“Dunno. Small town. She wouldn’t have stayed single too long where I used to live.”
“No. Probably not here, either, most likely.” Shane frowned. “We used to go out, actually. Me and Naomi. For a little while. Years ago. She could do better now obviously, but yeah. We were together then. Back in my footy days.”
“Oh yeah?” Falk hadn’t known that, but found he wasn’t surprised, either. “Didn’t work out?”
“No. I stuffed it up. Usual story. Went to play a game over in Perth. Had sex with someone else in a nightclub toilet.”
“Well,” Falk said. “That’d do it.”
“Yeah.” They’d wandered back to the oval. Shane lined up and kicked the ball. They watched it glide clean through the goalposts andbounce across the grass. He glanced over, his voice light. “Why? She said something?”
“Naomi? Not to me.”
“No.” Shane shook his head quickly. “Didn’t think so.” He looked faintly but distinctly disappointed.
“Still.” Falk thought about Naomi, the visits to the vineyard, the way her eyes had sought out Shane at the church. She’d looked like a woman who could be convinced to forgive. “Twenty years is a long time to stay upset about something.”
“I dunno. Depends.” A ghost of a smile flitted across Shane’s face. “Found myself in Perth a few times. Back in those days.”
He ran over to get the ball, and they kicked it back and forth for a while longer until eventually a group of small boys making the most of the school holidays gathered around the goals at the other end. It was clear from the baffled look on their judgmental little faces that it was high time for these old blokes to make way. Shane checked his watch.
“Probably better head back, anyway. Do some work.”
“Where do you live?” Falk asked as they started walking.
“Over by the reservoir, not far from Naomi. I keep some clothes and stuff at the vineyard, though. I’ll shower and change there.”
Falk glanced over his shoulder. The turnoff to the reservoir lay somewhere behind them along the empty road, well out of sight. Next to him, Shane was twirling the ball in his hands as they walked, whistling softly through his teeth.
“I saw Joel again the other day,” Falk said. “He was talking about his dad’s accident.”
“Oh yeah?” Shane stopped messing with the ball. “Has there been some news?”
“Not as far as I know. But can I ask you something about that? About finding the scene?”
There was a pause. “Sure.”
“I know it was a few years ago now, but can you remember approaching it?”
“Yeah, mate.” A tiny, hard smile. “I remember that day pretty well.”
“What did you see?” Falk hoped Shane would go down the path he wanted without having to be led.
“I dunno. I mean, it was bad. Luna was howling. Is that what you mean?”
“Yeah, that kind of thing. I mean, going on your own gut feeling, did you have a sense someone had left in a hurry? Or had it been quiet for a while?”
Shane’s face creased. “I think—” His eyes were on the road, but his gaze was far away. “I remember I was surprised when I realized I was the only one there. Took me a while to get my head around that, you know?” He looked over, and Falk nodded. “Maybe because Luna was making such a bloody racket, it felt like Dean should be around. Or because you’d never really expect to be the first one to find something like that. But it couldn’t have been too long after it happened, I reckon. Dean walked Luna around six thirty most mornings, and I probably got there before eight.” He said nothing for a few paces. “Long enough, I suppose. For something like that.”
“So, the first thing you noticed was Luna,” Falk said, and Shane nodded. They had reached the vineyard and turned up the driveway together. “What next?”
“Probably that the barrier was broken. That was hard to miss. And there were tracks on the road, where the car had skidded.”
“Staying with the ground for a moment, what did that look like?”
“There were the marks, from the tires. They’d gouged the dirt where the car braked.” Shane looked over. “Is that what you’re asking?”
“Anything else?”
