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he sounded vaguely like he’d been sucking helium. ‘And the vomit?’
    She moved to the next sample, closer to him, and squatted to attend to it. ‘Squid and octopus beaks get stuck in their sphincters. Make the seals regurgitate.’
    Of course they do. When had his ordinary day taken such a surreal twist?
    â€˜Wouldn’t want to miss any ear bones.’ His voice sounded tight, even to him, as he lifted a sample bag and braved a look.
    She seemed genuinely pleased that he’d caught on so quickly. ‘Exactly. Let me show you something.’
    If it wasn’t from a seal’s body, and if it got him away from this stench, he would follow her into the mouth of hell. He offloaded his sample to one of Kate’s assistants and followed her over to a far dry corner of the cove. She rummaged a moment and produced a laminated photograph of a small, glossy fish with googly eyes and fluorescent spots on its dark silver face. A particularly unattractive fish, but from the distant recesses of his memory he realised he knew that animal. ‘Lanternfish.’
    Her brown eyes widened. ‘Right.’
    â€˜You forget, I grew up around here.’
    â€˜Still, not a common catch. It’s a deep-sea fish. How do you know it?’
    Grant frowned. His father’s face swam in and out of his memory just as fast, but he couldn’t hold the elusive memory. ‘I have no idea. Why are they special?’
    â€˜My research shows that ninety percent of the fish coming out of these seals is lanternfish.’
    â€˜And?’
    â€˜And humans don’t eat lanternfish. Too oily.’
    It hit him then, why this mattered to her so much. ‘The seals are no threat to human fisheries.’
    â€˜None. In fact they probably help it, because our fish and their fish prey on the same smaller species. So by keeping lanternfish numbers down the seals help ensure there’s more smaller-prey fish to support the fish we haul up by the netful.’
    â€˜Thus protecting a multi-million-dollar industry.’
    â€˜Exactly.’
    Well, damn. The seals were probably essential to Castleridge’s thriving fishing industry. The same kind of feeling that he gotwhen he found the weak link in a competitor’s contract hit him, a mini-elation. Except hot on the heels of the rush came a dismal realisation, and this one sank to the bottom of his gut. ‘Who knows about this?’ he asked carefully.
    â€˜So far? My team. Leo knew. And now you know.’
    â€˜Is that why my father gave you his support?’
    â€˜It was your father that put me onto the lanternfish in the first place.’
    His gut clenched and it had nothing to do with the stench. ‘Bull.’
    She seemed surprised by his vehemence. ‘He never believed the seals were a problem. He’d watched their habits. He grew up with them too.’
    True. How could he have forgotten that? Had Leo spent the same lazy days he had as a boy, hanging out with the forbidden seals? Had he sought sanctuary there when his father went off at him?
    Her eyes gentled. ‘He was stoked when the results started coming in showing he was right.’
    That was what she’d want him to believe, to improve her case. ‘You’re telling me he was happy his land was going to be accessioned?’
    Her eyes dropped.
    â€˜I thought not.’ Look at what he’d done as a result.
    Brown almond eyes lifted to his. ‘He was conflicted, Grant. He wanted to do what was right. But he knew what it would do to the value of the farm.’
    The almighty farm, the god to which Leo McMurtrie prayed. It had always been his beginning, middle and end. ‘And now you expect me to simply follow suit?’
    Kate frowned and clutched the photograph. ‘I thought…’
    â€˜You thought this would make a difference? Why?’
    â€˜Because you’re a lawyer. You pursue justice. These animals are being unjustly persecuted