is van?’
Harrison wiped his hands on a greasy rag as he responded. ‘Well, Mr Thompson here came in Saturday early afternoon. Mary was here and she told me that he looked pretty buggered. Arrived just as we were closing. We were running late. As you know, we’re trying to stay open seven days but can’t get staff, a real shame with the growing tourist industry. Even Saturdays are a problem now with staff and —’
‘Stick to the point, please, Mal,’ Murray sharply interrupted.
‘Yeah, okay. Well, I was away for the weekend, gone fishing at Smoky Bay. Only Mary was here, and she told Mr Thompson to come back Monday.’
Alec broke into the story, impatiently adding, ‘I tried to find another garage, anybody who could give me a lift back to Katherine and organise a tow or some repairs, but no other garage was able to help. There were no workshops open, no mechanics to be found —’
‘Weekend,’ interrupted Harrison.
‘Eventually I organised a cabin at the Foreshore Caravan Park. I was desperate for a shower and some food. I’d walked all morning from first light then all around town looking for a mechanic or open garage!’
‘Did you walk all the way from where you broke down?’ Murray asked.
‘Essentially. When I got to the main road I hitched a ride with a truckie. I’d been walking on the main road for a couple of hours by then. No-one would stop.’
Harrison again interrupted. ‘Well, you can’t blame the truckies for not picking you up. You must a looked pretty ugly, unshaven, all covered in dust. People are a bit nervous after that hitchhiker who killed the couple in WA. Even Mary was a bit nervous of you when you came into the garage —’
‘Do you remember any details about the truck? Name of company, licence number, anything at all?’
‘Not really. The name of the driver was Dave. The truck was mostly red, a semi. I think it had WA registration, but I don’t remember anything else.’
Murray turned to Harrison, ‘Please tell me what happened when Mr Thompson first contacted you, Mal.’
‘Come Monday morning Mr Thompson here, looking a bit fresher, was on the doorstep at seven in the morning waiting for us to open up. He explained what had happened and, even though we had work lined up for a month, I took the truck and went looking for his wife and kid.’
‘So, Mal, what happened then, when you and Mr Thompson went off together?’ Murray asked.
‘Well, it’s like I said. He was here real early Monday. He’d told us what happened so I took the tow truck to go look for the Kombi. I mean, seemed important if there was a young baby out there for the whole weekend. All the work I had could wait. By the time we got going it was about nine. We drove down the main drag to Oorla Tank track, then up to the track along the dog fence. We went to where he thought he’d left his car, but it weren’t there.’
‘I knew it had to be the right place,’ added Alec, ‘because there aren’t too many big trees out there and I’d stopped under one for shade. Also there was the pit I’d dug. It simply had to be the right place.’
Harrison continued. ‘So then we drove on ‘bout another couple of miles looking for the Kombi in case it wasn’t the place he thought he’d left it. But after passing the track up to Googs Lakes without seeing it we turned round an’ came back. Mr Thompson thought that maybe his wife had got it going an’ driven on to town. Then we saw it ‘bout thirty yards off the track. Pretty hard to see if you driving along the track ‘cause some scrub was stacked in front of it an’ the tracks into the bush was partly hid. Looked like the sand was brushed to make the tracks hard to see.’
Not wanting to be just a passive listener Alec took up the story. ‘The battery was totally flat. Mr. Harrison decided that the problem was probably the generator so the battery must have run down to zilch while we were driving. No wonder the thing wouldn’t start! So he hooked up to the truck and towed it back to town.’
‘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.’