The Lost Man(4)

‘And Cam was definitely dead?’

‘That’s what the pilot said. Had been for a few hours, by the sound of it. Cop still got on the radio and made him do all these checks.’ Bub grimaced. ‘I got here near sunset. The bloke had covered Cam over like he was told to but he was pretty keen to get going. Didn’t want to lose the light and get stuck here.’

Fair enough, Nathan thought. He wouldn’t have wanted to stay either. He felt bad that the task had fallen to Bub.

‘If Cam was supposed to be meeting you at Lehmann’s Hill, what was he doing out here?’

‘Don’t know. Harry said he’d written in the planner that he was heading out to Lehmann’s.’

‘Nothing else?’

‘Not that Harry said.’

Nathan thought about that planner. He knew where it was kept, next to the phone, inside the back door of the house that had once been their dad’s and had then become Cameron’s. Nathan had written in it himself plenty of times growing up. He’d also not written in it plenty of times, when he’d forgotten or couldn’t be bothered, or didn’t want anyone to know where he was going, or couldn’t find a pen.

He could feel the heat bearing down on his neck and he looked at his watch. The digital numbers were covered in fine red dust and he wiped his thumb across them.

‘What time are they due?’ They meaning police and medical. They also meaning two people. One of each. Not a team, not out there.

‘Not sure. They’re on their way.’

That didn’t mean it would be soon, though. Nathan looked down at the tarp again. The marks in the dust.

‘Did he look injured?’

‘Don’t think so. Not that I could see. Just hot and thirsty.’ Bub’s face was tilted down as he touched the edge of the dust circle with the toe of his boot. Neither brother mentioned it. They both knew what it meant. They had seen similar patterns made by dying animals. A thought struck Nathan and he looked around.

‘Where’s all his stuff?’

‘His hat’s under the tarp. He didn’t have anything else.’

‘What, nothing?’

‘Pilot said not. He was told to check, take some pics. Reckoned he couldn’t see anything else.’

‘But –’ Nathan scanned the ground again. ‘Not anything? Not even an empty water bottle?’

‘Don’t think so.’

‘Did you have a proper look?’

‘You can see for yourself, mate. You’ve got eyes.’

‘But –’

‘I don’t know, all right? I don’t have any answers. Stop asking me.’

‘Yeah, okay.’ Nathan took a deep breath. ‘But I thought the pilot found the car?’

‘He did.’

‘So where is it?’ He didn’t bother to hide his frustration now. Get more sense from the cows than from bloody Bub, as their dad used to say.

‘Near the road.’

Nathan stared at him. ‘Which road?’

‘How many roads are there? Our one. This side of the boundary, a bit north of your cattle grid. Jesus, this was all on the radio, mate.’

‘It can’t be. That’s ten kilometres away.’

‘Eight, I reckon, but yeah.’

There was a long silence. The sun was high and the slice of shade thrown by the headstone had shrunk to almost nothing.

‘So Cam left his car?’ Beneath Nathan’s feet, the earth tilted very slightly on its axis. He saw the look on his younger brother’s face and shook his head. ‘Sorry, I know you don’t know, it’s just –’

He looked past his brother, to where the horizon lay long and still. The only movement he could see was Bub’s chest, expanding in and out as he breathed.

‘Have you been out to the car?’ Nathan said, finally.

‘No.’

Telling the truth this time, Nathan thought. He glanced over his shoulder. Xander was a dark shape hunched forward in his seat.

‘Let’s go.’





Chapter 2



It was nine kilometres in the end.

Nathan’s own four-wheel drive was on the wrong side of the fence, so he’d climbed back through the wire and pulled open the passenger door. Xander had looked up, questions already forming on his lips. Nathan held up a hand.

‘I’ll tell you later. Come on. We’re going to find Uncle Cam’s car.’

‘Find it? Where is it?’ Xander frowned. His private schoolboy haircut was looking a little shaggy around the edges after the past week and the stubble on his chin made him look older.

‘Somewhere near the road. Bub’s driving.’

‘Sorry, all the way out at your road?’

‘Yeah, apparently.’

‘But –? What?’

‘I don’t know, mate. We’ll see.’

Xander opened his mouth, then shut it again, and climbed out of the four-wheel drive without further comment. The kid followed him through the fence, glancing once at the tarp and giving the grave a respectfully wide berth as he walked to Bub’s car.

‘Hi, Bub.’

‘G’day, little mate. Not so little now, hey?’

‘No, I suppose not.’