The Lost Man(58)

‘No. Of course not.’ Simon opened his mouth, then seemed to think better of it and closed it again. They stared at each other.

‘How did you say you met Cam again?’

‘In the pub. When we arrived in town.’

‘From out west.’

‘That’s right.’

‘Quite hard to get here from out west this time of year,’ Nathan said. ‘Desert routes are mostly closed.’

‘Tell me about it. We had to take the scenic route. Looped south.’

‘Right.’ There were always more jobs than backpackers willing to do them in the outback, but Nathan wondered why Cam had picked this pair. There wasn’t even much to do that time of year. He thought about his phone call the night before. Thank you for thinking of Northern Blooms! ‘Where did you say you guys were from again?’

‘In England? Hampshire.’

‘Is that in the north?’

‘No. South. Why?’

‘Doesn’t matter.’

‘Is it something to do with that woman you’re all talking about? Jenna?’ Simon’s voice was low and made Nathan turn his head.

‘Do you know something about that? Or about her?’

Simon caught his tone. ‘No. Of course not. Why would I?’

‘You’re the one who brought her up.’

‘Look –’ Simon glanced at the kitchen where they could hear Katy clattering dishes. ‘I’ve approached this all wrong. You don’t know us, I get that. But whatever’s happened with your brother –’ Simon lowered his voice another notch. ‘It’s not me or Katy you need to be worrying about.’

Nathan frowned. The guy was so skittish he was hard to read. ‘What do you mean? Should I be worried about someone else?’

‘Maybe not worried, exactly –’

‘That’s what you said.’

‘– I know, I meant, if you were –’

‘For God’s sake, say it or don’t, mate.’

Simon swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing. ‘I heard Cameron having an argument. With Harry. The week before he died.’

‘So?’ Nathan said, because he couldn’t think how else to respond.

From outside, he heard the faint sound of someone calling his name. ‘Nathan?’

Ilse. He turned towards her voice, then made himself look back and focus on Simon.

‘I thought you’d want to know,’ Simon was saying. ‘One night when Harry was going to turn the generator off. I heard them from the caravan. Not the specifics, I wasn’t trying to listen in, but there were definitely words exchanged.’

‘Nathan?’ Outside, Ilse’s boots clattered up the wooden steps of the verandah.

Simon took half a step closer. ‘Listen, Cameron sounded pissed off. More than I’d heard him before. And Harry was getting angry, saying that he’d lived here for more than forty years, been around longer than Cameron had. Something like: “I know more about what’s going on here than you think.”’

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

‘I don’t know.’ Simon shrugged. ‘And that was pretty much it. I think Harry walked away then. And I might not have thought too much of it, but –’

He stopped as the screen door opened at the end of the hall. Ilse appeared in the light of the doorway.

‘Oh, good. There you are,’ she said. She sounded a little breathless. ‘Harry’s not around. Are you free? I need your help.’

‘Yep. Give me a sec.’ Nathan turned back to Simon. ‘But what? Quick.’

‘But then Harry has never mentioned it.’





Chapter 21



They had left the track three kilometres earlier and the wheels of Nathan’s car bumped over the uneven ground.

‘Hopefully it’s still stuck,’ Ilse said as the holding pen came into sight in the distance.

‘Yeah.’ Nathan hoped so too. A calf tangled in the fence wire was one thing; trying to catch a calf running free with wire wrapped around it was an absolute pain in the arse.

‘There it is. I can see it.’ Ilse pointed through the dusty windscreen. They were the first words they’d exchanged in fifteen minutes.

Cameron’s card lay open and discarded on the seat between them. Forgive me.

Nathan scanned the herd of cattle. The cows bristled at the sound of the car engine and began walking almost as one, in a wave of movement. A single animal remained, watching her calf wrestle with the wire that trapped its hind leg.

‘I saw it while I was riding,’ Ilse had told him earlier in the hallway. ‘I didn’t have anything to cut it loose.’

‘Right,’ Nathan had said. Something like that was ideally a two-person job anyway. ‘Give me a minute. I’ll meet you at your car.’

There had been a slight hesitation. ‘Mine’s not working. Take yours?’

‘No worries. Keys are on the seat.’

Actually, where was Ilse’s four-wheel drive? Nathan had wondered as he’d watched her leave. He hadn’t seen it since he’d got there.

Nathan had written their destination in the log book by the phone, then ripped out an empty page and scribbled a message for Xander. He’d looked back at Simon, who was still hovering.