It seemed like a neat solution, at least for a couple months until the pardon and identity stuff was sorted. He remembered he had an uncle who worked out on a place to the far north-west of Alice. He lived alone now his wife had died and his kids had moved to town. He was head stockmen when there was a stock camp. The rest of the time he maintained the windmills, making sure stock had water. Vic had not seen him for several years but had visited him often as a boy. So it was an obvious place to go.

  He would ring his sister and ask her to try and get it arranged. At the same time he would tell Jane he wanted to make a trip to Alice Springs for her to meet his family. Jane had announced that she wanted to get married there, so it was also a step towards this idea which he liked as much as her.

  Jane and the children were delighted when he told them and they decided to leave the day after tomorrow. They all had really enjoyed the Christmas car trip to the farm and this promised another family adventure.

  He made Jane promise not to tell anyone where they were going, saying that once the arrangements for the wedding were made she could call and tell people, but for now he wanted to keep it a secret. He could see she was torn in wanting to tell Thea but she agreed and he knew she always stuck to what she said.

  A week later they found themselves crossing into the Northern Territory from Queensland after coming across from Boulia and crossing the multiple flood outs of the Georgina River. It had rained two months ago and the country was lush with fat cattle and myriad wildlife and water birds. They came onto the Plenty Highway as they entered the Territory and followed it as it skirted around the northern margin of the Simpson Desert. Part way along they turned into the station homestead road they were heading for. After another hour they were there. Vic’s uncle was there to meet them along with his sister and mother who had driven the several hundred kilometers for a family visit. They were entertained royally in the station homestead on the first night. The next day they all climbed aboard a Toyota Landcruiser Station Wagon driven by Vic’s Uncle Jack.

  He brought them to the outstation where he lived and showed them to a two bedroom cottage next to his house. He said this was their new home for as long as needed.

  The house had a telephone so they could ring the world and a mail plane came to the main station each week delivering mail. The station cook went to town once a fortnight to buy food and on the next day a delivery was made to his Uncle’s outstation. In return for this place to stay he would do work on the station to help his Uncle fix roads, fences and machinery, check waters and help with stock work. He wanted no wages, just a place to stay for him and his family.

  Finally Vic felt safe knowing no one could find them or reach them here. The only people who knew were people he would trust his life to.

  Chapter 27 – Another Family

  Jane was surprised at the joy she felt in discovering a new family, Vic’s mother, sister and uncle. They were all affectionate and kind, wonderful with the children and full of the stories of the land. She found she could sit and listen to them for hours.

  She loved the fact that they shared Vic’s blood and some of his looks, their dark skin and dark eyes were just the same, though each had their own special bits, his sister had blond highlights to her hair which Vic assured Jane were natural for some desert people, his mother had beautiful glossy back skin and hair which shone when she brushed it. His uncle, Jack, had a tough wiry body so much like her Vic though his hair was now a grizzled grey.

  Vic’s mother and sister stayed for a week, living next door in the Uncle’s house though in truth they were as much in her house as his, and Jane loved it that way. On the third day Uncle Jack appeared with a quiet horse and led the children around the yard, the next day he came with two quiet horses for Jane and Vic to ride while his mother minded Anne and David.

  They followed him as he rode around the home paddock, first taking them to a little rocky hill where the heavy bodied kangaroos, which he called ‘big boy wallaroo’ grazed. From here they had a panoramic view and he showed them the lie of the land. They rode on checking the fences and Jack showed them his special places and the signs of the land, the sweet open grass flats where cows and calves played, the places of water along the creek, the places in hidden trees where the cattle camped, two more little rocky hills where more kangaroos grazed.

  He finished by saying, “Now you not get lost, but more better you stay inside fence unless you come with me. Don’t want picaninny belong you lost in outside bush, too hot, no water, big snakes, maybe devil devil man.”

  Vic grinned and punched his uncle on the arm. “Ah, go long with you Jack, devil devil man only children story, me blackfella too, not get lost. But still we best be careful with the children in the bush.”

  Jane nodded, she understood Jack’s and Vic’s warning that this could be a dangerous place.

  After a week Vic’s Mum, Rosa and his sister Jill went back to Alice, saying they had a wedding to organize, giving Jane and Vic a sly wink. Each week Jane rang her parents and Anne. David and little Annie had now learnt to take turns to say hello too and tell simple stories like “today the chooks laid three eggs,” or “yesterday we saw a big goanna”.

  Other times Vic rang others to check on the wedding arrangement, that is what he told Jane anyway, though she knew it was a bit more than that. But that was fine, Vic would tell her anything she needed to know and she trusted him just so.

  One day, when Vic was out fixing a grader which had broken down on the main station road, there was a knock on the door. It was Uncle Jack who had been out checking windmills and was now finished for the day. He said, “Today Vic’s not home till late, more better you come and have dinner with me.”

