Vanishing Point (9 page)

‘Anything else I should know?'

‘No, don't think so.'

Sergeant Murray turned to Tommy. ‘Okay there, Tommy? Seen what you need to see?'

‘Oh yeah. I seen them tyres before. No problem if tracks still out there.'

Murray walked to the Kombi and looked inside. Turning to Alec he asked, ‘Is this how you left it?'

‘Yes, essentially. It looks like it, but some things have gone. The bassinette and blankets for the baby are missing, a bag with baby things, nappies and the like, so are some of Katherine's things, her small suitcase with some clothes. But her bag's there with her purse and cash.' Alec tried to speak calmly and rationally in spite of his churning emotions. At one level he felt almost as if he was a distant observer, out of his own body and not involved in the drama being played out. On another level he was very personally involved, deeply agitated and very concerned.

Where were Katherine and Carolyn? What had happened to them? He found his voice, saying, ‘All I can think of is that someone came along after I left, tried to tow the Kombi and found it too difficult. So they moved it, maybe partly hid it for safety and gave Katherine and Carolyn a lift here. She's probably somewhere in town wondering where the hell I am! We should check the hotels and caravan parks again in case she went to one after I'd checked. If she couldn't find me surely she would have called in at garages or even the police station…' His voice trailed off.

Murray took the purse and looked inside. There were two pound notes and some coins. Not a lot of money. Apart from the cash there was a stick of lipstick and a few hair clips, certainly not enough to interest a thief. It was unlikely that robbery was a motive. Why would she leave it if she had willingly accepted a lift? ‘Is this all she had in the purse?'

‘Yes, as far as I know. She never carried much cash. I've got most of what we need in my wallet.'

‘Don't worry,' Murray said, trying to sound comforting and confident at the same time. ‘We'll find them. More than likely they're looking for you somewhere in town. I'll get one of my officers to check the hotels and motels again. It's odd that she left her purse behind. Do you have a photo of your wife we could copy?'

‘Yes, there's this,' Alec took a small coloured photograph out of his wallet. ‘It was taken about a year ago, before Carolyn was born. Kath's hair was shorter then, but it's a pretty good likeness.'

‘A pity driving licences don't have photos here,' said Murray, ‘but this will do nicely, thanks.' The sergeant looked at the small photograph. ‘Pretty girl.' He paused before asking, ‘How tall is your wife?'

Harrison strained to look at the picture over Murray's shoulder.

‘A little bit shorter than me,' Alec said, holding his open hand up to his forehead, just above his eyebrows. ‘About yay high.' He looked at the photograph and commented. ‘Her hair is shorter in that photo than now. She's grown it so now it's down to about her shoulders. It's a sort of brownish blonde colour, I suppose you could say ash-blonde. She doesn't seem to have a hairstyle, just a fringe and then sort of loose around her head. Sometimes she pulls it back into a ponytail. If she's going out she curls the ends outwards and teases it but most of the time it is just loose. She's got blue eyes, bluer than they look in the picture.'

‘And have you any idea as to what clothes she might have been wearing?'

‘Most of our trip she wore denim shorts and a sort of flower-patterned or plain coloured shirt with a floppy straw hat. Sometimes she wore slacks because she was worried about sunburn. Black slacks. And sunnies. I guess she'd be wearing much the same.'

‘How old was she when this picture was taken?'

‘It was just after her birthday, about mid-August last year. She turned twenty.'

‘Okay. We'll head back to the station now, get this photo circulated around town. We'll get the original back to you as soon as possible. Let's go and pack some food.' Turning to Harrison he asked, ‘How come the generator failed?'

‘It happens. No way to predict. Once it stops charging, the battery goes flat pretty quick. It's no surprise that they couldn't get the thing going. The generator converts power from the drive-shaft to electrical energy an' keeps the battery charged. If it goes bad you don't notice anything ‘cause the battery has reserve power an' keeps you going —'

‘So how long does that last?'

‘Quite a while, so long as you don't drain the battery. But if they're using lights while camping then the battery is being drained all the time.'

‘Have you identified why the system failed?'

‘Yeah. Looks like the brushes are in pretty poor shape, not connecting properly and —'

‘I don't want technical details. Could it have been interfered with?'

