“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 bulldust. 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 outside. 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. “Sorry to abandon you in there. You’d think I could stomach that stuff by now.”

“I’m glad you had sense enough to walk out,” Marissa said. “I’m sorry to have put you through it. But we found Tristan Williams.”

“Eureka!” Wendy said. “Is he close?”

“Everything is relative,” Marissa said. “He’s not in Perth, but he’s someplace out in the Australian outback. Apparently he’s abandoned pathology, or pathology has abandoned him. He’s working as a GP flying around to isolated locations like cattle ranches.”

“Sounds like a romantic do-gooder job for someone who falsified data for a journal article.”

Marissa nodded. “His home base is a town called Charleville, which is about four hundred miles from here. But he’s away for weeks at a time. I think it would be pretty tough to track him down. What do you think?”

“Sounds like a lot of effort for a questionable payoff. But let’s think about it. Meanwhile, we deserve a break from all this effort. Let’s go diving. After that maybe we’ll have more enthusiasm.”

“Okay,” Marissa said, getting to her feet. “You’ve been patient. Let’s go see how great this Barrier Reef really is!”