  She followed him to his house with the children and went to help him prepare dinner. He shook his head and showed her to a chair, giving her an album of photos to look at instead.

  He said, “I good cook, I fix the dinner. You marry family, you become part of family. So this is family photo book from great grandfather to now. You look. That way you know your nother family too.”

  So she sat there and began to turn the pages. First she was looking at old sepia photos, men with big hats and ladies with long heavy skirts, other men leading and driving camels, others again with black skin and few clothes with big spears and throwing sticks, one proud black man carrying a big kangaroo on his shoulder, then several men riding horses behind cattle, horse races, old cars and trucks with their proud owners driving along scrubby roads.

  As Jane worked her way towards the back she recognized the clothes were becoming modern and the cars were newer looking. She recognized a lady who was a young Rosa, with three children standing around her and a small baby in her arms. She looked carefully at each child around her, two boys, like Vic but different, then the girl, perhaps five or six, she realized that this was Jillie. Vic must be the baby in his mother’s arms. Rosa looked so very proud with her children, particularly her little baby.

  It made Jane smile inside with pleasure. She knew that, but for change of skin colour, it could have been her when she held her babies David and Annie, she knew and owned that look too. Next page there was a picture of a shiny new helicopter and a proud young man standing beside it, then a second picture of a tribe of black kids climbing all over it as the same man watched over them with huge pride.

  Uncle Jack walked over as she stared at her Vic in the flush of success. “Fine looking boy, heh. Not bad for a desert blackfella to own that thing. Good thing about our Vic is he never forgot his blackfella roots, he spent half that first day taking all the nieces and nephews and then the rest of the town camp kids for rides in that machine.

  “Only pity was that boy could have been a football star, so quick and balanced. If only you could have seen him running down the ground, cutting his way through mob of players, a step one way then a swerve another, keeping the ball at his fingertips, so fast no-one could even touch him. He was pure magic, he was. Could have played for a top Melbourne AFL team, made lots of money, seen his name in lights. But his big sister, Jillie, she would have none of it.

  “She would tell him, “Sure you could make the big time boyo, but what then? What when you is 30 and is all smashed up?”

  So she made him stay at school, do his lessons, get an apprenticeship, learn to fly. The day he bought that machine I had to tell her she was right, but a part of me always wanted to see him running down the field, ball on a string, kicking it straight through the centre of the MCG goals, it would have been a pretty sight.”

  Jane folded the book closed and walked over and hugged the Jack. “I suppose being married to Vic makes you my family too. I like being part of this family and having an uncle like you. You must tell me all the stories of Vic as a little boy along with your own children.”

  So they shared a meal and he told her story after story, most were funny but some sad. As he talked more and more she felt she belonged, this was her real family now and she was joined to them. When the meal was finished he went to a drawer and pulled out a package wrapped in a tattered piece of oil cloth. He placed it in her hands.

  She unwrapped it. It was an old book, bound in a leather cover with its edges frayed and marked, tied closed with a faded red ribbon. She carefully untied the ribbon and opened it. There was something old and precious in the feel of this manuscript, its weight, the heavy paper, the marks of all the hands which had held it. She turned the pages, seeing brightly coloured ink drawings and delicately drawn lettering. She could not read the writing as characters and words were unfamiliar.

  Jane looked at Jack with inquiring eyes. “What is it?”

  He said, “I do not know, it belonged to my Grandfather Vikram, it has been passed to each generation for someone to mind. It should now go to Vic. As you have more education maybe you could find out the story it tells, does it tell from where he came, or is it a religious book, like a bible. Now there is a new generation in our family, it is a thing for you and Vic to have. But before it passes from me I would like to know what it says, what is the story it tells. Could you find out for me, so I can know its story?

  “I have held it in my hands many times. But its inside is a mystery to me. I do not have the learning to discover what it says. I would like if you can do that for me. Then, when I give it to Vic, I can give him proper instruction in its meaning. I think that is what I should do before I pass it on.”

  Jane nodded. “I am not sure quite where to begin. But I am sure I can find out. So yes, I will do it for you. It is best if you keep the book, to keep it safe. But I will take photos of its pages. That way I can find a person who can read these words and tell me what it says and then I can tell you in turn.”

  Next day she borrowed Vic’s mobile phone which had a camera and worked her way through this old book, carefully turning each thick yellowed page, some smudged with dirt or fingermarks. There were about 150 pages with writing and a few blank pages towards the end. The writing was like nothing she knew but a few of the pictures seemed to have a familiar feel about them, one of a brightly coloured parrot. She was sure she had seen similar flitting through this desert landscape. There were also a couple of images of men in long flowing garb leading and riding camels and a couple landscape type pictures, carefully drawn using a range of ink colours which seemed to be Australian. There were also drawings of landscapes with jagged high snow covered mountains and lush valleys. They seemed from another land, perhaps around the high mountains of the Himalayan ranges.

