The Lost Man(37)

‘Quiet,’ Harry said.

‘Many there?’

‘Pretty much just us. A couple of cops turned up.’

‘Officially?’

‘I don’t think so. One was the local bloke from Kiewarra. Friendly enough but on leave. He was a bit –’ Harry had waved at his face, ‘– damaged. There was another one, tall guy who said he used to live around there but was based in Melbourne now. Didn’t say much else, seemed pretty pissed off about the whole thing. I think they were there mainly to check the old bastard was really dead.’

Nathan suspected his mum had gone for much the same reason.

At the thought of Harry, Nathan suddenly remembered the drive earlier. The man finding the hidden track in the rock face on the first attempt.

‘Cam never mentioned anything specific that was bothering him?’ he said. ‘Small stuff, even? Problems with Harry? Or Bub?’

‘I don’t think so. Like you said, Bub’s Bub.’

‘And Harry?’

Liz frowned. ‘Fine as far as I know. Why?’

‘I don’t know. Nothing. Just with Harry saying Cam might have been under pressure. I wondered –’

‘Wondered what?’

‘I don’t know. If they’d had a falling out or something.’

‘Not that I know of.’ Liz’s frown deepened. ‘Harry’s a good man. He’s been good to this family.’

‘I know.’

‘He’s been here longer than you have. And he’s always done right by us, wouldn’t you say?’

‘Yeah. I would.’

‘So what are you saying now?’

‘Nothing. Forget it.’

A pause. ‘All right,’ Liz said, but Nathan saw her eyes flick towards Harry’s four-wheel drive.

‘Listen, what happens to Cam’s share of the property?’ Nathan said, changing the subject. It came out more bluntly than he’d intended but Liz didn’t seem to notice.

‘It goes to Ilse.’ There was a faint stiffness in her voice. ‘With the day-to-day stuff, I don’t know. We’ll have to work out who’s going to run the place long term.’

She waited a beat as though half-expecting Nathan to propose something.

‘Hire a manager, I suppose,’ she said, when he didn’t.

‘Not Bub then?’

‘No.’ Liz’s answer was quick. ‘See what Harry reckons, but I don’t think so personally. Make sure you and Ilse include Bub in any conversations, though, would you?’

‘Yeah, of course.’ Across the yard, Nathan could see a kid’s bicycle leaning against the house. ‘How are the girls today? This morning they seemed a bit –’ He tried to find a better word and failed. ‘Strange.’

‘God knows. It’s hard to tell with Sophie, but Lo’s taking it very hard. She was worked up already, even before all this. She’s got the idea into her head that the place is haunted.’

‘By what?’

‘I don’t know. The stockman, probably. He’s the usual suspect. You all went through that phase as kids yourselves.’

The wind blew across the plain and in the distance Nathan could see a spiral of dust rise like an apparition.

‘It’s not hard to see why she thinks so.’ Liz followed his gaze. ‘When I first came to live here we used to have a stockman – a living one – who reckoned this whole area was haunted by the settlers’ dead children. The ones who died badly. Childbirth or accidents or illness, I suppose.’

There were plenty to choose from, Nathan thought. The child mortality rate had been sky high. Not a single white baby born in the town had survived until the 1920s.

Liz’s eyes shone with tears. ‘He used to say the ones who wandered off called the loudest. For the rest of their lives, their mums would hear them crying out in the wind. Do you think that’s true?’

‘That this place has ghosts?’

‘That the mothers would hear their lost children in the wind.’

‘Oh.’ He reached out and took his mum’s hand again. ‘No.’ He really didn’t. If that were true, the outback air would howl so loud the dust would never settle.





Chapter 13



The backpackers were setting the table for dinner when Nathan put his head around the kitchen door. He’d left Liz sitting under the gum tree with her own thoughts and come inside. Simon and Katy both looked up, the clatter of cutlery falling silent as they saw him in the doorway. Nathan had the distinct impression they’d stopped speaking abruptly.

‘Sorry,’ he said, then wondered why he was apologising. ‘Have you seen Bub?’

Simon shook his head. ‘I thought he was out with you and Harry.’

‘Never mind. Thanks.’

Nathan didn’t hear the low murmur of their voices start up until he was completely out of the kitchen.

He found Bub in the living room, sitting on the couch with his feet resting on Nathan’s sleeping bag. He was playing a video game, something involving shooting and a masked man. Cameron’s painting looked down on them from the wall; a scene of serenity in contrast.

‘Hey.’ Bub barely glanced up as Nathan came in.