Nightchild

Chapter 68

It had been easier than Bellows would have thought to follow Blythe's trail from Paris where she booked a flight to Australia. She was still using Blythe MacLarren and Destiny Stevens, a good indication she hadn't yet decided to use her identity of Night or take on an even newer one. His guess was she wanted her daughter to know who she was, maybe she even wanted to be found.

Once in Australia, however, the trail came to an abrupt end and Jack was more positive than ever that Blythe intended on starting her life over here. Wherever she'd traveled, she'd used currency instead of credit cards or traveler checks and it appeared that Mariah, the woman who'd babysat Destiny Stevens in Zurich, had been correct in assuming Blythe had drawn a large sum of money from her account there.

Jack had called to notify Nate Stevens he'd traced his ex-wife to Australia and was there now but his client had sounded disgruntled that there was nothing else to go on. Jack was disgruntled too as he endlessly checked all the various modes of transportation within or leaving Melbourne only to come up with nothing. His fear began to increase that Blythe had changed names again, at least temporarily and he prayed the change was to Ann and Amber Night. If not, it would be impossible to find them in the vast wilderness that was Australia.

Twice, he called Connie to see if she'd heard from her friend or could remember anything about their conversation concerning Australia that might be of help...where she lived, some person she might have inadvertently mentioned, anything. It was during the second call that she remembered Blythe talking about how much she liked the outback. She'd commented there was even a place called Darling of all things. The reason it had stuck out to her was because Nate always used the endearment darlin' and it reminded her of him.

"Fine and good, fine and good," Bellows had said, gazing at his map. "But there are two Darlings, one a river, the other mountain ranges on the other side of the continent. Do you have any idea which she was speaking of."

"Well, I don't know," Connie bubbled. "It seems like she mentioned a mountain, but no...wait, let me see. Yes, it was a mountain. I'm positive she spoke of a mountain."

Discouraged, Jack gazed down at the map again. "But the blasted Darling Mountains are over by Perth. That means she could be anywhere in between." Suddenly his eyes became fixed on a dot less than a hundred miles from Darling River according to the legend. "Ha, Broken Hill! Was it a hill instead of a mountain? Was it Broken Hill?"

"Well, I'm not sure. I guess it could have been."

"Don't guess, woman. Was it Broken Hill or not?"

There was silence then she said, "Just a minute." Jack heard the receiver clank down and talking in the background then she was back on the line. "Trevor said, yes, that was it. Blythe was helping him study geography. They were on Australia and she pointed it out to him. He says he's positive. But he knows that wasn't where she'd lived. It was somewhere outside of there."

"Did he know where?"

"No, she never told him."

"Thank you, Connie, and thank Trevor."

Renting a car, Jack headed for Broken Hill, making his plans during the long tedious drive. Though he knew Blythe liked the outback, he also knew she was a doting mother and wasn't likely to take her child too far from civilization or medical help should they need it. Broken Hill was a good size city and the logical place to start would be the outlying towns Trevor had mentioned. But which ones? That was the question. He'd have to check all of them, all the way to Darling River if that's what it took, and there were many of them, oftentimes nameless.

The search only took three days before the grocery owner in the tiny town of Brindle recognized the photograph. He knew little about the mother and daughter other than their names were Ann and Amber Night, that she drove a pale blue Jeep, had leased the old Willoughby estate on the outskirts of town and had a girl come from a neighboring town occasionally to help. Sometimes the girl would bring her little niece to play with Ms. Night's daughter. The grocer knew all this because the girl had come in several times to get supplies for her reclusive employer.