Deadman’s Track

by Sarah Barrie

‘She’s burnt!’ Jai said, an edge of panic in his voice. ‘It’s bad.’

  ‘Get her down to the creek!’ Tess ordered. As the tent had been completely devoured, the faintest hint of pre-dawn light was all they had to see by. The men moved fast and Tess scrambled after them and when they gently placed Jasmin in the water, the screams that had dulled to whimpering began again.

  ‘Tess!’ Riley called out. ‘We can’t put it out!’

  ‘Jai, help them, try and sweep away any leaf litter, cover the embers in dirt.’

  Tess moved around to where Jai had sat, cradling Jasmin’s upper body. ‘Shh,’ she crooned. ‘The water will help. I know it’s cold, but you’ll be okay.’ She swept a gentle hand over Jasmin’s forehead to lift the hair from her face. It came back sticky, the hair stuck to Tess’s hand. Dread and horror hit her at once. Just how badly burned was she? It was almost impossible to see. ‘I need a torch,’ she told James, ‘and my sat phone.’

  ‘Okay, you got her?’

  ‘Yep.’

  ‘I put it out,’ Jasmin managed. ‘I put the fire out like you said.’

  ‘I know,’ Tess said, doing her best to keep hold of Jasmin as uncontrollable shudders racked her body. ‘I know you did. An ember must have caught. Tell me where it hurts most.’

  ‘My head, my legs. The tent fell on my face and I couldn’t get out of the sleeping bag. It caught on fire.’

  James returned, handing the torch to Tess.

  ‘James, I also need my first aid kit—where’s the sat phone?’

  ‘I couldn’t find it. Just the torch. I’ll take another look when I get the first aid kit.’

  ‘Okay, go,’ she said when he hesitated. If this was bad she didn’t want Jasmin to see the look on his face when he took in her burns. He left, and Tess sucked in a breath and switched on the torch. One side of Jasmin’s face was a mess, her ear unrecognisable. Her clothing was burned to her skin but completely gone from her legs, which were blackened and blistered in large areas of her thighs and shins. Tess’s lungs clogged with panic. Her basic first aid kit was not going to come close to helping. She lowered Jasmin further, tried to rest most of the burned area of her head in the water without it entering her mouth or nose.

  ‘Dear God,’ Libby exclaimed under her breath as she slid down with her own torch to join Tess. She dragged her gaze from Jasmin. ‘I’ve been through your pack and your tent. The sat phone’s not there.’

  ‘What?’ How was that possible? Jasmin started coughing. Tess raised her up into more of a sitting position. ‘We need to get water on the injured areas of her face. Can you get me a cup or a bottle?’

  ‘Yep.’

  ‘James!’ she called as Libby raced off. ‘Activate one of the PLBs!’

  ‘On it!’ he said.

  Riley appeared. ‘Chris and Alex are mopping up the last of the embers, but it’s basically all out.’ Then, ‘Hey, Jas. Feeling a bit better?’

  Jasmin didn’t answer. She was shivering and shaking and her breathing was raspy.

  ‘Is she going to be okay?’ Riley whispered urgently.

  ‘Of course she is,’ Tess said with a look that told Riley to shut up. Jasmin might have passed out from the pain, or she might be hearing everything they said.

  Libby reappeared with a water bottle. Tess took it and started pouring the cold water gently over Jasmin’s burns.

  ‘Tess, I am seriously so sorry,’ James said, ‘but where are the PLBs?’

  A sick feeling washed over her. ‘You all have them in your packs. You were all given one. They’re there. Check again.’

  ‘I couldn’t find ours and we’d been through your stuff for your sat phone, so I know yours isn’t where it’s supposed to be.’

  ‘That’s impossible,’ she snapped in disbelief.

  ‘I’ll get ours,’ Riley said. ‘I know where I left it.’

  ‘It’s not there either,’ Jai said. Then, to Tess, ‘Fire’s out.’

  ‘I can’t understand how it was still alight,’ Riley said. ‘We saw her put it out.’

  ‘Obviously not well enough. An ember must have blown onto the tent.’

  ‘After all that time?’ Riley asked. ‘It’s almost six in the morning.’

  ‘I don’t know, Riley. Right now it doesn’t matter.’ Tess heard the strain in her voice, but she couldn’t help it.

