Little Girl Lost (10 page)

It was fully dark by the time Max pulled up in one of the Tyangi National Park camping areas. He immediately recognised the big motorhome parked to one side of the campground. There were lights on inside the vehicle, and outside lights shining onto a table and chairs set under a broad canvas awning. The ground below the awning was covered with what looked like AstroTurf. Beside him, Pete let out a long slow whistle.

‘I know what you mean,’ Max said. ‘It is impressive. Unfortunately, from what I saw of the owner, he really hasn’t got much of a clue. He can barely drive the thing. I’ve got no idea what he’s doing all the way out here. He’s obviously way out of his comfort zone.’

A big Land Rover painted in the livery of the National Parks Service was parked next to the motorhome. A tall figure emerged from the vehicle and headed their way.

‘Hi, Dan.’ Max shook the ranger’s hand. ‘This is Pete Rankin.’

‘G’day.’ Dan shook Pete’s hand. ‘Thanks for getting here so fast.’

‘What can you tell me?’ Max asked.

‘The girl’s name is Renee Haywood. She’s six years old. She’s here with her mum and dad and brother. The brother is seven. Apparently the kids were playing outside while the mother made dinner. When she called them, only the boy came. His name is Dustin. He said they were playing hide and seek and he couldn’t find his sister.’

‘And the father?’

‘He says he was inside the van, working.’

Max raised an eyebrow. ‘I thought they were here for a holiday.’

‘I guess he doesn’t take holidays.’

‘Probably how he affords that thing,’ Pete added.

‘Yeah,’ Dan agreed.

‘How’s the mother holding up?’ Max asked.

‘About how you’d expect,’ said Dan. ‘Mostly she’s been blaming her husband. I’ve done a quick search of the immediate area, but no sign of the girl. She’s been gone,’ he looked at his watch, ‘about four hours now.’

‘Then we’d better get moving.’ Max turned back to his car to collect the torches from the back seat. He also handed out water bottles.

On the bonnet of Max’s car, Dan spread out a large detailed map of the park. In the harsh light of the torches, the search area looked big and rough. Between them, the two men decided the most likely areas for this first search. They would check all the marked walking trails that led from the campsite.

‘That’ll take us a couple of hours,’ Dan said. ‘But our best chance is if she has hidden close to one of the paths. Hopefully she’ll see us or hear us. She’s wearing blue shorts. Oh yes, she’s carrying a yellow teddy bear. Or she was.’

Just then a man emerged from the motorhome. Max recognised him immediately from their conversation the day before. He hurried over to them, his face tense and strained.

‘Have you found her?’

‘Mr Haywood,’ Max said. ‘We are about to do another search.’

‘Only the three of you?’ Haywood’s voice was almost a shout. ‘That’s not enough. We need a proper big search party.’

‘Not tonight we don’t,’ Max said keeping a reasonable tone to his voice. ‘She probably hasn’t gone very far. If we haven’t found her by morning there will be more people coming to join the search. They’ll be more useful in the daylight.’ He didn’t say what he was thinking, that it was unlikely they’d find the little girl in the dark.

‘I’ll come with you. Let me get a torch.’

Max held up a hand to stop him. ‘You need to stay here.’

‘No. I need to be out looking for my daughter!’

Max felt a surge of sympathy for the man. No doubt his rising anger was fuelled to some extent by guilt, but the last thing they needed right now was a townie blundering around in the dark. The very least he would do is spoil any tracks that might be out there. At worst, they’d have two missing people to search for.

‘We know the area,’ Max explained calmly, even though he wasn’t sure that Pete had ever been to the park before. ‘And we know how to handle this sort of terrain. You need to be here looking after your wife and son. And in case Renee finds her own way back. If she does, I want you to sound three blasts on the horn of the motorhome. Can you do that for me?’

‘Do you think she might find her own way?’ The desperate hope in the man’s eyes was almost more than Max could bear.

‘It’s always possible.’ Max thought it unlikely, but he wasn’t going to say so. That family would need every bit of their strength and hope in the long dark hours ahead. ‘Now, go back to the motorhome. Keep all the lights on. Have you any big outside spotlights? If you have, turn them on as well. Now we’ve got to get on with the search.’

