One year later:
Jean laughed as Rosemary toddled halfway down the hall then sat down with a thump.
"Mama!" she wailed.
"Now now," Jean lifted her up and swung her high, making the little girl giggle. "You need a little patience darling daughter," she cuddled her and kissed her, "you are as impatient as your father."
"Huh," Lucien huffed behind her, "I heard that."
"She got halfway this time," Jean laughed, "I think we really need to think about safety gates, don't you?"
"Probably, bottom of the stairs and the surgery?"
"At least," she started back down to the kitchen. "I'm going to start lunch, are you finished doing whatever you were doing?"
"Yes, and I was just going over notes for today's surgery. Mrs Grey is bringing young John over for a check up."
"I know, he's come on well, hasn't he?"
"Marvellously," he agreed, setting up the high chair for Rosemary, "it was kind of you to help, in the early days."
"I was happy to," she took food out of the fridge, "she wasn't quite ready for him when he arrived ..."
"And she didn't trust anyone but you. The new consultant is worth the wait, though. He gives every newborn a chance, takes great care to see that the mother is comfortable and with that nurse who you dealt with as his Maternity Sister things are going well there."
"We've been invited over to his house," she held up a card that had arrived that morning, "they want to meet the local GPs ..."
"They?"
"Him and his wife, and children are welcome," she smiled. "So, Saturday afternoon – a little garden party."
"Now, that sounds like a man I can deal with," he gave Rosemary a wooden spoon to play with while she waited for her lunch to be served.
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Saturday afternoon was sunny and perfect for a garden party. There were children running around, people talking and their hosts were busy getting to know everybody.
"Richard!" someone called over to a young boy chasing a puppy, "leave Casey alone, if you get nipped again ..."
Jean looked over at the boy, a shock of blond curls and a cheeky grin but he left off chasing the dog. The woman who had shouted came over to them, hand extended.
"Jane Charlton," she smiled, "you would be ..." she thought for a moment, "Dr and Mrs Blake, yes?"
"Well done, are you a detective," Lucien shook her hand and laughed.
"Sorry to disappoint you, we have insider knowledge – the Maternity sister ..."
"Ah, right." He smiled, "Lucien, and this is my wife Jean and our daughter, Rosemary."
She tipped her head in thought then nodded, "foundling, not thought to be viable ... think you proved everyone wrong."
"I take it sister has told you all about Ballarat," Jean smiled.
"A lot, mainly about the people we would meet today and some of their stories. It helps."
"Of course, so," Jean looked over to where the boy she now knew was called Richard was sword fighting with sticks with another boy.
"Our son, well one of them, the one he is playing with is his twin, Charlie, we have two daughters as well who are around somewhere, Patricia and Barbara. That's one reason why we held this gathering during the day, so people could bring their children and ours could make a few more friends." She shrugged. "Are there any more children?" she nodded at Rosemary.
"I have two sons, grown up, and a granddaughter ..." Jean smiled.
"And I have a daughter and granddaughter in China," Lucien hummed, "Jean is my second wife."
"Lovely," Mrs Charlton smiled, not in the least confused, though Jean thought she must have questions. If she did, she didn't ask them. "Come along, there's tea or something stronger, things for the children, plenty to eat."
They had a thoroughly pleasant afternoon and though Jean had thought she at least would have to leave early to see to Rosemary's dinner it would seem Mrs Charlton had thought of everything. Lucien got to meet the new consultant Edward Charlton properly as a man and not as a medic and they got on famously. Charlton too had served in the war, in France, and before finally settling down in Ballarat they had thought about living in Lyon.
"We both speak French but when we heard about this post and looked into it we thought, why not?" he lifted a sweet treat from the table, "sounded just the place to raise four youngsters, plenty of wide open space for the boys who are always off climbing trees or swimming in lakes ..."
"I grew up here, sounds like they want to do the things me and my mates did at that age," Lucien smiled. "I wasn't going to come back but my father died and I had to see to his house and practice, tie up loose ends as I thought."
"But you stayed?"
"Yeah, well, I was looking for my wife who disappeared at the fall of Singapore, along with our daughter and a settled place would be good for the private eye I had engaged. Somehow, with Jean's help and Matthew Lawson's I seem to have found my home."
"Matthew Lawson?"
"Chief Superintendent of Police here, old school friend," Lucien smiled.
