Dave held the photo up and surveyed the scene, while Tez looked over his shoulder.
‘The GPS coordinates are saying it’s here, but this doesn’t look like the area. See? I can’t work out where that group of trees are,’ Dave said, spinning slowly around. He tapped the photo where a clump of trees were in the distance.
Tez shooed the flies away from his face and looked up at the sky. ‘I don’t know how you can tell too much out here. It all looks the same to me. I’d be afraid I’d get lost.’
Dave pointed to the sky. ‘First off, you can work out what direction you’re looking by seeing where the sun is. The bush can look similar but there’re always small things that can help you. So, in this photo you can partly see the road but most of it is mallee trees and spinifex. Obviously Spencer was down an embankment.’ Dave paused and took out another photo. ‘Ah, this makes sense now. I reckon we need to walk on a little to the east. See here? There’s that cluster of big gum trees. I bet there’s a waterhole over there.’
‘But they’d be about three or four k away,’ Tez said, squinting into the distance.
‘Yep, that’d be about right. But they’ve given us a landmark, you see? Just like that hill over there.’ He pointed to the north. ‘You pick something that’s high or easily seen on the horizon and use it as a landmark.’ He gave a bit of a laugh. ‘It’s much easier since GPS was invented. No way of getting lost now.’
He walked down the red road, his feet sinking into the soft dirt. ‘These sorts of roads cause that many problems for truck drivers. See, look here.’ He pointed to the middle of the road.
‘Looks like a road to me,’ Tez said.
‘Yep, stick your boot into it.’
Tez frowned and looked again, before kicking the dirt gingerly so he didn’t stub his toe. The red dust covered his shoe before he’d felt the bottom.
‘It’s a pothole but it’s filled with what they call bulldust. The driver can’t always see them. Travelling up this way can make for uncomfortable driving and plenty of breakdowns and flat tyres.’ He turned around with a smile on his face. ‘I love it, but travelling up here, you need at least two spares with you, and a tyre-fixing kit.’
A swarm of budgies flittered in the distance and Dave watched them fly towards the group of trees. ‘See, now that’s how you can tell where water is. Birds know. Roos and all the other animals know. If you observe nature, you’ll never die out here.’
‘Well, I’ll let you be Steve Irwin because I don’t plan on dying out here and you know more than I do. There’s been enough of that shit going on in the last couple of weeks.’
Dave gave him a look and then flicked through the pictures. ‘Okay, so here’s the photo with the gun in it.’ Dave handed it over. ‘Taken in the back of his car, inside the gun safe.’
Tez tapped the photo. ‘Yeah, you can see the handle sticking out here.’
Dave nodded. ‘And this.’ He glanced around and then back at the satellite phone he was holding to check the coordinates. ‘Maybe he walked to the edge of the road, then along a little further … Nope. Try here …’ He backtracked five metres. ‘Yeah, look here. When you know what you’re looking for. See?’ He pointed to a couple of slide marks. ‘This is where he was!’ The excitement in Dave’s voice caused Tez to jog back from where he was standing and peer over the edge.
Dave didn’t wait for him, but went over the edge and down the steep cliff, using the mallee tree trunks as hand holds. Stones skittered out from underneath him until he got his foot hold. Then he stopped and looked around, comparing the bush to the photo. Sweat broke out across his brow and his heart accelerated. He was getting closer!
‘This is the place,’ he called back up to Tez. ‘I can match the spinifex to the photo. I’m just going to … Fuck.’ Dave caught sight of a blue-and-silver glint to his left and gingerly made his way over to it.
‘What is it?’ Tez called down, his voice tense.
‘Pocket knife. Spencer’s. It must have fallen out while he was searching. This is the exact spot. Can you pass me the camera? Why didn’t Major Crash come out here?’
Tez leaned over the edge and dangled the camera on the strap to Dave, who grabbed it and took several photos. With gloved hands picked the knife up and carefully passed it up to Tez, who bagged it. ’Cause the bike accident wasn’t what they were here for. This will be a Major Crime investigation when we prove he was murdered.’
Dave pushed his way into the bush a little more, his eyes scouring the covered ground.
‘Get snakes down there?’ Tez asked.
‘Yeah, but you can’t think about that!’ Dave called back. He came across a couple of empty Coke cans, scrunched up and faded by the sun. He took more photos but his instinct told him this bush rubbish wasn’t connected to either Spencer or the motorbike rider. Dave had never witnessed Spencer drink Coke, and it was hard to drink a can of soft drink while riding a motorbike. The faded cans looked like they had been out in the elements for a lot longer than two weeks.
He kept searching, but after a few more minutes he had to accept that there wasn’t any sign of the gun.
Just about to turn back, a scrap of faded paper caught his eye, lying on top of a small scrubby bush. It hadn’t been heavy enough to fall through to the ground.
He picked it up and his heart gave an extra hard thump.
‘Tez!’ he yelled. ‘Tez, I’ve got something. I’ve got something!’
He turned and scrambled up the embankment as fast as he could.
‘What’s going on?’ Tez asked, alert.
‘It’s Shane,’ Dave said, waving the piece of paper. ‘It’s an old photograph of Shane. They’re here somewhere.’
‘Who? What the hell are you talking about?’
Dave handed the photo to Tez. ‘We’ve got to bag this and get it back to test for fingerprints. This is what I’ve suspected the whole way along. Bulldust and Scotty are involved.’
