Vic thanked her and hung up.

  Now his breakfast had come but his appetite was gone. He forced himself to slowly eat all the food that was on the plates, so as to pass the time, before he tried to ring again.

  Half an hour had passed since he last rang. He called again, twice, five minutes apart. Each time he left a message. “Emily, ring me please, as soon as you can.”

  Just as he hung up the second time his own phone rung back. He looked at it with a flash of hope, hoping to see her number come up. Instead it was Alan’s number.

  He picked up, “Vic here.”

  Alan’s voice came down the line. “This is strange; I am here at the flat. There is no sign of Susan, but nothing is gone. However the paper is open at the page of yesterday’s story, so she must have read it. But her clothes are here, the bed looks like it has been slept in, nothing else I can see to get excited about. Perhaps she has gone out for breakfast or something like that. I will ask around downstairs and see if anyone has seen her.”

  Vic said thanks and clicked off.

  He thought. “This is crazy, me sitting here in hospital while she has gone missing. I must get out and go and look for her. He rang the nurses call bell.

  In a minute the nurse came in. He told her he was checking out as soon as could be arranged, he just needed her help to get him a set of crutches so he could walk without putting weight on his leg.

  She protested and called the doctor who answered. In a minute the doctor and senior nurse were both there and telling him to calm down, that he risked damaging his leg and undoing the benefit of the operation if he did not stay in bed for at least two more days.

  Vic would have none of it. Finally he got them to bring him a set of crutches and he signed his discharge papers. Then he was in a taxi heading back to Alan’s flat.

  When Vic arrived Alan and Sandy were both there, looking around, perplexed, as he hobbled in on his crutches.

  “What are you doing here? We have barely begun to look for her, we don’t even know she is missing, you should still be in hospital.”

  Vic could feel panic coursing through him. It was his sixth sense, not something tangible. He agreed there were lots of explanations but deep down he knew it was not that simple, it was something to do with the level of commitment they had towards each other. It told him she would not just go off somewhere without letting him know.

  Alan was a master of practicality, he held up the phone which Susan had been using with the missed calls from Vic. It had been next to the bed. “OK, first we need to contact her parents and Anne, just in case she has gone visiting either of them early in the morning. Sandy can do that.

  “Then we need to contact the other people she knows, Buck, the doctors in the hospital she regularly sees, just in case the babies have come early. I will do that.

  “What I need you to do, Vic, is walk carefully around the flat and see if you can spot anything of hers which should be here and is missing, or anything that is out of place since you were last here. While you are at it have a close look at the bed, see if you can tell whether she has slept in it since you were last here together, same for the bathroom and kitchen, see if there are signs of her having being here since you were here yesterday morning together.

  “At this stage we don’t really know if she even came home last night, except for the paper, assuming that was not from yesterday morning. The phone could have been left here since yesterday. Do you know if she brought it to the hospital?”

  Vic was sure there had been no newspaper in the morning. She could have hardly opened it without seeing the story and if she had seen it he would have surely known. In fact at that point he would have cancelled the surgery until he knew how it affected her. As for the phone, he could not remember seeing it at the hospital, he had thought she brought it but was not sure. So he checked the call register. There were no outgoing or received calls since the day before yesterday, just Vic’s missed calls this morning. So that did not help.

  He looked at the bed, felt the pillows and looked at the shapes of the body outlines left in the bedclothes. He could almost swear that Susan had slept here last night; the pillow he normally used had traces of lipstick and her smell, as if she had cuddled it to herself. It was not conclusive but, when he added that to the open newspaper, he felt almost sure that she had come back here last night after leaving him in the hospital.

  Then he saw a bottle of Bundy and a glass next to the lounge. The bottle had not been there when he had left yesterday. He did not much like Bundy, and he and Susan had not drunk from it together. He saw fingermarks on the glass and it had a small amount of what smelt and looked like neat rum in the bottom. He called out to Alan, “When you are finished can you come and look at this.”

  Alan was busy on the phone, as was Sandy. So he looked around some more, seeing the computer in the corner. He went over to it and pressed the keyboard. The screen came to life.

  He saw that Internet Explorer was open with a series of web pages open in the browser. He started reading, it was an awful story about Susan by an internet troll, totally vile “Cut the babies out of the bitch and watch the crocodiles jump to feast on them.”

  He felt mortified that someone could write this about his beautiful Susan. He looked at the web page log. The most recent page about her had been opened at 11.45 last night. Now he knew for sure she had been here at that time and reading this poison, completely destroying the fragile self esteem she had begun to rebuild.

  He brought Alan and Sandy inside to show them. Now all knew this was really something to be frightened about. It seemed, after reading this, she must have run off into the night to God knows where. Her friends and the hospital had confirmed that nothing had been seen or heard of her.

  Alan decided it was time for a full scale missing person’s search with the police raising the alarm through the media, seeking any sightings. He called his boss and was told that in five minutes a squad car would come and collect them and bring them to the police station. At the same time a second car would come and secure the site for subsequent investigation.

