Vanishing Point (12 page)

Katherine felt she could hold on that long. Apart from the embarrassment of being monitored by Benjamin she felt at Yalata she might be able to have an excuse to go to the toilets and somehow get help. Surely he would have to refuel there before crossing the Nullarbor? She knew the roadhouse was the last stop for fuel and water before the West Australian border.

She gave no reply, but violently slammed her door behind her, slumped into the seat and held Carolyn close, thankful that her feed had quietened her. Since her sobbing episode she'd been relatively quiet and good, comforted by her mother's embrace.

I
n the offices of Spinifex Exploration N. L. in North Kalgoorlie Petri had finished submitting and discussing his latest work with the management team. General Manager Fred Cooper smiled beneficently at him. ‘Well done, Petri. Yes, a good job well done. Once we finalise the budget next week we'll be able to allocate funds for both our gold and our nickel projects. The last capital raising was very well supported by the market and our results have been good.'

Petri had found it was not as easy being a consultant geologist as he had hoped or believed possible during the four years after leaving AGO. The boom in mineral exploration that started with the exciting nickel discoveries was continuing. Geologists found employment easily within larger company structures but consulting geologists found themselves competing for the smaller jobs with the junior companies. Once projects were complete there were commonly delays for payment as the companies conserved cash.

Apart from a few smaller contracts, Petri was fortunate to have his long-term retainer with Spinifex Exploration through which he received regular payments. It worked well for him. Not only did he have a good relationship with the manager and other professionals of the company, affectionately known as ‘Spex' amongst both the geoscientists and the stock market, but also his payments were prompt and generous. Charl du Toit made sure of that.

Petri smiled at Fred and wondered if this was a good time to raise the subject of his new ideas. After all, it was his modelling of the relationship between the unusual ultramafic rocks and the fault structures that had led to Spex taking out title over the most prospective areas. Latecomers surrounded the Spex Prospecting Licences and even AGO was knocking on their doors looking for possible joint ventures.

‘Thanks, Fred. Can I talk to you about some of my ideas for chasing gold in areas that have been ignored to date?'

‘Of course. You always seem to come up with novel concepts. The success we had at Golden Girl has proved they are worth looking at. Charl is really very pleased with our progress and so he should be with the share price almost tripling in the past six months. Come on in to my office.' The General Manager opened the door to his office and paternalistically put his arm around Petri's shoulder as he ushered him in.

The offices at Spex were located at the northern end of Brookman Street, the extension of the infamous Hannan Street. Locals joked that it was sex in the south and Spex in the north. The small but adequate offices showed no sign of wasteful expenditure. It was something visiting shareholders and analysts were pleased to see. Too many of the successful, or apparently successful, ‘no liability' companies spent more money on fancy offices and directors' benefits than on discovering the minerals they claimed to be the target of their activities.

‘Petri, what's on your mind?' Fred Cooper rarely wasted time on pleasantries and got straight to the point.

‘Well, I've been thinking about new areas for our gold exploration. All the gold found so far has been associated with the greenstone belts and nearly all the ground has been pegged.'

‘Let's have a look at the maps.' Cooper pulled out a map roll and spread it out on the desk. It showed the geology of the goldfields and the patchwork pattern of licences scattered over the area.

‘Well, look at these elongate outcrops of greenstones.' Petri traced the stripes of green on the map with his index finger.

‘A deliberate choice of colour by the geologists, I should think,' chuckled Cooper.

‘It really makes them stand out against the pink of the surrounding ancient granites of the Yilgarn Block.'

‘Go on, tell me your idea. You're not going to suggest that we go and explore in those granites, are you?'

‘No. No. Not at all.' Now it was Petri's turn to laugh. ‘But those greenstones have been exposed and eroded for many millions of years yet they are still gold-rich. Rich enough to host big mines.'

‘Yes, I heard that recent dating indicated that they are some of the oldest rocks in the world, more than three and a half thousand million years. So, what are you getting at?'

Petri nodded. ‘That's right. So if the rocks were eroded over a large chunk of that time, where did all the gold go?'

‘You mean deposited somewhere else, like the South African and Canadian placer deposits?'

‘Exactly. The gold must have been transported to somewhere as the rivers eroded the host rocks. We know the west was very much wetter and the rivers more vigorous in the past, even the recent past, than now.'

‘So, what, exactly, is your point?'

Petri sat down on the opposite side of the desk and unrolled another map showing the geology of Western Australia and also the ancient drainage patterns of rivers long since dry.

‘Look here,' he said and he started to explain his theory.

A
lec woke very early on the Tuesday morning. His eyes, thickly encrusted with sleep from dried tears, felt scratchy and uncomfortable. He found it impossible to come to terms with how his life had changed so suddenly and dramatically. As he lay in dark, he tried again to convince himself that he had done everything in his power to find his vanished wife and baby.

