‘All right,’ McKenna said. ‘How’s Ilse coping?’
Nathan felt a tiny prickle at her name. ‘She’s not too good.’
‘And your mum?’
‘Not too good either.’
‘No. Well. Tell them I’ll give them a call. And you blokes –’ McKenna hesitated. ‘How are you all going? Can be hard, this time of year. Lot of pressure from all sides. You all okay?’
Nathan knew what he was asking.Anyone else feel like walking out into the nothing?
‘We’re good, I think,’ he said when no-one else answered. ‘I mean, considering. Good as can be expected.’
‘And you know you can always call me, or Steve at the clinic. If you ever need to just have a yarn or whatever.’
They nodded dutifully.
‘Good.’ McKenna beckoned to Nathan. ‘Come with me. Got some info in the car I need to give you.’
Nathan followed him down the slope and at the police car, McKenna reached into the glove box. He drew out a fistful of cards. ‘Cases like these, I’m supposed to give youse these.’
Nathan took them. The cards had the phone numbers and websites for a suicide prevention helpline and a mental health charity.
McKenna was watching him, looking uncomfortable.
‘Something else?’ Nathan said.
‘Look, mate. That wasn’t meant to be a dig earlier. About no-one reporting the car. And I wanted to say, I know you generally give town a wide berth –’
‘Yeah. Haven’t got much choice, have I?’
‘Well, that’s not true. You do have a choice, mate. You could have come and stirred up trouble over the years but you chose not to, and I appreciate that.’
‘Glad someone does.’
‘And I know you say you’re used to it by now, but in light of all this, if you feel like it’s getting a bit much and you think you might . . .’ McKenna trailed off.
‘Top myself like Cam?’
‘Yeah, pretty much. Look, if you ever feel like things are getting bad, you know you can come into town whenever you need to.’
Nathan nodded. McKenna was an okay guy. What had happened wasn’t his fault – it was no-one’s fault but Nathan’s own – and McKenna had been as even-handed as he could be about the whole incident. It wasn’t easy being the only cop. He’d put in a good word for Nathan whenever he could, tried to build bridges. It wasn’t his fault it had made no difference.
‘Thanks, mate,’ Nathan said. ‘I’m fine on my own, though.’
‘I heard you had your radio switched off when the search call for Cameron went out.’
‘So?’
‘So I thought we’d talked about that.’
Nathan didn’t answer.
‘It’s not the first time, either.’
‘Didn’t know there was a law about keeping it on.’
‘Good as, around here. Don’t be a bloody smartarse,’ McKenna said. ‘Anyway, look, don’t be shy to shout out if you need to.’
