Consider Me Dead — Vickie Britton

A troubled teenager, Jenna Carrington, leaves her father a note to consider me dead before she runs away from home. Five years later the skeletal remains of a female murder victim are found in the river near Sydney, Australia. Archaeologist Ardis Cole traces Jenna's flight to a homeless shelter on the outskirts of the city. Safe Port's manager, Quentin Trebb, seems to know more about the missing girl and some rare black opals stolen from her father's safe than he is willing to reveal. The investigation takes Ardis to Majeri, an Aboriginal settlement in the outback. There, entangled in the dangers of the bush, Ardis finds herself the next target of a vicious killer, stalking her every move, waiting to strike again.