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a motor mechanic by trade, was working on. She renewed her crush on them in her final years of school, when senior students were being prepared for the workforce. She needed to clock up some job experience hours, and before long was a regular at a local smash repairs shop. And she didn’t just like it—she loved it. She would jump out of bed with a spring in her step and come home talking twenty to the dozen about all sorts of car things. After finishing school, she went back to work at the shop for a while, and by all reports was a valuable worker who colleagues labelled easily as diligent and reliable.
    Turning eighteen heralds a new independence for most young people, and Renae was no different. She decided that her coming-of-age meant she now could dictate when she went out and when she returned home. Bob and Jenny Lawrence saw it very differently. Bob didn’t care much whether his daughter was eight or eighteen—he worried just the same every time she stepped out of the house. She was his precious only child. Eventually he confronted his daughter, telling her that she had to abide by the laws he laid down while she was living at home—he expected her home at a reasonable hour.
    Renae ignored him. She would leave the house at 8 or 9 p.m. on some nights with a group of girlfriends, not returning before 2 or 3 a.m. the next morning. And,before long, Bob Lawrence had had enough: ‘I said, “No, not while you live here. I’m not going to lie at home in bed and worry about you being raped or whatever.”’ But it was the next sentence, delivered as much in haste as anger, that turned events so quickly. ‘I told her to make sure she took everything [if she left] because she wasn’t coming back. And she didn’t come back.’
    Within a short time, Renae was living with Tracie Sansom, her older and wiser lover and the mother of three young children. Renae quickly shut the door on her old world, cutting off all contact with Bob and Jenny. She had found a new place to belong. To outsiders, Renae and Tracie might have seemed the most unlikely of matches: a gullible teenager who had never had to fend for herself and an older woman who had experienced much more; a lonely young woman looking to belong and a mother busy with one son and two daughters of her own. Renae had never experienced a serious relationship, despite her family teasing her about the cute bloke at the smash repairs shop. But despite those odds, Renae fell desperately and fully in love with Tracie, insiders say. Tracie became her companion and lover, her mentor and teacher. And her partner in life.
    Renae loved her instant family, too. She felt cared for. She fitted in, and the tribe of children who would so often fill the house with squeals and laughter made her feel important. Renae was a willing volunteer when it came to helping care for the children—she regularly offered to babysit them. And she frequently mademischief with them. The children, for their part, genuinely liked the young woman who had become such a big part of their family. They respected her, but also considered her their friend.
    Life was full of fun and music and laughs, and the weeks quickly turned into months. And, before long, the months had turned into years. Renae met new friends, mainly through Tracie, and the pair of them would socialise easily, sharing a drink at the local club, sitting around Tracie’s home playing music and just talking. They’d work, and look after their animals, go to parties and do the same household chores every other young couple did.
    Bob and Jenny Lawrence were both pretty much forgotten after their daughter moved away, as Renae seemed determined to wipe out the years she had lived with them. That ate away at Bob. He believed he was owed the respect any father was, and that his daughter should acknowledge important events like birthdays and Christmas. But he played pretty much the same game, and never went out of his way to re-establish contact with