Undara

by Annie Seaton

  ‘We’ve tried it, and it’s true,’ the old stockman said. ‘You can be galloping along, and the horse will just come to a dead stop. You have to turn around, because they simply won’t cross some of the land.’

  ‘It’s only since the university has shown us the NASA maps that we’ve realised that the area is crisscrossed with more caves and tubes,’ Travis said.

  Bluey stood and walked across to the map. His nicotine-stained finger traced a line from the western boundary to the property, to the road. ‘This is bad land. Everyone knows that. Nobody goes there.’

  Brennan frowned. ‘Why do you call it bad land?’

  ‘I think it’s as simple as the horses sensing the openings in the ground,’ Travis said, but Bluey shook his head.

  ‘No. It’s more that that. There’s been people go missing over the years. Those two little kids were never found back in the 1800s, and local legend has it that a lot of prospectors disappeared out there, too.’

  The silence that followed was long as the group looked at the elderly man.

  Joel broke it and his voice shook. ‘Uncle Gavin goes out there.’

  Travis turned to his son in surprise. ‘What? How do you know that?’

  ‘I heard him bragging to Mum one night.’ Joel had lost the colour in his face. ‘One night you were away … before we left. He cooked dinner and opened a bottle of wine, and he was talking to her about those caves and about the gold mine.’

  ‘We listened after we went to bed.’ Jase sounded upset, too.

  ‘Yeah, he sent us off to bed the same time Cass went to sleep.’ Joel’s lips curled.

  Travis placed a hand on each of his son’s shoulders. ‘It’s okay. Just tell me what you heard, Joel.’

  ‘He said he had a place where he kept his special things. I remember he laughed when he told Mum. He said if you knew about it, you’d think all your Christmases had come at once.’

  Travis frowned. ‘I wonder what he meant by that, and where he was talking about.’

  ‘No ideas?’ Sergeant Brennan asked.

  ‘No, but I’ll go looking. Maybe that’s where he’s taken her.’ Travis stood. ‘We’ll go home and get saddled up. It’ll take us a few hours to ride to the boundary. I don’t know how the phone service will be so far out, so I’ll get Bluey to take the ute with the CB radio. What channel do you want us on?’

  Sergeant Brennan stood and addressed the group. ‘How many of you have CB radios in your vehicles?’

  John nodded. ‘Yes, in the Troop Carrier and the van we came up in. Larry?’ He turned to the photographer.

  ‘Yes, there’s one in mine, too.’

  ‘Okay,’ Brennan replied. ‘Channel nine if you have a forty-channel set, and channel five on an eighteen channel. That’s the emergency channel as most of you probably know.’

  Bill called from the back of the room, ‘I’ve got enough food, so make sure you come and stock up before you leave.’

  John walked over to Travis as they were about to leave. ‘I thought you’d like to know. Emlyn’s husband is on his way up. He’s flying into Townsville in a couple of hours and hiring a car.’

  ‘I’m pleased to hear that.’ Travis nodded. ‘Come on, boys. Go and get some food from Bill, and we’ll get going.’

  ‘I’ll radio you when David arrives, and we’ll follow,’ John said. ‘Even though it’s a dreadful situation, he was relieved to know that—’

  ‘That my bloody brother is somehow responsible.’ Travis couldn’t keep the disgust from his voice. ‘When he comes home, it’s going to be very hard to stay civilised. I just hope that he hasn’t hurt her.’ The things that Detective Inspector Blake had told him, the violence that Gavin had shown the backpacker, didn’t fill him with confidence.

  If Emlyn Rees was on his station, he would not give up until she was found. The thought of her being hurt—or worse—at the hand of his brother, brought bile to his throat.

  ‘Do you think he’ll come home, Dad?’ Jase asked as they saddled up the horses a short time later.

  ‘Who knows?’ Travis tried to keep the anger from his voice. Anger with Gavin, and anger that his brother had duped him for so long. ‘It appears he’s arrogant enough to come home and carry on as though nothing’s happened.’