He went over and over the events leading to his present predicament. Angry that he had been in such a hurry to start his research, he cursed himself for the risks taken, risks that endangered the most important people in his life. During his brief conversation on the phone yesterday his mother-in-law had listened in silence to his description of the events. When he finished and told her that he was still unsure of Katherine and Carolyn's whereabouts she simply said that she was sure they would turn up. The words were supposed to be reassuring but her voice was steely cold. Alec did not know how to respond, other than with platitudes. When he heard the beeps indicating his timed call was about to end he told her that he had no more change. She was still talking when the line went dead.

The weak morning sunlight was penetrating the thin curtains of the caravan and making the unfamiliar shapes inside identifiable.

Alec dressed slowly and went for a walk along the foreshore. He inspected every human shape in sight, hoping that at any minute he would see the familiar form of his wife.

With determined steps he left the beach and approached the first hotel.

He entered the reception desperate to find inside a happy conclusion to what had become a nightmare excursion. There was no-one at the desk in the entry, so he walked into the bar knowing that in these small country hotels reception and bar staff were usually the same person. In spite of the early hour a woman was working behind the bar, stacking glasses from the previous night's drinking.

‘Good morning,' Alec approached the middle-aged woman, ‘I wonder if you can help me —'

‘Bar opens at ten, love.'

‘No, not that. I am looking for my wife and baby and wondered if they might have checked in here last night or early this morning?'

‘No, we have no guests at all. Most of our business is the bar.'

Alec's face fell and the woman registered his extreme disappointment. His eyes, close to tears, struck a sympathetic chord.

‘Were you expecting her here? She may have checked in at another hotel or the motel.'

‘No, but …' Alec poured out the whole story of his loss.

When he finished — with halting gulps to fight back tears —the woman said, ‘Look, just in case they've turned up at another hotel, I'll ring around for you save you walking all around town. Just sit over there and I'll phone around.'

Alec took down one of the chairs stacked on a table and sat opposite the bar counter. He strained to listen to the conversation on the other end of the phone and watched the shake of her head register negative news with each call.

Finally, she put the phone down. ‘Sorry, love. No-one with your wife's description has checked in anywhere. The motel has some women but all are with husbands, no single women and no babies. I'm so sorry, love.'

Alec put his head in his hands. The woman sat down next to him, put her arm around his shoulders and tried to comfort him. ‘Don't get too worried, love. They might've got a lift and are still on their way in. Tell you what, I'll keep asking around. Keep my eyes open. If there's any news I'll call the police station. What was the name of the copper you're dealing with?'

‘Murray. Sergeant Murray.'

‘Okay. I'll give him a call as soon as I hear anything or if they check in later. Is there anything I can get you now, a coffee or tea?'

‘Thank you, no. You've been very kind. I think I'll just take a walk around the town and back to the station. I am not sure what else to do.'

With that Alec dejectedly started a slow walk back to the police station by a circuitous route. On his way he stopped at a cafe and bought a cup of coffee with a muffin to serve as breakfast even though he didn't feel hungry. He sat at the cafe table, miserably gazing between the street outside and the half drunk coffee until the drink was cold with a skin formed on the surface, clinging to the sides of the cup.

By mid-morning Alec was talking with Sergeant Murray who, mainly to get him out of the way, suggested that he call in at the garage. ‘Have a good look around the Kombi. See if you've missed anything. Maybe see if your wife possibly left a note.'

‘I looked for one when we found it but there was nothing.'

‘Have another look. It's possible that it might have fallen on the floor or got under a seat, or been blown about. After all, when you towed the vehicle you told me that you thought your wife had a ride into town. At that stage you didn't expect that she'd disappeared so maybe you didn't look carefully enough.'

Murray didn't really expect Alec would find anything but felt it was a good excuse to get him to do something other than be a bother at the station.

So it was that Alec found himself back at the garage. By now he was tired. Although fit from walking during his field work, the extensive walking around Ceduna combined with his emotional state had exhausted him.

‘Won't be ready for a coupla days, mate,' Malcolm Harrison said as Alec appeared in the doorway. ‘Still waitin' on the parts from Adelaide.'

‘No, okay. I realise that. I just thought I'd have another look around the Kombi in case there is anything there that gives us a clue as to where my wife might be.'

‘Sure, okay. Help yourself. Your Kombi is parked out the back. Oh, in case ya're interested, the generator stopped working just ‘cause of old age. The brushes were completely worn down an' it weren't even working at half pace. Belt was loose too, no grip. I'm surprised the battery stayed good for as long as it did.'

Alec opened the Kombi side doors and peered in at the empty space that had been their home for the past weeks. It echoed with the ghosts of his lost family. He clambered in and sighed. The back seat was still folded down to form the double bed. Seeing it caused a pang in his chest as he recalled the last time he had lain there in the arms of his wife. He scrambled between the front seats and began a methodical search. Starting with the front shelf he looked at every small scrap of paper. Nothing but old shopping lists, a telephone number and fragments of reminder notes in Katherine's handwriting. There was nothing explaining where she might be now.