  ‘Tess, what can I do?’ Libby asked.

  ‘How’s your first aid knowledge?’ Tess asked as quietly as she could. ‘Because I know burns are supposed to be cooled where possible in running water. She has so many the only viable way to do that is to lie her in the water. It’s probably colder than it should be but what can I do? But I also know when a patient is in shock you should keep them warm with their legs elevated. Right now, she’s freezing cold with her legs down in the water and her head up because she can’t seem to breathe lying down. I’m winging it here, because what we should be doing is getting her airlifted out as quickly as possible to a hospital and no one can find any of the devices we brought with us for just such an emergency.’

  Libby put a hand on her shoulder. It felt warm enough for Tess to realise how cold she was. ‘You’re doing great. You’re doing everything you can. What does your gut tell you?’

  ‘I think it’s too cold. I think the shock might be more dangerous at this point than the burns.’

  ‘Okay. So we pull her out, and then what?’

  ‘Dress the wounds, keep them clean. Monitor her vitals. She can have my tent. We’ll set her up in there.’ She was starting to wonder whether all the shaking was coming from Jasmin. ‘Okay, I want to get her out of here.’

  They got Jasmin to Tess’s tent. Tess had expected the crying to start up again but got no more than weak whimpers. Those were much, much scarier.

  Jai changed into dry clothes and sat by the side of his tent making hot chocolates. Alex and Chris were with him; for once both were quiet and solemn. Libby and James were sipping tea and talking in hushed voices he couldn’t quite catch. There was another heart-wrenching wail from Jas. Tess was with her. He wanted to help, but he wasn’t sure how.

  Riley came out of the tent. When she sat, he pressed a cup into her hand. ‘Here, drink this.’

  ‘Thanks.’ She took it and swiped at her tear-stained face with her free hand, her eyes moving straight to Tess’s tent when Tess emerged, face tortured. ‘How is she?’

  ‘I’m doing everything I can. She wants me to let her try and sleep.’

  ‘Tess,’ James said after a moment. ‘If this was an accident, how come our sat phone and PLBs are missing?’

  ‘I don’t know how they could all have gone missing,’ Tess said. ‘Even if I was able to convince myself that we’d somehow not packed them—which is ridiculous—I know I had my sat phone. I can’t understand it.’

  ‘I’m wondering just how well these guys know Brock,’ James said.

  Jai shifted uncomfortably. ‘Brock’s a mate,’ he said.

  ‘Is he a vindictive one?’ James shot back.

  ‘Wait,’ Alex said. ‘You’re saying you think Brock did this?’

  ‘He couldn’t have,’ Tess said. ‘He was already on the other side of the lagoon when I used the sat phone to call Indy.’

  ‘Was he?’ Libby asked. ‘The third boat wasn’t tied to the shore. For all we know he came back and set it loose to drift across the lagoon.’

  Riley snuggled closer so Jai put an arm around her. ‘Brock wouldn’t do that!’ she said. ‘It’s more likely an animal raided our bags or something.’

  ‘An animal gets into our bags, leaves the food and goes for the PLBs and the sat phone? Are you joking?’ James scoffed. ‘How well do we ever really know anyone? Any one of us could be a murderer.’

  Jai flinched, looked away. ‘Not Brock.’ He thought about Pax, about the complete lack of emotion he’d shown when he’d been about to rape and murder that woman on the boat. About how excited and hyped up he’d been afterwards.

  ‘Oh, trust me,’ James s
aid, ‘we’ve seen it all before. Friends, brothers, sisters, spouses testifying they can’t believe this person or that person could do something terrible. But it happens. In our line of work it happens every day.’

  ‘Then it could have been any of us,’ Chris argued.

  James shook his head. ‘The only chance anyone would have had to take our stuff was while we were down at the beach. No single one of us has been up here alone, none of us sitting here have had a chance to do this.’

  ‘There’s something else,’ Libby said. ‘You can’t really believe it’s a coincidence that the other night Jasmin said her worst fear was burning to death and now this. She said that right in front of him, right after she’d pissed him off.’

  ‘This is ridiculous,’ Riley said, but her tone was less than convinced.

