The Crocodile Nest Read Online Free PDF Page A

special emphasis to the boar which had grown much bigger and incredibly more ferocious. If Alice found the minute detail of the story tedious, she gave no sign of it. In fact she seemed to enjoy listening to her son’s excited voice.
    The fire had died down, and, while there were still bits of unburnt marijuana, the police would not be able to use them as evidence of cultivation. Luke added a few pieces of wood before stirring up the embers. While they waited for the flames to take hold, he thought back to the conversation he’d had with Kev earlier in the day.
    ‘Have you ever heard of a guy named Hamish Sloss?’ he asked, moving forward to give the fire another poke. ‘Kev thinks I look like him.’
    There was no answer in the time it took to stoke the fire, andwhen he turned around he found that his mother was standing stiffly, staring at him in fear.
    ‘What?’ he asked, urgently. ‘What’s the matter?’
    Her mouth opened, but no words came out.
    Luke was growing increasingly alarmed. ‘Mum! What is it?’
    ‘Oh God, Luke,’ she said, bringing her hands up to her face. ‘I never meant you to find out like this.’
    ‘What?’ shouted Luke, concern now giving way to anger. ‘Find out what?’
    Alice’s eyes lowered. ‘Hamish Sloss is your father,’ she said, so softly that it was almost a whisper.
    ‘My father? But my father is dead.’
    She shook her head violently, still not looking at him. ‘No! He’s alive. I lied to you. He left me before you were born.’
    Luke looked at her, not knowing what to think or say. Anger had been replaced by confusion. All his life he hadn’t had a father, and now it seemed that he did. He’d thought his father had died in a car accident, but that wasn’t true. ‘Tell me!’ he ordered. ‘Tell me the truth.’
    And so she did. There, sitting on the ground by the fire in the darkening evening, Luke learned about his father. Alice told of the relationship between her and Hamish that had lasted more than a year. They worked at the same restaurant; he as a cook and she as a waitress. Then she became pregnant. At first it seemed as if he was coping with the changing situation, but as the pregnancy developed he spent more and more time away from her, mostly out pig hunting. And one day he didn’t come home. For hours Alice was worried that he’d had an accident,until his mate turned up and told her that Ham had taken off to Australia. She never saw him again.
    For months she was angry about his behaviour. So angry that she refused to give a father’s name for the birth certificate. After that, with a baby to care for, she soon forced him out of her mind and got on with her life. Later, she created the myth that Luke’s father had died in a car crash. She knew that at some stage Luke would have to be told, but somehow she never seemed to find the right time, and so the lie had continued.
    ‘He was a good man, Luke. Probably still is. I’ve thought about what he did, and I’m sure it was because he was scared. Scared of being a father.’ She gave a little sigh. ‘And probably a bit selfish, too. He wasn’t ready to change his ways. Give up all that pig hunting. Not that I would’ve stopped him, but that’s probably what he thought. Anyway he went, and that left just you and me. And that’s the way it’s likely to stay.’
    Luke listened without asking questions. The time for questions would come later, when they’d both had the chance to adjust to the new situation. For a while, they sat watching the flames. Later, they walked back down the hill; side by side, not touching. Neither of them spoke, yet their thoughts were as heavy in the air as the dew that was now settling out of the starlit sky.

Chapter 6
    By Sunday morning, Luke had decided that he was going to find his father. He wasn’t at all sure why. He couldn’t even work out whether he was angry about what his father had done, or excited by the idea of having someone to call Dad. His emotions