  CHAPTER

  31

  Emlyn lay on her back and opened her eyes. Since she’d fallen into this cave, she’d drifted in and out of sleep—or consciousness. The pain in her back was bearable when she lay still. The first time she’d woken up, she’d worried about the air quality, and had tried to sit up so that she wasn’t low on the ground, but pain had sliced through her and she’d fallen back onto the hard floor. The next time she’d come to, she’d forced herself to move because she needed to relieve herself.

  The effort of that movement had sent excruciating pain through her back again, and she’d only just managed to return to the centre of the cave under the skylight before she’d passed out once more. Being able to see the gap above calmed her. Mercifully, she’d slept most of the night. The couple of times she’d woken, Emlyn had soothed herself with deep breathing.

  She dreamed of David and Sophie. He would have been disappointed when she didn’t arrive last night. Over and over, she dreamed the same thing. She was standing at the pretty leadlight door of their home. Sophie was crying in the background, but she couldn’t get inside to soothe her. Sometimes Emlyn knocked; other times she pulled out the key, but each time the door stayed firmly shut. She could hear David’s beautiful voice on the other side, and that helped her through the night. As the dream repeated itself, she began to hate that door.

  ‘When I come home, David, we’ll get a new one,’ she muttered in her sleep.

  I love you, Em. It’s going to be all right. I’ll come and find you.

  Suddenly he was there. His breath warmed her skin, and Emlyn reached out, trying to get him to stay with her. His arms held her close until she began to wake.

  Blinking, she looked around in confusion as the darkness lightened, fighting to keep her eyes open.

  For the first time in many long months, Emlyn ached to feel David’s arms around her. To hold her. To comfort her. He would keep her safe.

  ‘David,’ she called out as her eyes closed. ‘I’m at the bottom of the trees. Come and find me.’

  * * *

  A few hours later, Emlyn opened her eyes and put her fingers to her lips. She had to get out of here; she needed to find water. Already her lips and tongue were dry, but she was relieved there was no telltale metallic taste of bad air in her mouth. Apart from the wrenched back muscle—and a slight concussion, she suspected—she wasn’t feeling too bad. The skylight was now filled with a bright patch of blue, and the lacy branches above were waving in a soft breeze. Her strength had returned along with her determination, and she was going to try to find a way out of here. She knew how these caves worked. Somewhere behind her, there would be another fall, and she would be able to get out eventually. As she lay there, she could feel a slight rush of air on her face and it wasn’t coming from above, so her thoughts about the air quality were right. There was a flow-through of air, so unless she was in a low pocket of carbon dioxide, she didn’t need to worry about that.

  The fragment of a pleasant dream floated at the edge of her thoughts, but as she tried to grab it, it floated away, and she felt sad to lose it. Lifting her arm carefully, Emlyn peered at her watch. The fuzziness that had clouded her vision when she had woken up the first time was gone, and she could see clearly now. She couldn’t believe how much time had passed. It was after three—obviously in the afternoon by the sun shining in from above. The pain had eased but it was worse on her right side, so Emlyn rolled slightly to the left, and pressed her right hand against her back where it hurt the most. Breathing in deeply, she knew it wasn’t her ribs, perhaps just a torn muscle when she’d fallen at such an awkward angle. It eased as she moved slowly to the left, as long as she kept the pressure on her back. As she rolled, she encountere
d something hard beneath her side, so she moved onto her back again and slid it out from under her. Lifting the object, a piece of what felt like fabric dissolved into dust in her fingers. She held up the rectangular object; it was a book of some sort, or what remained of a book. Reassured, knowing that someone had been here before her, she placed it carefully on the ground to her right and felt around with her hand to see if there was anything else there. Her fingers touched something hard and round, and as she smoothed her fingers over the shape and they felt a gap, cold dread lodged in her throat. Emlyn pulled her hand away and forced herself to sit up. Once she was upright, she looked down to her left. The sunlight played over two identical shapes, side by side. She drew in a quick breath and looked down at the sad remnants of two young lives.

  Two small skeletons were lying close together in the depths of this cave.