  However the writing gave no clues, nothing was in a language she could understand. The script seemed different from any language she had seen, many letters or symbols with complex curves and curls. She decided she needed to talk to a university professor with knowledge of languages from the Indian subcontinent or Middle East to begin to decipher this story.

  Chapter 28 - Search for the Elusive Susan

  Jacob left Beck behind feeling bemused and a bit frustrated. The aborted sex had left him full of desire – not just for Beck but for any raunchy hot young thing between the sheets. By the end of the night he had satisfied that itch with another girl he had picked up at the hotel bar, buying her a few drinks and sweet talking his way into her pants.

  But after he had had her a couple times he found he had little to talk about with her, she was just a good time girl and was happy to go on her way looking for more adventure before the night was done. When she was gone he fell into a deep sleep.

  He woke early, wishing Beck was lying beside him. He would have liked to start his morning having sex with her, but more he enjoyed talking to her, her mind was sharp like his own and she challenged him.

  But she was not there. He knew she was now torn about what she had been doing, caught up by a guilty conscience. He wondered what led to her change of heart, had she found out something she was not telling him. In the end he decided that it had been a fair trade, the money for the information she had given him. Now they could both get on with their own lives.

  As he showered and dressed he felt re-energized. He could sense this story was now within his grasp. It had that feel; his gut instinct told him it was able to be cracked open. This girl had gone into hiding under another name, he now had that name, the first name at least, and he had an approximate location for where she now lived, a coastal town somewhere within a hundred or so kilometers of Brisbane.

  He spent a few hours on the internet in his hotel room, familiarizing himself with the geography of this area. After his searching he decided that either the Sunshine Coast or the Gold Coast, or perhaps the very north of NSW were most likely. There were loads of apartments for rent in the Gold Goat and also lots of other short term accommodation options, backpackers, caravan parks and the like.

  A backpacker place was also unlikely with two small children. Her place was unlikely to be the top end of the market, these would want references and identification, two small children would also be a negative. That is unless she now had a sugar daddy and he could not discount this, she picked up men easily, some sort of sex and charm offensive. But her new boyfriend sounded like someone more her age, not a rich dude.

  So the bottom end of the real estate market, the scummy flats which took cash rent and no questions asked, perhaps a caravan park where she rented a van with cooking facilities, that felt about right. The Gold Coast had a lot of these places, but once you went down to the bottom feeders the pickings thinned out. There were also quite a lot of these places between Tweed Heads and Byron Bay in the far north of NSW. Then there were a lot more places in Sunshine Coast, from Noosa south but overall these were of higher class with less chances for anonymity.

  Jacob decided that he would begin at the bottom end of the strip, fly to Brisbane, get a hire car and work his way north. He figured two weeks south of Brisbane would let him work his way through northern NSW and the Gold Coast and then he would need another week to cover the Sunshine Coast. If he found nothing by then he would rethink his options, try a different tack.

  Having made his plan he booked the lunch time flight to Brisbane and rented a luxury hire car to collect from the airport. He decided he wanted to play the part of a high end private investigator employed by Jane’s parents. His invented back story was they were desperately seeking to trace their daughter who had left London after a family falling out. She had gone off travelling without keeping in touch. Her mother was now critically ill with advanced cancer and the family urgently wanted to find her and give her the news in the hope she could return to see her mother again before she died. He would tell people that her last known address was in Cairns where she had a baby, twins actually, born about a year after she left and these would were now about two. She had sent them a card telling them this news from Cairns but that was the last definite contact.

  However it was known she had left that address a few months ago and travelled south, having rung a friend who now lived in Brisbane to say she lived in a coastal town not too far away but not giving the address. So his job was to try and locate her and ask her to get in touch with her family urgently He intimated that there was a substantial reward on offer from the family to anyone who could give the information that found her.

  He knew he could tell this story convincingly. He had a card made up giving his contact details as a private investigator with a checkable London firm. As he travelled he would leave cards and a photo of her with people he met along the way. On the bottom of the photo was written, Have you seen Jane? Reward for information about her location, and his mobile number. The photo was of Susan taken earlier in her life with her hair cut shorter and her face rounder. It was sufficiently different not to easily link her to the NT Crocodile Girl, but with enough similarity to trawl some possible sightings.

  A week passed as he worked his way north, then a second week. He had been to lots of places, talked to lots of people, building and caravan park managers, small neighborhood shops and cafés, children’s playgrounds, childcare centres, toyshops, and those who sat around watching others.

  He had run to ground a few leads which had turned into nothing. Overall people bought his story and the reward mentioned sharpened their interest, but there was nothing convincing about any likely sightings and there were no more substantial leads. He had given away over a thousand cards and photos in his travels. He felt that, with all this, something should come back to him if she was around.

  But so far nothing had. Even though he was not ready to give up yet it felt like a lot of effort for so little.

  Tomorrow he would begin at Noosa and work his way back down the Sunshine Coast to Brisbane. If that yielded nothing then he would need to rethink how to do this.