She frowned, remembering.
‘He was tense, like something was going to happen. I asked if he was going to the mast with Bub, and he said he was. But he looked at me in this strange way, and I knew he was lying.’ She lay back down. ‘He’d been looking through Lo’s sketchbook the night before. I think he saw that painting again, the one of me and the girls at the grave, and put two and two together. When I heard he’d been found dead out there, I kept waiting for someone to ask me about the envelope.’
Nathan pictured Cameron’s body under the tarp and the shallow hole in the ground. ‘He didn’t have anything with him when he was found.’ Certainly not a plastic envelope full of cash and documents.
‘I know. I thought it must still be buried there. I was scared someone would stumble across it. I didn’t want anyone to think that I –’
‘What?’
‘Had anything to do with what happened to him.’
The faint tan lines and freckles on her skin were visible in the early-morning glow. The sky was almost fully light now. The household would be waking up.
‘The day before yesterday was the first chance I had. I went out there and dug, same spot as always.’
Nathan remembered her kneeling at the grave, bent over in the sun, the small movement in her shoulders. ‘So you got it back?’
Ilse shook her head. ‘No. That’s just it. The envelope wasn’t there anymore.’
Nathan stared at her. ‘Are you sure?’
‘Completely.’
‘But if it’s not there, and it wasn’t with Cameron,’ he said. ‘Then where is it?’
The shadows of the dawn light stretched across her face. ‘I don’t know.’
Chapter 35
Nathan stared at Cameron’s painting. The house was still quiet, but only just. He and Ilse had stayed tangled in the blanket in the back of his car as long as they could, whispering as the sky grew lighter. Finally, they’d had to prise themselves apart. It was Christmas morning. The girls would be on the move.
‘It could have been a dingo,’ Nathan said, his voice low as he zipped up his jeans. Despite everything, he still felt a warm buzz when he looked at her.
‘I know.’ Ilse ran a hand through her hair. ‘That’s what I wondered too. I’d always been a bit worried about that happening. A dingo could dig up that hole, couldn’t it? Take the envelope?’
‘Yeah.’ Dropped it somewhere when it lost interest. It was probably under a pile of sand by now. ‘And Bub said there were dingoes sniffing around.’
‘Oh, right. Well, then.’
They both fell quiet at the same time.
‘I know Bub was out there by himself for a bit, but –’ Nathan pictured the rumpled tarp, and Bub’s face after Cameron’s body was moved. ‘He was as surprised to see that hole as anyone.’
That didn’t necessarily mean he couldn’t have taken something from Cameron’s pockets, though, Nathan thought. He didn’t say that out loud.
‘I feel like Bub would have said something to me by now if he’d found it.’ Ilse was whispering now, as they approached the house. ‘Especially with him being so annoyed about the property.’
They hesitated at the foot of the verandah steps. Nathan took a breath.
‘There’s no way Jenna might –’
‘Realistically, she couldn’t –’
They both started and stopped at the same time. Neither said anything.
‘I really don’t think –’ Nathan said.
‘No.’ Ilse shook her head firmly. ‘I don’t either. I don’t.’