  Immediately, she knew who they belonged to.

  The two children who had gone missing over a century ago.

  Travis’s—and Gavin’s—forebears. She wondered if Gavin had known they were down here. After he had shown her what was in the cave that he’d taken as his own, she wouldn’t be surprised if he had known all along.

  She wondered what he’d tell Travis when he went home. Would he say that he’d taken her to the airport? David would have been beside himself with worry when she hadn’t turned up.

  And she’d missed the sponsorship meeting at UQ, and probably missed the deadline for the funding for the next triennium. A wry grin crossed her face: unless attempted murder and kidnapping counted as extenuating circumstances. Despite what she’d been through, Emlyn was feeling calm.

  And strong.

  Because she would get out, and no matter what it took—she knew how far away from the house and the dongas she was—she would go back, and she would be able to tell Travis about the diaries and the missing children.

  Worse still, she would have to tell him about his brother.

  Seeing the two skeletons had renewed her determination to survive. She had to tell David she loved him.

  She pressed her hand against the torn muscle and pushed herself up to her feet. Her breath hitched as she straightened, but stretching seemed to help. She could move without that intense pain now. Standing in the warm sunshine, she stared down at the skeletons of the two children and thought of their poor mother. Never knowing what had happened; never having closure.

  At least she’d had closure. It was time to take her life back in hand and move forward. And she could tell Bluey that she’d found Missy and Thomas. They deserved a proper burial in the little cemetery by the house.

  Tears pricked at her eyes and she said a silent prayer for the children and their parents. ‘We’ll take you home,’ she whispered.

  Emlyn turned and began to make her way to the back of the cave where a glimmer of light peeked through the top of the rock fall.

  * * *

  They rode down the back roads and they were only an hour away from the dongas when they picked up the tracks of Gavin’s ute. They followed them on horseback for another few kilometres and Travis called Bluey to let him know where they were. It wasn’t long before they heard Bluey’s ute following behind them. The tracks turned into a break in the trees and they had to duck to miss the low branches. About a hundred metres in, they could see where Gavin had been parking in the bush. The wheel ruts were deep; deep enough to show that the car had been there many times. A well-worn footpath headed up the hill.

  Jase dismounted and crouched down and looked closely at the tracks. ‘Yep, it’s the same tread as the tyres we’ve got on both of the farm utes.’

  ‘I want you to stay here with Bluey please, boys.’ If there was anything—anything bad—up ahead, he didn’t want his sons there. ‘Or better still, get on the radio and tell them I’ve found where he’s been. Tell them we’ll call back if we need help.’

  Joel nodded and got into Bluey’s ute, while Bluey and Jase tethered the horses. Travis walked quickly up the hill. At the top of the ridge was a curtain of vines like the ones at the glade near the old graveyard. He stepped over to them quietly and lifted them. There was a narrow opening and a rope hung between some rough steps dug into the dirt at the side.

  Travis pulled out his phone and turned the flashlight app on. Holding it up high, he shone it down into the cave. Finally, he called out softly, ‘Emlyn? Are you there?’

  All was quiet and there was no movement below. He grabbed the rope and made his way down to the opening, his eyes widening when he reached the base.

  ‘Very cosy, Gavin.’ Now he knew where his brother had disappeared to over the past couple of years.

  A table and chairs—why two? he wondered—a bed and two large metal toolboxes filled the small space, but there was no sign of Emlyn. A plastic sleeve and some coloured papers lay on the floor and he bent to pick them up.

  Travis’s breath caught and he almost gagged as he stared at what was in his hand. It wasn’t paper, it was a photo.

  A photo of Alison in bed with Gavin. Gavin was beaming at the camera, but Alison’s eyes were closed and her head lolled at an awkward angle on his brother’s shoulder.

  ‘You filthy bastard.’ The growl from Travis’s throat reverberated around the small space. The detective’s words came back to him in waves.

  Date-rape drug.

  Robberies.

  Assaults.

