Nathan, who couldn’t think where to start, looked at his brother and immediately pictured his dog Kelly lying dead in his hands. It had slipped to the back of his mind in the last couple of hours but now jostled its way forward once more. He opened his mouth, then with an effort, took a breath. ‘Nothing.’
‘Doesn’t look like nothing.’
Nathan shrugged.
Bub yawned and slid his eyes around the room. ‘Lots of people came, hey?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Do you think that many would come out for us?’
‘Nope.’
‘Me neither.’ Bub sounded resigned. ‘Bloody Cam. I don’t know how he did it. He was as much of a dickhead as the rest of us, he was just better at hiding it.’
‘That’s what you think?’
‘Yeah, of course.’ Bub stared at the wall for a minute. His voice was rough and his words still a little slurred. ‘It’s the truth, isn’t it? I mean, Dad was a dickhead, Cam was a dickhead. I am. You are.’
Nathan almost laughed. ‘I’m not arguing that, mate. But some things are a lot worse than other things.’
‘If you say so.’ Bub suppressed a small burp.
‘I do.’
‘Well, you would know.’ Bub hauled himself off the couch and over to the TV. ‘I mean, Cam could be an arsehole, but you left a bloke for dead.’
‘That was ten years ago. And he didn’t actually die.’
‘No thanks to you. But maybe that’s not your fault. Like I said: family of dickheads. Not much you can do about that.’ Bub stood over the TV, untangling the wires for his computer game.
‘People can change, mate.’
‘Okay.’
‘No. Listen. I am nowhere near as bad as Cam.’
‘Righto.’ Bub didn’t look up. ‘Try to remember that when you and Ilse are screwing me over with this place.’
‘Jesus, Bub, no-one’s trying to screw you over.’
‘We’ll see.’
‘Hey.’ Nathan lowered his voice. ‘What exactly is your problem?’
‘I dunno. Not knowing what’s going on with my own property for one thing. Never having a say, for another. Having you and Cam for brothers, for a third.’
‘Well, you’ve only got me now, so there’s at least some good news for you.’ Nathan could feel the anger building in him. He stood to leave. ‘By the way, you got anything you want to tell me about my dog?’
‘Which dog?’
‘You know which bloody dog. Kelly.’
Bub’s hands went still on the computer wires. ‘No. I dunno what you’re talking about.’
‘No?’
‘No.’
