what I needed.

  `You understand that we won't be able to find my car,' I said on the way.

  `Why's that?'

  I gave her an outline of what had happened after I left the road, downplaying the somersaulting and rolling that got me to the rocky edge but leaving out how I nearly went down the cliff face with the car. I kept away from the shaking and terror too. I didn't want to remember that.

  `Jesus,' she said, `I thought you must have stopped much closer to the road than that. If I'm right, that rocky edge is at the top of a hundred and fifty metre drop straight down.'

  I was surprised that she'd know that. It wasn't as if she was interested in rock climbing or bushwalking.

  `How do you know about that? I mean, my car was rolling and sliding for ages before it fetched up there. It's pretty far off the beaten track I'd have thought.'

  `If it's where I think it is, it's on a track. It follows the outcrop for several kilometres and that cliff face is very popular for rock climbers in summer. It's very touristy round here, you know. There's a creek at the bottom as well. But it has to be accessed from the ends. One end is down near the creek where there's a hut and the other is further up the hill and begins at a carpark.'

  `All very civilised then except in a dark and stormy night in mid-winter.'

  `Where you must have gone over is the steepest part of the mountain along the entire path. Climbing up where you did to come out near my turn off is almost impossible.'

  `Tell me about it,' I murmured.

  It meant that whoever pushed me over must have spent time researching to find the best place to do it and knew I was coming to Anna's place and when. The weather was just a bonus for the bastards. Somebody had talked to somebody. Someone who knew about Anna and me. While quite a few people knew about Anna, hardly anyone knew I was coming up to see her yesterday. I didn't believe that my friends like Greg had any sinister designs on me or Anna but someone they spoke to did.

  Strangers in a bar? Hardly. It had to be someone who worked with us. Another fucking David Bale. He'd been a weak link. It was through him I found out about Mladenovic being involved in whatever it was. Was Michael Bentford another one? I had to find out more about him. Quickly.

  First I also had to get more clothes and while I couldn't replace my computer, I could use my phone in its place and after I picked up a new charger to take the place of the one that was at the bottom of a two hundred metre cliff. That should be possible though. Everyone forgot their phone chargers when they went for weekends in the snow.

  I was right and we left the town with a phone charger, food for the weekend and some great new and very expensive winter gear for me. Like all resort towns the shops make the most of the season. The clothes included an oilskin coat, an anorak, a thick woollen jumper, some heavy boots and thermal underwear. I decided I didn't need new pyjamas. If I was desperate I could always deal with Bentford's bugs. I'd started out yesterday morning with everything except the oilskin and the thermals which meant some summer tourist would find a set of winter clothes still in my crushed car. I hoped they enjoyed them.

  I persuaded Anna that it would be futile to try and find my car particularly as the rain was starting again and we'd be better off at home. Since that first terrible time I felt that somehow Anna's place was my place too. It wasn't of course but I always felt a sort of homecoming when I turned into her road. It was far more welcoming than my dim little flat in Southbank.

  I was desperate to see if Beverley had found out anything about Bentford. She had. The Bentfords were an old upper-crust English family. Wealthy and influential until relatively recently. That meant until the nineteen seventies when death duties almost sent the family to the wall. They were saved by the daughter of the house's marriage to a mysterious and wealthy foreigner in 1976.

  The couple stayed in England until the birth of their only child, Michael, then moved to the south of France. Apparently the husband took his wife's name when they married but Beverley couldn't find out what his real name was. So Michael Bentford was his legal name. I needed someone in the British government offices to find out what Michael Bentford's father's real name was. I bet it was Vlado Mladenovic.

  I got up and paced around the room until Anna threw a cushion at me. She'd finished all her bookkeeping and was ready to go out to check on the animals and any other pressing farm needs. Normally I'd be stamping at the door to join her but this had me stymied. Who on earth did I know who could get me official legal documents in the UK?

  When I explained my frustration Anna made it simple.

  `Why don't you ask Michael's mother?'

  I immediately texted Beverley, then we headed out into a brisk but now intermittently sunny day. Indeed, the heavy snow laden clouds of the early morning had blown away over the mountains leaving huge puffy cumuli-nimbus clouds and wide patches of blue sky behind. It was still very cold but sunlight on our faces made it bearable.

  The ground was soggy, so it was slow going as we tracked across the paddocks to where the llamas and Billy were grazing. Lara, the dog came racing up ahead of other animals when she heard the UTV's motor. Billy, the new horse was the last to arrive but I lost sight of him because Rosa was affectionately slurping all over my face as usual. It can be really trying to be a llama's love object. Anna jumped off the bike, grabbed the horse's bridle and led him over to me, slapping Rosa on the nose.

  `Leave him alone, Rosa, he's mine,' she said. The tall llama stalked away in a huff. `Here Harry, meet Billy, the only other male on the place.'

  `Except for Charles and are you sure?' I checked Billy's credentials. He may have started life as a male, as had Charles, but neither fully filled the criteria anymore.

  `Oh, pshaw. They have Y chromosomes, so they are compared with the rest of us.'

  `Bar one,' I said grinning and kissing her cheek.

  She didn't pull away but she nuzzled the big nose of the old black horse before looking back at me.

  `Isn't he sweet, Harry? He's the gentlest creature, see his kind eyes and he loves a snuggle too.'

  `Just keep him out of my hair,' I said trying to pat down the mess Rosa had made of it.

  `Come and give him a pat then.'

  I reached towards the horse's nose and he tossed his head about alarmingly. The kind eyes didn't look all that kind as he whinnied at me.

  `I don't think I've won this heart.' I backed away.

  Anna took my hand and pulled me back. Then she showed me how to offer my hand under the horse's nose so he could sniff at it. Then she slid it up the side of his nose until I could pat him.

  `If you come towards a horse and raise your hand in front of his face he sees that as a threat. He doesn't know you mean well. So you sort of sneak up to him and talk, too. All that stuff about horse whisperers is true. The voice soothes them. They're prey animals so they're edgy.'

  I felt she was talking as much about humans, particularly us, as she was about animals. I was very edgy right now and I was certain she should be too. We were in somebody's crosshairs and like the horse we had to be ready to react especially to enemies that crept up on us.

  I stood and watched as Anna checked out the llamas' coats for twigs and burrs, double checked the old horse's coat buckles and fondled Lara. She was in her element amongst them. I could almost see the love she had for them all leaving her body like cloud and wrapping around them. It had almost reached me when the phone vibrated in my pocket.

 

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