  Rage like he’d never experienced before consumed Travis. His blood thrummed in his ears and his vision blurred as he stared at the photograph of the woman he loved. He knew Alison well enough to figure out what had happened. It explained why she’d suddenly sided with Gavin, why she’d fled their home. His brother had taken away more than a year of his family from him.

  ‘I’ll kill you for this, Gavin.’ His jaw ached where he’d clenched his teeth.

  At the same time, beneath the disgust and the hatred, a tiny burst of joy flared. Surely once he told Alison that he knew what had happened, what it seemed Gavin had done, she would come home. His only fear was that she wouldn’t return to the station because of his brother.

  If it came to that, no matter how hard he had to work, he’d build a new house for them. A home where they could be happy, a home where there was no Gavin. A home that was full of love instead of bad memories.

  Even if it meant selling the station. They didn’t have to stay here.

  He knew Alison had always loved him, but Gavin had tried to destroy it, and he’d almost succeeded. If he ever came home, the police would have to queue up to deal with him, because Travis was going to have the first go.

  When he thought of what Alison had endured alone over the past twelve months, he had to fight back the sharp nausea that burned in his gut. He knew he was guilty, too; his hurt at being left had caused him to lash out at her many times. There was a lot of forgiveness to come, and many harsh words to be taken back. Travis felt sick to his stomach when he thought of what Alison had suffered at his brother’s hands.

  Gavin would pay. That was the one thing he had no doubt about.

  Travis stumbled as he headed for the steps carved into the dirt. His mother’s words kept coming back to him.

  Please promise me you’ll take care of your brother.

  That promise was about to be broken. His own family would come first; that was who he had to take care of now.

  ‘Dad! Where are you? Are you okay?’

  Travis hurried out and was in the open before his sons reached the top of the hill. ‘She’s not here.’

  ‘We’ll saddle up and head further west,’ Jase said.

  ‘Thanks, guys. Jase, you go in the ute with Blue. I’ll ride Sam. Head to the fence line and work your way back along the road. I’m going to stay on this ridge and look from up here. I’ll meet you at the back gate. Okay?’

  The boys nodded and headed back down the hill. Once they were far enough away, he checked his phone for service.

  Nothing.

  Travis climbed to the next high point of t
he ridge and was pleased to see he had two bars of service. He dialled Alison’s number, but it went straight to voicemail.

  He stared out over the land beneath him, keeping his sight fixed on Joel as he and the horse blended into the undulating granite landscape surrounding them. The thick vegetation at the top of the ridge thinned out into grassy woodland country. The only colour was the occasional yellow splotch of the flowers of the spindly kapok trees scattered among the ironbark eucalyptus.

  Travis pressed ‘redial’ and waited as the phone rang this time. His hands were slick with sweat and he gripped the phone tightly.

  ‘Travis? Is everything okay? Are the boys okay? Are you okay?’ Until Alison asked about his wellbeing, Travis had been holding it together.

  He swallowed, taking in deep gulps of air before he could speak. In the background, he could hear music and children’s voices. It was Friday; Cassie had dance lessons at the local scout hall on Friday afternoons. He mightn’t be there with them, but he knew their lives.

  ‘Al.’ His voice broke and he brushed his knuckles against his eyes. ‘I’m so sorry.’ He couldn’t hold it back, no matter what his intention had been.

  Her voice was sharp with fear. ‘Who is it? Who’s hurt?’

  ‘No one. We’re all okay. The boys are fine. I can see them from where I am.’ Travis took another deep breath. ‘I don’t want you to ask any questions. I want you to come home. I need you and Cassie here. Now.’ This time his voice shook. ‘I know what Gavin did to you. Al, I am so, so sorry. I want you to come home. It doesn’t matter.’ When he heard her gasp at the other end, Travis fought to stay calm. ‘Listen to me, sweetheart. Listen to me carefully. Gavin is in trouble. Big trouble. He’s taken one of the university women—you met Emlyn—and we’re all out on the station looking for her. And I know he threatened you.’

  ‘Where is he?’ Her voice was thick, and he knew she was crying.