The Lost Man(30)

Afterwards, he had lain there looking at her, the car doors open to let a breeze in and the sleeping bag kicked aside.

She had smiled, her teeth white in the dark. ‘What?’

‘Nothing. That was –’ He tried to think of the word. Exquisite, revitalising, transformative. ‘Great,’ he said. It had been the first time since Jacqui had left, but it was more than that. He felt better than he had in years. ‘Really great.’

‘Thanks.’ She’d laughed.

He ran a hand over her. ‘So, what now?’

She smiled again. ‘I’m pretty sure the backpackers’ handbook says this is the part where you disappear into the sunrise and I never hear from you again.’

It was his turn to laugh. ‘No way.’ He’d pulled her closer, feeling the spark of her skin on his as she rolled onto him. ‘That’s not what happens.’

She’d been right and he’d been wrong, as it turned out. But he’d really meant it, at the time.

‘Why are they stopping?’ Xander suddenly leaned forward in the passenger seat and Nathan was brought back to the present. Up ahead, Harry’s car was pulling to a halt by the fence. They were nowhere near the stockman’s grave yet. They were nowhere near anything that Nathan could see.

They watched as Harry jumped out, leaving the engine running. He crouched and checked the ground, touching his finger to the dust from time to time.

‘What’s going on?’ Xander said.

‘I don’t know.’ Nathan wound down his window and leaned out. ‘Harry! What are you doing?’

‘Looking!’

‘For what?’

‘Anything.’

The St Helens cop had said pretty much the same thing, but at least with Harry there was a chance it might actually mean something useful. Nathan wound his window back up and shrugged. ‘You heard him. Looking.’

Xander sat back and waited. Minutes ticked by and finally Harry got back into his car. They started moving again.

Ilse had left him just after dawn. The townsfolk may have been few and far between, but they were all early risers. She had kissed him as she buttoned her shirt.

‘I’ll drive you home,’ Nathan had said.

‘No need.’ She’d pointed to the accommodation block beside the pub. ‘That’s me.’

‘That close? We could have gone there.’

She jumped out of the car and grinned. ‘What’s wrong? You didn’t have enough fun here?’

‘Yeah. I did.’

‘Me too.’

He was buzzing as he watched her leave. He’d pulled on his clothes and the smile on his face had lasted the whole morning as he’d gone around town getting his jobs done. He was nearly finished, and filling up at the service station ahead of the drive home, when someone pulled in beside him. Nathan clocked the top-of-the-range four-wheel drive and felt his grin fade for the first time.

He’d kept his head down as his father-in-law – ex-father-in-law – opened the driver’s door and climbed out. Out of the corner of his eye, Nathan thought he saw Keith Walker hesitate. Not for too long though. There were only two pumps, and Nathan was using one. If Keith needed fuel, he had no choice. He picked up the empty one.

‘Nathan.’

‘G’day, Keith.’ Nathan concentrated on the pump. He was going to fill up his tank and drive away. And that was it.

Keith looked over. ‘I spoke to Jacqui yesterday.’

Nathan watched the numbers on the dial turn around. ‘Oh yeah.’ Not a question.

‘And look, she’s instructing her lawyers to push back.’

‘Righto.’

‘Nathan, be reasonable. Asking for that level of contact, it’s too many calls and visits for a kid Xander’s age.’

‘My lawyer reckons it’s a pretty standard custody split.’

‘For divorced couples who live around the corner from each other, maybe. Not with you all the way out here.’

‘She’s the one who left. Not me.’ Nathan shut his mouth, then opened it again. ‘Anyway, I would’ve thought you’d be happy to have Xander around.’

Keith, with four properties, was one of the country’s biggest landowners and, in a good year, occasionally troubled the very tail end of the rich list. Now he shook his head, his mouth downturned. ‘Kathy and I see Xander in Brisbane. There’s no reason for the boy to come out here.’

‘I’m his dad, Keith.’ The pump clicked off. The tank was full. ‘So there’s one bloody good reason for you.’

Nathan looked at his father-in-law properly for the first time. He was a bit pale and seemed tired. Probably stayed up too late counting his money, Nathan thought, as he went inside to pay. Through the window, he could see Keith watching him.

Nathan had never been sure what it was about him that the bloke objected to so strongly. Keith hadn’t got along with Nathan’s dad, but that wasn’t exactly unusual. Nathan hadn’t got along with his dad either. And Keith had been all right when Nathan and Jacqui had first got together. Although, Nathan wondered, perhaps he’d just been biting his tongue, hoping the romance would run its course and fizzle out.

It got worse the better things got with Jacqui, and by the time the wedding rolled around, Nathan was barely on speaking terms with his new father-in-law. Keith had tried to talk Jacqui out of getting married, more than once, as Nathan learned some time later, when Jacqui screamed it at him across the room.