  Besides, they were right. This wasn’t an accident and someone other than the people sitting around their fuel stoves had to be responsible. Someone who most likely had heard that conversation. Why wouldn’t they suspect Brock? Again, Pax’s face seared into the front of Jai’s mind. Even if Pax did figure out Jai had handed over a different ring, he wasn’t going to have followed them all the way out here over one piece of jewellery. Not when he knew he could just pounce on Jai when he got back. Besides, Pax would have gone after him, not Jasmin. No. This was something else, he reassured himself. This was not about a ring. What happened to Jas was not his fault.

  ‘I don’t know what’s going on,’ Tess eventually said. ‘But I’m leaving you guys here and heading for help.’

  ‘What?’ James said.

  ‘No! You can’t leave us!’ Riley begged, straightening.

  ‘You can’t get back across the lagoon,’ Libby said. ‘Even if you do and you make it back to Cockle Creek, you’ve got no phone. How will you contact anyone to come and get you? Unless maybe you catch up to that older couple.’

  ‘I’m not going to Cockle Creek,’ Tess said. ‘I’m going to Melaleuca. It’s closer and I can halve the time it takes to get there if I go alone. I could be lucky and meet other hikers walking back, or flag down a plane load of day tourists on the airstrip. When the weather’s clear there’s flights going in and out all the time. There’s a good chance a plane will get there before ours is due for one reason or another. Worst-case scenario: I meet ours. It’ll still save days waiting here for a rescue no one knows we need. You’ll just need to ration your food a bit in case Mother Nature doesn’t cooperate, and try and keep Jasmin’s bandages clean and dry.’

  ‘But—and I still don’t believe Brock did this—what if whoever did it comes back?’ Riley said.

  ‘We don’t know what’s happened,’ Jai said. ‘But if we stay together, we’ll be fine.’

  ‘Yeah, but Tess won’t,’ James said, looking up from the map he’d pulled from his pack. ‘There’s no way I’m letting you go alone, Tess. Apart from anything else, it’s irresponsible. If something happens to you, we’re all screwed. We wouldn’t even know. Libby and I have already discussed this. We’ll go ahead together. It’s three days and, looking at the map, I believe we can do it in two.’

  Tess seemed to consider that, but she didn’t look altogether happy.

  ‘James is right, Tess,’ Jai said. ‘No one should go alone and we need you to help us take care of Jas.’

  ‘Okay,’ she said after another hesitation. Then to Libby and James, ‘Let’s get you packed up. The sooner you get going the better.’

  As the couple got ready, the sun slowly emerged, shining streamers of bright light through coloured cloud. It was finally a perfect morning, Jai thought absently. Except it wasn’t.

  ‘Anything we need to know about?’ James asked Tess.

  ‘A couple of k’s or so from here you’ll hit some steep terrain. At the bottom there’s an old track. It’s closed. You have to cross the creek to pick up the proper one. Be careful when you come to crossing the Louisa River. There’s a rope but it can still be dangerous. Keep an eye on the depth and flow. Other than that, it’s pretty straightforward. Just don’t take any unnecessary chances.’

  ‘We can do it,’ Libby promised, lifting her pack onto her shoulders. ‘Be safe.’

  ‘You too.’

  Jai watched them go, then scanned the trees. Was someone out there, watching, waiting? With a shiver of apprehension, he turned back to camp.

  CHAPTER

  37

  ‘I missed the call, but they’re fine,’ Indy told Jared. ‘Tess sounded pissed off that the kid had high-tailed it off with the other hikers but there was no indication she was worried about anything else. I did try and call her back but couldn’t get her. I’d say she’s only turning the phone on when needed to conserve battery power.’

  ‘Makes sense.’

  ‘Everyone’s here,’ she said and pushed through the door to the meeting room. ‘Morning. We’ve talked to Finlay. Several weeks ago he received a letter from Cochrane, which we now have in our possession, telling him to give Orvist a job to help him fit in to the area while he prepared for what was supposed to be a simple robbery. Also, that he was to break down the jewellery Orvist brought back and in return Cochrane would leave Finlay and his daughter alone for good.’

  ‘So where does Wharton fit in?’ Roberts asked.

  ‘Orvist took advantage of Wharton’s desperation for cash to drag him into the theft and murders.’

  ‘But Wharton delivered the wrong ring to Cochrane’s men,’ Emily said. ‘Are we sure he didn’t collude with Finlay on this? Does one of them still have it?’

