James noticed how people sat on their towels in the little booths by the hotel pool, slightly out of sight from the main lounge and the restaurant. During the quiet time after lunch, he took his place in one of them.

In the harsh light of a high sun, dark places revealed themselves. The shadows underneath the baking benches, the space behind the changeroom doorways, and the deep hedge of hibiscus. Now and again, people would come and go on their way into the iridescent water, or leave it for the seclusion of the rooms in the hotel tower set against the crisp sheen of a cloudless sky.

Somewhere in this playground, Tony was waiting to come down for a swim.

The thought of his cousin in nothing but skimpy swimming togs made James’s legs tingle. Perhaps Tony would emerge from the change rooms and wade slowly into the pool? Or would he be coming straight down from his room? Would Leanne be with him?

Just then, the sun moved a little across the top of the low wall which divided James’s vantage point from the rest, and the heat hit him, sending beads of sweat across both temples. A woman glided in the water wearing a red swimming cap. He imagined the coolness on her skin as her arm struck the surface, then she fell through the light that reflected upwards into Jamie’s eyes. His pants clung to his legs.

After she’d swum back the other way, he slipped out of his clothes and into the water in just his underpants. The silence quickly engulfed him as he descended, the dust and angst of a night on the road in his wake.

He was a good swimmer. He could hold his breath longer underwater than any of the older boys at school. Ever since summer swimming lessons at the Kippen town pool, the smell of water had reminded James of his little brother. Here was the weightlessness that Gregory could never have felt, feet still on the earth, face in the inch or two of water that snuffed out his life.

Beck woke just as the farmlands were giving way to long patches of coastal rainforest. The thud of windscreen wipers had roused her.

Daniel was silent, only turning to her every few minutes to offer a cautious smile. As they reached a series of large junctions, he shifted and muttered that they were nearly there.

The rain cleared as they reached the first outer suburbs. Despite the signs of what had been a clear, hot day, deep pools of rainwater gathered wherever there was a low place.

Neon motel signs flickered into life. Beck rubbed her eyes and stretched the stiffness out of her neck.

‘I’d kill for a cuppa,’ she said, wanting something to take the dryness of vulnerable sleep out of her.

‘We need fuel anyway,’ he said, and pulled into the first service station.