by Jane Harper
He hauled out the last of the backpacks and turned to Jill Bailey, who was struggling to thread her thick arm through the shoulder strap of her pack. Bree stepped forward to help, taking the weight of the pack while she scrabbled.
‘Do you want to make a start?’ the driver said to Jill. ‘I can get you ladies on your way. Or would you rather wait until everyone’s arrived?’
With an effort, Jill thrust her arm through and breathed out sharply, her face red with exertion. She glanced down the approach road. It was empty. She frowned.
‘With a car like Daniel’s, he should have beaten us here,’ one of the men said to polite laughter.
Jill gave her thin corporate smile but didn’t say anything. Daniel Bailey was her brother, but he was still the chief executive. Bree supposed he was allowed to be late.
Bree had watched Jill take the call ten minutes before the minibus was scheduled to depart from BaileyTennants’ Melbourne headquarters. Jill had wandered out of earshot and had stood, legs planted and hand on hip as she listened.
As always, Bree had tried to decipher the chairwoman’s expression. Annoyance? Possibly. Possibly something else. She often found Jill hard to read. Either way, by the time Jill had hung up and returned to the group, the look was gone.
Daniel had been held up, Jill had said simply. Business, as usual. They would go ahead without him. He would follow in his car.
Now, as they milled about the lodge carpark, Bree saw the woman’s mouth tighten at the corners. The clouds were definitely heavier and Bree felt the odd spatter of rain hit her jacket. The approach road still lay empty.
‘There’s really no point in us all waiting.’ Jill turned to the four men standing by the van with their packs. ‘Daniel shouldn’t be far behind.’
She didn’t apologise for her brother and Bree was glad. It was one of the things she admired most about Jill. She didn’t make excuses.
The men smiled and shrugged. It was fine. Of course it was, Bree thought. Daniel Bailey was the boss. What else could they say?
‘All right.’ The driver clapped his hands. ‘Let’s get you ladies on the road. This way.’
The five women glanced at each other, then followed him across the carpark, his red fleece bright against the muted green and brown of the bushland. The gravel crunched under their boots before giving way to muddy grass. The driver stopped at the mouth of the trail and leaned on the old wooden sign. Below a carved arrow were two words: Mirror Falls.
‘Got all your bits and pieces?’ the driver asked.
Bree felt the group turn to look at her and she checked the pocket of her jacket. The map was folded crisp and tight and she could feel the unfamiliar plastic edge of the compass. She had been sent on a half-day course to learn how to navigate. Suddenly it didn’t seem like much.
‘Don’t worry,’ the driver was saying. ‘You’ll barely need them for this bit. Follow your noses and you’ll find the first campsite clearing. You can’t miss it. There are a few more twists and turns after that, but keep your eyes peeled and you’ll be right. I’ll see you at the other end on Sunday. Someone wearing a watch? Good. Noon deadline. Penalty for every fifteen minutes you’re late.’
‘What if we finish early? Can we drive back to Melbourne sooner?’
The driver looked at Alice.
‘Good to hear you’re feeling confident.’
She shrugged. ‘I need to be back for something on Sunday night.’
‘Right. Well, yeah. I suppose so. If both teams reach the meeting point early –’ The driver glanced over at the men in the distance, chatting and leaning against the van, still one team member short. ‘But look, don’t break your necks. The traffic’s never too bad on a Sunday. As long as you’re at the meeting point by twelve, I’ll get you back to the city by late afternoon.’
Alice didn’t argue, but pressed her lips tight together. Bree recognised the look. It was one she generally tried to avoid generating.
‘Any other questions?’ The driver looked at each of the five faces. ‘Good. Now, let’s take a quick group snap for your newsletter.’
Bree saw Jill hesitate. The company newsletter was questionable both in its regularity and newsworthiness, and Jill gave her pocket a half-hearted pat.
‘I haven’t got –’ She glanced at the van, where their mobile phones lay in a ziplocked bag by the driver’s seat.
