They waited for him to speak. Beau looked at them and felt no guilt, grief, pain or despair. This was right. They had forgiven him. He had done right to leave and heal.

Taylor his brother-in-law had his arm around Lydia. Suzie sat on his lap. His parents were held hands. Josh looked at him as if he was frightened, he'd revert into his crazy self.

"I'm all right, Josh." Beau smiled at his younger brother. "You can stop looking at me like I'm gonna freak."

Josh tilted his head and smiled. "Sorry, old habits and all that."

Beau sat straighter and said, "After my overdose, something clicked in my head. I used to hear and see Cody. He kept being a smart arse, like his usual self." Beau chuckled at this thought. "He was doing it to drive me to a better place. I knew that somehow. When I was in the clinic a plan formed in my head. Cody encouraged me. I know that sounds crazy but I sensed him with me." Beau studied his family and then said, "There are things Cody and I got involved in that you don't know about."

"Syndicate fighting."

Beau jerked his head back and furrowed his brow. "You know about that?"

"The detective who worked your missing person case told us. He thought, ah... we'll talk about that tomorrow." Richard waved what he was going to say away. "Keep going, Beau."

Suzie had fallen asleep. Beau was glad she had. He shifted his eyes around the group. "Well, we did that and made a lot of money. We hid it in Grandad's old toolbox. After Cody died, I kept at it. I liked getting hit," he scoffed. "I felt like I deserved to get my arse kicked because I'd caused Cody's death."

He stared into space and then shrugged. "Truth is. I was pretty good at it. When I was high, I got beaten. My manager, Cory Shevlin, if you could call him a manager, cottoned on to it and would pull me out if I turned up stoned." Beau blew out a heavy breath and shook his head. "I did some other work for him. Things I'm not proud of."

"How'd you get into that in the first place?" Josh asked.

"We met a guy, at one of the building sites. It came up in conversation and he put us onto it. Cody and I were already boxing at the gym." Beau studied his brother. "Do you remember that?"

"Yeah, I do."

"It went from there. We were saving for a shed." Beau gave his family a sheepish look. "We wanted to extend the business. Had plans to..." He threw his hands behind his head. "You know. Get bigger and bigger. Cody's idea. You know how he always made plans to do this or that."

The family laughed in unison. Beau dropped his arms. "We were going to take out a loan but pay it back with the money we'd saved as normal payments so it didn't show up in one big lump sum."

He let out a breath and shrugged. "I used that money to buy my place at Cooktown, the LandCruiser out front, some building supplies and cheap furniture." Beau held up his hand and grinned because he knew they'd ask how he'd found the place.

"Before you ask. I found it on the internet. Once I opted to disappear, I looked for a place. I wanted somewhere isolated and a long way away. I picked Cooktown because it has good facilities and isn't a complete Hicksville. Anyway. I searched for places for sale in the area and came across my place. It was a deceased estate. The family wanted to get rid of it so I got it for eighty thousand. It's on forty acres. Has a running creek. Bore water." Beau smiled. "I love it."

"You made that much from fighting?" Taylor looked dumbfounded. "I'm in the wrong business."

Beau nodded as he chuckled. "More. It took us a few years. We started when we were twenty. The occasional fight here and there. As we got better and worked out how it all went down, we fought more and bet on ourselves. After Cody died it's all I wanted to do. Another death wish you could say."

He scratched the back of his head. "Anyway, I paid cash. Just put all the money into the people's bank account. I hired a solicitor to handle the legal stuff and pretended I worked overseas. I used a place in Brisbane to receive faxes, emails and stuff. They transferred it to me. I bought a cheap prepaid phone and used Cody's name where I could. I have his ID so I called myself Cody. Then I faked my disappearance. I drove my new car out to Delaney Road and walked back. When I was far enough away from where I'd hidden it, I hitched."

Beau took a breath and shrugged. "Then a week later I drove back out there and ransacked my Ute. I transferred the toolbox and a few other things into the new truck. I cut myself and spread the blood through the old car. I put hand prints in places I thought someone might grab hold of if he was being pulled out and I made drag marks from the Ute. It was easy. I'd bought a pair of boots in a bigger size from Life Line and put them on as I worked around the car. I dragged my boots through the dirt towards the new car and scuffed the tracks to make it look like I was trying to hide them. Then I drove."

He looked around the table. "I found a dog on the side of the road on my way through Cooper Pedy. He was a poor skinny-looking thing so I took him with me and called him Max. I've still got him. Great dog."

"Where is he now?" Lydia leaned forward her eyes wide.

"I left him with a mate. He's in good hands."

Patricia said, "Is your friend going to keep him?"

Beau looked at his mother. Here was the cruncher. "I'm going back, Mum."

"No... Beau. You can't." Patricia gripped his hand. Her nails dug into his skin. She looked wide-eyed at her husband. "Tell him, Richard. He can't do this."

"I can't tell him anything, love."

Beau cupped his mother's face with one hand and made her look at him. "Not straight away. I have to sort my life. I have to present myself to Detective Pavardy in the next couple of days and see how that goes. I've got things to answer for but I'm going to go back, Mum. I like it there. I feel I've found my place in the world and... I met a girl."

"The one they said you raped? The one you told your father you loved?" Patricia's grip loosened as Beau nodded.

He shrugged and gave her a forlorn look. "It's not going so well at the moment but I am going back for her. She doesn't know it yet. Then there's her father." Beau chuckled to ease his stress. "Her name is Fin and she's beautiful."

Beau went on to tell them about Fin and her life. How they had met and the last days he had been with her. "I went crazy, something else I have to get sorted. I need to see a head doctor because I don't know what happened but I have to make it up to Fin. I want to go back to her without any issues. Then I'll be able to let her know how much she means to me. I'm so sorry I grabbed her and went crazy. It was wrong and I'll never be able to forgive myself."

He took a big breath of air. "I plan to marry her if she'll have me. Then I'm going to start a business. There's plenty of work in the area. Shane, my mate, demolishes houses and stuff. He has a place where he sells it and recycles it. We get on." Beau chuckled. "His mother makes this great syrup cake."

The conversation went from there. He told them about his house and his plans for it. Beau talked more about Fin. They asked questions about Cooktown and the people he'd met.

Coffee and dessert were served, and by the time Beau crawled into bed he was exhausted. He dreamt of Cody. This time there was no blood. No screams. No sorrow. Just Cody.

Happy, smiling, fun-loving Cody.

I don't know who the guy is in the pic but I think Beau and Cody might look like him. ♥♥