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.
As they drove into town he said, ‘Mr Thompson, I think you should find a place to stay for tonight at least. We’d like you to stay in town until we get this sorted out. You understand that, don’t you?’
‘Of course, anyway I wouldn’t want to be going anywhere until I find my wife and baby.’
‘Okay. As soon as you have a place let me know at the station.’
‘Drop me off at the caravan park. I reckon that’s as good a place as any. I’ll book in there and stay until we find Kath and Carolyn.’
‘Alright. Get yourself sorted out then come in tomorrow morning and ask for me. I’ll get someone from Whyalla or Augusta to see where we go from here if your wife doesn’t turn up in the meanwhile.’
* * *