The Lost Man(68)

‘So it was light then. Light enough to see?’

‘Of course. I’m not driving that bloody road in the dark.’

‘You see anything from around my place?’

‘Like what?’

‘Anything. Up on the rocks?’

A frustrated laugh. ‘Not that I remember, but I’m not sure what you’re asking, mate.’

‘No, it’s all right. Me neither. Just trying to get a few things straight.’

‘That invoice is coming your way, I’m afraid.’

‘Yep. Looking forward to it.’

Nathan had hung up and immediately dialled Glenn’s number at the cop shop. He had heard the blip in the ringtone, the telltale sign he was being diverted. Glenn McKenna had been called out to the north of his patch, the officer who answered informed him. A road train had hit a tour bus. Multiple casualties, the voice said. He was not expected back to Balamara for a couple of days.

‘What about the other one? The St Helens cop. Sergeant Ludlow.’

A tap of a keyboard. Multiple casualties, the voice had repeated. Ludlow had been called out to the job as well. ‘Can I help?’ the voice said.

‘Where are you based?’ Nathan asked.

‘Brisbane.’

‘So you’re not exactly in a position to be much help.’

‘I’m in a position to take a message, mate.’

Nathan had sensed movement in the hall behind him but when he’d turned, no-one was there.

‘Tell Sergeant McKenna that Jenna Moore isn’t in the UK. I don’t know if he can check where she is, but –’ Nathan hesitated. ‘Just tell him I need to speak to him.’

Nathan drove to the top of the slope this time and climbed out. He left the engine and air-con running for Duffy as he opened the back of his Land Cruiser, pulling out a shovel and the marker flags he used around his own property. He looked at the ground. There was no sign that Cameron’s car had ever been there, so Nathan made his best guess, driving the flagpoles in at the points where he thought the wheels had stood.

Twenty minutes later, Nathan was sweating hard and still unable to get the fourth post securely into the ground. Frustrated, he finally propped it up against one of the others and hoped they would hold. He climbed into his driver’s seat, and was hit by a sudden sense of déjà vu as he remembered doing exactly the same in Cameron’s abandoned car on that very spot. Not exactly the same.

Nathan’s hands stilled on his steering wheel. He and Cameron had almost the same car, and he was parked in almost the same place, but something was different this time. He tried to picture himself a few days earlier, out here with Bub and Harry and Xander. He’d offered to drive Cam’s car home, climbed into the worn driver’s seat, reached down and adjusted the distance from the pedals –

Nathan stopped. He and Cameron were the same height. They had been since they were teenagers. Why had he had to adjust the seat? Had either of the cops moved it during their search? Nathan didn’t think so, but he wasn’t sure. By how much had he had to correct it? Backwards first, or forwards? He sat there for a long while, trying to think. He couldn’t remember.

Finally, he started his engine and drove slowly down and out through the gap. He was back on the road in minutes, heading towards the boundary where his property bordered the gravel track. He drove along the deserted road until he was sure he had gone far enough, then did a U-turn and headed back the way he’d come. He kept the speed steady, not too fast, not too slow, trying to guess what pace a contractor with only a couple of jobs lying between him and his Christmas break would do.

He kept his eyes facing front, deliberately not scouring the rock face out of the driver’s side window. Three minutes later he saw them.

The flags caught his eye immediately, the poles tall against the sky and completely visible. They stayed in sight for as long as it took Nathan to breathe in and out a couple of times, then the angle of the rocks shifted in the window and the flags disappeared from view.

Nathan exchanged a look with Duffy, who appeared thrilled just to be there. He turned the car around and drove back. He tried again and nearly missed them this time, turning his head barely in time to see them slip out of sight. The third time, he knew he was on alert, but he saw them clearly once again. He counted as he passed. The flags were exposed for nearly four seconds. And these were only flags, he thought. Cam’s white Land Cruiser would have been clearer.

Nathan slowed the car as he approached the hidden gap and drove back in. He parked on the slope, thinking again about the position of Cameron’s seat as he climbed out. The poles were far easier to pull out of the ground than they’d been to put in and he was driving away in less than a minute.

‘I was right, mate,’ he supposed he would be able to say to Xander when he got back to the house. Although he wasn’t sure he would say it. Xander hadn’t been too impressed by Nathan’s theory that morning as he’d sat in bed and listened.

‘Look,’ Nathan had whispered, not wanting to wake the whole household. ‘If Dave drove to Atherton on Thursday morning, he should have spotted Cam’s car on the rocks.’

Xander had rubbed some sleep from the corner of his eye and said nothing.

‘But Dave didn’t see the car,’ Nathan continued.

‘He says he didn’t.’