Chapter 13 ('12') Summary, Analysis, and Key Themes

⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.

Summary

Percy has been walking for an hour when he enters the wooded grove bordering Merlin Stamp's property, deliberately avoiding the main roads and streetlights. He recognises that he is behaving like a man with something to hide. The dense bushland—candle bark gums, stringybarks, and silver banksias—feels wild and untouched, and he recalls the local rumours about Stamp, tales of buried bodies and vanished children that his own sons once used to frighten each other.

As he moves through the trees, Percy is drawn back to a memory from five or six years earlier. He had been assessing the area for fire risk when he spotted what he believed to be a platypus—a creature long thought extinct in these parts. While recording the sighting, he noticed Isabel Turner arguing with her husband across the gorge. Her rigid posture and animated gestures made her anger unmistakable, even from a distance. Percy was transfixed, partly because he and Meg never fought like that.

A young girl—Evie Turner, around five years old—suddenly appeared beside him, asking about his sketch. She showed him her own nature drawings and declared she would become a scientist. She corrected him when he called the yellow flowers simply 'wattle,' insisting they were golden wattle, and told him that wattle seeds are germinated by bushfires. She also revealed a defiant streak, announcing that she was Australian and would not be moving to England no matter what her English mother thought. Then she ran off to join her parents, leaping over fallen logs with surprising ease.

The memory dissolves into a far darker image: the same child lying still on a picnic blanket that very afternoon, a line of ants crawling over her wrist. Percy retches against a tree trunk, overwhelmed by sickness and grief.

He presses on, crossing onto Turner land by slipping beneath a fence, choosing the longer, more concealed route. He realises he is retracing his steps in search of the little carved wooden wren he lost—a gift chosen with love that he desperately wants to recover. As he walks, his thoughts turn to Meg. She would have liked six children; she had been a natural mother, even during the difficult years with Marcus. Percy remembers how she would soothe crying babies that he could not settle. After Marcus, Meg had hoped for another child—a daughter, though she never said so aloud. She kept a glory box filled with treasured items, including a collection of soft pink cashmere yarn she had bought in Sydney months after they lost their little girl, insisting they would one day be glad of it. But no more children came, and Percy privately wonders whether his own secret longing for a different life had somehow been punished.

Meg eventually let go of her hopes and became mother to the town instead. She knitted bootees and jumpers for local children—Percy once counted nine children at church wearing her creations—and she listened patiently to the troubles of the women who came to the shop. Even Isabel Turner had sat across the card table in the back room, dabbing at her eyes while Meg spoke to her in a quiet voice.

When Percy reaches the picnic site, he finds it transformed. The storm has turned the ground into a mudslide, erasing every footprint. The picnic items have been removed, and the crib is gone from beneath the willow tree. He thinks of the Turners lying cold in the Adelaide morgue and retches again. He also thinks of baby Thea Turner, the newest child in Tambilla, and how Meg had knitted yellow bootees for her and taken a particular shine to the infant. Meg had even remarked that if Kurt and Matilda were to have a baby, she would look a bit like Thea—a comment that made Marcus throw a flour bag in disgust. Percy secretly sympathises with his son's reaction; he does not want Kurt to settle down to fatherhood before he has travelled and studied and made the most of his abilities.

A stab of terror hits Percy as he recalls Sergeant Duke noting Kurt's name. He tells himself his son had nothing to do with the Turners' deaths, but he is desperate to keep Kurt safe while the police investigate.

Kneeling at the site where the family had lain, Percy finally allows himself to feel the full weight of what he discovered that afternoon. Tears fall. Then something shifts—a noise, an instinct. He switches off his torch and stands very still. The hairs on the back of his neck rise. He knows, with certainty, that he is being watched.

Key Events

Percy takes a concealed route through the bush, aware that he is acting secretively.
He recalls his first encounter with Evie Turner, who showed him her sketchbook and spoke passionately about golden wattles and her Australian identity.
He is haunted by the image of Evie's body on the picnic blanket.
He crosses onto Turner land to search for the lost carved wooden wren.
He reflects on Meg's grief over their lost baby girl and her transformation into a mother figure for the whole town.
He reaches the picnic site and finds it erased by the storm—no footprints, no crib, no wren.
He thinks about baby Thea Turner and Meg's particular fondness for her.
He kneels at the site, feels the full weight of his grief, and then realises he is being watched.

