12.

The early evening sun glanced across Lawson's desk. Ned had been and long gone off shift. The Melbourne publisher didn't seem to know Emily's whereabouts. In fact, he was angry as hell with Emily as she had accepted a sizeable advance for her next book which had not been forthcoming. The publisher had been trying to contact for her months but all his letters and telegrams had been returned. He was demanding his money back. Lawson had a delightful few minutes contemplating what Patrick and Susan Tyneman would have to say when they found out they had to give up a large chunk of the funds from the house sale to the publisher.

Alice too had come in and then left in a huff. That woman! She was a ball of contridictions wrapped in an enigma. He didn't know where he stood with her. But she was damn good at her job. She had dropped the i.d. bracelet back, shining and polished and neatly sealed in a speciman bag. She had the nerve to demand he take it Blake and show it to him tonight. Then she had dropped Emily's blood test report on his desk and had said curtly said 'Severe anemia, take these to Lucien. And don't forget to bring him the title deed as well. Good night.' She had turned on her heel left. He wondered what he had done to upset her this time.

He looked up at the big station clock on the wall. It was getting late. He was tired and his leg hurt. He was also getting hungry, he had forgotten lunch again. Charlie wasn't back yet from the Tyneman's and he needed a lift home.

The evening shift had clocked on. Only Bill Hobart was left, engrossed in reading Emily's notebooks.

'Bill' he called out, 'anything yet?'

'No, not really' Bill replied. 'Boss, this lady could write some drivel. But she must have had a good editor as she wrote twice as much as ended up in the books.'

'And you know this how?'

'Well,' hesitated Bill. The boss had to be told no matter how foolish it made him look. ' I might have read some of these once or twice to my Gran.'

'Hmmm' Lawson wasn't that surprised. He had known how fond of his grandmother Bill had been. He would have done anything for that old lady. Once he had lost her Bill had turned ugly and mean for awhile. He seemed to have worked through it now, but Lawson knew that the station was all the family Bill had left. Bill was a good copper, but he needed to be kept on a short leash sometimes. Still, it wouldn't hurt to give him some encourgement. 'Good work today, by the way.'

Bill looked slightly startled. Two compliments in one day? 'Um. Thanks Boss.'

'Yeah, well don't let it go to your head. Come on. Shut up shop. I need a lift home and it looks like you're my driver tonight.'

...

Blake was sitting in the lounge room after dinner drinking a glass of scotch with Lawson. Jean sat close by with her sewing on her lap, a secret smile on her lips. More buttons needed to be replaced after this afternoon.

Charlie had come home not long after Bill had dropped off Lawson. The Tyneman's had agreed to come into the station the following morning. Apparently Susan was not overly upset to hear about Emily's death. But she had been quite alarmed to find out that Emily had been an author writing 'romantic nonesense, how embarrassing!' Charlie had the distinct impression she found that more shocking than if Emily had really been a prostitute. Now he and Rose had disappeared off to the club together for an after dinner drink on their own.

Both men had been quietly discussing the Emily McCaffery case when Lawson reached down into his Gladstone bag that he had left next to the sofa. Pulling out the documents and i.d braclet he handed them to Blake.

'Alice gave me strict instructions to give you all this tonight. And say 'Severe Anemia'.'

'Did she now?' mused Blake. He started to read through the blood report with a thoughtful look on his face. 'Hmmm. It appears that Emily may have had a problem.'

'Isn't anemia quite common after childbirth?' questioned Jean.

'Yes, but this is very severe. And she died several months after childbirth, if the child in the garden is indeed hers. If these tests are correct she would have been very ill and quite possibly in danger of a pulmonary embolism.'

'Heart attack?' asked Lawson

'Possibly. Any infection would have been dangerous to her health and her heart.' Blake shuffled through the papers to the letter and deed.

'There is nothing much in those I could find' said Lawson. 'Looks to be all straightforward. And the handwriting in the letter matches that found in the notebooks.'

Jean reached for the deed papers and scanned them. 'Have you contacted the lawyer? From the firm A. Williams and Solicitors?'

'No, not yet. I'll get Ned onto it tomorrow and try to arrange for this Williams to come in for an interview.'

Blake took the bracelet out of the bag and held it up to the light. The shining silver twinkled in the lamplight. 'Hmm, Alice did a great job cleaning this up'. Lawson snorted. Blake looked at it closely. 'Just 3 initials on the front. "S.J.J.". I presume it is for someone's name.' He turned the bracelet over. He squinted at it carefully.

'Look Jean' he handed the bracelet to her.'On the back is some very small writing, your eyes are better than mine, can your read it?'

Jean turned the bracelet over and looked. 'There is something there but it so small, almost if they didn't want it seen. Maybe I need glasses? No, wait a second...' and she rummaged around in her sewing basket until she found a small hand held magnifying glass. Blake and Lawson stared at her.

'What? It can be difficult to thread a needle sometimes in the evening', she held the bracelet up and looked at the back and smiled.

'Well?' said Lawson. 'Don't keep us in suspense' Jean handed the braclet and magnifying glass to him. Lawson peered at it carefully and read out; 'ALWAYS: E.'

(okay, I am done. Not 'done' done, just done for today. It is almost Blake time on tv so I may not be in a fit state to update this again for a few days... hang in there guys. Wild.)