The Lost Man(10)

‘So Cameron owned it?’

‘He runs it. And he has a majority stake now.’

‘Oh yeah?’

‘Yeah, but you don’t have to look so interested. It’s been like that for years. We all got a third when Dad died, so it was nice and fair. I sold half of mine to Cam pretty soon afterwards, and he manages the place. Organises all the daily running and does most of the long-term planning. Bub has a third and I’ve still got a sixth.’

Ludlow made a note. ‘And how big is Burley Downs?’

‘Three and a half thousand square kilometres, with about three thousand Herefords.’

‘And the family looks after all that themselves?’

Something felt very strange about the way Ludlow was speaking. It was only when Nathan opened his mouth to reply that it hit him. The man was speaking to him completely normally. Nothing overt, or implied, or threatening or, very occasionally, concerned. Nathan wondered how soon Steve would fill him in. Probably in the ambulance on the drive back to town. The story was decent small talk filler, and wasn’t like it was confidential. If anything, it was entrenched in local lore now, from what Nathan could tell.

Ludlow shifted in his seat and Nathan realised he was still waiting for a reply.

‘They hire in help when they need it, like I said. Mustering, you always need it, but there are contract firms so you can call up and book the teams. It’s pretty much all done by helicopter and motorbike now. Cam’d get in contractors when he needed help with engineering stuff or laying fences or whatever. But day-to-day stuff is mostly the family. Especially when it’s quiet. Like, there’s nothing happening now because the markets and meat plants are all closed for Christmas.’

‘You don’t need help milking all those cows?’

In the mirror, Nathan saw Xander bite back a smile. ‘It’s beef around here, not dairy.’

‘So, what, your fridges are full of steak?’

‘And long-life milk. But, no, it’s not the same as with cattle on farms. Properties this size, the cattle mostly wander. Drink from the bores, graze, get rounded up when it’s their time.’ They were almost wild in a lot of ways. Some of them barely saw a human from birth to slaughter.

‘And how big is your place?’

‘About seven hundred square kilometres.’

‘A fair bit smaller than Burley Downs.’

‘Yep.’

‘Why is that?’

Nathan hesitated. Xander had gone back to staring out of the window. ‘Long story. Messy divorce is the short version.’

Ludlow seemed to accept that without question, for once, and Nathan wondered if there was a similar explanation for the cop finding himself stationed fifteen hundred kilometres from Brisbane.

‘Who else lives at your place?’ Ludlow said.

Nathan didn’t answer straight away. ‘No-one else full-time. I’m there on my own.’

Ludlow turned his head and stared. ‘Just you?’

‘Yup. One-man show. I mean, contractors and people when I need them.’ And could afford them.

The sergeant was openly gaping. ‘And your place was what, seven hundred square kilometres? And how many cattle?’

‘Probably five or six hundred.’

‘Christ, that still sounds like a lot.’

Nathan didn’t reply immediately. It was and it wasn’t. It was enough to overwork his crappy strip of land until it became a sandpit. It wasn’t enough to help him break anything like even.

‘But –’ Ludlow scanned the extensive horizon all the way from one empty side to the other. ‘Don’t you get lonely?’

‘No.’ Another quick glance in the mirror. Xander was watching now. ‘No, I’m good. I don’t mind it. And as long as there’s enough water, the cattle pretty much look after themselves.’

‘Not completely, though.’

‘No, not completely, but we’ve been lucky with the Grenville the last couple of years,’ Nathan said, keen to change the subject.

‘What’s that, the river?’

‘Yeah. It picks up all the nutrients from the rainwater so it’s good for the ground when it floods. Flooded last year, then a couple of years before that.’

Ludlow squinted at the sun.

‘How much rain does that take?’

‘It floods around here without rain,’ Xander said from the back seat, and Ludlow twisted around.

‘Really?’

Nathan nodded. It was a strange sight, even after forty-two years, to watch the water rise, silent and stealthy, under a cloudless blue sky. The river would lap at its banks, swollen with rain that had fallen days before and a thousand kilometres north. He pointed outside.

‘When it floods, most of this is under water. The river gets ten kilometres wide in places. You can’t get over without a boat. The houses and the town are all built on high ground but the road disappears.’

Ludlow looked amazed. ‘How do you get out?’

Nathan heard Xander laugh. ‘You don’t. A lot of properties become islands. I was stuck out at my place for five weeks once.’

‘Alone?’

‘Yeah,’ Nathan said. ‘It’s all right though. You just have to be prepared. No choice, it’s the geography.’