‘Anyone you know?’
‘Nah, contractor based down near Adelaide. Been working on Atherton for the season. Some cop got him on the flight comms, told him to do a flyover and check the roads.’
‘Glenn?’
‘No. Someone else. From police dispatch or something.’
‘Right,’ Nathan said. It was lucky the pilot had seen Cameron at all. The stockman’s grave was two hundred kilometres from Lehmann’s Hill and the main search area. ‘When did he call it in?’
‘Mid-arvo, so most people hadn’t even made it to Lehmann’s by then. It was pretty much only me and Harry out there still, but I was about an hour closer so I said I’d drive over.’
‘And Cam was definitely dead?’
‘That’s what the pilot said. Had been for a few hours, by the sound of it. Cop still got on the radio and made him do all these checks.’ Bub grimaced. ‘I got here near sunset. The bloke had covered Cam over like he was told to but he was pretty keen to get going. Didn’t want to lose the light and get stuck here.’
Fair enough, Nathan thought. He wouldn’t have wanted to stay either. He felt bad that the task had fallen to Bub.
‘If Cam was supposed to be meeting you at Lehmann’s Hill, what was he doing out here?’
‘Don’t know. Harry said he’d written in the planner that he was heading out to Lehmann’s.’
‘Nothing else?’
‘Not that Harry said.’
Nathan thought about that planner. He knew where it was kept, next to the phone, inside the back door of the house that had once been their dad’s and had then become Cameron’s. Nathan had written in it himself plenty of times growing up. He’d also not written in it plenty of times, when he’d forgotten or couldn’t be bothered, or didn’t want anyone to know where he was going, or couldn’t find a pen.
He could feel the heat bearing down on his neck and he looked at his watch. The digital numbers were covered in fine red dust and he wiped his thumb across them.
‘What time are they due?’Theymeaning police and medical.Theyalso meaning two people. One of each. Not a team, not out there.
‘Not sure. They’re on their way.’
That didn’t mean it would be soon, though. Nathan looked down at the tarp again. The marks in the dust.
‘Did he look injured?’
‘Don’t think so. Not that I could see. Just hot and thirsty.’ Bub’s face was tilted down as he touched the edge of the dust circle with the toe of his boot. Neither brother mentioned it. They both knew what it meant. They had seen similar patterns made by dying animals. A thought struck Nathan and he looked around.
‘Where’s all his stuff?’
‘His hat’s under the tarp. He didn’t have anything else.’
‘What, nothing?’
‘Pilot said not. He was told to check, take some pics. Reckoned he couldn’t see anything else.’
‘But –’ Nathan scanned the ground again. ‘Notanything? Not even an empty water bottle?’
‘Don’t think so.’
‘Did you have a proper look?’
‘You can see for yourself, mate. You’ve got eyes.’
‘But –’
‘I don’t know, all right? I don’t have any answers. Stop asking me.’
