The Lost Man by Jane Harper

Author:Jane Harper
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Pan Macmillan Australia
Published: 2018-10-22T13:00:00+00:00

Chapter 20

In the morning, Ilse was already gone.

Nathan had woken far later than usual, opening his eyes to find daylight creeping through the curtains in the living room. He and Xander had stayed up too long, the hurricane lamp burning in the garage as they sat and stared at Cameron’s words.

Forgive me.

Eventually, Nathan had taken the card and put it in his pocket.

‘You going to show it to Ilse?’ Xander had said.

‘Yeah. Tomorrow.’

But the house was quiet as Nathan dressed. From the window, he could make out the small shapes of Sophie and Lo playing some sort of game in the garden, while Liz watched. Even from that distance, Nathan could see the slump to her shoulders, and the exhausted curve of her spine. There was no sign of Ilse with them.

Neither was she in the kitchen, where Katy was cleaning up alone, or in her office. Nathan walked back down the hall and checked on Xander, who was still sleeping. Relaxed against the pillow, his face looked younger than it had the night before. Nathan closed the door. Across the hallway was the girls’ bedroom. It had been Cameron’s room when they were kids. Nathan stood, remembering all those bleary-eyed pre-dawn mornings when he had opened his door and come face to face with his brother. Since taking over the property, Cameron had slept in the master bedroom at the end of the hall. Cameron and Ilse, anyway. Liz had moved to the smaller bedroom along from the girls, where she’d said she was happier.

The door of the master bedroom was open, and Nathan wandered up and peered inside. The big items of furniture didn’t look like they had been replaced since the room had belonged to his mum and dad, but the space was unfamiliar beyond that. Someone, Ilse presumably, had painted the walls and added photos of the girls and a few other personal touches.

The room looked cared for but now felt – Nathan tried to put his finger on it – disturbed. The bed was made, but badly, and the deep dents in the pillows hinted at a poor night’s sleep. Old coffee cups left clusters of rings on the bedside table, on Ilse’s side, he guessed. A bottle of painkillers stood among them with its cap off. A few pills were scattered loose beside the cups.

Nathan glanced back at the girls’ room, then at the bottle on the table. He hesitated, then walked in, the floorboards creaking loudly under his boots. He gathered up the loose pills, tipped them into the bottle and clicked the safety cap on. He checked the label. It was only over-the-counter paracetamol, but there were a lot of tablets in the bottle. He stood there for a while, then returned the bottle to where he’d found it.

He stepped out into the hall and grunted as he collided heavily with someone in the shadows. They both stumbled. It took Nathan a beat to place the man in front of him in the dim light.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.