‘It’s all right, I’ll take it,’ the driver said, pulling out his own phone from his fleece pocket. ‘Bunch up. A bit closer. There you go. Put your arms around each other, ladies. Pretend you like each other.’
Bree felt Jill slip her arm around her waist, and she smiled.
‘Great. Got it.’ The driver checked the screen. ‘All right, that’s everything. Off you go. Good luck. And try to have fun, yeah?’
He turned away with a wave and the five women were alone. They stood frozen in their pose until Jill moved, then each untangled their arms from the others.
Bree looked at Jill and found Jill looking straight back at her.
‘How far is the first campsite?’
‘Oh. I’ll just –’ Bree unfolded the map, fumbling as the wind caught the edges. Their start point had been circled and the route marked in red. She could hear packs being shifted as she traced a finger along the line, trying to find the first site. Where was it? Spots of rain bled into the paper and one corner blew back over itself, forming a crease. She smoothed it out as best she could, exhaling silently as she spotted the site next to her thumbnail.
‘Okay, it’s not far,’ she said, trying to decipher the scale on the map legend. ‘Not too bad.’
‘I suspect your definition of not bad might be different from mine,’ Jill said.
‘About ten kilometres?’ Bree accidentally made it sound like a question. ‘No more than ten.’
‘All right.’ Jill hoisted her pack a little higher on her shoulders. She already looked uncomfortable. ‘Lead the way.’
Bree set off. The path grew darker within a matter of steps as the branches curved over the trail, blocking the sky. She could hear water dripping from leaves and, from somewhere well hidden, the sound of a bellbird cry. She looked over her shoulder at the four faces behind her, shadowy under their jacket hoods. Alice was nearest, wisps of blonde hair catching in the wind.
‘Good job,’ she mouthed. Bree decided she probably meant it, and smiled.
Lauren was following, her eyes trained on the uneven ground, while Jill’s round cheeks were already flushed a little pink. Bree could see her sister bringing up the rear. Beth, half a step behind in her borrowed boots and too-tight coat. The sisters’ eyes met. Bree didn’t slow her pace.
The path narrowed and turned a corner, and the last visible light from the lodge blinked and disappeared as the trees closed in behind them.
Chapter 4
The lodge carpark was full. Search volunteers’ trucks were squeezed tight alongside news vans and police vehicles.
Falk double-parked outside the lodge and left Carmen sitting in the car with the keys. He stamped his boots on the verandah, a wave of warmth hitting him as he opened the door. A group of searchers huddled in a corner of a wood-panelled reception area, poring over a map. To one side, a doorway opened to a communal kitchen. On the other, Falk could see a lounge with worn couches and a shelf full of battered books and board games. An ancient computer lurked in the corner under a handwritten sign that said: For guest use only. Falk wasn’t sure if it was an offer or a threat.
The ranger behind the desk barely glanced up as he approached.
‘Sorry, mate, we’re completely full,’ the ranger said. ‘You’ve come at a bad time.’
‘Sergeant King around?’ Falk said. ‘He’s expecting us.’
The ranger looked at him this time. ‘Oh. Sorry. I saw you pull up and thought you were –’ He didn’t finish. Another city wanker. �
��He’s out at the search HQ. You know where that is?’
‘No.’
The ranger spread a park map over the desk. The paper was a green sprawling mass of bushland, shot through with crooked lines indicating routes or roads. The ranger picked up a pen and explained what he was marking. The driving route followed a small rural road, slicing through green mass to the west until it hit a crossroads, then turned abruptly north. The ranger finished his instructions and circled the finish point. It appeared to be in the middle of nowhere.
‘It’s about twenty minutes in the car from here. Don’t worry.’ The guy handed the map to Falk. ‘I promise you’ll know it when you get there.’
‘Thanks.’
Back outside, the cold was like a slap. He opened the car door and climbed into the driver’s seat, rubbing his hands. Carmen was leaning forward, staring through the windscreen. She shushed him as he began to speak, and pointed. Falk followed her gaze. Across the carpark, a man in his late forties wearing jeans and a ski jacket was reaching into the boot of a black BMW.
