Irene Cleary couldn't sleep. At 1am, two weeks after her husband's funeral, she lay awake and alone in her Pohara home. Next to her, on the floor, was a box that had been taken from his cell in Christchurch Men's Prison. It was the things he had left behind.
In the 11 days her husband Stephen had spent in a remand cell in Nelson and then prison in Christchurch, she had not received a letter from him. She had spoken with him on the phone.
He had been cold for several days. He had a sore leg - a pulled muscle, he thought - but he was all right. He was always "all right". But now there was nothing - seemingly no message to her or his young son.
In the box, there were textbooks. Cleary pulled one out and saw a scribble in a corner. It was in her husband's handwriting. Maybe he had written something else, she thought.