"Your wife?"
"Mei Lin eventually found me, she had been kept away from me by an old army colleague, it was a bit messy, but after seventeen years we had grown too far apart and divorced. I married Jean and here we are, with a lovely little girl to raise, life is pretty good, Charlton," he smiled, "pretty good indeed."
"Ah," Charlton pointed across at Jean, "is that her?"
"Jean, yes, how did you guess?"
"She looks like your type, if I may be so bold, and, not to be a cad you don't look like the type who'd be hooked up with a much younger wife."
"Jean is the best thing I found in Ballarat, put me back together from the broken man that came back. Rosemary is adopted, through the church, a long story that I expect your nurse will be able to tell you."
"I'll ask her, but I think I know. Safe to say if I cock it up I'd better hide from Jean Blake, yes?"
"I'd leave the planet if I were you," Lucien grinned, "'cos wherever you go she'll find you."
"Right, hello," he looked across the garden, "what are the police doing here?"
Lucien looked round and smiled, "Chief Superintendent Lawson, to what do we owe this pleasure?"
"Blake," Matthew grunted, "we've found them, Steadman and Emily Jeffs."
"Really?" Lucien gasped, "sorry, Matthew this is Edward Charlton, the new obstetrician, Edward, Matthew Lawson."
The two men shook hands but from the look on Matthew's face Lucien was wanted elsewhere.
"I'll just tell Jean," Lucien said his goodbyes to Charlton and followed Matthew.
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"I'll see you back at home, darling," Jean kissed his cheek. Lucien smiled kissed her then Rosemary and headed out of the garden.
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"So, what've we got, Matthew?" Lucien slid into the passenger seat.
Matthew threw a newspaper at him.
He read down the article and hummed, then looked at the picture of two smiling young people.
"Seems they've been at the old lady's place for a year, doin' odd jobs, keeping the small-holding going, tending to her when she was sick and now she's up and died – natural causes – they've inherited the lot. And she wasn't short of a few pennies either."
"This is way out of our jurisdiction, Matthew," Lucien noted the town was a small place in South Australia. "how did you get this?"
"It was sent to me," Matthew shrugged and drew into the station. "Brass on both sides of the border want me to go and interview them, I want you to come with me. Bring the pics of Rosemary ... and we're taking the autopsy report on her parents."
"So the case has been live all this time, even though you wanted to close it?"
"I wanted to close it but his parents wanted the truth, no matter how hard it might be, so they engaged the services of a PI."
"Have you told his parents?" Lucien read the article which just ran the necessary information. The young couple had helped Mrs Standish a year ago when she dropped her groceries, they said they were only going to stay for the winter then move on, but she asked them to stay and having no other family bequeathed everything to them. She used to tell anyone in town how lucky she was to have found her family, that the young man was so helpful round the small holding and the girl was the perfect housekeeper.
"Not yet, we have to talk to them but I thought it might be a good idea if you came, there's a local copper going to meet us there."
"And you want me to tell them that the child they left for dead is alive and well and happy."
"You and Jean have done wonders with her," Matthew saw himself as Rosemary's honorary uncle and he and Alice still lodged with them.
"Thank you," Lucien grinned, "but all credit to Jean, really."
"Yeah." Matthew nodded and they continued in silence.
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It was early evening when they got to the little town. They could see how easy it was for the two youngsters to blend in, it was sleepy had just enough in the way of facilities and there was probably little crime of note.
The officer they were to meet was waiting for them at the station, together with the Private Detective the Steadman's had engaged.
"Why didn't you go straight to them?" Matthew asked after introductions had been made.
"In light of the crime they are supposed to have committed last year I thought proper channels should be gone through, and Mr and Mrs Steadman told me that was what they wanted." The detective passed over his file. "It's all there, I seemed to have been steps behind them, once I found the trail. Nobody has had a bad word to say about them, they haven't gone on a murder spree, or committed burglaries; they worked for the money they needed and were always pleasant. I just don't understand why he saw the need to see off her parents, if indeed that was what he did."
"While I don't in any way condone his actions the Jeffs are not missed." Matthew sighed, "they weren't good parents, he was a thief, a lazy good for nothing bludger who would rather nick something than work. I don't blame the girl for wanting to escape with someone who apparently loved her."
"And the mother?"
"Followed him, did as she was told ... no thieving though."
