She placed this tiny object into Vic’s hand. “He has entrusted this to me to give to you. It is yours to use as you see fit. The memory of the man it holds is precious to me so I ask that you use it with great care.”
Vic closed his fingers over it and nodded, “I will; that is my promise to you.”
The Empty Place
Book 3 -Crocodile Sprit Dreaming
Novel by
Graham Wilson
Copyright
The Empty Place
By Graham Wilson
Copyright 2014 Graham Wilson
Dedication
Dedicated to the many visitors to the Outback of Australia
and particularly the Northern Territory.
Those people who come from near and far to enjoy this place and sometimes find in it something which exceeds their imagination
A desert sunset
A huge storm
An expanse of nothingness
Or sometimes
A story of people and place
Which lives on, forever, in their minds
So many stories - such colour - such love of life
Authors Note
This book is set in the Northern Territory of Australia, a place which covers a sixth of the Australian Continent, the top centre part of a map of Australia. It lies in the tropics. Its capital, Darwin, is closer to Indonesia and other Asian centres than the rest of Australia.
Deserts lie to the south, centred around the town of Alice Springs. Large rivers run to the north, with a wealth of wildlife. Most famed is the fearsome Salt Water Crocodile, the world’s largest reptile. Large crocodiles grow longer and are heavier than a car, capable of dragging other large animals, like a bull buffalo, into the water to kill. They stalk from below the water and capture in a silent and deadly ambush. The crocodile is of great totemic importance to the coastal aboriginal tribes. In dreamtime stories it is one of the earliest ancestral beings. The crocodile and its totemic spirit play a central role in this book series. Crocodiles have killed many people across the north of Australia and the author of this book, as a young man, survived his own attack by a large crocodile.
This book is a work of fiction but many of its places and characters have a strong factual basis, based on the author’s personal knowledge from a large part of his life lived here.
A central location in this book is the Fitzmaurice River which flows into the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf, where the Northern Territory coastline meets the Kimberley region of Western Australia. This is a very remote and rugged place. Here peak tides rise and fall by about ten metres. In a running tide it is a white water gorge as the river thunders through its constricted passage. Very few have reason to come to this place, one of the earth’s places empty of human occupation. Even emptier is the place inside a person devoid of hope.
Part 1 - Lost in an Empty Place
Chapter 1 - Anne
Anne was conflicted, really conflicted; it was all so bloody hard and it was driving her crazy. She was out here, in Australia, to support her best friend and try to talk some sense into her; that seemed hopeless, continually hopeless. Susan was buried in a morass of self-absorption. She seemed bent on trashing her own life. And she was doing a good job of making a mess of many other people’s lives as well; David’s, her own parents, not to mention the havoc being played with Anne herself.
But Susan was still her best friend, and yet. And Yet – she, Anne, was slowly and inexorably being drawn towards Susan’s fiancé. It would not have been too bad if it was just her, she could have got on a plane and returned to London, put some distance into it, there was nothing to be done for Susan right now. But the same chemistry seemed to be working on David too. And with two magnets pulling towards each other it had become real hard to keep the pieces apart.
So now, here she was on a plane, early on Christmas morning, flying first class to Sydney with this man, David, sitting next to her. David had drifted off to sleep, seemingly well pleased with having her for company on the flight. They had left Darwin at one o’clock in the morning. Christmas Eve was ended and Christmas Day begun. They would be in Sydney for breakfast on Christmas Day.
Anne could not help but feel excitement at her first visit to this famous city. The circumstances were all wrong, the attraction was all wrong. And yet!
And yet, she could and would enjoy the company of this man. She and he had been thrown together by a collision of circumstances, all of Susan’s making. So now she was on the plane and it was past a time for regret. She would just have to make sure nothing came of it; she was stronger than Susan that way, less impulsive. The idea of getting entangled with her best friend’s fiancé, even if that other relationship was now doomed, must stay out of bounds in her mind; she could not let herself go there. But she was still determined to enjoy the trip and his company, even if just as friends.
But still, as she looked at the beautiful face with its tousled golden hair that slept in the seat next to her, she could not help but feel strong regret that they could have not met at another place and time. She knew it would take just one little move from her to start the ball rolling.
All in all it had been a strange day. First they had gone to have a cup of tea with that old aboriginal man, Charlie. They had a conversation about an evil crocodile spirit and a crocodile stone that Charlie had given Susan yesterday. It had sounded like mumbo jumbo and neither she nor David had really believed it. Susan’s parents had encouraged this meeting; they had located Charlie, somehow, and met with him themselves two days ago. This morning, when she and David met Charlie, he had told them of his visit to Susan yesterday. He told how, after she took that stone in her hand, the bad spirit had gone away and her mind had become clear.