Character Development

Percy emerges as a man carrying multiple burdens. His decision to walk the back way out of town and his reluctance to let Meg know he has been out reveal a secretive side that sits uneasily with his usual openness. His flashback to Evie shows him as a gentle observer, struck by the child's intelligence and defiance, and his visceral reaction to her death demonstrates the depth of his shock. His reflections on Meg's lost baby and his own guilt about that loss add a layer of private sorrow. Most tellingly, his fear for Kurt—prompted by Sergeant Duke noting the boy's name—shows a father desperate to protect his family from a threat he cannot yet name.

Meg, though absent from the scene, is vividly drawn through Percy's memories. Her maternal longing, her grief over the lost baby girl, and her quiet transformation into a community mother are all revealed. The detail of the pink cashmere yarn, kept for years in her glory box, speaks to a hope she never fully abandoned. Her kindness to Isabel Turner, listening without judgment over tea, shows the same gentle nature that made her a confidante to the town.

Evie Turner, in the flashback, is given a brief but memorable portrait: bright, curious, and fiercely proud of being Australian. Her correction of Percy's 'wattle' to 'golden wattle' and her insistence that she will not live in England foreshadow the tension in her family and make her death all the more tragic.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

Secrecy and concealment run throughout the chapter. Percy moves through the dark, avoiding streetlights, slipping beneath fences, and hiding his movements from Meg. The bush itself feels secretive, full of unseen creatures and whispered rumours about Merlin Stamp.

Grief and loss are central. Percy's retching at the memory of Evie's body, his tears at the picnic site, and his reflections on Meg's lost baby all circle the same wound. The erased picnic site—mud where footprints once were—becomes a symbol of loss made worse by the impossibility of recovering what has been taken.

Maternal longing is embodied in Meg's glory box, her pink yarn, and her fondness for baby Thea. Her transformation into 'mother to the town' suggests a redirection of her unfulfilled desire.

Australian identity is voiced by Evie in the flashback, as she proudly claims her nationality against her English mother's wishes. The landscape itself—the gums, the wattles, the dingoes—reinforces a sense of place that is both beautiful and threatening.

Suspicion and dread build steadily. The rumours about Merlin Stamp, the howling dingoes, the lightning, and finally the sense of being watched all contribute to an atmosphere of unease.

Erasure of evidence is a striking motif: the storm has washed away every trace of the police investigation, the crib has been removed, and the wren is lost. The chapter suggests that the truth itself may be slipping away.

Why This Chapter Matters

This chapter deepens the mystery in several crucial ways. It establishes Percy as a potential suspect in the reader's mind—his secretive behaviour, his presence at the scene, and his fear of Sergeant Duke's interest in Kurt all raise questions. At the same time, it humanises him through his grief and his love for Meg, making him a sympathetic figure.

The flashback to Evie Turner is significant because it gives the dead child a voice and a personality, making her loss feel more real and more painful. It also hints at tensions within the Turner family—Isabel's fear of bushfires, her Englishness, and Evie's defiance—that may prove relevant to the mystery.

The chapter also introduces the possibility that Percy is not alone in the bush. The final image of him standing in the dark, certain he is being watched, raises the stakes and suggests that someone else knows more than they are letting on.

Study Questions and Answers

1. Why does Percy take the back way out of town, and what does this reveal about his state of mind?

Percy takes the concealed route because he wants to avoid streetlights and other people. He recognises that he is acting like a man with something to hide, which suggests he feels guilty or implicated in some way—perhaps because he discovered the bodies, perhaps because he fears being connected to the crime. His decision to search for the wren rather than go home also shows that he is struggling to process the day's events and needs to recover something tangible from the chaos.

2. How does the flashback to Evie Turner deepen our understanding of the tragedy?

The flashback gives Evie a distinct personality: bright, curious, and fiercely proud of her Australian identity. Her correction of Percy's 'wattle' and her declaration that she will not live in England reveal a child who was confident and outspoken. Seeing her alive and full of life makes her death on the picnic blanket far more affecting. The flashback also hints at tension between Evie and her English mother, which may be relevant to the family dynamics surrounding the tragedy.

3. What does Meg's glory box and her reaction to baby Thea reveal about her character?

Meg's glory box, filled with treasured items including the pink cashmere yarn she bought after losing her baby girl, reveals a woman who has never fully let go of her hope for another child. Her fondness for baby Thea—knitting bootees, finding excuses to admire her—shows that her maternal longing has been redirected toward other people's children. Her role as 'mother to the town' is a natural extension of this, as she channels her nurturing instincts into caring for the community.