Miriam looked at me. "I don't know if I can do this."

I wasn't sure either. "You have to. You'll be fine."

"But I don't really have money. Why should he hand over Jonah?"

"As far as we know there are police all around. You'll be protected." I just had to take on trust that the police were in control. I couldn't see any of them. I dearly wished I could be alongside her with my gun.

I watched as she walked up the hill to the trees. A cloud of grey smoke hung in the air above her. She disappeared from sight. For about thirty seconds it appeared as if time was standing still. Nothing was happening.

But then I clearly heard gunshots, followed by Miriam screaming.

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE.

I raced up to the trees. Over to one side I saw a man-presumably a police officer-lying on the ground, with several people tending to him. Smoke swirled around them.

I found Miriam sitting alone under one of the trees. Her arm was bleeding.

"Miriam," I cried. "What happened?"

"He saw the police," she said. "I could see them too. I can't believe it. They weren't hidden. They were coming to get him. He just shot wildly."

"You're bleeding..."

"He started shooting and I felt this pain in my arm. But look..." She swung her arm. "It's okay. It stings, but I think it must be just grazed. There's only a little blood."

I looked around. A tall policewoman was running through smoke up the hill to us. "We have an officer seriously injured," she said, pointing back to the man on the ground. "We have to look after him. My information is that the assailant has escaped. There's some massive back-up on the way. Dogs and a helicopter. We want you down below at the operation center." It seemed she only then noticed Miriam's wound. "You're bleeding."

"It's just a scratch. I'm okay."

"Can you walk down the hill? Do you need help? We have an ambulance and first-aid."

"I'm fine. But you must get Grapper. Please. He still has my boy. He ran off that way." She pointed to the pathway through the trees. "Over there."

"Yes, we know. Back-up is coming. Massive back-up. But we have to look after our colleague. I'll help you down to the road."

"I'll be fine," said Miriam. "Really."

"You need someone to help you down."

"Johnny will help me."

The officer glanced at me, then looked back at her wounded colleague. "Okay. But take care. I want you down as quickly as possible. And don't worry about your boy. We'll soon have this place surrounded."

As soon as the woman was out of earshot Miriam looked at me with urgency: "He's run off with Jonah. I want you to get him."

Get Grapper? Get Jonah? Kill Grapper? Capture him? I wasn't sure what she was asking of me.

"I want Jonah," she said, as if comprehending my thoughts. "That's all I care about. I hate that man. I thought I could be reasonable with him. Come on Johnny. You have your gun?"

I nodded, surprised at her question.

"They went that way." She stood and pointed at a track running up through the trees. "Grapper and Jonah. See, I'm fine. I'm not hurt. Johnny, I'm sorry about all the things I said yesterday. You can't imagine how stressed I've been. But you must get Jonah. Quickly. Before all the police reinforcements arrive. I don't trust them at all. They don't seem to know what they're doing. And they're just going to come in with all guns blazing now that Grapper's shot one of their men."

Through rolling smoke I could see that a stretcher had arrived and two men and two women were struggling down the hill with their fallen colleague.

"Come on," said Miriam, starting up the track. "They ran up here. Though they weren't running. He had a bad limp. He looked as if even walking was difficult." She led me up a track that ran deeper into the trees. And then abruptly we found ourselves at the hill summit, looking down on a steep and heavily forested slope. The track now coursed downwards.

We continued walking, and it was after about one hundred yards that suddenly the trees seemed to open up. Through the smoky haze a grand, sweeping vista of forest and river appeared before us. We could also make out segments of a zigzag track leading down to what seemed to be the bottom of a valley.

It was then that I spotted movement way below us. "Look." I pointed downwards. A couple of figures were moving quite slowly down the track.

Miriam peered down. "It's them. I'm sure it's them." It was just a fleeting glimpse, for as she spoke they moved under trees and were gone from our view. "Come on."

We continued down the steep track, twice sliding on the bark surface and tumbling to the ground in tandem. We were nearly at the bottom when the trees opened again and once more the landscape of trees and river spread out before us. I could even see what appeared to be the remains of an abandoned home.

And it was with a start that suddenly I realized that we were looking down on The Boss, the old derelict house where Rad and many others enjoyed their first kiss.

