There was no answer before then, so early that morning he walked the considerable distance to his work carpark where he'd deliberately left the Audi. The parson was on his mind, although he'd seen no sign of him since Timaru. Theo didn't take the main carpark exit, but drove down the narrow alley between the paper and the backs of the beauty parlour and the pet shop, and out to the other side of the block. Once clear of the city he relaxed. Solitary, long-distance driving was an exercise in containment: just him, just the vehicle, transient in the passing landscape. Other people's lives were also turning, but they seemed at considerable remove. Penny and her son may have been already on the autumnal hillside; Nicholas putting his feet up to watch CNN news on television; Anna tying on her netball bib to take her place in a workmanlike seniors team in the Easter tournament; Zack entertaining his daughters with tales of his Virginian boyhood; Erskine Maine-King already on his way to Nice perhaps, thinking of his son rather than business.