They liked the old man but thought the story would turn out to be nothing. Yet it was the first time in two months that something resembling her old friend had been there in the room with her; Susan’s laugh, smile, and mental clarity had returned. Anne remembered that night in London when Susan had come to her for help. That was the last time, before today, that she felt she knew this person. It was not that Susan had shown any signs of changing her mind today about what to do, that was still just as hopeless. But at least she seemed to know and understand the world around her. She could smile and hold an ordinary conversation.
With this sense of the return of the real Susan she and David had felt real relief. But that also added to the problem. With their anxiety lowered about Susan it was now more important to start dealing with the ongoing attraction between them that came from both physical desire and from spending so much time together.
She had spent eighty percent of her waking hours over the last three weeks, since she had arrived in Darwin, in David’s company. With Susan’s unwillingness to talk to lawyers she and David had become Susan’s de-facto legal team, both determined to try and gain an understanding of what had happened as a first step in marshalling evidence which would give Susan a way out.
She thought back to their first meeting and all the times in between. That first night, a sort of unofficial engagement party for David and Susan in London, both she and David had been a bit wowed by each other. Even though David was totally enraptured by Susan then, something like a primal attraction had flashed between them when they first met.
Anne had dressed to wow the party, and it had worked judging by David’s open mouth when he first saw her red hair, green dress and flashing green-hazel eyes. And she had been equally awestruck by this gorgeous man, even though Susan had already told her he was seriously handsome. That night she had asked Susan if he had a brother she could meet. She was only half joking, the power of the physical attraction was so strong.
Of course she had been really pleased on Susan’s account that she had met such a gorgeous man; but deep down she had been a little jealous as well, not that she would let that come out.
Then Anne remembered that awful phone call she had to make when Susan’s trouble began, after Susan was called i
nto the police station. From that time Susan had known she could no longer marry David; that, despite the hurt that it would cause, she must end it.
But Susan could not bring herself to ring and tell him it was finished, all she could do was run away. So she had asked Anne to be her emissary. Anne, despite strong qualms, had reluctantly agreed to call David and tell him that the engagement was off.
She remembered the shocked silence on the other end of the phone as she bumbled her way through Susan’s message, then anger and denial, followed by a slowly dawning acceptance of it being real as the actuality came out, then David’s refusal to accept from anyone except Susan that the engagement was over.
As the conversation went on and as he began to grasp both the loss and the futility of it all, his grief came down the phone line to her. In that minute she had felt so sorry for both him and Susan. She had said and truly meant it that she wished her message was otherwise.
Anne had promised, and kept her promise, to continue to ring him on a weekly basis, to give him any new news as the legal processes in England unfolded. It had taken great effort on her part to dissuade David from flying to England.
Only by saying that Susan did not want him there, Susan did not want his photos as the jilted fiancé in the English tabloids that Susan had already made up her mind to return to Australia and face the charges, could he be convinced.
As time went on, with these weekly phone calls and seeing him on the television, she gained ever increasing respect for both David’s decency and mental toughness. He refused to get into sordid speculation; he simply kept a consistent line of knowing that Susan was a good person. He also briefed his family to say the same. He had answered all the journalists’ reasonable questions with politeness, but there were times when a line was crossed and she had felt white fire coming from him.
He would allow no one to say offensive things about Susan’s character or about her family to him; he made this very clear and others, even the worst journalists, stepped back.
Then, when Susan was extradited to Darwin and Anne had cleared her work sufficiently to fly there for the committal hearing, David had booked her a business class flight and insisted that he pay. He said that Anne was trying to help his fiancé. Her finding time to act as a friend was more than enough for her to cover. So he had paid for her flight and for her hotel accommodation ever since she arrived.
Anne understood he could well afford it. But, even so, it seemed very decent and kind, both to her and to Susan. It was not that Anne was poor but her family were not as well off as Susan’s were. And, on a legal secretary’s salary, she had little money left over each week after she paid for her little London flat. So, while Anne would have found a way to come anyway, even if she had to borrow the money, David’s help had made her life much easier.
She had been quite apprehensive about meeting him again in Darwin; she was the messenger of the train wreck which had come his way. But, as she came off the plane, he was standing there, waiting for her. From that first minute he had been so polite and gracious, saying how much he appreciated all she had done and tried to do and as well how he really appreciated her honesty.
This had meant a lot to her. It had been very hard for Anne too; the nasty press speculation which enveloped everyone who knew Susan, Susan’s unresponsive state, then Anne needing to juggle time and money to help. It felt good that someone else appreciated her many efforts.
Anne liked Susan’s family, but they had more than enough troubles of their own. They had not seemed to understand the cost of all this to Anne herself, particularly emotionally, whereas David seemed to understand this intuitively.
David had announced, the day after Anne arrived in Darwin that, despite Susan’s lack of response, he was still totally committed both to her and to her gaining her freedom, no matter what happened with their relationship.
David appointed himself as Susan’s unofficial legal representative, and asked Anne to help him in this task. Anne’s work as a legal secretary was of great assistance and the two of them set up an office in his hotel suite living room, along the passage from her own room.
