Chapter 35
On Monday afternoon, while Nel was taking Mary Thompson’s blood pressure, her phone flashed with a message from Jimmy. She stole a quick glance.
Been through the case file. I’m knocking off at six, meet for a drink at the Grand?
She felt a flutter of curiosity and wound up the appointment before Mary could launch into another story about her grandson.
See you then, she messaged back.
The intercom buzzed. ‘Carolyn Austin’s here with Finn,’ Viv said. ‘Can I send them through?’
A couple of hours later, Nel mumbled an apology for her rushed departure and walked up the road to the Grand.
Jimmy wasn’t there yet, so she ordered a beer and went to the same table by the window.
There was no sign of Ryan among the early evening crowd.
She took out her phone to check her emails while she waited.
‘Good evening, young lady.’ She looked up to see the red face of Roy Warner, with a younger man by his side holding a card machine. ‘Can I interest you in a ticket in the meat raffle? All proceeds go to the Carrinya Surf Life Saving Club. One ticket for three dollars or four for ten.’
‘Oh ah …’ She reached for her bag. ‘I’ll take four.’
‘Name?’ Roy asked, pen poised over the first ticket.
A pause. ‘Nel Foley.’
His face shifted subtly as he registered the name. ‘Nel …’ He squinted at her. ‘I didn’t recognise you.’ He cleared his throat and spoke in a more serious tone. ‘I’m very sorry about your dad’s passing.’
‘Thank you,’ she said.
‘Just doesn’t seem right.’ He shook his head. ‘He was a good man, your father.’
He sighed sadly and turned his attention back to the tickets as the young guy held out the machine. She tapped her card.
‘Best of luck, love,’ Roy said, passing her the ticket stubs.
As he moved to the next table and gave his spiel again, Nel pictured him with his clipboard and megaphone down at the surf club, in those three days when Maddie was missing.
How much did he know about what happened to Maddie, she wondered?
If Maddie did tell Ryan she was pregnant the day before she disappeared, did Ryan tell his father?
‘Sorry, crazy afternoon,’ Jimmy said, pulling her out of her thoughts. He put his beer down on the table, gave her a kiss and pulled off his duffel coat. When he sat down, he clinked his glass against hers.
‘So, you got the file?’ she said.
‘Yep. There’s a fair bit in there, so it’ll take me a few days to go through it all, but there’s one thing that’s not in there that definitely should be.’
‘What?’
‘The autopsy report.’
‘You’re kidding.’
He shook his head. ‘I’ve put in a request for the digital file, but it’s not related to an active investigation so it could take months.’ He took a sip of his beer and shook his head. ‘There would have been a hard copy of the report though, so it’s weird that it’s not there.’
‘What are you thinking?’
He tilted his head to one side. ‘Not sure. It could just be poor file management.’
‘What, like … it just got lost?’
‘It’s possible.’
‘Seriously?’
He nodded. ‘Or it could be deliberate.’
‘You mean someone might have made it disappear? Like … a corrupt cop, you mean? Or have I been listening to too many true-crime podcasts?’
He laughed and his face lightened, giving her a glimpse of the boy she remembered from school. ‘I don’t know, it’s definitely …’ He paused, searching for the right word. ‘Curious.’
She sighed. She’d been so sure the file would hold some answers.
‘I was worried this might happen,’ Jimmy said. ‘Sometimes the truth is buried so deep it barely exists anymore.’
*
How to request an autopsy report, Nel typed as she sat cross-legged on her bed. If coronial documents were subject to the Freedom of Information Act, she might be able to submit a request directly. She had no idea how it worked, but she figured there was no harm in trying.
The top search result took her to a NSW Health page, which listed frequently asked questions about non-coronial post-mortems. Not what she was looking for.
She went back to the search results and clicked a link to a Coroners Court page.
The title read, Accessing Coronial Documents. This looked more promising.
But as she scanned the page, hope faded with each new piece of information. She wasn’t next of kin, or conducting research approved by an ethics committee, or a member of the police force.
She stopped at a subheading that read, How long will it take to receive the documents?
and skimmed the text. Even if she could convince the court to rule that she had ‘an appropriate interest’ in the case—whatever that meant—it would take up to twelve months to receive archived records. Twelve months! It felt like a dead end.
She slumped back on the pillows and stared at the looping ribbon on the ceiling.
What was she doing? She wasn’t a detective.
She was a doctor. And an idiot, it seemed, to think she could find out the truth.
Maybe the truth didn’t even exist anymore, like Jimmy said.
Maybe it had been erased from existence, like the autopsy report, leaving just gaps in the story.
He’d warned her about this. He’d said it would probably lead nowhere.
She didn’t believe him at the time, but maybe he was right.
She closed her eyes and thought of Maddie. ‘What happened to you?’ she whispered to the face in her mind. She waited for an answer, a sign of some sort, but there was nothing. She snorted out loud. What was she expecting?
The image of Maddie was replaced by Ryan’s smirking face, her skin prickling as his menacing words played back in her mind.
He was dangerous—she was more convinced of that than ever—but what could she do about it?
So far, all she’d done was put Sophie and her kids in more danger.
Not to mention Poppy. She’d never forgive herself if anything happened to her.
No. There was no point to any of this. She hated to admit it, but Lauren was right. It would only cause pain. And for what? It was time to drop it. She’d keep her head down—focus on working at the clinic and spending time with the family—until she could pack up and head back out of town.