Vic had got the warning to move from Anne, via Alan, and took it seriously.
He had been shocked as he had looked at the record of Jane’s interview a few days later with Ross and the barrister. Jane’s upset manner on the day was bad, but she was over the worst when he saw her. Afterwards she had a distant and reserved manner, so unlike her normal sunshine self, which had persisted for a few days, as if for the first time in her remembered life she had lost trust in someone or something, though she had stayed affectionate to him. Fortunately this faded and now she seemed back to normal. But it had reinforced his sense of her vulnerability.
He had gone back to Brisbane the following week for a two hour meeting to decide on the contents of the video to be provided. They debated long and hard over what parts to leave in. Vic insisted that all parts referring to him or her living in the north Queensland aboriginal community must be taken out, lest others who saw it trace her that way. He also wanted the bit showing her acute distress removed, not that it gave anything else away. But it was far too raw and pain filled to let others see, or so he had thought.
Ross argued forcefully, that despite his question being a mistake, her reaction was the thing that would work best in getting the government to understand just how fragile and damaged she was. The barrister supported Ross, saying this picture was far better than any words.
But, even though he had finally agreed to it remaining, the awful sight of Jane’s terrified face frightened him to his core. He had already been thinking it was too dangerous for them to keep staying so close to Brisbane with the series of meetings he had been to there.
It would not require Einstein to start checking the smaller regional towns nearby, particularly checking out the temporary places where people stayed like caravan parks. He considered renting a house in one of the towns around here. But that was fraught with its own problems like the identity documents and references being needed for leases. He could try to find a farmhouse in the area in return for farm work, but his contact network did not run deep in this place and the act of looking would bring him into public view.
He hated the idea of randomly moving Jane and their children around, as much for the children’s sake as hers, they all needed stability and new roots, not an endless, half fugitive existence.
It was a devil’s choice between two evils, the evil of a forever fractured existence, links broken over and over when only half formed, and the evil which lurked in a buried place in her mind, threatening to break out and overwhelm her. He did not know what to do, each choice was not good.
At least with the message about the threat of exposure came the fact there was agreement for a pardon. The other thing that Vic had thought about and talked over with Anne was the need for Jane to have new identity documents. They were needed for marriage, which she mentioned regularly and they were needed for travel as well as the thousand other normal things a person did, health insurance, education, driver’s license – the list went on and on. Of course the primary identity of Susan MacDonald was an English one, so the identity change had to begin there.
He had a half formed plan of her needing a new passport in the Jane Bennet name. That would need a legal name change in England. That part would not be hard to achieve if Jane could remember her former self and give a signed instruction for her name to be changed. But it needed to be done without public knowledge and it needed to be done on her behalf by someone else, which meant her parents.
So he had talked it around with Anne and bounced ideas around with Ross too. They formed a plan for Ross to provide a report confirming Jane’s loss of memory and new identity. Ross would say she needed to be given identity documents in this new name, as it was likely to be very harmful for her to be forced to confront her previous identity.
At the same time Anne would use her legal connections in London to work out how this could be done both legally and in a non-disclosed way. Her idea was that Jane’s parents could sign forms authorizing a name change and then new identity documents could be issued in the Jane Bennet name.
With the wheels in progress for a pardon Vic also thought he should seek agreement from the NT government for this course of action, Alan was pretty good in getting things like this sorted as he had already shown.
So Vic was hopeful that within four to six weeks, shortly after the pardon was granted, Jane would have identity documents in her own name. Then, using these, they could get on with their lives together in a faraway place.
But this did not solve the conundrum of where to go now. He knew they needed a new home, one not easy to get to, one where the people could be trusted not to let the cat out of the bag. It had to be a place where there was control of others who came and went and, importantly, one where Vic could do something useful while he waited. He tried to think of all the remote parts of Australia where he had not been, at first thinking that, if he was unknown, no one would guess to look for him in these places. But, if he did not know the people in a small place, he would stand out like the proverbial dogs balls, not to mention Jane and their children. Their unknown status would make them subject of idle gossip and curiosity and that brought danger.
At last it came to him. He had to go back to where he was known and trusted, and with that came a trust in others. One of the stations at the outer edges of the Alice Springs district would be best. These were small family owned units, despite their immense size. Many had extra houses for workers or outstations. As of now most stations had yet to take on workers for the cattle season. He could think of several such places, it would need a bit of careful inquiry to work out which served best, for both the place and him. In such a place the only person who would know he was there would be the station manager. Most were already good personal friends. People from outside could only get to these stations with the manager’s agreement.
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.