‘No, doesn't look like it. The belt's old an' loose. That probably contributed to the problem. Not enough traction on the generator to keep the charge up. I recharged the battery, but reckon we'll have to get a new generator. But to get a new one for a Vee-Dub Kombi could take a while. It'll have to come from Adelaide, or maybe Melbourne ‘cos we sure as hell don't stock ‘em out here.' He turned and looked at Alec, ‘I'm surprised you even had that kind of vehicle out bush, it's not really built for those roads.'

Alec looked sheepishly at his feet and said nothing.

Murray broke the silence. ‘Thanks. All right then.' He turned to Tommy who, by now, had replaced his Akubra hat and was waiting silently beside the Kombi. ‘Let's get going and see if we can find anything at the site. If it's okay with you, Mal, I'd like you to come along too since you can probably tell us what you saw at the site.'

Harrison mumbled, ‘I've got a load of work waiting so —'

‘It could be really important, Malcolm,' advised Murray in a tone that indicated it was not a request.

Reluctantly Harrison acquiesced though Murray felt sure that the reluctance was more for show. Everyone in town knew Murray loved to be involved in gossip. This was his chance to be right in the action.

The group left the garage, climbed into the police Land Rover and drove in silence back to the station. As they approached the red brick building with its gabled porch Alec leaned forward from the back seat. ‘Hang on. Can you drop me here, please?' He indicated the Post Office. ‘I'd better phone Katherine's folks in Adelaide and let them know what's happening.'

‘All right, Mr Thompson. Come on over to the station when you're done and we can get going as soon as possible. We'll get some supplies. Don't be long. Just ask for me at the front desk and they'll show you through.' Murray's experience led him to be fairly sure Alec was very unlikely to be directly responsible for the disappearance of his wife and could be trusted not to abscond.

In spite of this confidence, he was thinking ahead just in case Mrs Thompson and her baby were not to be found. Back at his desk he made some notes in his diary. Next to the date and time he jotted ‘ fairly confident Mrs. Thompson and baby in town, if not already, then soon. Locals probably stopped, given her a ride.' But as he completed his diary notes he thought I'd better look into Alec's background. Things are not always as they seem. Hindley Street Headquarters might have some info on Mr Thompson.

He picked up the phone and dialled an Adelaide number. At this stage he was treating the situation as essentially one of missing persons. If Mrs Thompson didn't turn up by evening he would report it to the Missing Persons Unit in Adelaide and get an intensive search going locally.

A couple of hours later a subdued group headed out of Ceduna, along Highway One in the police four-wheel drive. Sergeant Murray drove, Tommy sat next to him in the passenger seat and Alec and Harrison were in the back.

‘We'll head up Caroba Tank Road then take the rough track to intersect with the dog fence north,' Murray explained as they left the bitumen road. ‘Then travel east along the fence until you recognise the spot where you found your Kombi.'

Already well advanced, it looked like it was going to be a very long day.

For most of the journey they travelled in silence. Apart from a few instructions by Tommy to Sergeant Murray to turn, slow or stop there was little to say. It was an unusual situation with the Aborigine politely giving instruction to the police officer but Murray recognised and greatly respected the skills of the tracker. Alec sat anxiously in the rear seat looking out of the window at the passing landscape, his eyes searching as if suddenly Katherine and Carolyn might appear.

Once on the dog fence track they travelled more slowly, less because of the condition of the road than because Tommy needed to observe the road ahead more closely. Even before they reached the landmark tree under which Alec had sought shelter on Thursday night Tommy broke the silence, commanding, ‘Stop!'

They pulled up in the middle of the track and Tommy got out, pointing to the side. Once shown, the others saw where the Kombi had been towed off the track. Now, even without the expert eyes of the tracker, they could see an attempt had been made to disguise the track marks into the scrubby bush. Carefully they approached the location where the abandoned Kombi had been found.

‘That's not where I left it,' said Alec, ‘It was moved there.'