Haywood hesitated, clearly torn between his desire to do something, and the common sense in Max’s words. Finally he turned back towards the motorhome, his shoulders sagging. As he approached the vehicle, the door opened and his wife appeared.

‘What are you doing?’ she yelled, her voice harsh and ragged. ‘Why aren’t you out searching for her?’

Haywood said something too softly for Max to hear. Mrs Haywood stepped back inside the motorhome and after a moment’s hesitation at the base of the stairs, her husband followed. The door slammed shut behind him.

‘Okay. Let’s go,’ Max said to Dan and Pete. ‘Keep those torches moving. If she’s awake she might see the light. And keep calling her name.’

Pete and Dan nodded and set out along their allotted paths, their torches flashing through the trees. Max waited just long enough to be sure Haywood wasn’t about to do something stupid like follow them, and then he too set out.

Within a few seconds, he had lost sight of the campground and he was alone in the darkness.

‘Renee!’ His voice cut through the night like a knife. He heard one of the others, Dan he thought, also calling the girl’s name. But that noise quickly faded away and Max was surrounded by nothing but the night sounds of the bush.

He moved slowly, looking carefully around him. He shone his powerful torch into all the darkest places, and called the little girl’s name until his throat was dry. The paths were clearly marked. Even in the darkness they would be easy to follow. But a little girl playing hide and seek wouldn’t want to stick to the paths. She’d probably dashed off into the scrub without thinking. By now she would be frightened and lonely. She’d probably try to find her way back to the campsite, but with no path to guide her, could be moving further and further away.

The park didn’t have many real predators, but it was still a dangerous place for a child. There were a lot of poisonous snakes. But the greatest danger would come from the sun. Dehydration and sunstroke were a threat, even though it was not yet high summer. A little girl alone out here without food or water would weaken very quickly and a weak child was vulnerable. There were dingoes, wild dogs and feral pigs in the park. They would be a real danger to her as her strength failed.

They had to find her – soon.

Two hours later he was back where they had all started. Pete and Dan were already there and one look at their faces told him everything he needed to know.

‘There’s not much more we can do tonight,’ he said. ‘Dan, why don’t you head back to the ranger station? Call Trish Warren and let her know we need everyone tomorrow. First light. She won’t be afraid to wake people up and get them out here.’

‘Sure.’

‘Is Quinn home?’

‘She’s just finished a shoot on the coast. Last I heard she was thinking of driving right through the night to get here in the morning.’

‘Dan’s partner is a photographer,’ Max explained to Pete. ‘I could use a good set of eyes in the spotter plane in the morning.’

‘I’ll call her when I get back to the station,’ Dan said. ‘She can stop at the Creek when she gets here.’

‘Great. Jess should have the plane on standby for first light. Then, if we don’t find Renee after a few sweeps from the air, I’ll send Jess to pick up a tracker.’

‘Sounds good.’ Dan turned towards his vehicle.

‘Bring back anything you think will be useful. We’ll set up a command post here.’ Max looked over at Pete. ‘Are you with us, Pete? Or do you need to get back?’

‘I’m here as long as you want me,’ Pete said without hesitation.

‘Thanks.’

With a nod, Dan set off back to his car. Max spread the park map out over the bonnet of the police vehicle, and began to plan the search.

‘When we have more men and some daylight, we’ll divide into grids like this,’ he said to Pete, drawing lines on the map with his finger. ‘I’ll need someone back here to co-ordinate. And someone needs to stay with the family.’

As if on cue there was a sound from the nearby motorhome. The sound of a woman sobbing.

‘This must be tough for them,’ Pete said.

‘Put yourself in their shoes. How would you feel?’ Max said slowly. ‘And there’s always a measure of guilt. They feel it’s their fault the little girl is missing.’

‘Isn’t it?’ Pete’s voice sounded harsh.

‘Don’t be too tough on them,’ Max said. ‘I don’t have any kids, but in this job I’ve learned that being a parent is hard work. You let your guard down for even a second and they can just vanish. Like Renee did.’

There was no answer. Max glanced sideways at Pete. The younger man was frowning. His face set.

‘Is there something wrong?’ Max asked.

‘No. It’s nothing,’ Pete said quickly. ‘I’m going to do another loop around some of those paths. Just in case.’

