Outback Mystery - Part 8

Five News Perth

If you are new to this re-creation of Ray and Jennie’s Outback Mystery, or have missed a part, you can catch up on the story so far here: Outback Mystery - The complete story, so far...

Or if that is too long to commit to right now, start on this one. Hey, it’s a free world, that decision is entirely up to you.

Please note: The narrative and dialogue should be considered Creative Nonfiction at best, some characters are consolidated, and names are changed to protect the innocent and guilty; however, the overall timeline and locations of events are based on undisputed witness statements and submitted evidence.

Further note: This one is highly fictitious. Maybe.

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Five News Perth

Dwayne made a grandiose entrance to the morning media briefing; his Personal Assistant, Emma, quickstepping behind him punching the day’s calendar schedule into a notebook as Dwayne rattled off his intended invites. “… and get Baz’s secretary on the phone straight away, I need to discuss the homeless situation with him. Pencil him in for eleven. There was a pile of goddamn food wrappers left outside my driveway last night, I nearly had to engage four-wheel-drive in the Range Rover just to get out of Mount Lawley this morning!”

“Baz…Baz…Baz?” Emma murmured attempting to recall the name.

“Baz Zempo, Emma! You know, the Mayor!” Emma still looked confused. “The nose, Emma. The nose!”

“Ohhh, yes, sorry Dwayne.”

Dwayne sat at the head of the table surrounded by Perth Channel 5’s brightest stars in journalism. “And keep my afternoon free, I’m taking the kids to Eagle Bay for the weekend.” Emma made a note then retreated out of the boardroom, closing the silvered-glass doors behind her. Dwayne swept the room with a penetrating gaze, met by several sets of rapacious eyes. He lifted his hands, palms upright like an orchestral conductor, “What have you got?”

Three journalists barked at once until the loudest voice drowned out the clamour. “Horror smash on the Mitchell Freeway this morning. Traffic banked up all the way to Beldon!”

“Horror smash?” Dwayne’s stare was piercing. “Horror! Smash! Haven’t we used our quota of ‘Horror’ this quarter already?” Dwayne lifted his iPhone to his ear and called his PA, “Emma, order a dozen thesauruses for the office. . . .it’s a book, Emma, just . . .google it, Emma. Thesaurus.” He returned presence to the room, “And where the hell is Beldon?”

“Near Joondalup, sir,” a small voice from the dark corner squeaked.

“Well why not say ‘Joondalup’ then?” boomed Dwayne.

“I was trying to make it more personable, Dwayne,” the loudest voice answered.

“Personable? Personable? What… who the hell even are you?” Dwayne turned to the opposite side of the table. “Is this person a graduate, or what?” The table erupted in canned laughter. “What else have you got? Any shark attacks? Please tell me there’s been a shark attack.”

The table sighed. “No…nope…unfortunately not.”

Dwayne was furious. “Why can’t I get a goddamn shark attack when I need one!” he yelled.

Emma poked her head into the boardroom, “Sorry Dwayne, did I forget to order something?”

“No Emma, unfortunately we cannot order shark attacks. Yet.” Canned laughter re-swelled as Emma closed the doors once more. “What’s Ben Cousins been up to lately? Surely there’s a Bennie story? Footy season has kicked off already,” Dwayne turned to channel 5’s chief sportscaster, “Why haven’t you got me a Bennie story?”

“We ran one last month, Dwayne, remember? He did the biathlon bolt again after being caught on the Campbell Barracks.”

“Bloody hell!” Dwayne exploded. “We’re going into the Easter long weekend, and you lot can’t bring me anything other than a ‘horror’ smash in Belmont!”

“Beldon, sir,” the small voice trembled. Dwayne faced the dark corner sharply, his bottom lip jutted out.

Becky had waited for the right moment, this moment. Three years into her graduate program, Becky had studied the room well. She had spent the entire night researching and calling on old friends for information. This was her time to shine.

“The Outback Mystery, Dwayne,” Becky announced almost too casually.

Dwayne switched his gaze toward her. Becky was intelligent, charismatic, and ostentatious; Dwayne recalled hiring her for just that perfect resume. “Outback … Mystery?” he asked.

Becky knew she had the scoop. “You would have seen it on the headlines already, the couple who are missing in the outback.”

“The Beverley Hillbillies,” said the loud voice, waiting for a dose of canned laughter which never eventuated.

Becky ignored the attempt, knowing she would soon have that person’s job. “The police requested a media spotlight when they first went missing, just their faces out there for potential sightings . . .but it gets better. I spoke to my informant inside the search crew last night.” Becky nailed her rehearsed line, my informant, pride inflating inside as she recalled calling on an old schoolmate who joined the police force and found himself stationed in Geraldton.

Dwayne’s shoulders squared up toward Becky. “Go on.”

“I have it on good authority that the couple are already deceased and will be found within a day or two.” Becky dropped the hook and let it linger with a dramatic pause.

“Any children?” asked Dwayne.

“They’ve got children. Adult children. Not with them, though.”

