Beezer was buried in the family plot beside his mum and dad and his little brother Colin. It was the send-off Harlan had promised it would be. There were flowers and cars and lots of hymns, everything that Beezer could have wished for. Charlie made absolutely sure that the thing was done right.

Then when the ceremony was over and Beezer was laid to rest, they all went back to Charlie’s place.

Nula managed – at last – to get Terry alone.

‘Terry!’ She grabbed his arm as he passed by. Couldn’t deny, silly old mare that she was, that just touching him still had the power to excite her. He looked at her hand on his arm and his expression made her let go, quickly. ‘I need to talk to you. In private.’

Nula could see Jill, with a right face on her, watching them from across the room.

‘About what?’ he asked.

‘Not here.’

‘Oh for fuck’s—’

‘Look,’ said Nula sharply. ‘I’m not arsing around here, Terry. This is serious.’

He let out a sharp sigh. ‘All right then. Where?’

‘Meet me out by the buggy in ten minutes.’

‘This had better not be—’

‘It isn’t,’ said Nula, walking away.

Ten minutes later, they were there by the buggy that ferried Charlie down and back beyond the orchard, to the reptile house or the helipad.

‘Christ, I hate that bloody thing,’ said Nula, letting out a jittery gust of cigarette smoke and nodding to where the rotor blades of Charlie’s latest toy sat still and silent. ‘He keeps saying, come up with me, you’ll enjoy it. Like fuck I would.’

‘What’s this about, Nula?’ asked Terry, sounding irritable and tired. His old friend had died; he was gutted and now Nula could see him thinking that here she was again, this pathetic crazy old bitch, giving him the glad eye.

Nula took another deep drag of nicotine. She’d taken up smoking about a year ago, when the worry of her life had felt like too much. She drank a bit, too. Much more stress and she’d be sampling Charlie’s product, and then it would be non-stop down the highway to hell.

‘I know what you think of me, the lot of you,’ she said. ‘Mad old Nula, always back and forth to the nuthouse. But I’m not a fool. I can see trouble when it’s right under my nose.’

‘What trouble?’ asked Terry.

‘Harlan.’

‘What about him?’

‘He’s going to nudge Charlie out of the way, someday soon. I can see it. Can’t you?’

Terry was silent for a long while. ‘What have you heard?’ he said at last.

‘Nothing. I’ve seen plenty though. The people he’s surrounding himself with. Things that have happened. Things like Beezer deciding to top himself and Harlan there as the only witness.’

Terry frowned at her.