‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
Keith opened his car door. ‘This is a waste of time. I’m not getting into this. I’ve got to go.’
‘Wait. Who are you talking about? You mean my dad?’
‘For one.’
‘Hey. No.’ Nathan put his arm out and grabbed the door, blocking Keith’s way. He was a lot bigger than the other man. ‘That’s not fair.’
‘You sure about that?’ Keith looked pointedly at Nathan’s arm until he slowly dropped it. Keith shook his head and climbed into the car. He wound down the window. ‘Don’t try to call Jacqui. Communication should go through the lawyers.’
‘Jesus, Keith.’ Nathan had leaned in through the window. Kylie, watching from behind the service station counter, later remembered seeing that too. ‘This is between me and Jacqui. Keep your money out of it. You listening? I don’t want you messing around with my family.’
‘No, Nathan.’ Keith had actually laughed. ‘You’re the one who’s not listening. I’m going to keep writing those cheques as long as it takes. Jacqui and Xander aren’t your family, they’re mine, and I’m going to make sure they’re properly looked after. So you listen to me now. I don’t give a shit what you want. I care about what I want, and what Jacqui wants.’
‘And what exactly is that?’
‘Don’t bloody come near me or my family again.’
Nathan could have reached through the window and broken the man’s nose. To that day, he sometimes wondered if he should have. The whole thing would have been done and dusted a lot quicker, at least. But somewhere, in the midst of it all, he had suddenly thought about Ilse. The magic of the night before had more or less been hosed off thanks to Keith but, for just a moment, the man in front of him seemed a tiny bit less important. He and his money couldn’t touch everything.
Nathan had made himself take a long, deep breath. Without another word, and with a level of self-control he had barely demonstrated in all his life, he’d walked to his own car and driven away.
Nathan parked further away from the grave than Harry did. It looked somehow even more lonely than it had the day before. Bub got out this time as well and followed Harry over to the headstone. They stood side by side. The sand and the wind had almost entirely repaired the ground, as Nathan had expected. It was already hard to imagine Cameron lying there. Nathan watched through the windscreen as Bub said something, and the slightest frown crossed Harry’s face.
Nathan turned to Xander. ‘Do you want to get out?’
‘No.’ Xander was looking anywhere but at the place where Cameron’s body had been. ‘Do you?’
‘No.’ They sat in the car as the smell of rotting food floated through from the back.
Nathan had spotted the expensive four-wheel drive from miles away. He’d left the service station with his hands gripping the steering wheel hard and Keith’s words ringing in his ears. Ilse and the night before seemed a long time ago and now Nathan just felt hot and fractious. He’d been planning to drive straight home, but he could feel the lack of sleep catching up with him and that was never good news on the road. He’d pulled over at the bakery and bought a coffee. He still felt tired, but as he sat in his car, sipping coffee and thinking about the reason for his lack of sleep, the smile started to return to his face.
He’d hit the road twenty minutes later and was half an hour out of town when he saw the four-wheel drive parked at an angle on the gravel track. Not even parked, perhaps. Just stopped, half on the road, half off. Nathan had recognised the car well before he’d seen the figure leaning against the hood.
Later, Nathan worked out that he must have had three or four minutes to make the decision. It hadn’t been spur of the moment, whichever way you cut it. It had been calculated, and in the end, that made it worse.
Either way, the facts were the same. Nathan had seen Keith’s car, parked at an angle, and then he’d seen Keith. One arm waving, one arm clutched by his side and a look of deep disappointment on his face as he realised it was Nathan behind the wheel. Still, Keith had waved a second time, his body bent over slightly. One arm flapping in the air, the other down by his side, near the pocket where he kept his money. Nathan’s foot had touched the brake then, without fully letting himself think about it, eased off again. He pictured Xander, miles away from him now, and he’d felt a weight in his chest and a rush of blood to his head. Somewhere beneath it all, he heard Keith’s words.
‘Don’t bloody come near me or my family again.’
‘Whatever you say, mate.’
Nathan drove past and did not stop.
Chapter 11
Not that anyone cared, but for the record, Nathan’s conscience had got the better of him. He’d turned around after thirty minutes, which became an hour by the time he got back to Keith’s car. The bloke’s four-wheel drive was still there, still parked at its odd angle, but there was no sign of Keith. Uneasy now, Nathan had called it in on the radio. There had been an unusually long wait before anyone had answered him. Keith had been taken away by ambulance, he was finally told.
‘Is he all right?’ Nathan had asked. Another long wait. The dead static dragged on into a second minute.
‘It’s too late, mate,’ said a voice at last. It had to be someone he knew, but he didn’t recognise the tone.
‘Too late for Keith? Shit, seriously?’
‘No. For you to pretend you give a fuck. He told us you left him.’
And with that, Nathan’s radio had fallen silent.
