I drive towards the hiding tree, my head still thumping. Marko’s assumption is right. There is something I don’t want him to see, but it’s nothing to do with the farm. I need to check that the boxes are still there and haven’t been taken while I was in hospital by whoever knocked me out.

I drive as fast as the track will allow me, and pull in close to the hiding tree. The boxes are still there, dry, and they haven’t been chewed by curious animals. I thought it was a safe place for them, but now I can’t convince myself of that. I feel like I need to be able to keep an eye on them at all times. I put them in the ute, and then speed back to the house. Before I go inside I take the box of money and put it in the meat room under a wheat bag behind a timber chopping block.

‘That was quick.’ Marko says when I enter the kitchen. He looks pleased to see that I am still alive.

He heats up a casserole for lunch, and I’m stunned to see him working at the stove. We eat without talking, and I am glad of it. The sound of a car, a powerful, expensive car, makes me look out the window and see the black sedan arrive. There is a forceful, impatient knock at the door. I take the shotgun out and give it Marko, who looks alarmed. He breaks it to confirm it is empty. I answer the door to a pacing man. He sees me, and the recognition is instant.

‘You!’ His anger has obviously not dissipated. ‘You’re fucking Tito Slade!’

‘No.’

‘Then who are you?’

‘Since you’re on my property, I think I get to ask that question first.’

He pushes his mouth shut, and fumes. Then: ‘Frank. Tito Slade has something that belongs to me. I’ve come to collect it.’

‘Tito Slade never lived here. He’s dead.’

Silence. Frank’s head bobbles just once, and he contains it. This is bad news, and it softens him.

‘I’m looking for my brother’s remains.’

‘Why do you think they’d be here?’ In the history of the world, there have never been so many people so poorly directed.

‘He fucking sent me a weird note. It had my name on it, but the street address was wrong. I don’t know how I even got it. It had this address, his name, and the words “bones/remains”.’

Frank stops to take in the air he is suddenly in need of. ‘I presumed Tito lived here. Now you claim he doesn’t live anywhere.’

‘How would he have come by your brother’s remains?’