Chapter 26
They didn’t find Max that night. They didn’t find him the next day either. Nor did the state emergency service, or police search and rescue, or the hundreds of volunteers who combed the Billabong wetlands. It was as if he’d vanished from the face of the earth. Nina wearily washed her hands at the outside tap and followed Ric inside. Another fruitless trip down the river. They were wearing their frayed nerves on the outside of their skin. The slightest thing provoked an argument.
Nina slumped into a chair. Two full days had now passed since Max went missing. Two days of torment, of not knowing. The little town of Drovers Flat talked of little else, and was alive with speculation, some of it hateful.
‘I won’t be able to help search tomorrow,’ Nina said. ‘It’s Eva’s funeral.’
‘
