‘Yeah, okay.’ Nathan took a deep breath. ‘But I thought the pilot found the car?’
‘He did.’
‘So where is it?’ He didn’t bother to hide his frustration now.Get more sense from the cows than from bloody Bub, as their dad used to say.
‘Near the road.’
Nathan stared at him. ‘Which road?’
‘How many roads are there? Our one. This side of the boundary, a bit north of your cattle grid. Jesus, this was all on the radio, mate.’
‘It can’t be. That’s ten kilometres away.’
‘Eight, I reckon, but yeah.’
There was a long silence. The sun was high and the slice of shade thrown by the headstone had shrunk to almost nothing.
‘So Cam left his car?’ Beneath Nathan’s feet, the earth tilted very slightly on its axis. He saw the look on his younger brother’s face and shook his head. ‘Sorry, I know you don’t know, it’s just –’
He looked past his brother, to where the horizon lay long and still. The only movement he could see was Bub’s chest, expanding in and out as he breathed.
‘Have you been out to the car?’ Nathan said, finally.
‘No.’
Telling the truth this time, Nathan thought. He glanced over his shoulder. Xander was a dark shape hunched forward in his seat.
‘Let’s go.’
Chapter 2
It was nine kilometres in the end.
Nathan’s own four-wheel drive was on the wrong side of the fence, so he’d climbed back through the wire and pulled open the passenger door. Xander had looked up, questions already forming on his lips. Nathan held up a hand.
‘I’ll tell you later. Come on. We’re going to find Uncle Cam’s car.’
‘Find it? Where is it?’ Xander frowned. His private schoolboy haircut was looking a little shaggy around the edges after the past week and the stubble on his chin made him look older.
‘Somewhere near the road. Bub’s driving.’
‘Sorry, all the way out atyourroad?’
‘Yeah, apparently.’
‘But –? What?’
‘I don’t know, mate. We’ll see.’
Xander opened his mouth, then shut it again, and climbed out of the four-wheel drive without further comment. The kid followed him through the fence, glancing once at the tarp and giving the grave a respectfully wide berth as he walked to Bub’s car.
‘Hi, Bub.’
‘G’day, little mate. Not so little now, hey?’
‘No, I suppose not.’
‘How’s Brisbane?’
