Chapter Twenty-Five
Judith very nearly went home after her conversation with Katy, but guilt nagged at her.
She’d promised Jack Miller that she’d check on his son.
So when she left Katy’s house, just after eight p.m., she didn’t go home but set off instead for the address Jack had given her.
Elsa Anderson’s place was on Ropley Avenue in Balwyn.
It didn’t take Judith long to find it. The house was modern, with a facade of exposed concrete, accented with charred cedar cladding and large, black-framed windows.
The garden had clearly been professionally landscaped, with mostly native plants, carefully chosen and beautifully maintained.
The house was set behind black powder-coated steel gates, but the pedestrian gate had been left open, so Judith let herself in and went to the front door.
She rang the doorbell and waited. There was a camera over her head, which was no surprise.
Houses like this would be loaded with them.
Two minutes passed. Judith pressed the button again, and heard it buzz somewhere deep in the house.
After a moment, she heard the click clack of a pair of heels quickly approaching.
The door was opened by a spectacularly pretty woman who looked to be in her late twenties, though her self-possession suggested that she was probably older.
She had thick, dark hair to her shoulders, chocolate-brown eyes framed by long, dark lashes.
She was tall and willowy and looked like money.
‘Can I help you?’
Judith took out her ID. ‘Elsa Anderson? Detective Judith Lee. Jack Miller asked me to speak to you.’
‘Oh. Right. You’d better come in.’
Elsa led the way through the house. They passed through a hall with soaring ceilings, grey limed floors, and a feature wall that had been clad with more black-scorched cedar.
There was art on the walls—huge paintings subtly lit by hidden fittings.
They passed a grand piano set into an open-plan alcove.
Elsa led the way into a kitchen which had dramatic green marble benchtops, hidden cabinetry and yet more of those black-scorched timber walls.
Colour must be back in fashion. For a while it had seemed like every posh house was the same—bright white kitchens and bleached timber floors.
But maybe the fashion had changed. Nothing stayed the same for long.
Rich people were like magpies. They never met a new, shiny thing they didn’t like.
‘Can I get you a cup of tea?’ Elsa asked. ‘We have herbal, or English Breakfast if you prefer. Or I could make you a coffee?’
‘Coffee would be great, thank you.’
‘Sure.’ Elsa turned to a high-tech coffee machine. It was black with brass fittings and had probably cost more than Elsa’s motorbike. ‘What will you have?’
‘A long black would be great, if that’s possible.’
‘I’ll have the same,’ Elsa said. ‘I probably shouldn’t. I won’t sleep tonight. But I have to work. When we’ve finished talking, that is.’ She pressed some buttons, and the machine started to grind.
‘Incredible house,’ Judith said, when the machine finally quietened.
‘Yes,’ Elsa said. ‘We’re lucky we bought when we did. We wouldn’t be able to afford it today.’ She handed Judith her coffee, then slid over a sugar bowl.
Judith thanked Elsa and added two spoons of sugar. She took a seat at one of the bar stools in the kitchen, and Elsa did the same.
‘I’m sorry,’ Elsa said. ‘I don’t know how this works. First of all, I should tell you that Jack’s son Cameron is upstairs. He’s with my girls, getting ready for bed. We’ll need to keep our voices down.’
‘That’s no problem.’
‘And . . . look, I don’t know what you need from me, but I’m telling you right now that I don’t believe Jack did it. He doesn’t have a violent bone in his body.’
Judith nodded. ‘I understand.’
Now that they were sitting closer, Judith could see that Elsa didn’t look particularly well. She was pale and a little flushed under her perfectly applied make-up.
‘So if you want me to give evidence against him, or something like that, I won’t do it. I’ll be a character witness for the other side.’
Judith nodded again. ‘I’m really not here for that,’ she said. ‘I came because I saw Jack today, and he asked me to check on Cameron.’
‘Oh. Really?’ Elsa raised an eyebrow in surprise.
‘Really. He asked me to double-check that Cameron was here, and to see how he was doing. If it’s possible, I’m sure he’d appreciate a visit.’
‘Of course! My god. Of course I’m going to visit him.
’ Elsa nodded in the direction of the kitchen table, a beautiful, sleek thing that looked like it had been custom made for the house.
There were small stacks of clothes on the table.
Men’s clothes—folded T-shirts and tracksuit bottoms and underpants and socks, all with the labels still on.
‘Andrew—that’s Jack’s lawyer—sent me a list of things that Jack might need, that the remand centre allows you to send in, and I had my assistant .
. . well, she’s really my au pair, but she does a little of everything .
