Force of Nature (Aaron Falk #2)(9)

She looked at the circle on the mass of green.

‘What’s there?’

‘It’s where they found the other four.’

The sedan’s suspension was struggling. They bumped along the unpaved road, feeling every jolt as the peeling eucalyptus trunks stood guard on both sides. Over the hum of the engine, Falk could hear a faint but shrill whistling.

‘Jesus, is that the wind?’ Carmen squinted through the windscreen.

‘I think so.’ Falk kept his eyes on the road as the bushland grew thicker around them. His burned hand gripped the steering wheel. It was starting to ache.

At least the ranger had been right. They couldn’t have missed it. Falk rounded a bend and the lonely road ahead transformed into a hive of activity. Vehicles were parked nose to tail along the side of the road, and a reporter spoke earnestly into a camera and gestured at the search teams behind her. Someone had set up a trestle table with a coffee thermos and water bottles. Leaves fluttered from the trees as a police air wing chopper hovered overhead.

Falk pulled in at the very end of the line of cars. It was approaching midday, but the sun was barely a weak glow in the sky. Carmen asked a passing ranger for Senior Sergeant King and they were pointed in the direction of a tall man in his fifties. He was lean with an alert gaze that was darting from map to bushland, and he looked up with interest as Falk and Carmen walked over.

‘Thanks for coming.’ He shook their hands as they introduced themselves, and glanced over his shoulder at the TV camera. ‘Let’s move away from the chaos.’

They walked a short way up the road, ducking in beside a large truck that offered a partial windbreak.

‘No luck then?’ Falk said.

‘Not yet.’

‘How many of these searches have you done?’

‘Lots. I’ve been up here nearly twenty years. People wander off the track all the time.’

‘And how quickly do you normally find them?’

‘It really depends. How long is a piece of string? Occasionally we get lucky straight away, but often it can take a bit longer.’ King blew out his thin cheeks. ‘She’s been on her own for at least thirty-odd hours, so ideally we want to pick her up today. It sounds like they had the sense to collect rainwater, which is something, but she probably hasn’t got any food. You’ve got the hypothermia risk as well. That can set in pretty fast when you’re damp. But a lot depends on how she’s handling it. She might be in luck; apparently she did a fair bit of camping when she was younger. Often they walk out on their own.’ He paused. ‘Sometimes they don’t.’

‘But you always manage to find them?’ Carmen said. ‘Eventually, I mean.’

‘Almost always. Even in the Kovac years they found them, you know, in the end. Except for that one girl. Since then I can only think of the odd one or two who never turned up. We had an old bloke about fifteen years ago. He wasn’t well, dodgy heart. Shouldn’t have been hiking on his own really. Probably sat down for a rest in a quiet spot and had a heart attack. And there was a Kiwi couple about ten years ago. That was a bit of a strange one. Early thirties, fit, fairly experienced. It came out quite a lot later that they’d run up some heavy debts back in New Zealand.’

‘So, what, you think they disappeared on purpose?’ Falk said.

‘Not for me to say, mate. But it wouldn’t have been the worst thing in the world for them to fall off the radar.’

Falk and Carmen exchanged a glance.

‘So what’s happened this time?’ Carmen said.

‘Alice Russell was in a group of five women dropped off at the start of the Mirror Falls trail on Thursday arvo – someone can show you that later if you want – armed with your basic supplies. A map, tents, compass, some food. They were supposed to head pretty much due west, complete some of those bloody teambuilding obstacles during the day, camp for three nights.’

‘Is it a park scheme?’ Carmen said.

‘No. It’s organised by a private company but they’ve been operating here for a few years. Executive Adventures? They’re not bad, tend to know what they’re doing. There was a group of five blokes from BaileyTennants doing it as well. Different route, but both groups were due at the meeting point here by noon yesterday.’

‘But the women didn’t arrive.’

‘No. Well, four of them did in the end. But six hours late, and in a bad way. There were some injuries. Various cuts and bruises all round. A knock to the head. One got herself a snakebite.’

‘Jesus, which one?’ Falk said. ‘Is she okay?’

‘Yeah. Mostly. Breanna McKenzie. I think she’s essentially a glorified assistant, from what I can gather. They’ve all got these bloody fancy job titles. Anyway, it was probably just a carpet python, not that they knew that at the time. Scared them shitless. Thought it was a tiger snake and she was about to drop dead. It wasn’t, definitely non-venomous, but the bite’s infected so she’s landed herself in the medical centre for a couple of days.’

‘Back in Melbourne?’ Carmen said, and King shook his head.

‘Community hospital in town,’ he said. ‘Best place for her. You overdose on ice in a city squat, you want the doctors in a city hospital. You get nipped by a snake, you want to be around doctors who know their wildlife, believe me. Her sister’s with her at the hospital.’ He pulled a small notebook from his pocket and glanced down. ‘Bethany McKenzie. She was on the trek too but came out relatively unscathed.’