‘Just wait here, please,' the official voice of Sergeant Murray ordered. ‘We don't know what we might find and I don't want you there when we investigate in case you inadvertently damage possible evidence. You too,' he looked directly at Harrison. ‘You and Alec's earlier footprints and your efforts at towing the Kombi have already probably damaged many of the earlier tracks.' The police sergeant and the tracker walked over to where the Kombi had been hidden.

After a while Murray called to Alec. ‘It's okay. You can come over now. I don't think we're going to find anything new.'

Alec approached. ‘When we came to tow the Kombi back we had a good look around but didn't find anything odd. At that stage I was pretty sure that Kath had got a lift into town and she had left the Kombi because it's difficult to steer. She's not a strong woman.'

‘See anything?' Murray directed his question at Tommy who was still silently and carefully walking around the site.

‘Yeah, look. There's bin a truck. Tyres look differen' ‘ere.' He pointed to the ground. ‘He towed ya Kombi ‘ere.' He led Alec around and showed him how he interpreted what looked like a jumble of wheel tracks to Alec. From the jumble Tommy told him a story.

‘See ‘ere. He stopped.' He pointed. ‘Took off back ta track agin, an' then ‘e comes back, ‘ere.' Alec could not see where the differences were but Tommy was so certain of his story that he believed him.

‘Bloke stopped, an' made camp.' The tracker pointed to the small pile of sand. He leaned forward and scraped away the surface layer to reveal back charcoal fragments and grey ash. ‘Over there's a swag put down, so's two people sleep ‘ere.'

Sergeant Murray joined them and Tommy led him through the story again, pointing out the evidence.

‘Beats me how you can tell all that from this mess.' Murray pointed to the disturbed ground. ‘And what about the tow-truck, isn't that the other vehicle?'

‘Naw, differen' tyres, see.' Tommy pointed at the sand again and tried to show what, to him, were clear messages. ‘Them's a Land Rover or Tojo.'

Murray shrugged his shoulders. Alec looked at the marks intelligently but could not distinguish one track from the other. The loose, creamy red sand seemed to be a poor medium for preserving definitive tyre tracks. They all looked alike.

The sergeant and Tommy left Alec looking forlornly at the ground while they walked around the site, searching for more clues. Harrison stood on one side, lit a cigarette and looked bored.

After a short while Murray said, ‘There's not much more we can do here. Tommy has a pretty good idea of what happened. We'll head back to where you originally stopped on the Thursday night and see if we can find anything more there. Then we'll head back into town.'

The three climbed into the police vehicle and headed back along the track until the distinctive tree was in sight. They stopped some distance from it and Tommy got out to walk on ahead, looking intently at the ground.

‘Anything?' Murray called.

‘Naw, same truck what did the towing, nuthin' else,' was the curt reply. ‘Headin' that way.' He pointed west.

They spent about half and hour at the tree site and found no evidence of a struggle or anything else that might suggest that something untoward had happened. Tommy scraped at some sand with his foot and exposed charred fragments of paper and tins. ‘Someone burnt rubbish ‘ere,' he said.

Alec came over and looked. ‘That's probably Kath. The tins look a bit like ours and that's a bit of nappy liner.' He poked at the fragments with a stick. ‘She probably burnt and buried some of our rubbish after I left.'

Murray found a cone of twigs over some crumpled newspaper, as if to start a fire that had not been lit. ‘Looks like your wife was going to make a camp fire and never got around to it,' he said.

Tommy pointed out footprints along the fence and said, ‘Them's a woman walking, carryin' summin'.' While the rest of the group waited near the tree, he followed the footprints to a point where a dead dingo lay. He stopped and looked at the animal, muttered something inaudible then slowly returned.

By now it was late afternoon and Sergeant Murray indicated that they should get back to Ceduna and do another round of the hotels. He did not tell Alec his thoughts that the sooner he put into practice his resolve to contact Port Augusta and Border Village the better. From his discussions with Tommy he had come to the conclusion that a four-wheel drive had picked up Mrs Thompson and her baby. If alive, they might be seen at one of those locations if they were not in Ceduna. Their disappearance was clearly not related to robbery and, if not innocent, he was afraid he might have a kidnapping or a sex crime, or both, in his jurisdiction. These were thoughts he did not want to share with Mr Thompson at this stage.