They had worked long days for three weeks since then, gathering any fragments of evidence that they could find from various parties and sources; the pathologist, police, prosecutors, witnesses. Despite them having no official status most people seemed to really want to help. It was as if, despite the continuous horrible speculation about Susan in the papers, there was a general sense that this story did not make sense and there must be more to it. And, so, many people welcomed someone else trying to get to the bottom of what had really happened.
The only person who they had not managed to talk to was the initial investigation officer, Sergeant Alan Richards. They had been told his work on this case was now finished and that since the committal hearing he had been assigned to other work and therefore he would not be able to help with their inquiries. Anne knew his face from the English legal proceedings and they had seen him briefly in court at the first Australian hearing. But despite making numerous phone calls and leaving equally as many messages, they had been unable to talk to him and he had not returned their calls.
She wondered if he was hiding something, perhaps his own discomfort about the way the investigation had turned out. She knew that when he first found the head in the billabong he could never have believed that it would unfold in such an awful way. Susan had told her about their strange friendship on the plane trip and Anne still felt he was searching for the truth, even if he seemed to be avoiding them.
As their investigation proceeded the one thing that Anne had not been able to tell David about was the information that came from Susan on the night that she first sought Anne’s help; two things really; the existence of the diary and the holiday text exchange with Susan. The sum of these was that there must be a good reason for what Susan had done; she had been in fear for her life.
The reason Anne could not tell David about this information was that, regardless of its importance, she must honour her promise to Susan. Susan must have one person in her corner that she could trust. Even though Anne knew David was on her side too, telling him would betray that trust.
In a funny way she understood Susan’s dilemma. Susan had loved this man she was charged with murdering. Now she was carrying his child and she could not, and would not sully his reputation. Therefore Anne could not, at least not in any deliberate way, act contrary to Susan’s intent. Instead she felt she was fighting for Susan with one hand tied behind her back.
So Anne realised it was for others to go there. In her place she must try to think of things that could point that way but without requiring her collaboration. Unfortunately, as they had gathered the evidence Anne had to admit it did look bad for Susan, and Susan was doing zero to help her own cause, she was like a diver caught in a sinking submarine without an escape hatch.
As she and David had worked side by side, with a quiet desperation, trying to find something in Susan’s favour, this other thing had happened, a moving beyond simple physical attraction to something much deeper, an intense liking for each other.
United by a common purpose they started to notice each other. Anne had always been very aware of this attractive man, but had kept that part of her mind closed off; he was still her best friend’s fiancé.
But she would find herself looking forward to his smile of greeting when he first opened the door to her in the morning. And she loved the way that he did little things to improve her life in this place and did them with subconscious charm.
Each morning he would have a breakfast platter of croissants, pastries and orange juice set up on his verandah looking out across Darwin harbour. He insisted that they begin each day with breakfast together and as the weeks went by they started to chat about themselves and other things beyond Susan at these times. He always had lunch brought in when they were not out at meetings. And despite the long days of work, he always insisted they go out to eat a proper meal each night in on
e of the many Darwin restaurants. Sometimes it included Susan’s family, a couple times there were other business acquaintances or legal people and a couple times it was just with her.
As these weeks passed there was clearly something happening between them that they both tried to deny, a deep sense of mutual attraction. Sometimes, when she turned to look at David unexpectedly, she caught his eyes looking at her in a way that seemed more than just friendly, and he had seemed embarrassed and looked away. And she herself was the same. Occasionally she felt an almost deliberate touch as he brushed off her, and it gave her a little thrill.
David also insisted they both take a full day off each Sunday. He had taken her sightseeing locally on these days, once to Berry Springs, first to the zoo and then for a swim at the lovely crystal clear natural pool, again with Susan’s family along, once on a boat trip in the harbour with some business friends.
When she saw David’s bare body in his swimmers the power of his physical attraction really hit her, and she could tell the same was happening in reverse whenever she wore a skimpy top and shorts or bikini that showed off her body. That day at Berry Springs she almost swum up to him without thinking and wrapped her arms around his body, it was something she ached to do but once done there would be no undoing it. It was lucky Susan’s family was there as well that day.
And, a couple times in the morning, she had come into his room and he was still in bed. Each time she had an almost overpowering urge to climb in beside him, and she could feel his sexuality willing her to do this. But from there, there would be no way back, either.
Then, when he arranged for her to come to Sydney with him it felt as if a line had been crossed and they were heading down a path towards something more. It was particularly the way this was a private invitation directed just to her. She knew she should not go there, she did not want to be disloyal to her friend, and yet. And yet there it was, this mutual attraction, and it just kept on working on them both and drawing them together, like a rubber band stretched tighter and tighter until one day it must inevitably break.
Crocodile Spirit Dreaming - Possession - Books 1 - 3 Page 47