"We need to get straight what we are charging them with," Matthew flicked through the file.
"Murder, child neglect ..."
"There isn't a child with them," the detective frowned.
"Did the Steadmans not tell you?" Lucien frowned.
He shook his head.
"We are sure he got Emily pregnant, she gave birth, alone but left the baby to die. She did tie the cord but that was all she did. I'm not even sure she told Karl that their daughter was alive." Lucien leant forward on the desk, "the least she could have done was leave it on the steps of the hospital."
"Jeez ..." the police officer ran his hands over his head. "What happened to the baby?"
"The police were alerted to Emily's disappearance by another girl at the school, one of my constables went up to the house with Dr Blake's wife, he thought she would be good with a girl in strife. There was no one there but Mrs Blake found the baby, still alive, though god knows how after three days." Matthew smiled when he remembered the story of Jean storming out of the hospital, and Bill's confusion when he went to report to the station.
"Did she make it?" the detective took a mouthful of tea.
"She's just over one year now," Lucien grinned, "we adopted her through the church," he opened the book at the most recent photograph of Rosemary.
"Awh," the officer smiled, "she's a cutie."
"Yeah," Lucien gave a besotted father's grin, "she is that."
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Karl and Emily had not envisioned life as smallholders was for them, but they had settled with the old lady and after she died and they found themselves with their own home and a living they thought they could make a go of.
"It's quiet enough round here, love," he had said as they stood at the graveside, "nobody pays us any attention and all we wanted was to get away from your mum and dad."
"Your parents, Karl," she squeezed his hand.
"You know they didn't want me to see you, Em," he kissed the side of her head, "I wasn't going to let them split us up. Maybe one day we'll get in touch, but not now, and not for a few years. Let's stay here, eh? We have a house, a home."
"Yeah, we have enough, for the two of us, don't we, from the field and from the odd jobs you do around the town." She smiled.
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"It's a nice place," Matthew hummed as they drew up at the bottom of the drive. "The house is in good order ..."
"See, that's the thing," the officer sighed, "they've done nothing wrong, not here. They helped Mrs Standish, the lad does odd jobs round the town, the lass looked after the house and did the shopping. They both harvested any veggies from the holding and sold it at the weekly market. There hasn't been a rise in the number of burglaries so it's really hard to see them as murderers, or that they would neglect a child. Frankly they look too young to have kids."
"He'll be nineteen now, and she's fifteen," Lucien sighed sadly. "He was the only one who was kind to her at school. She got into the Grammar on a full scholarship and with her background she was a target for the bullies."
"She's a good looking girl," the officer continued, "I can see the attraction ..."
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Emily was surprised and not a little scared to see Chief Superintendent Lawson on the doorstep and Dr Blake. She let them in and offered tea and biscuits that she had made herself.
The officers, Blake and the PI looked around the house. It was clean and tidy; in the well ordered kitchen the smell of a stew indicated she was cooking their meal.
Lucien was saddened, this was not the house of murderers, this was the home of young couple starting out; he actually wished they hadn't been found.
She called Karl in from the field and they sat and waited.
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"I expect you know why we're here," Matthew started.
"We ran away," Karl reached over and took Emily's hand. "Our parents didn't want us to see each other."
"It's more than that Karl," Lucien sighed, "your parents still want to know where you are, they do care, and you, Emily ... you see, we found your parents, in the bush ... they were dead."
"They didn't care about me," she bit her lip, "they didn't notice anything about me, but they kept sending Karl away when he came to see me."
"Did they know you were pregnant?" he asked.
Emily burst into tears, "It was a mistake, we didn't mean for that to happen and then, when it came, I didn't know what to do, Karl wasn't there, he said he'd get mum and dad out of the way while it came , but he was too late ... I didn't want it, I didn't know how to care for a baby ..." she wiped her nose with a handkerchief passed to her by Blake.
"Your baby survived, Emily," Lucien spoke gently, "she's one now, into everything ..."
"I thought ... she didn't cry, I didn't even know it was a girl, it was horrible, blood and stuff ... I don't want it to happen again so Karl makes sure it won't."
"We don't cause trouble," Karl looked at the local officer, "do we? I mean you haven't come to see us before and Mrs Standish died of old age, we had nothing to do with that."
"Karl, I've been behind you on your travels, you didn't always cover your tracks very well," the detective coughed, "nobody has said anything bad about you. You've worked for the money you needed ..."