  ‘Finlay claims he knows nothing about it,’ Indy said. ‘We need to speak to Wharton, who is currently out on the South Coast Track with Finlay’s daughter, four of his friends, Tess Atherton, and a couple from Sandy Bay.’

  ‘How long until they finish their trek?’ Roberts asked.

  ‘Unless we hear from them to say they’ve been held up, a plane is due to pick them up from Melaleuca in three days.’

  ‘Is going in after them an option?’ Emily asked.

  ‘That option would involve knowing their exact location and getting police to them without alerting Wharton of our presence. We believe he’s just a desperate kid who’s got himself in over his head but that doesn’t mean he’s not a threat. If we start something out there, there’s a high risk of the situation becoming dangerous.’

  ‘So we don’t panic him,’ Roberts said. ‘Let him continue to think he’s safe, then pick him up at the plane where we can have a good police presence waiting.’

  Indy looked questioningly at Jared.

  ‘Makes sense,’ he said.

  Indy nodded. ‘That’s settled then. In the meantime, Finlay will remain in hospital under police guard.’

  ‘We never completed that search of Wharton’s property. Is it worth going back in?’ Emily asked.

  ‘I’ll get it sorted,’ Jared said.

  ‘Great,’ Indy said. ‘How are we going with Orvist?’

  ‘Nothing,’ Parker complained. ‘It’s like he’s just vanished.’

  ‘No one just vanishes. He’s very much alive and well somewhere.’

  ‘Do you think he’s managed to get back to Melbourne?’

  ‘It’s possible, I suppose. No matter how much we monitor everything, there’s always a chance he’s gotten through.’

  ‘He was staying at Mrs Ted’s place.’

  ‘Yeah, and?’

  ‘He was doing those break-ins before she was murdered. She was still alive when I dropped in on Finlay after the break-ins had started. So where was he staying before that?’

  ‘I think that might be a question for Finlay,’ Indy said, eyes lighting up. ‘You want to go ask him?’

  CHAPTER

  38

  Tess woke up to the sound of strong wind and light rain on the tent. She had vague memories of it being more akin to torrential through the night. Why hadn’t Riley or Jai woken her? Alex had volunteered to share Chris’s tent so she could have his, and they’d all organised to take turns w
atching Jasmin.

  She opened the tent and bullets of rain hit her with force. Outside was chaos. The ground was soaked. Strong wind gusts had blown branches and leaf litter over everything that had burnt the night before. The slim coastal trees surrounding the camp swayed, bending alarmingly when another ferocious blast of wind battered them, the sound a whistling moan. Over that, a loud snapping sound caught her attention. She looked across to Alex and Chris’s tent. The fly sheet was flapping madly in the wind, torn from its rope. But for all the commotion, the wind was taking with it the remnants of last night’s storm, and blue sky was chasing away cloud.

  Jai was huddled in his jacket and bent over his fuel stove, trying to boil water. ‘Morning.’

  ‘Morning. You didn’t wake me.’

  ‘We decided to let you sleep.’

  Another crack of the fly had her shaking her head. ‘How are those guys sleeping through that?’

  ‘No idea. I’m a bit peeved they crashed before I came out again to take over with Jas though.’

  ‘They what?’ she asked, instantly annoyed. ‘Damn it. How was she last time you looked in?’

  ‘She’s sleeping. I think the painkillers are helping. She was talking quite normally for a bit last night.’

  Tess found that hard to believe. If infection wasn’t setting in it would be a miracle. ‘I’ll look in on her now.’

  She dragged her arms into her coat and stepped out into the Antarctic blast. She blew into her hands as she went to Jasmin’s tent and unzipped it before ducking in quietly. Jasmin’s eyes were closed in sleep, but she was trembling, wheezing. A pained expression crossed her face with every involuntary movement.

  ‘Jas?’ Tess whispered. She gently touched the undamaged side of Jasmin’s face, felt a clamminess that was somehow hot and cold at the same time. Sitting back on her heels, Tess chewed her lip, wondered what else she could do for her. She could only hope help wasn’t far away. Deciding not to wake her, she crept out again and checked that, unlike Chris and Alex’s, the tent was still secure. Thinking of the two, her temper resurfaced. She went to their tent.