‘Okay.’

In just that exchange we’d touched on two of the bones of contention — my drinking and Tess’s need to be the best at everything she did.

‘Cliff, I’m calling on account of Ramsay, and don’t you go all quiet on me.’

Ramsay was Tess’s younger brother. Their parents died in a car accident when he was a kid and she wasn’t much older, but she brought him up just the same. They’d got too close sexually at one time and it’d messed Ramsay up more than it had Tess, who was the stronger character. Ramsay was a conservationist almost to the point of not stepping on ants, but he lacked judgement in almost everything he did and thought. Hated me, for example.

‘What’s the problem?’

‘He’s missing. I haven’t heard from him for over a month and he usually rings just about every week.’

For money, I thought. ‘Well, he could be just off in some forest somewhere, up a tree.’

‘No. The last time I heard from him we talked about him studying. He was going back to finish his Agricultural Science degree. I paid his fees.’

I was glad she couldn’t see me. The way things were going she’d have to cough up to get Ramsay into an old people’s home. I tried to keep my voice neutral. ‘So that was the beginning of the term?’

‘Semester.’

‘When was that?’

‘It’s nearly two months, to be honest. I’m worried. But I swore I wouldn’t go around nurse-maiding him like I used to and I meant it. This course is important to me. I don’t want to fuck it up.’

‘Right. What was his last address? Did you phone?’

‘It was in Strathfield. No phone. I sent a card there a while back but there was no answer. Not that Ramsay was much of a one for letters. I know you’ve always got things to do but I…’

‘It’s okay. Give me the address and I’ll see who’s there and what they know. Where was he supposed to be studying?’

Tess was understandably touchy about her brother and I instantly regretted the ‘supposed to be’. After a pause she gave me the address and told me Ramsay was enrolled at Lachlan University.