“I’m confused then. What are you proposing?”

“Sir . . .Dwayne, I’m proposing to be there, on the ground, when they find them. We can get another team,” Becky waved a hand nonchalantly toward the loud and quiet voices, “to interview their families before and after the event.”

Dwayne rocked back in his chair. “Let me get this straight… the police are searching for a missing couple, who they believe are already deceased, and you want to be there when they find them, and have their families interviewed before these loved ones are found — in a midst of panic — then afterward, when they are grieving?”

“Yes.”

“This is brilliant journalism. Well done,” Dwayne displayed a hand toward Becky, turning to the rest of the room, “You could all take a leaf out of Becky’s book.”

Becky’s cheekbones flushed, yet remained composed to ensure victory. “All I need is a camera crew, a four wheel drive, a satellite dish, and your credit card.”

“How long will you be away for?”

“A day. The long weekend. Not sure. It’s the Outback, time works differently out there. Apparently. I’ll stay until they’re found.”

“And what will be the story angle? You can’t just announce that they’re dead from the outset.”

“Of course not,” Becky felt almost insulted. “The title is already set: The Outback Mystery. A middle-aged, happily married couple go missing in the Outback.”

“Well done, Becky. Well done.” The room began clapping. “Here, take my platinum amex.”

That afternoon, after an eight-hour drive, Becky and her camera crew found themselves in the tiny Goldfields town of Sandstone. The local population had quadrupled in size in just twenty-four hours, as fresh search crews arrived. Becky grimaced as she spotted other media vehicles also arriving. Yet, she was brazen with confidence; their crews of middle-aged men didn’t stand a chance against her.

Within an hour of arriving, Becky had secured the first of many Outback Mystery “exclusives” for 5 News, interviewing one of the LandSAR Forward Command officers, and an SES volunteer. The camera crew setup and filmed the interviews in the afternoon, then Becky presented the story Live on Five outside the Sandstone Pub, with rustic machinery in the outdoor museum behind her.

“It's a race against time tonight to find a missing couple who disappeared in the outback two weeks ago. There are growing fears for Jennie and Raymond Kehlet. And police are reaching the point where they might have to scale the search down. They've located an abandoned campsite and vehicles but there's no further trace.” said Becky, live to the camera before the story moved to visions of the search area from that afternoon, with her voice narrating over. “Seven hundred square kilometres of remote harsh terrain in the WA outback. This is the search site for rescue crews desperately trying to find Jennie and Raymond Kehlet.”

Vision moved to the afternoon interview with the LandSAR Command police officer. “Everyone involved is finding it very frustrating . . . the amount of assets we’ve put into this, you'd expect us to find something . . . and we haven't,” said the officer, visibly frustrated.

Becky’s narration continued as scenes of helicopter searches played out on screen, “The couple aged in their late forties are from Beverley. They were last seen two weeks ago by a friend at their campsite in Tabletop, just south of Sandstone, about 730 kilometres northeast of Perth. Police say the prospectors were new to the game, but they're extremely experienced campers. With them, they'd taken a metal detector, GPS, and water. Concerns were raised on Monday when their dog was found walking through town alone.”

The channel 5 news scoop switched to Becky’s earlier interview with an SES volunteer, who was dressed in orange overalls and an Akubra hat, framed by an outback vista. “It's nice when you actually go out and do a search and find something on the person. But when you don't get anything at all, it's just like really disheartening. . . . Yeah, we put our all into it to try and find them or any indication of where they've been. But yeah, it's pretty upsetting.”

The camera crew had taken some shots of the treacherous, abandoned mine shafts. Becky walked along an outback track as she spoke dramatically, “The biggest concern for rescue crews so far have been these abandoned mine shafts; they're worried the couple may have fallen down one and become stuck. Now, cliff rescue crews from both Perth and Kalbarri have so far checked through thirty-eight mine shafts, but they've found nothing.”

Live on Five cut back to the interview with police. The man in blue spoke more matter of fact, yet holding back on the known TFFS results, “We're unsure if there's probably a week’ timeframe where they could have gone missing. But we've been here for five days now. So we have very grave concerns for their welfare.”

Becky closed out her exclusive scoop. “Police are desperate to hear from anyone with information that could help. A decision on whether the search will be scaled back will be made tomorrow. In Sandstone, Becky Jones, Five News.”

Becky passed the microphone back to her camera crew and took a deep breath, hands on her hips, head back, elated. Her phone vibrated in her back pocket. Opening the message, a selfie of Dwayne on his Eagle Bay balcony stared back. He was grinning with a big thumbs-up. “Hope they find them tomorrow, so you can join us for Easter down here” the message read. Becky covered her mouth with her spare hand. My first exclusive . . .and an invite douth!

Becky had made it. Although, she knew it wasn’t over until this couple is to be found. “Hope so!” Becky replied to Dwayne.

Nearby, the Sandstone Pub was quickly filling up with every person in town, all potential sources of exclusive news content. This was Becky’s time to shine.