‘Uh-uh.’ Carl shook his head, eyes on the floor. ‘She’s spent so much keeping you and Kel and Ben together, she doesn’t want to move you out. She just wants to avoid her own interests being impeded.’

‘How am I getting in the way of her interests?’

‘She has to get her name off the title of The Lodge. That way, whatever you’re doing won’t affect her redevelopment here at the Hilton. She likes you, believe it or not. She even likes your old man, you know? She keeps going on about “family values”. Won’t shut up about how too many families are falling apart, how badly things turned out for you and Kel, how this was her big chance to help. She talks a lot about Ron, how he shouldn’t be left to rot away in that nursing home.’

Oh shit, Gordon’s face was saying. Oh shit shit shit shit.

‘She’s already exchanged the title,’ Carl said. ‘Settlement happens in six weeks. Family first.’

‘She can’t.’

But, Ben understood, she already had. She had set loose an electronic rabbit inside Gordon’s future; the greyhounds of his objections were racing to catch it, but they never would. The rabbit always won.

Carl joined Ben at the window. Grandma Leonie was getting back into the Prius.

‘Looks like she’s left it to me to break the news,’ Carl said. ‘She’s not coming up.’

‘She can’t do this,’ Gordon said.

‘I think we know she can do anything she wants.’

‘If my dad moves in, one of us is going to kill each other.’

Carl started to say something, then stopped. ‘Who said anything about your dad?’

Gordon’s breath caught in his throat and even in the instant before he turned to Carl, who was now wearing the broadest smile his ravaged face would allow—or it might have been a painful wince—Ben’s dad was realising he had jumped to the wrong conclusion.

‘Don’t be silly, Dad,’ Ben said. ‘Grandma Leonie hasn’t sold to Grandpa.’

Now Uncle Carl was looking at Ben.

‘Why did everyone tell me your kid was slow on the uptake, Gordo?’

THE MAN IN THE IRONED SHORTS

The man in the ironed shorts

The encounter with Uncle Carl had shaken Ben’s dad. Often, when disturbed like this, Gordon became jittery and talkative. As they drove to Grandpa’s nursing home, Gordon told Ben some more about Uncle Carl.

‘He came back to Bluebird once before. Briefly.’

Ben tried to focus on the road. It was like his dad was speaking to himself. Ben felt as if he had crossed into a land of myth and legend.