"It's just the way Emily's parents died ... Karl, left in the bush not much left of their heads ..."
"Oh Karl," Emily looked at him, "you didn't?"
"You didn't know?" Lucien gasped.
She shook her head. "He just said they wouldn't be coming after us." She straightened up and cleared her throat, "I'm not sorry, they weren't nice to me, they were horrible parents. You'd think they'd be proud of me, getting into the Grammar on a scholarship but they weren't ... they said it took up too much of the time I could be working ... I wanted more. I didn't think we'd become smallholders but you know, when it's done right it's a good life. My parents didn't do anything with their land – dad was thief, you know that Mr Lawson, he beat me and mum – Karl was kind, and we were just friends at first, then well ... I love him and I'm not going to throw him over for getting rid of them, if that's what he did."
"What happened, Karl?" Lucien asked gently.
"Em phoned me and said she thought the baby was on its way. We weren't sure what we were going to do with it – we hadn't thought that far – so I told her to go and lock herself in her room and I'd lure her mum and dad away. I told dad I wanted to go camping and he let me take the ute, I've done it before so he wasn't concerned. I know I stole from the ironmongers, I'm sorry, I've got enough to pay him back ..."
"You kept a record?"
"... it was just until we could work out what we could do, and it only started when Em said she was in the family way. I always intended to pay him back – I couldn't ask for a loan, he'd want to know why."
"You shouldn't have been having sex with a fourteen year old, Karl," Matthew frowned.
"I liked it," Emily blushed, "and when we started he made me feel special."
"'Twas ever thus," Lucien muttered. "So, Karl, tell us what happened."
"Like I said, I told Em to go to her room and I'd be there as soon as I could be. I knew they wouldn't let me see her, he threw me off the property more times than we could count, so I put some bags in a pit in the bush and made them look like the proceeds of a robbery. I told them I'd found it and there was enough for us all. He was always up for a quick buck," he scoffed, "so they were quite happy to come with me. When we got there they looked into the hole and I said that they could have two thirds if I could take Emily away. They didn't want that, they wanted all of it but if I took Em they'd tell the cops that I got her pregnant. We didn't even know they knew and I couldn't let that happen. If they got into the hole and looked into the bags they'd see it was only rocks. I said I would have to think about it and stood by the tree for a few moments. I could hear them whispering about telling you everything, Mr Lawson. She said they didn't need Emily that he should let me take her, but he wanted to know who was going to do the chores. I knew I was stuck," he paused and gulped, "I hit them, with a rock and they fell into the hole. I left them there. All I hoped was that we'd be far enough away when they came round and found out my ruse."
"We like it here, Mr Lawson," Emily looked at the adults before her, "people don't bother about us, they buy the veggies we grow and Karl does house repairs ..."
"We've never had cause to speak to them, sir," the officer couldn't see what they could do. The boy had admitted to knocking her parents out but not to killing them.
Matthew was torn, deep down he knew Karl had killed the Jeffs, but he didn't have a confession and he didn't have proof that he shot them. What he had told them was plausible though he had had time to come up with it, over a year.
"A word, gentlemen," he stood up and indicated he needed to talk to them in private.
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They spread the autopsy report on the bonnet of the car and looked at the crime scene photos. The two bodies were lying in the hole, not quite face down. Identification hadn't been easy, it had all hinged on what Mr Jeffs was wearing. Alice had put down in the report that she couldn't be sure what caused the head trauma due to the animal activity, she had called it as a murder because it didn't seem possible that this could have happened with just a fall.
Matthew went back into the house and asked to use the phone.
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"Are you questioning my findings, Chief Superintendent?" Alice huffed down the phone. She put the phone down and went to her files, this was one she had kept a copy of.
"Yes, massive head trauma, and no I couldn't find a bullet or bullet hole. The wildlife had done a lot of damage, Matthew." She listened. "Well, I suppose so, it's possible." She thought for a moment. "You don't want to charge them with murder do you?" She listened to what he told her about the two young smallholders and agreed it seemed as if it was totally out of the ordinary that Karl would kill someone. "You deal with it your end, tell me what's what when you come back." She put the phone down and looked at the photos again. It was a reasonable assumption, she thought, what Matthew was proposing but he was putting his position on the line and that of the young copper's.