‘Look. Daniel Bailey,’ Carmen said. ‘Isn’t it?’
Falk’s first thought was that the BaileyTennants chief executive looked different out of a suit. He hadn’t seen Bailey in person before; the man moved with an athleticism that wasn’t captured in photos. He was a little shorter than Falk had expected but was broad around the shoulders and back. His thick hair was a rich brown, with no signs of grey. If the colour wasn’t natural, it was an expensive and convincing imitation. Bailey didn’t know them – shouldn’t know them, at least – but nevertheless Falk found himself sitting a little lower in his seat.
‘I wonder if he’s actually helping with the search,’ Carmen said.
‘Whatever he’s doing, he hasn’t been sitting around.’ Fresh mud caked Bailey’s boots.
They watched the man rummage through the boot of his BMW. The car sat like a sleek exotic animal amid the well-worn trucks and vans. Finally, he stood, shoving something dark into his jacket pocket.
‘What was that?’ Carmen said.
‘Pair of gloves, it looked like.’
Bailey tapped the boot and it glided shut in luxurious silence. He stood for a moment longer, staring out at the bushland, then walked towards the accommodation cabins, his head bowed against the wind.
‘Both him and Jill being up here could make things tricky,’ Carmen said, as they watched his retreating form.
‘Yeah.’ It was an understatement, and they both knew it. Falk started the engine, and passed Carmen the map. ‘Anyway. In the meantime, here’s where we’re headed.’
She looked at the circle on the mass of green.
‘What’s there?’
‘It’s where they found the other four.’
The sedan’s suspension was struggling. They bumped along the unpaved road, feeling every jolt as the peeling eucalyptus trunks stood guard on both sides. Over the hum of the engine, Falk could hear a faint but shrill whistling.
‘Jesus, is that the wind?’ Carmen squinted through the windscreen.
‘I think so.’ Falk kept his eyes on the road as the bushland grew thicker around them. His burned hand gripped the steering wheel. It was starting to ache.
At least the ranger had been right. They couldn’t have missed it. Falk rounded a bend and the lonely road ahead transformed into a hive of activity. Vehicles were parked nose to tail along the side of the road, and a reporter spoke earnestly into a camera and gestured at the search teams behind her. Someone had set up a trestle table with a coffee thermos and water bottles. Leaves fluttered from the trees as a police air wing chopper hovered overhead.
Falk pulled in at the very end of the line of cars. It was approaching midday, but the sun was barely a weak glow in the sky. Carmen asked a passing ranger for Senior Sergeant King and they were pointed in the direction of a tall man in his fifties. He was lean with an alert gaze that was darting from map to bushland, and he looked up with interest as Falk and Carmen walked over.
‘Thanks for coming.’ He shook their hands as they introduced themselves, and glanced over his shoulder at the TV camera. ‘Let’s move away from the chaos.’
They walked a short way up the road, ducking in beside a large truck that offered a partial windbreak.
‘No luck then?’ Falk said.
‘Not yet.’
‘How many of these searches have you done?’
‘Lots. I’ve been up here nearly twenty years. People wander off the track all the time.’
‘And how quickly do you normally find them?’
‘It really depends. How long is a piece of string? Occasionally we get lucky straight away, but often it can take a bit longer.’ King blew out his thin cheeks. ‘She’s been on her own for at least thirty-odd hours, so ideally we want to pick her up today. It sounds like they had the sense to collect rainwater, which is something, but she probably hasn’t got any food. You’ve got the hypothermia risk as well. That can set in pretty fast when you’re damp. But a lot depends on how she’s handling it. She might be in luck; apparently she did a fair bit of camping when she was younger. Often they walk out on their own.’ He paused. ‘Sometimes they don’t.’
‘But you always manage to find them?’ Carmen said. ‘Eventually, I mean.’