  Susan’s family and close friends had also been contacted and asked to come to the police station to give statements about any contact they had with her in the last 24 hours. It was inconvenient as her parents and David were each scheduled to leave on midday flights for England and Sydney. However all other plans were off until Susan was found.

  Vic’s leg was hurting and he felt woozy from yesterday’s operation. But he resisted all entreaties to depart, to go off and have a rest. He said he had returned to Susan once, against the odds, and was determined not to let her go again.

  A news conference was called for just after lunch. Thus far a series of searches of the beaches and local parks had found nothing. At the news conference Vic, Anne and her parents all spoke of their concern about her absence, Vic told of discovering that she had read the awful articles in the paper and on the internet, that her mental state was very fragile and that he was very fearful for her safety. He asked that anyone who had seen anything, particularly between midnight and daylight this morning, to come forward with this information.

  This went out on all the local TV and radio channels. Now all they could do was hope.

  In the late afternoon the others returned to their hotel rooms after a fruitless day of searching. Alan and Vic stayed on at police HQ, Alan coordinating the search while Vic sat and watched on helplessly. He knew there was nothing further he could do, but he refused to give up until all the efforts of the day were finished.

  About eight thirty that night a call came in. It was an early morning delivery driver. He told of returning to Darwin from Palmerston after delivering stores to the Coles Supermarket about 5 am, driving a flat-back truck. He said the Berrimah lights had changed red just as he was coming up to them. As he slowed down at the lights he thought he had seen a girl who matched Susan’s description flag down a white Toyota tray-back going in the opposite direction. While he was stopped at the lights he had seen this person climb into the passenger side of the vehicle which had then driven away, heading south on the Stuart Highway. As best he could say the time was about quarter past five in the morning.

  At the time he had thought it was very early for a backpacker to be looking for a lift. He also thought the girl looked fat or perhaps pregnant though his side on view was not very clear once the Toyota had stopped, he could only see her head. He had rung in now because he had just seen Susan’s photo on the late news, the first he had heard about the search.

  In five minutes Alan and Vic were in a squad car, going to meet the witness. He was a pleasant young bloke, trying hard to be helpful. He had no description of the car driver, and all he could say about the vehicle that stopped was that it was a white Toyota tray-back which looked like it had a few boxes on the back, nothing distinctive. But he was fairly sure that the girl he had seen was Susan, even though he had only glimpsed her in the half light from across the road. He was also fairly sure, at the time he first saw her, that she was carrying a small overnight bag in one hand, but nothing bigger like a backpack.

  So that was it, the next day the search was widened across the NT, particularly focused on the top half. Nothing was found or reported that helped find her. Within a week lots of vague reports of people who looked like Susan were coming in from all parts of Australia. But none came to anything. So the police opinion became that she had run away to an unknown place. Based on the sighting of her going with the man in the Toyota, serious fears were held for her safety when she was not found.

  It was all too general, too many white Toyotas were registered in the NT and nobody came forward to admit to having given this girl a lift.

  A week passed, then it was two and then it was a month. Still nothing had been found. The police had now raised a warrant for the arrest of Susan Emily McDonald for absconding on bail, should she be found. The judge who had released her on bail reluctantly confirmed the warrant and asked Alan to press on with his investigation of the other missing girls.

  Now the papers had taken to calling Susan, “Gone Girl”, based on the book and the movie. Slowly “Gone Girl” slid away from peoples’ memories as other stories came and went. Only her closest friends continued the search, refusing to give up.

  Vic was plagued by guilt and Anne was plagued by guilt, Vic for allowing the operation to happen despite his fears, Anne for leaving her friend unattended on this critical day. But nothing made any difference; nothing could bring “Gone Girl” back.

  Chapter 11-A Clue

  It was now almost six weeks since Susan had vanished. Time had drifted by, out of March, through April and into May. The weather was getting cold at night. Charlie had decided to go and camp on a waterhole on the Mary River for a night, with a plan to fish once there was some warmth in the sun in the morning. Now it was “Yegge”, the season after the knock-down late wet season storms had gone and when the coolness came, with a dry south-easterly wind during the day. However by night when the wind dropped there was still wetness in the air as the land gave up its moisture.

  Since he had found the man’s head he had avoided his favourite billabong on the Mary, the big croc had spooked him. But he missed his fishing, this Mary country was like a link to his father who was gone now. Now Rosie wanted a big catfish for another curry, and this river was still his best place. So he had decided to go to a different place on the same billabong, maybe a mile further along. It connected to where he had gone last time but he felt it held a different crocodile spirit and would be safe. It was another place his father had shown him and this time it was outside the locked gate place so more people came here. But it should be quiet on a Thursday morning, the weekend warriors would not be here until before tomorrow afternoon so he should have the place to himself.

  It was more than hour after dark when he arrived. Already the night was chill. He parked at the opposite side of the cleared area from the water and took out a big torch to have a look around.

  As he walked across the open camping area towards the water he saw a plastic bag lying on the ground. It annoyed him when people came to these place and did not take their rubbish away. There was obviously something in it or it would have blown away.

