“You’ve found him,” the man said with a smile.
“What can I do for you?”
“We’d like to ask you a few questions,” Marissa called.
“Well, it’s a little hard to converse across the room,” Spenser said.
“Come on in.”
Marissa and Wendy entered and weaved their way among the many shrouded tables. Both women were aware that the plastic sheets were covering corpses. Wendy tried to breathe through her mouth so as not to smell the formalin.
“Welcome to gross anatomy,” Spenser said.
“I’m afraid I don’t get many visitors.”
Wendy recoiled from the sight of what he had been working on. It was the torso of a cadaver, sawed off at the umbilicus. The eyes were half open, the mouth pulled back in a sneer with the tips of yellow teeth barely visible. The skin of the left cheek had been dissected, revealing the course of the facial nerve.
Following Wendy’s line of sight, Spenser said,. “Sorry about Archibald here. He’s been under the weather lately.”
“We’ve just come from the alumni office,” Marissa told him.
“Excuse me,” Wendy said, interrupting her.
“I think I’ll wait outside.” She turned and started for the hall.
“Are you okay?” Marissa called after her.
“I’ll be fine,” Wendy said with a wave.
“Take your time. I’ll be outside.”
Turning back to Spenser, Marissa explained, “Anatomy wasn’t her favorite subject.”
“Sorry about that,” Spenser said.
“When you do this every day, you forget its effect on others.”
“Getting back to what I was saying,” Marissa continued.
“We were over at the alumni office and Mr. Hammersmith gave us your name. We’re doctors from the States. We’re looking for Tristan Williams. Mr. Hammersmith said you might know of him since you two graduated together.”
“Sure, I know Tris,” Spenser said.
“In fact, I spoke to him about six months ago. Why are you looking for him?”
“Just old friends,” Marissa said.
“We happened to be in Brisbane and wanted to say hello, but he’d left the FCA.”
“And not under the best of circumstances,” Spenser said.
“Poor Tris has been going through some hard times, but things seem better now. In fact, I think he’s quite happy where he is.”
“Is he still in the Brisbane area?” Marissa asked.
“Hell, no!” Spenser said.
“He’s out in Never Never.”
“Never Never?” Marissa questioned.
“Is that a town?”
Spenser laughed heartily.
“Not quite,” he said.
“It’s an Aussie expression, like the Back of Bourke or the Back of Beyond. It refers to the outback, the Australian bush. Tris is working as a general practitioner with the Royal Flying Doctor Service out of Charleville.”
“Is that far from here?” Marissa asked.
“Everything is far in Australia,” Spenser said.
“It’s a big country and most of it is like a desert. Charleville is about four hundred miles from Brisbane, out at the edge of the channel country. From there Tris flies out to Betoota Hotel, Windorah, Cunnamulla, godforsaken places like that, to visit isolated cattle stations. As I understand it, he stays out for weeks at a time. It takes a special man for that kind of work. I admire him. I couldn’t do it, not after living around here.”
“is it difficult to get out there?” Marissa. asked.
“It’s not hard to get to Charleville,” Spenser said.
“There’s a bitumen road all the way. You can even fly there. But beyond Charleville, I think the road deteriorates to dirt and bull dust I don’t recommend it for a holiday,” “Thanks for taking the time to talk to me,” Marissa said.
“I appreciate your help.” In truth, she was depressed by his information.
It seemed as if the closer she got to finding out about Tristan Williams, the further he slipped away.
“Happy to be of service,” Spenser said.
“If I were you, I’d forget about the outback and Tris. I’d head down to the Gold Coast and beach it, Aussie-style. You don’t know what desolate means until you’ve seen some areas of the Australian outback.”
After exchanging goodbyes, Marissa left and went back out side. She found Wendy sitting on the front steps of the building.
“You okay?” Marissa asked, sitting down beside her friend.
“Oh, I’m fine now,” Wendy said.