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"Do you have a gun?" Matthew stared at them.
"No sir," Karl shook his head. "Dad used to make me take one when I went camping, just in case some wildlife came along, but I didn't take it that time."
"Mind if we have a look?" the local officer asked.
"Knock yourselves out," Karl smiled.
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The search yielded nothing, as Karl knew it would. He had taken the gun back to his parents' house hoping it would be a while before his father noticed he hadn't taken it with him. Matthew admitted Mr Steadman showed them the gun, saying he told Karl to take it with him when he went camping, but it would appear this time he had forgotten it. The gun was clean of prints; it was always cleaned after use, anyway, according to Karl's father.
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"We know he did it," Matthew frowned, "but we only have circumstantial evidence, and Alice says it is possible that they were knocked out and left in the hole, as Karl says, she couldn't find a bullet or bullet hole in either of them, wildlife had done too much damage."
"So, not enough for an arrest?" Lucien hummed.
"Well, I could arrest them, but once in court I don't think we'd get a conviction. He'd get a sentence for underage sex, but where would that leave her? At her age she'd be sent to the reform school, when he got out he'd have nothing."
"Look, Chief Superintendent," the local man folded his arms, "this is my patch, we don't have any trouble, these kids are starting out and as I said before they haven't given me cause for concern."
"They haven't stolen or murdered on their trip," the detective added.
"Strikes me as they have run away from a not so pleasant life. Emily certainly would not have had it good with those two as parents, the Steadmans would have stopped Karl from seeing her," Lucien kicked a stone in the dust, "they have a good life, contribute to the community."
"His parents need to know where they are, that's what I was hired to do, find them ..."
"Bugger," Lucien shoved his hands in his pockets.
"Indeed," Matthew hummed.
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"What's gonna happen, now, Karl?" Emily held his hand tight. "I like it here, I know we did wrong, with the baby an'all, but you didn't mean to kill mum and dad, and I don't blame you for what you did. In fact if you'd put a bullet in them from your dad's old revolver I wouldn't have cared ..."
Karl swallowed, but she continued.
"... I would have left them one way or another," she turned to look at him, "I know what dad had planned for me, with one of his horrible mates. Before you and me did it the first time I heard him discussing the price for me, because I was young and untouched."
They hadn't heard Matthew and Lucien return to the kitchen but that last remark by Emily made their minds up for them. Emily could have ended up used worse than Alice was, and Matthew didn't like that idea. The Jeffs died as a result of being left in a hole in the bush. They had been hit in the head but there was no evidence to say this was the cause of their deaths. They fought, hit each other after finding out Karl had duped them and were unable to climb out of the hole. Cased closed, finally.
"I wouldn't have let them do that to you, Em," Karl put his arm round her, "for that I would have but bullets through them."
"I wouldn't go around saying things like that, lad," Matthew cut in. "Seems your parents, Emily, came to, fought when they found out you had put one over on them, Karl ..."
"They did a lot of that," Emily nodded.
"... hit each other and couldn't climb out of the hole, you dug it good and deep, lad."
"Had to make it convincing, sir," Karl cleared his throat.
"Well, I hope everything goes well for you two," Matthew put his hat back on, "we shall tell your parents where you are, Karl, but I suggest you call them first, perhaps say you're sorry for worrying them and you are happy and well."
"I'll do that, but we don't really want them coming over. Not yet," Karl sighed, "maybe in a few years ... I don't know, I know dad wanted me to go to uni, but I like this life, we may decide to do something else in the future, but for now, this pays our bills and Mrs Standish's legacy, we have enough."
"Dr Blake," Emily stood up, "the baby ... is she ok, you said she was alive, if I'd known what to do ... I'm sorry."
"Rosemary ..."
"That's a pretty name, I grow some out in the garden ..."
"... is doing very well, she's walking, chatting away the way one year olds do ... would you like to see a picture?"
She nodded.
"Oh goodness, she's lovely," she put her hand over her mouth, "who has her?"
"Me and my wife, we adopted her through the church, bit of a fight with welfare ..."
"Not Miss Smith?" her eyes widened.
"Yes, do you know her?"
"Oh yes I do," she scowled, "came to see my dad, when mum was out, and it wasn't a welfare visit."
"You mean ...?" he gasped.
"Oh yeah, plenty," she huffed, "I caught them comin' out of the bedroom once, I mean she was no oil painting, so my guess is he was trying to make sure she didn't take me away from them ... they needed me to cook for them."