‘You’ve obviously been holding out on me. Fill me in from the start.’ Tez looked at the photo. A young woman sat on a jet ski, her long hair tumbling down her shoulders, a wide smile on her face.
‘That girl is Shane, Bulldust’s daughter. Bulldust and his brother Scotty were the two I was tracking when I went undercover to Queensland. Spencer was my handler.’
As Dave finished the whole story, Tez shook his head. ‘That’s why you left town so quickly. I always wondered.’ He looked down at the photo again. ‘So, you reckon Bulldust had something to do with Spencer or the motorbike rider?’
‘I’d say both.’ Dave spun around, looking for what, he didn’t know, but some sign that Bulldust was close by.
‘They’ll be camped out here somewhere. I always knew they would be. There was no way they’d stay in the city.’
‘What are we looking for?’ Tez asked.
‘I don’t know. A camp off the road, tracks that go off into the bush, that sort of thing. And I guess they might not be too near here because it would be stupid to try to kill the driver right near the camp.’
‘So, these fellas are dangerous.’
‘Like you wouldn’t believe.’
‘Want me to call in back-up? Maybe we should get fixed wing up here so we can spot from the sky. Looking for a camp on the ground is going to be like looking for a pothole under bulldust,’ Tez quipped.
‘We haven’t got time. They might disappear at any moment. They probably know we’d end up back out here having a look, so they might even be expecting us.’ Dave jumped in the car. ‘Come on, let’s have a drive and look around. I’ve dealt with these two before when they’ve been camped out, and they know the bush. They’d find somewhere on a creek, where there was water. Maybe that outcrop of trees over to the north, but I couldn’t see a track … Where’s the map?’
‘Mate, you’re being a bit gung-ho, don’t you reckon?’
‘Maybe, but these pricks aren’t going to get away from me this time. Where’s the map?’
Tez unfolded the map on the seat next to him and found their spot. ‘What are we looking for?’
Dave traced his finger along the road, his eyes searching for a river system or another source of water.
‘See here, there’s a creek and just a little further on there’s a lake. It’s not far from here. They’d be able to dig down and get water, but they won’t be near the lake because that’s on Aboriginal land and there’s a likelihood of them being discovered. They’ll still be out here …’
He put the car into gear and started to drive slowly on the wrong side of the road. ‘Keep an eye out for any type of vehicle tracks that look out of place, you know ones that turn off the main road here. A dead tree that doesn’t fit into the landscape or a two-wheel road going off to the side, that sort of thing,’ he instructed.
Both men peered out the windows on either side of the vehicle as they drove slowly along, searching.
‘Stop!’ Tez yelled. ‘Back up about three metres.’ He flung his door open and jumped out. ‘Something like this?’
Dave joined him and looked carefully at the tracks that had veered off the road and into the bush. He followed them for a little way, then shook his head. ‘Nope, see, they come back onto the road. Someone has just had a little trip off the edge.’
Back in the car, Dave drove on, seeing nothing but small scrubby bushes and long waving grasses. As they turned a corner, an outcrop of larger trees came into view and he brought the troopy to a standstill. ‘Okay,’ he said slowly, still a little way back from it. ‘Something like this …’
‘What are you looking at?’
‘See how the country we’ve come through hasn’t had a lot of tall timber? This is the first bit we’ve come across, and according to the map there’s a creek behind here. And see that ridge of hills? That would make for a really sheltered spot in there. Let’s take a look.’
They got out of the vehicle, Dave making sure he had the camera and his service revolver. ‘Got your gun?’ he asked.
Tez nodded, and they set off walking along the edge of the road.
‘Mate, check that out,’ Dave said quietly, stopping.
Tez walked over to him and they both stared at a set of vehicle tracks coming out from the bush and across the grader ridge. Dave stooped down and shot some photos while Tez went out into the bush and checked how far in they went.
‘There are dying trees in here. Looks like they’ve been pushed over. Maybe trying to get in? Or out.’
Staying away from the tracks so he didn’t compromise them, Dave skirted along the edge of the bush to stand next to Tez.
‘Whoever this is has pushed their way out,’ Dave said. ‘The trees are pushed towards the road, not away from it, so they’ve come from in further. There must be another way in.’ He started to walk, following the broken branches. ‘I bet they’ve had a camp in here.’
‘Dave, we should get back-up. Don’t be a freaking cowboy. Spencer is dead, remember.’ Tez’s tone was agitated.
Unbidden, the sight of the police vehicle rolling, spinning in the air, came to Dave. He could hear the shattering glass. The screeching of torn metal. Spencer being thrown from the car. In among it, he heard Bec and Alice. Saw the hurt and fear on Mel’s face, before the pure fury. No, he wasn’t waiting for anyone.
‘I’m not going to be this close and not have a crack at finding them, Tez,’ Dave said, his voice terse. ‘If you want to call in back-up, you do it, but I’m checking this out. Now, keep your voice down and stay close. We need to be quiet in the bush—noise travels a long way. They might have dogs that can hear us further out, too.’ He continued to walk as quietly as he could, picking a track of least resistance.
After ten minutes of walking through tall timber and along a sandy creek bed, Dave saw the remnants of a campfire on the riverside.
He stopped and took a photo before looking around. ‘Look here, footprints.’
Standing tall, he tried to see if there was another camp nearby, but there didn’t seem to be. He withdrew his gun and indicated for Tez to do the same and slowly, slowly they walked towards the range of hills.