‘Okay. One of us needs to be awake all night, listening in case she’s nearby and calls out. But we both need to get some sleep. So let’s take it in turns to get a few hours rest. We’re going to need all the energy we can muster in the morning.’

Pete didn’t reply. Max watched his tall lean shape vanish into the darkness, and then turned back to studying the map.

She was alone in the darkness and she was terrified. She could hear noises. Somewhere out there were people who wanted to hurt her … or something worse. She had no home to go back to. If she was going to survive, she had to rely on her own wits. She was hungry and thirsty, but was too afraid to move. Then there was another sound close by. Too close. Over there, in the blackness of a doorway. A tall shape. A huge filthy hand in the darkness reaching for her as the sound of harsh rasping breath assaulted her ears.

With a short sharp scream, Tia sat upright, sleep falling away from her as she stared wild-eyed at her surroundings. Her heart was pounding as she tried to control her panicked breathing. She looked around her, taking in the bland walls of the trailer, the small kitchen with its fake wooden cupboards and the table with the motorcycle helmet sitting on it.

She swung her feet down to the floor and ran her hands through her hair. What a nightmare. It had taken her back to the dark days in the squats. She had run away from home when she was only fifteen. That was when her stepfather had started taking too much notice of her. She shivered as she remembered the way he had looked at her and that night he had walked into her room when she was in bed and her mother was at work. She’d fought him off that night, but knew he’d be back. Her mother would never have believed her, so she had run away and never gone back.

Of course, running away hadn’t been a picnic either. She spent a long time living in squats and trying to feed herself by stealing. In those early days, when things were really bad, she’d been reduced to looking in the wheelie bins behind restaurants. She’d learned quickly that expensive restaurants threw away a lot of really good food. She’d also learned the hard way that if she was going to survive out there, she needed some sort of protection against the gangs that ruled the streets. Little had she known how that would turn out.

Tia got up and pulled back the curtains covering her window. The sky was still dark, just the smallest suggestion of dawn appearing on the horizon to the east. Somewhere out there was another small runaway. A little girl, lost and afraid, as she had been when she set out on her own. That little girl needed to be found. She needed to be protected and brought back to her family.

Tia headed for her tiny bathroom. There was no way she’d get back to sleep now. She packed anything she thought might prove useful into the panniers of the Harley. She hesitated for a moment, thinking about the gun hidden under the bench seat. A gunshot would be a sure-fire way of attracting the little girl’s attention or of bringing help if Tia found her. But the gun was also something she wouldn’t be able to explain to Max. Reluctantly she left it behind, consoling herself with the thought that Max would have a gun. And some of the other men would too. The searchers didn’t need another gun. They needed more people. By the time the sun peeped over the horizon, she was well past the town and on her way to the Tyangi Crossing National Park.

She slowed down as she entered the park, suddenly aware that she didn’t know where to go. She paused outside the ranger station. A man emerged. He was wearing a uniform, but this one didn’t cause her any concern. He wasn’t a cop.

‘Dan Mitchell,’ he introduced himself as he approached her. ‘If you were planning to go hiking, I’m afraid the park is closed today.’ He raised the sign he was holding in his left hand. ‘I was about to post this.’

‘I’m here to help with the search,’ Tia said quickly. ‘Unless you’ve found her?’

Dan shook his head. ‘I think we’re going to need all the help we can get today. It’s going to be a hot one, and that little girl hasn’t got any water.’

‘Just tell me where I can be useful.’

Following Dan’s directions, it took Tia about ten minutes to get to the campground. She instantly recognised the huge motorhome. And the police car parked nearby. By the time she’d parked her bike next to it, Max had appeared from the direction of the motorhome.

‘Tell me how I can help,’ she said by way of greeting.

He looked tired, she thought. But very determined. He exuded a strength and competence that must be a great comfort to the people who needed him.

‘Do you know the park at all?’

‘No,’ Tia said. ‘I’m a townie so I don’t know how to handle the bush, but I do know how to organise things. I can help with food and water and keeping track of the search parties. Who has gone where, that sort of thing. I could even stay with the family, if you think that would help. Whatever you need me to do, just let me know and I’ll do my best.’