Page 76 of The Knitting Club at Wagtail Ridge

Bree was standing by the driver’s door.

‘Are you all right?’ She touched his arm, gently, then her hand fell away.

‘Bree.’ His voice caught in his throat and he struggled to continue. ‘I can’t thank you enough. If you hadn’t let me know …’

‘No. Never.’ It was as if she understood what he couldn’t bring himself to say out loud. ‘I was with her all the time. So was Rose. And the others. We all love Vicki and we would never let any harm come to her.’

‘Thank you.’

His hands had stopped shaking when he placed them on the steering wheel. He drove away, so grateful Vicki was with him. Wishing Bree was too.

Once safe inside their home, he managed to slip out of his daughter’s hearing and call Brian.

This time, the call was answered immediately.

‘Matt?’ His father-in-law’s voice was hesitant and that told Matt much that he needed to know.

‘She was here, Brian. She just turned up. Vicki was at the knitting club.’

‘I didn’t know, Matt. Honestly. I came home from golf and she was gone. I tried calling her but she didn’t pick up.’

‘You should have called me.’

‘I didn’t know where she was going.’

‘That’s bullshit. You knew she’d be here.’ He took a deep breath to control his anger. ‘Brian, she can’t go on like this. You know she sometimes calls Vicki by her mother’s name? I think she forgets that Kim is gone. Or she’s trying too hard to hold on to the past, before we lost her. I know you care for your wife. For her own sake, you need to get her some help. I can’t allow her to keep dragging Vicki into her problems.’

There was no answer.

Matt’s sympathy for Brian was starting to fade. Matt had watched the woman he loved die and been unable to help her. Brian could help Sally, but he wasn’t.

‘Daddy! Can I have some milk?’

Matt hit end call on his phone and slipped it back into his pocket. ‘I’m coming,’ he called.

***

The letter arrived on Tuesday. Matt knew what it was the moment it was placed into his hand by the courier. He dropped it on his desk and stared at it for a few seconds, dread settling like a dark cloud around his heart. Then he reached for the phone. Bree answered on the second ring.

‘A copy was delivered to the office in Sydney too,’ she told him. ‘My assistant is about to scan it and email it to me. Then I’ll come over.’

He waited, unable to even think about work. And still the letter remained unopened.

When she walked in the office door, with her wild hair and faded jeans and bright shirt, he felt the tension in his shoulders ease a fraction. Bree was more than a solicitor, she was a friend, and of the two, he needed the second most of all.

She sat down opposite him and looked at the unopened envelope. ‘You do need to read it.’

‘I know. But I wanted to do it while you were here, in case it needed explanation.’ That wasn’t the only reason.

‘Do it now.’

Matt opened the envelope and scanned the document inside. It began as a repeat of the first letter, accusing Matt of blocking Sally’s access to her grandchild and claiming this was grounds for a court hearing over custody. But there was something else.

Child sent away overnight … inappropriate relationship with his legal counsel … Child exposed to moral danger …

As the meaning of the words sank home, Matt looked at Bree. ‘I’m sorry she’s dragged you into this.’

‘It’s not your fault.’

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