. . pick up everything this afternoon. I had no idea that you could bring clothing to prisoners.
I assumed that they had to wear prison-issued clothing only. ’
‘I suppose it saves money. Having family and friends supply extra bits and pieces.’
‘I suppose. Andrew said that it will take at least a few days for my name to make it onto Jack’s visitors’ list, but as soon as I’m on it, I’ll go and see him. Will you see him before I will?’ Elsa’s brown eyes were troubled.
‘It’s possible,’ Judith said.
‘Will you tell him that Cameron’s doing fine? I think he probably needs to hear that, even though I’m not sure that it’s true.’ Elsa raised her left hand and pressed gently at her temple, as if she had a headache. There was a sheen of sweat on her forehead. Her hand trembled a little.
‘You’re a good friend. How long have you and Jack known each other?’
‘Since school.’
‘Really?’
‘Yes. You seem surprised.’
‘No, it’s just . . . well, to be honest, it’s that Jack doesn’t seem to have any money, whereas you . . .’ Judith waved her hand to indicate their surroundings.
‘Oh, I had no money growing up,’ Elsa said.
‘My dad died when I was five, and my mum was a nurse raising three of us alone. We were fine. I mean, we had a flat and we always had enough food and mum was great. But I didn’t go to private school, if that’s what you’re thinking.
Jack and I went to high school together.
Not all the way through school. His parents dragged him around a bit, you know, but we were together for year eleven and twelve. ’
‘Together, together?’
‘You mean like, boyfriend and girlfriend?’
‘Yes.’
‘No, it was never like that.’ Elsa smiled a little. ‘I love Jack, but he’s not my type.’ She put her head to one side. ‘I don’t think I’m his, either.’
‘Did you stay friends through uni?’
‘Yes. Well. Mostly. We both went to the same uni for a while, but I dropped out eventually. I was modelling, and I had to travel and, well . . . there were other reasons, but that doesn’t matter so much.’
From upstairs, Judith heard a child shouting. Elsa cast a glance in that direction, but the shouting quickly subsided.
‘Celine’s with them,’ Elsa said. ‘Our au pair. She hasn’t been with us long but she’s marvellous. Like a member of the family.’
‘Did you know Jack’s ex, Miriam Hall?’ Judith asked.
Elsa’s eyes widened in surprise. ‘I . . . yes. Of course.’
‘You knew her when she and Jack were together?’
‘I knew her before, and I knew her during. Miriam and I were friends first. I introduced her to him.’ Elsa pressed her hand briefly to her stomach, as if the thought had made her nauseous.
‘Are you okay?’ Judith asked.
‘Yes. Fine. Sorry. I’ve been feeling a little off all day. And you surprised me. Asking about Miriam. It’s all such ancient history.’
‘I understand,’ Judith said. ‘Things must have been rough towards the end.’
Elsa shrugged uncomfortably. ‘It’s possible. I mean, more than that, given how she died. I’m sure she was depressed, but I didn’t see her, those last few months. We’d grown apart by then.’
‘You and Jack? Or you and Miriam?”
‘Both, I suppose. Or, well, it’s not that anything changed between Jack and me really.
It’s more that we didn’t see each other.
He’d dropped out of college. They had a new baby.
I was . . . look, that was the party stage of my life.
I was out a lot. Travelling. Living it up. They were doing the opposite.’
‘Did you see Miriam before she died?’
Elsa swallowed. Again she pressed her hand to her stomach. Her flush seemed to deepen.
‘Do you mean right before?’
‘I mean in the two or three weeks before she died.’ Miriam’s appointment with Walker had been the week before she killed herself.
‘No,’ Elsa said. ‘I hadn’t seen her for I think two months. It might have been longer. That was one of the reasons . . . well, I felt very guilty after she died.’ She stopped talking. She swallowed again, and pressed her left hand to her sternum.
‘Are you okay?’
‘Not really. I’m sorry.’
‘Can I get you something?’
‘Some water, maybe. From the fridge.’
Elsa nodded in the direction of the corner of the kitchen, where a door was slightly ajar.
Judith opened it, and found a second kitchen on the other side.
This one had simple white cabinetry, a sink and a pair of ovens, as well as a large fridge with French doors.
The fridge was covered with magnets and kids’ drawings.
Judith’s hand was on the fridge door when she saw it.
A child’s drawing of a rainbow, a little girl, and what looked like either a squashed horse, or an oversized dog.
The drawing wasn’t what caught her attention.
It was the paper the drawing had been made on.
In the centre of the sheet, under the crayon drawings, there was a single line of elegant calligraphy.