  Oh well, he supposed he should do the right thing and pick it up before it ended up in some dugong or turtle’s guts. He had seen on TV how turtles mixed up plastic bags and jelly fish and then their guts got all blocked up and they died. It was bad not to care for the land and sea by leaving rubbish lying around.

  He lifted it up. It was surprisingly heavy. He looked inside. It had a pair of shoes, woman sandals, and there was something else at the bottom, sort of dark and stripy. He put in his hand and the thing jolted him, like an electric shock. He pulled back his hand; it felt like he had been bitten.

  God, I hope it’s not a snake sheltering there which fanged me.

  His heart skipped a beat, he felt panicked, stupid fucker that he was for putting his hand into something like that without looking better. It was one of the first lessons of being a blackfella –always look real good before you poke around in holes in the ground or other hidey places that you can’t see into properly.

  He looked at his hand, no sign of punctures, Calm down old fella, he said to himself, your imagination is getting the better of you.

  He set the bag back on the ground and picked up a forked stick. One by one he lifted the sandals out of the way with this, setting them on the ground alongside the bag. He looked into the bag again with the torch.

  As he did he said, “Oh Fuck”. He had seen this object before, Alan had showed it to him when he had first found it. It was that bloody crocodile totem, the Baru one from those Yolgnu tribes, the one Alan said belonged to the man of the head. He had felt freaked by it when he was last shown it, knowing it had crocodile spirit magic inside it. It was not his totem and, as an initiated man of another tribe, it was dangerous for him to touch it. No wonder it had bitten him. It was its way of saying “hands off”.

  He looked again at the sandals. They looked sort of familiar. The sort of thing a young balanda woman would wear; someone like Sandy or her red haired friend, Anne.

  The thought struck him. These had not arrived here by accident. Someone had brought them and left them here. It screamed out to him of the missing girl, Susan. The one Alan was searching for, the one some people said had run away, and others said had returned to Crocodile Man. He had not paid all the rubbish in the papers much mind, but he knew it was tearing up Alan and Sandy the way she had vanished. They were blaming themselves, as were the other friends.

  There was that sighting of her getting into the white Toyota. Maybe she had come out here with a fisherman who had offered her a lift. It was all maybe, maybe; too many maybes.

  Well he did not know much about police stuff, but last time he had taken something away and, while he did not really get into trouble, he knew it could have been a problem if Alan was not his friend.

  So today he would do the right thing. He would leave this stuff right where he had found it. He would drive back to Darwin. He knew where Alan lived and he had his private telephone number. He would call him from the Bark Hut; it would only be about ten pm when he got there. If he could not get onto him he would drive right up to his house and bang on the door until he woke him up.

  On second thoughts, he would skip the Bark Hut, he might as well go home and sleep in his own warm bed, nothing would happen until the morning. But he would at least let Alan know tonight. Then in the morning he could come back and show them what he had found. He was sure it was important though he had no idea what it meant.

  Chapter 12 - The New Billabong Search

  Alan was sound asleep when he felt Sandy shaking him. He did not know what time it was but it seemed like the middle of the night.

  Sandy said, “Someone has been ringing our bell and banging on the door in the street. I don’t know who or what it is but they are very determined. So you had better come down with me to see who it is.”

  Alan pulled on a pair of shorts and T shirt and Sandy wrapped a dressing gown around her body. They were both half asleep as they stumbled down the stairs to the building lobby. Through the glass panel they could see a dark skinned man standing outside in the light and trying to peer in. Suddenly Alan realised who it was; “It’s Charlie!” he said and went to open the door.

  “Charlie, what is it?”

  Charlie surveyed them both with searching eyes, noting their sleep befuddled look. “More better I come inside to tell you it. I have found another thing at the Crocodile Man Billabong.”

  They ushered him up the stairs and Sandy put the kettle on, while Alan sat Charlie down at the table.

  “How about you start at the beginning,” Alan said. “But first let’s all have a cup of tea to wake us up.”

  Charlie nodded, “More better that way.”

  Soon they were each holding a steaming mug of tea and eating a Tim Tam biscuit.

  Charlie began his story. “That waterhole, that one where I found that head. Well I not go back because of bad crocodile spirit, not since before when I found it. But now Rosie wants another catfish, big like last time. I know another place, maybe one mile, maybe two mile, further along same billabong. My father showed me this place, long time ago, when I was boy, same as other place, big catfish live there too. I think, Different crocodile’s home, no bad crocodile spirit live there.

  “So tonight, after Rosie and I have early dinner, she go to play cards with her friends. Me, I drive out there to camp, new place longa same billabong. Think safe place. Want to try and catch another big catfish in the morning. When I get there I take big torch and walk around to look, make sure no bad spirit hiding.

  “In middle of car park place, back from water, I see plastic shopping bag on ground. I think, Is rubbish which lazy person left. Plastic rubbish it real bad, it poison turtle and dugong.

  “So I pick it up; heavy bag; something inside. I shine torch in and I see ladies sandal, and I see underneath something else, dark and stripes. I put in my hand to take out and it feel like bite me, bad pain in hand. Think, Maybe bad snake is inside bag, it bite me. But no mark is on my hand.