"Now, that's interestin'," Matthew scratched his head. "No wonder she didn't want you to have her, Blake."
"Because dad had filed a report on Emily ..."
"He did?"
"You would have been about two, you had a burn on your foot ..."
"This one," she took her shoe off and showed the scar from a cigarette burn that someone had tried to cover up with a scald.
"Yes, then you and your family disappeared for some years ..."
"Dad took us on the road, before taking us back to Ballarat ... you remember your dad treating my foot?"
"I took the liberty of pulling out your file, when Rosemary was born," Lucien smiled, "he put it all down in there. My guess is when Miss Smith saw you back she thought she'd finally get your parents for something ... I doubt it would be child abuse, given how she wanted Rosemary to be put in the children's home ... must have been something else. Unrequited love?"
"Well, I'll be ..."
"Very likely, Matthew," Lucien nodded. "So, I suppose we'll be off then," he tipped his hat to Emily, "nice to have met you."
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"So there we are," Lucien and Matthew told Jean and Alice the story when they got home. Alice agreed that that could very well be the reason the Jeffs died, Jean cuddled Rosemary and said it was all so sad, but what were they going to do about Miss Smith, who continued to terrorise the young mothers of Ballarat?
"I don't know," Lucien pushed his plate to one side, "on one hand she obviously had a grudge against the Jeffs, I wonder if she wanted a child so badly herself she was prepared to get pregnant by him, leave town with the baby and set herself up somewhere as a widowed mother. Emily said she was no oil painting, which is unkind ..."
"A disappointed woman," Jean sighed.
"Very."
"Well, nothing for it but to keep an eye on her," Matthew hummed, "for now we have to appease the Steadmans, let them know Karl and Emily are safe and well and not in any trouble. We're taking the PI there tomorrow."
"He's not going to like it," Alice warned, "Emily is underage ... but I suppose it's a bit late for that ..."
"It is," Lucien nodded. "Trouble is, if we pursue them they are only going to run off again, until Emily's sixteen, and we know how good they are at staying out of sight."
"Still, it is wrong ..." Matthew frowned.
"In the eyes of the law," Jean added.
"And if we do follow the letter of the law two lives will be ruined ..."
"Really, Alice," Lucien turned to his colleague, "if we tell the Steadmans where their son is what are they going to do? I agree that they shouldn't have done what they did; they shouldn't have been having sex, they shouldn't have tried to cover up a pregnancy, left the baby, gone on the run but ..." he gave a deep sigh, "... all they did was fall in love. And when did that become a crime? They made a mistake, who here hasn't done the same? I know I have, many of them ..."
"So have I," Jean nodded.
"And me ..." Alice shrugged.
"Me too, but is this a mistake too far, to let them get away with it?" Matthew looked around the table.
"I vote we rule the Jeffs as accidental death," Alice knew she could be putting her career on the line as could Matthew, "you have followed up all the leads, you have no evidence to say it was murder, that was the judgement of the police surgeon at the time, but having gone over her findings she cannot conclusively say they were murdered."
"And Karl and Emily?"
"Are safe and well ..."
"It's a big house, who's to say they sleep together, I didn't examine her ..." Lucien folded his arms, "if the wheels move as slowly as they usually do Emily will be sixteen by the time anyone tries to find them, and it would be two states that have to come together."
"His parents?"
"Ah, well, that's another thing," Matthew hummed, "we said we were going to tell them we had found them ..."
"You don't have to say where," Jean raised an eyebrow, "at least not until you know what their intentions are towards them."
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Mr and Mrs Steadman sat opposite the man they had hired to find their son. Together with Dr Blake and Chief Superintendent he had come to tell them he had found Karl and that he was well.
"It's that cheap little slut," Mr Steadman snorted, "she's the one that caused all this. Well, I'm dragging him back here, he's going to university ..."
"That would be kidnapping, Mr Steadman," Matthew informed him. "Karl is happy with Emily, they are valued members of the community they have settled in ..."
"She seduced him," he continued, "it's all her fault, I bet she's the one that killed her parents."
"Their death has been ruled accidental after a second look at the evidence," Lucien crossed his fingers in his pockets.