Could this be Grapper's hideout? It seemed that it might be.

We got closer to the high fence that surrounded the house. And there they were, Grapper and Jonah, on the other side. Grapper looked exhausted. He was seated on a fallen tree, his body slumped forward. Jonah was standing nearby.

At last I had a clear shot, and it was the easiest of shots-a large man in full view, motionless apart from his heaving belly. This loathsome man, this man I had come to despise in just a few days, was about to be captured.

Holding the gun, I rested my right hand on my left wrist, in a classic shooting stance. "I'm going to shoot him in the shoulder. Then in the leg."

"Kill him. Kill him. I don't care." Miriam seemed to be crying. She was staring hard at the haggard figure. In a cracked voice she pronounced: "Mr John La Vinne. You are a dead man."

I started.

Then I turned to her. "What did you say?"

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR.

"Get him, Johnny," said Miriam in a low but urgent voice. "While he's right down there in clear view. Before he moves..." Her face was flushed. Tears dotted her cheeks.

"What did you say? Just now. What did you call him?"

"His name."

"I thought it was Grapper."

"It is, but..."

"You called him something else. What did you call him? I want you to repeat it."

"It's his real name. Of course Grapper is just a nickname-what everyone calls him. Johnny, why?"

"Say it again. His real name."

"John La Vinne."

"Say it again."

"What...?"

"Say it again."

"John La Vinne. I named Jonah after him..."

"And he's an Australian..."

"Johnny. Quick, you have to get him."

"You told me he's Australian. Was he in the army? The Australian army?"

"Johnny, why are you asking...?"

"Was he an Australian soldier?"

"Yes, that's what he told me."

"In East Timor?"

"I don't know. He told me he'd been to East Timor lots of times. He had a special feeling for the place. A passion for the place."

My mind was swirling. I tried to concentrate. I spoke in an urgent whisper. "Miriam. I want you to walk back up the track and over the hill. There'll be police everywhere. Probably wondering where you are. I don't know why they haven't found us already."

"Johnny, what are you talking about?"

"Go back. Find the police. Get your arm looked at. And tell them you don't know where Grapper and Jonah went. That you lost them."

She looked at me, and then peered down at Grapper, now seated on a log. "I want Jonah."

"I'll get Jonah back. I promise. I promise with all my heart. But I have to go and talk to that man."

"Talk to him?"

"I think my father was John La Vinne."

"Your father? Johnny, that's..."

"I have to get in there."

"Johnny, I can't believe this. What are you saying? He'll shoot you. He's desperate."

"I'm going down to talk to him. Now quickly, go back to the police."

"No, I..."

"Go," I shouted, and I pointed the gun at her. "Now."

Down below us, Grapper clearly heard my voice. He looked in our direction. I don't know if he could see us, but he quickly darted from sight.

Miriam's face was a mixture of anger, confusion and despair.

I pulled away the gun. "Go quickly," I said. "Before he starts shooting at us. He's seen us. But don't tell the police where we are. Say that you don't know where Grapper and Jonah went. Or me."

She peered down at the spot where Grapper had been sitting. She looked at my gun and then she looked me in the eye. She seemed about to say something but more tears appeared. Without a word she started moving back up the path to the summit.

I walked down to the bottom of the track and the fence ringing The Boss. I stood behind a tree. Then I cried out: "Grapper, I need to talk to you."

I waited. There was no response.

"John La Vinne," I called out. "Lieutenant John La Vinne."

Again I heard nothing.

I shouted again. "I'm a friend of Miriam's. I'm not a policeman. I'm from East Timor. My father was an Australian named John La Vinne. I have to talk to you."

I waited.

Still I heard nothing. I wondered if he had fled after realizing that he was being observed.

I tried again. "I was watching you from up on the track. I have a gun, but I didn't shoot. I want to talk. I'll throw the gun over the fence."

At that moment a powerful arm encircled my neck, all but cutting off my breathing. I felt something hard pushing into the small of my back.

"Drop the gun," said a harsh voice I recognized as Grapper's. "Then raise your arms slowly in the air. Do it right now or I shoot."

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE.