They’re roaring in the front seat. I smile and Claire flicks her eyes up. Boys will be boys. They’re talking about Trent Skelton. I think again about what Cain had told me. Cain killed someone. It shocked me, but it shouldn’t have been surprising. The man was a farmer. This detail alone is lodged in my brain. I’d read the notes in the news. It’s so much worse given that the man was innocent. Now I know Trent Skelton didn’t kill the entire family. Cain killed the father and Trent killed the daughter and mother.

‘I just can’t believe we’ve not been down here,’ Axel says. ‘Can’t wait. Might get a swim in today.’

‘It’ll be cold.’

‘I like it cold,’ he says. ‘Remember Wanaka?’

‘That was cold,’ Cain says. Another boys’ trip, Cain’s stag do. The stories start again.

For the rest of the trip down, Cain and Axel are talking about the new gym Axel is opening. Cain has been trying to convince me to go in on it with him using some of the proceeds we’ll get from the house.

‘Military training for office workers,’ Axel says. ‘Who would have thought?’

Not me. It didn’t work for Cain, not until our fifteen minutes of fame defibrillated Commando Fitness.

‘No phones for the weekend,’ Axel says.

I notice Claire roll her eyes again. ‘He’s trying to detox. Don’t drag us down with you.’

‘I like it,’ Cain says. ‘See if we can last until midnight.’ He tosses his phone in the glove box.

‘Good man.’

•

‘Wow,’ Claire says, when we pull in. ‘It’s beautiful, Lina. You actually grew up here?’

‘Mostly, yeah. My grandpa built it. It’s got a few quirks, but I love it.’

‘Deck could do with some work,’ Axel says, teasing Cain who built it.

‘Cheeky prick.’

There’s no police tape, no sign of what happened that night. I can see the freshly painted patch where the weatherboards have been repaired from the shotgun holes in the side of the upstairs bedroom. The new window looks much tidier than the rest, but the paint on the new boards is just a touch off the others. It hasn’t faded like the rest to the sand colour it will end up.