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Outside the old, red brick police station the concrete footpath reflected the afternoon heat and the bitumen softened and crept, in tiny rivulets, toward the gutters. Inside the interview room a ceiling fan whirred monotonously, shifting hot air and doing little to bring the temperature down.
Perspiration ran in uncomfortable trickles under Alec’s armpits and down his side. His pale and drawn face reflected increasing panic and fear. He had no idea where his family was.
Since his arrival at the police station he had been frustrated by the slow response of the officers. He had stormed in at about midday, just when the heat of the day was beginning to peak and cause most in the town to succumb to lethargy.
‘I need help! Quick! My family is missing.’
‘Just hang on a moment, sir. I’ll need some details.’
As Alec explained the circumstances he became increasingly agitated as the duty officer tried to put him at ease. Alec wondered if the officer suspected him of somehow being involved in their disappearance.
Eventually the officer said, ‘I think I need to call my superior officer, sir. If you don’t mind, just hang on. You can wait in here.’ He guided Alec into the small office.
Things seemed to move even more slowly. Where was the superior officer? Why didn’t he come? Alec’s emotions ran riot with a mixture of frustration, worry and guilt. He realised now that he should never have left his family alone. Should never have put them in danger. Even worse, he should never have gone into the desert in the first place without adequate preparations. All the confidence he felt when he left them on Friday morning had evaporated.
Anxiously he waited for the interviewing officer. He stood then paced. Then sat. He went over the events of the past few days, trying to think of everything that might help, hoping he was worrying about nothing and suppressing fears that something was terribly wrong. He couldn’t comprehend that in such a short time his life had changed so dramatically. Only three days previously he and Katherine we confidently heading towards home after a very successful excursion.
Alec’s thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of the interviewing policeman. He was followed by a young woman carrying a notebook and a large rolled sheet of paper.
‘G’day. I’m Sergeant John Murray and if you’d please take a seat we can go over your story.’ He did not introduce the accompanying woman who quietly made her way to a chair at the end of the small table.
‘At last. I’ve already explained it to the officer out the front,’ Alec responded impatiently, his voice tremulous. ‘You should be out there looking for my wife instead of sitting here going over my story again and again. They can’t just disappear into thin air. If they decided to walk across country they may be in danger and the sooner we find them the better. Can’t you —’
‘Well, we need to establish quite a few facts first,’ interrupted the sergeant.
The deep tan Alec gained over the previous week in the sun made his eyes even more striking in their fiery flashing. This time the reflected emotion was one of frustration and concern.
Alec stared at the embroidered number above the left breast pocket of the khaki open-neck shirt identifying the police officer opposite him as he pulled up a chair and sat. Sergeant John Murray’s protruding belly gave testimony to many after-work beers and was kept in check by a wide brown belt. He had a round, ruddy face and thinning hair. Every now and then he wiped beads of sweat from his brow and cheeks. He looked as if he really belonged in a comfortable, air-conditioned city office rather than doing police work in this remote part of South Australia.
‘All right,’ Alec almost whispered as he regained control of his voice, ‘but then please can we do something instead of just sitting here?’ His frustration remained palpable.
The sergeant ignored the tone of the question, leaned forward and quietly said, ‘This time we’ll make a few notes. I’ve brought a map so you can explai
n exactly where you were. We’ll probably regard your wife and child as missing persons at this stage and make out a miss. per. report. Most missing persons turn up within twenty-four hours, so I wouldn’t worry too much if I were you. The young lady here will make a few notes for the record.’ He nodded towards the young woman seated at the end of the table. ‘We’ll type up a draft report based on what you tell us, and then, after you’ve read it, you can sign it. After we have it all down in writing we can do something about it.’
Alec glanced at the young woman with the note book. She returned a half smile and picked up her pen, poised to write. Alec expected only police to be present during an interview but soon realised administrative work was done by civilians. Since it was only recently that women had been allowed to join the force as officers she was not in a uniform and wore no wedding ring. Marriage would mean that her resignation was required. Alec gave her a quick smile of greeting in return.
After a moment’s silence and an impatient sigh, Alec began to repeat what he had told the duty officer half an hour previously. ‘We were driving along the track next to the dog-proof fence near the Yumbarra Conservation Area —’
‘Why were you there? That’s a long way off the main roads.’
In spite of his growing frustration at the delays, it was clear that Alec was going to have to repeat every detail or be interrupted again and again. He wiped his forehead with the back of his sleeve, swallowed his irritation and continued. ‘Well, I’m a post-graduate research student at Adelaide Uni, studying geology. As part of the research for my thesis, I’m collecting granite samples from the area between here and Yorke Peninsula. There are some outcrops in the Yumburra Conservation Area and we were returning from there —’
‘Outcrops?’
‘Yes, areas where the rocks are exposed at the surface.’
‘Okay. Show me on the map roughly where you went.’ Murray looked across at the secretary who, on cue, unrolled the large map of the region.
More interruptions, but at least this time Alec could indicate the area where they had been and that might help in any search. He stood and leaned over the map on the table. It showed only the main road and a few tracks marked in red. Alec pointed to an area, almost devoid of red markings.
‘This is where we went. This black line along here is the dog fence. The track we were on runs just south of the fence line.’
His finger traced along the map where no track showed. ‘It was about here that the Kombi broke down. I’m not exactly sure where on this map, but it was approximately here, near Googs Lakes.’ Alec tapped his index finger on an area on the map where the plan showed a distinct right angle bend in the dog fence. The name was a misnomer because the ‘lakes’ were just large expanses of white salt in low depressions. Alec recalled the intense glare of reflected sunlight as he walked near them on his search for rocks.
‘Uh-huh,’ was the non-committal response from Murray as he leaned across to see where Alec was pointing. A bead of sweat ironically dropped on to the map outline of the salt lake. ‘The Kombi is a Volkswagen van, right? When did you realise that you were stuck there?’
‘Yes, it’s a camper-van. We stopped overnight Wednesday and when we broke camp on Thursday morning the Kombi wouldn’t start. We’d been camping for the past couple of weeks and there’d been no problems. I couldn’t work out what was wrong. We waited the whole day hoping that someone might come along the track. There was absolutely no traffic at all. It was clear that we might run out of water even though I’d organised a way of collecting dew. Nothing came all day and it seemed unlikely that any another vehicle would be travelling that route, especially over the weekend. Carolyn, our baby, is only four months old and Katherine is still breast-feeding. We couldn’t just sit there waiting for something to happen, especially since it was so hot during the day.’