‘Almost always. Even in the Kovac years they found them, you know, in the end. Except for that one girl. Since then I can only think of the odd one or two who never turned up. We had an old bloke about fifteen years ago. He wasn’t well, dodgy heart. Shouldn’t have been hiking on his own really. Probably sat down for a rest in a quiet spot and had a heart attack. And there was a Kiwi couple about ten years ago. That was a bit of a strange one. Early thirties, fit, fairly experienced. It came out quite a lot later that they’d run up some heavy debts back in New Zealand.’
‘So, what, you think they disappeared on purpose?’ Falk said.
‘Not for me to say, mate. But it wouldn’t have been the worst thing in the world for them to fall off the radar.’
Falk and Carmen exchanged a glance.
‘So what’s happened this time?’ Carmen said.
‘Alice Russell was in a group of five women dropped off at the start of the Mirror Falls trail on Thursday arvo – someone can show you that later if you want – armed with your basic supplies. A map, tents, compass, some food. They were supposed to head pretty much due west, complete some of those bloody teambuilding obstacles during the day, camp for three nights.’
‘Is it a park scheme?’ Carmen said.
‘No. It’s organised by a private company but they’ve been operating here for a few years. Executive Adventures? They’re not bad, tend to know what they’re doing. There was a group of five blokes from BaileyTennants doing it as well. Different route, but both groups were due at the meeting point here by noon yesterday.’
‘But the women didn’t arrive.’
‘No. Well, four of them did in the end. But six hours late, and in a bad way. There were some injuries. Various cuts and bruises all round. A knock to the head. One got herself a snakebite.’
‘Jesus, which one?’ Falk said. ‘Is she okay?’
‘Yeah. Mostly. Breanna McKenzie. I think she’s essentially a glorified assistant, from what I can gather. They’ve all got these bloody fancy job titles. Anyway, it was probably just a carpet python, not that they knew that at the time. Scared them shitless. Thought it was a tiger snake and she was about to drop dead. It wasn’t, definitely non-venomous, but the bite’s infected so she’s landed herself in the medical centre for a couple of days.’
‘Back in Melbourne?’ Carmen said, and King shook his head.
‘Community hospital in town,’ he said. ‘Best place for her. You overdose on ice in a city squat, you want the doctors in a city hospital. You get nipped by a snake, you want to be around doctors who know their wildlife, believe me. Her s
ister’s with her at the hospital.’ He pulled a small notebook from his pocket and glanced down. ‘Bethany McKenzie. She was on the trek too but came out relatively unscathed.’
King glanced over his shoulder at the searchers. A group was preparing to go in, their orange overalls bright against the mass of trees. Falk could see a break in the tree line, where a path delved in. It was marked by a lone wooden beacon.
‘We know they went off track sometime on the second day because they didn’t make the campsite that night,’ King went on. ‘There’s a fairly large kangaroo trail leading off the main route. We think that’s where they went wrong. It only took them a few hours to realise it, but that’s plenty of time to land yourself in trouble.’
He looked again at his notebook and turned a page.
‘The details get a bit hazier from there on in. My officers managed to get what they could from them last night and this morning. A few holes that still need filling, though. When they realised they’d gone wrong it seems they floundered around, tried to work their way back. Easy way to make things worse. They were supposed to pick up food and water supplies at the second night’s campsite, so when they didn’t make it, the panic started to set in.’
Falk was reminded of what the attendant in the service station had said. It’s the panic that gets you. Makes it hard to trust what you’re seeing.
‘They were all supposed to leave their phones behind, but Alice had taken hers, as you know.’ King nodded at Falk. ‘Signal’s crap out there, though. Sometimes you get lucky, but not usually. Anyway, they wandered around until the Saturday when they stumbled on a disused cabin.’
He paused. He seemed about to say something else, then changed his mind.
‘At this point, we’re not sure where exactly that cabin is located. But they holed up in there for the night. When they woke up yesterday morning, the missing woman was gone. Or so say the other four.’
