"Yeah," Reece agreed, "but there are dozens of those spots all over the country. How do you know which one to go to?"
Sean moved his plate out of the way and picked up the pen lying in the center of the map. "Give me some of the other locations, places where you've taken tourists before where there was rock art."
Reece swallowed a mouthful of food. The question caught him off guard. "Off the top of my head?"
"Yep."
"Oh wow. Um…" He struggled to think. His head still pounded from the hangover. Plus he was hungry. Not a great combination for tapping into his memory banks.
"Just start with the last one you went to," Tommy said.
Reece nodded. "Okay, yeah. I can do this." He picked up a bottle of water sitting next to him and took several big gulps. He let out a satisfied sound and then started pointing out locations on the map.
"Here," he said, tapping on a spot. "Here," he said again. "This one."
Reece went over the entire country of Australia in two minutes and gave them a working list of seven places he knew had rock art. A few were to the far west, beyond the big desert.
"There are more, I'm sure," he said. "But these are the ones I've seen."
"That's a good start," Sean said.
"Yeah, but now what?" Tommy asked. "We've got all these locations and no idea which one to visit next."
"Maybe." Sean slid the phone onto the table and flipped back to the image of the paw then swiped to the lettering. "Do any of these locations have wallabies?"
Rick's interest spiked. He leaned forward and spied the different spots. "I can tell you where there aren't any." He pressed his finger to the map. "These three spots definitely don't have any wallabies."
"You're sure?"
"He's right," Reece said. "You won't find any there."
"Okay, good." Sean drew a big X through each of the three circles. "That leaves us with four. Now think, what do these letters have to do with any of these places?"
The others were stumped. Their eyes went from one circle to the next and back again as they tried to unravel the mystery.
"A place that has wallabies and relates to those letters," Tommy muttered. He knew he wasn't going to be much help with Australian geography. That didn't keep him from trying.
Reece cut through the relative silence that had seeped into the room. "Wait a minute. Show me those letters again."
Sean turned the phone so the screen was facing the big Aussie.
"That's it. That's gotta be it," Reece exclaimed.
"What?" Tommy asked.
"Here." Reece stuck his finger on one of the circles in South Australia. "The Flinders Ranges."
"What makes you think that's the place?" Sean said.
Reece had to collect his thoughts while he fought the headache reverberating through his skull. "J & MC. At first I thought that meant some kind of company. It's not. It's a tribute to John and Mary Chambers. There are lots of places named after the Chambers in South Australia. Chambers Creek, Chambers Valley, and most importantly… Mount Chambers Gorge."
"What's so special about that gorge?"
"Don't you see? There are rock paintings there. Lots of them. Dozens and dozens of circles like we've been seeing."
The others were listening, but still needed more convincing.
"The paw," Reece said, "there's a rare breed of wallaby that lives in the Flinders region." He looked to the ceiling and smacked his hip to coax the answer from his mind.
"The yellow-footed wallaby," Rick said. "Nearly went extinct a long time ago from people hunting them. They've made a comeback. That wallaby is native to the Flinders Ranges."
"Yes!" Reece nearly shouted and pointed at their host. "That's it. Yellow-footed."
"Okay," Sean said. "But what if this is just an ordinary paw? Wallabies are in three other places on this map."
"Right. But the real key is the side we thought had been cut out, the one we believed was a mistake." Reece swiped the screen to see the image in question. "That's no mistake," he said. "It's a topographical map of the Flinders Ranges."
Sean flipped the phone around in his hand and looked at it. Rick stood and looked over his shoulder, moving like a sloth in the trees.
"He's right," Rick said. "Wouldn't have thought it unless you told me, but that's definitely an overhead view of the mountain range."
"Looks like a massive crater," Tommy said as he leaned over Sean's other shoulder.
"That's Wilpena Pound, one of the big attractions to the national park. That has to be the place. Mount Chambers Gorge. We have to go there next."
Sean sucked in a big breath and let it out through his nose. His head rocked back and forth. "Okay. Let's do it."
Ten minutes later, the visitors loaded into Rick's old Land Cruiser and prepared to leave.
The plan was to get back to Reece's place, grab some more supplies, ammunition, and a vehicle, and then head to the mountains. It was a long drive, but Rick didn't seem to mind.
"Not like I'm doing anything anyway," he said as he stuffed a bag in the back of the SUV.
The engine grumbled to life, and a puff of smoke spat out of the tailpipe. Sean lingered near the house for a moment, looking out in the direction of Kings Canyon. Tommy walked over and joined his friend, putting his arm around his shoulders.
He'd debated saying anything, but couldn't help himself. "You gonna be okay?"
"The woman I love is out there, Schultzie," Sean said. "Her body is at the bottom of that river or washed up on the shore. So no, I'm not okay. I have to leave her here because no matter how hard I look, I won't find her. I know that. I have to live for the rest of my life with the image of her dying right in front of me.
"All the skills and abilities I have… I couldn't save her. I have to live with that. Don't give me some speech about how it wasn't my fault, how she chose to come with us. I already know all that. It doesn't make it feel any better. And it doesn't heal the pain. No, I'm not okay. And I won't be. Even after I kill every single person responsible for this, I won't be."
"I know," Tommy said. A tear escaped his left eye and streaked down his face. "I know. Killing the men who did this won't change the past. That said, we're going to kill them all."
Sean gave a solemn nod. "Yeah. We are."
Chapter 30
The corner of Annie's mouth trickled a thin line of crimson down to her chin. A distinct taste — like iron — covered her tongue. During her imprisonment, the men holding her captive hadn't touched her save to throw her in the room when she arrived. Even then it had been a gentle push.
All that had changed.
Desperate men did desperate things. Apparently, that included striking a woman.
It hadn't been a full-on punch to the jaw — just a backhand across the mouth. Her face stung, though. The man's hand who struck her was broad and strong. The knuckles caught her lips at the precisely correct angle.
She did a quick inventory of her teeth with her tongue. They were all intact.
Annie swallowed and stared into the eyes of the man they called Jack. She'd been afraid for the first several days in her cell. As time wore on, her resolve steeled, and anger slowly overtook the fear.
"I already told you," she said, "I don't know anything about those things." Her obstinate tone didn't do her any favors with her captor.
Another backhand struck her cheek this time and opened a narrow cut. Annie winced and clenched her teeth as a fresh surge of pain fired through the nerves in her face. The new gash began seeping blood parallel to the trickle coming from her lips.
"You can hit me all you like," she spat. "That isn't going to jog my memory of something that isn't in there."
Jack stared down at her.
He'd noticed the change in demeanor his prisoner had gone through. In this cocoon, she'd experienced a metamorphosis from a frightened little creature to a defiant older woman who had nothing to lose. But she still has one thing left to lose, Jack thought.