The Lost Man(26)

Nathan had been asleep with Jacqui when the call had come through. She’d made the right sympathetic noises as he’d pulled on his shirt and shoes, while also managing to convey on some level that she was a little pissed off he was leaving her in the middle of the night for a drama involving his own family. It was funny how high and bright the red flags flew in hindsight, Nathan often thought.

Liz was already in the back of the ambulance when he’d finally arrived. A younger Steve Fitzgerald had been on duty, and had taken Nathan aside to explain the situation. Carl was still pinned, but there was no urgency to free him. He was well and truly dead. But it hadn’t been quick and wouldn’t have been painless, Nathan had later overheard Steve whisper on the radio to dispatch. The bloke might have had a chance if someone had come by to raise the alarm sooner.

Inside the ambulance, with a blanket around her shoulders despite the heat of the night, Liz was almost unrecognisable under the crust of blackened blood.

‘She was lucky,’ Steve had said. ‘She’ll heal.’

Nathan had looked at his mum, dazed and battered, and thought she looked far from lucky. Then he had looked inside the twisted metal wreck of the car, and from that day forward had driven a few kilometres per hour slower than was strictly necessary.

Nathan heard Harry grunt and looked over. The man’s face hadn’t changed.

‘You right?’

‘Yeah,’ Harry said. ‘I was just thinking about that time you and Cam ran away to the stockman’s grave when you were kids. Remember?’

‘Yeah, of course.’

Xander leaned forward. ‘What was that?’

Harry looked at him in the mirror. ‘You’ve never heard this story?’

Xander shook his head. Harry glanced at Nathan, who shrugged.

‘I wasn’t going to tell him, was I? It was a bloody stupid thing to do.’

‘Yeah. It was,’ Harry said. ‘But you were only kids. What were you, twelve?’

‘Eleven. Cam was nine.’ Nathan felt his insides twist at the memory of his brother, his dusty legs sticking out from below a loaded backpack.

‘Why were you running away?’ Xander said.

‘God knows. I can’t remember,’ Nathan lied. He could feel Xander watching him, and Bub too, now. ‘And for the record, we weren’t running away to the stockman’s grave. It was a pit stop on the way to town.’

They’d stuffed their backpacks, ridden out well before dawn. Nathan wasn’t sure what they’d thought was waiting for them in town. Something better. But they’d had a plan, he knew. They’d discussed it at length, and he could still remember some of the details now. He just didn’t want to talk about it.

‘So what happened?’ Xander asked.

‘They didn’t get very far, for starters,’ Harry said. ‘Their dad worked out what they were planning about five minutes after we discovered they’d left. We drove out here, parked by the grave and waited for them to come over the far crest.’ He looked at Nathan. ‘You remember that?’

‘Yeah, I remember.’ The feeling of seeing the two men waiting there.

‘What happened when you found them?’ Xander said.

‘We picked them up and drove them back home,’ Harry said. ‘Held the horses’ reins out of the window, let them gallop along beside.’

‘Was Dad angry?’ Bub’s voice came from the back. It was the first time he had spoken since they’d set off.

‘Yeah.’ Nathan didn’t turn to look at him. ‘Yeah, he was.’

‘I’ll bet he was.’ The atmosphere in the car felt heavier and they fell silent. Nathan could see the rocky outcrop stretching ahead. Not far to go now.

It hadn’t seemed like it at the time, but it was for the best that he and Cam had been found and picked up, Nathan thought. They’d have been lucky to last until morning at that time of year, even with supplies. Danger season. He knew now how stupid it had been. The rules of the outback may seem brutal but they were written in blood. Just ask Cameron. Nathan was jolted from this train of thought as his head jerked forward a little. Harry tapped the brakes as Nathan heard Bub call from the back: ‘Right turn here.’

Nathan looked up at the rocks, and the almost invisible gap leading through. They were there. He heard Xander shift in the back and glanced at him in the side mirror. His son was looking at Harry with a strange expression on his face.

The police vehicle came into sight first, parked at the bottom of the slope. Cameron’s car was still waiting at the top, exactly where they had left it. Sergeant Glenn McKenna was standing next to it and he raised his hand as they walked up.

‘You found it okay, then?’ Nathan nodded at the Land Cruiser.

McKenna nodded. ‘You can see it briefly if you’re coming from town. For a minute or so where the road rises outside your boundary, Nathan.’

‘Can you?’

‘You didn’t see it yourself?’

‘I don’t use that road.’ Nathan looked the sergeant in the eye. ‘Only place it goes is town.’

McKenna kept his gaze. ‘Fair point. Look, sorry I couldn’t be here yesterday. How was the other officer?’

Nathan and Bub exchanged a glance. ‘Fine,’ Nathan said.

‘I’ve heard good things about him.’ McKenna nodded at the car door and frowned. ‘I thought he said this was unlocked.’