Forest breathed a sigh of relief. ‘I give you my word.’

At least Huck hadn’t made him promise not to go visit the cave.

He lit up one of the cigarettes and inhaled. Then he laid the map in front of Huck.

CHAPTER 21

MACKEREL

The setting summer sun burned bright and hot in the cloudless sky, but not as hot as Mackerel’s anger.

‘Look, don’t be mad at me,’ said Big Mane.

‘Oh, we’re well beyond mad.’ Mackerel paced around Big Mane’s lounge room. His face was itching, a tempest swelling up inside him. ‘You had no right to give her my bank details!’

‘Shelby’s just concerned about you.’ He held his hands up in placation. ‘That’s three days you haven’t been able to work. She knows you’ve got court fees and debts you’re repaying —’

‘And who told her that?’

Big Mane’s face went red as a buoy and he shook his head. ‘I dunno?’

‘I can carry my own weight, mate!’

‘Well, can you?’ said Big Mane, dropping his hands back into his pockets. ‘Can you really?’

‘Do you know how much she gave me?’ Mackerel pulled at his hair. ‘With Davey dead, she can’t be giving this kind of money away!’

‘I dunno,’ said Big Mane again, with a shrug that implied he didn’t much care. ‘Maybe he had life insurance? No disrespect to the dead.’ He awkwardly crossed himself. ‘Mate, I think you’re being pig-headed here. You deserve a break.’

‘No, I fucking don’t,’ said Mackerel. He stormed out of the door, into his car and up to Homeward.

He was still in a foul mood when he arrived, slamming the car door shut.

Shelby was already out the front door and heading towards him, wearing a polka-dot skirt, ruby red sandals, and a face so determined her jaw jutted out like a ship cutting through waves. He supposed her new motion sensors and security cameras had let her know the moment he’d pulled into the driveway.

‘I don’t need handouts!’ he shouted.

‘What aren’t you telling me about Davey?’ Shelby countered.

That pulled Mackerel up. ‘I . . . I’m here to talk about the money!’

She searched his eyes, as though looking for a lie, and then she looked him up and down. He realised he was wearing dirty trackies and the same hoodie as yesterday.

He had still been in the shower when his phone pinged with the notification of a bank deposit. When he saw what it was, he’d thrown these clothes on, not thinking straight, still smarting from the way Ivy had dismissed him the moment Forest came home with her.

He felt a ridiculous urge to apologise to Shelby for his dirty clothes, which he quashed.