"They were taken in by a lonely old lady, made to feel welcome and wanted. She gave them a home, in fact she left everything to them because they helped her, kept house, made the smallholding a going concern ... what did you anticipate Karl studying at university, Mr Steadman?" the detective asked.
"Medicine," he huffed, "now he's a ruddy farmer."
"A very good one, from what we could see," Matthew noted. "We need farmers as much as we need doctors ..."
"The girl," Mrs Steadman cleared her throat. "what does she do?"
"Makes a darn good biscuit, and the stew smelled good she was preparing for their dinner. The house was clean and well kept, she was clean and her clothes were tidy. A far cry from the hovel she grew up in." Matthew smiled a little.
"The money Karl 'borrowed' from the ironmonger has been paid back, he gave it to us to pass on, which we have done." The detective added, "your son, despite the hole he found himself in with Emily, is a thoroughly honourable young man. He stood by her ..."
"That child is not his, she duped him," Steadman growled; Lucien thought he might have high blood pressure the way his face had gone so very red.
"Whether or not the child was his, is immaterial," he leant forward in his chair, "Karl was prepared to support her. However, I firmly believe, from what they have told us, that Karl is the father but neither were ready for parenthood and Emily really thought the baby had died. She didn't know what she was doing when she gave birth, she was scared, and alone, she ran ..."
"So, Rosemary, your daughter, Dr Blake," Mrs Steadman stuttered, "is actually our granddaughter?" Lucien thought she was afraid of her husband, maybe he was as much a wife abuser as Jeffs was, but mentally rather than physically – a bully.
"She is, and you are welcome to come and see her ..." he was cut off by Steadman standing up and glaring at them, "that brat is no granddaughter of ours," he spat. "I want to know where they are!"
"No," Matthew stood up, "I am not telling you where they are because I don't know what you will do to them!"
"I told you, I am dragging Karl back here to go to university ..!"
"I can almost guarantee," Lucien stood up and faced him, "that Karl will not perform well at university, most likely abscond and he and Emily will move away from where they have settled."
"He's clever!"
"He is, but that doesn't mean he is suited for academia," Lucien stood his ground, "maybe one day in the future he may decide to take up the option, but for now they are happy where they are. They may not get rich, but money isn't everything."
"That's easy for you to say," he growled, "you aren't short of a bob or two ..."
"No, but there have been times, when I was Karl's age I had to find a way to make money ... nothing illegal Superintendent," he looked at Matthew's raised eyebrows, "I wasn't supported by my father when I went to study medicine in Edinburgh, I had to make my own way. Karl will do the same."
In the end they left the Steadmans fuming and without the information they had sent the detective to find – at least Mr Steadman was fuming, Lucien had a feeling Jean may get a visit from Mrs Steadman to see her granddaughter at some point in the near future.
The detective didn't get his fee, either.
"No worries," he shrugged, "I don't need the money, I do it because I want to reunite families, but," he rolled head, "maybe not this one. Well, I shall be off, nice to have met you both."
They shook hands and Lucien and Matthew wished him safe travels.
"Well," Matthew scratched his head, "I shall report to brass that the case in cleared up, accidental death and the runaways have been found safe and well."
"Good luck." Lucien grinned, "I think I'll ring Emily and let her know we haven't given away their location. Let them know that if they have any trouble they can call me. I'll keep you out of it you've stuck your neck out a very long way for them."
"Yeah," Matthew slipped behind the wheel of the car, "what do you make of him, Steadman?"
"A bully," Lucien scowled, "to his wife, probably to his boy as well."
"Do you think she'll come to see Rosemary?"
"Wouldn't surprise me, I'll warn Jean."
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The body lay on the mortuary table. He looked as if he had been systematically beaten with whatever came to hand. His face was barely recognisable, most of his bones were broken or shattered, his skin split ...
"Bloody hell," Lucien breathed, "it's the detective."
"Who would do this?" Alice swallowed the bile, she was used to bodies in various states of death whether by accident, murder or just natural causes, but this was brutal.
"Only one person comes to mind," he gritted his teeth, "Steadman."
"Why?"
"He wouldn't give up Karl and Emily's whereabouts," he started to remove the bloodied and torn clothing. "Steadman was steamed about it, wanted to drag Karl back and send him to uni."
"University doesn't suit everybody," Alice took the shirt he handed her.
"That's what I said." Lucien nodded.
"So you think Steadman caught up with this detective and tried to beat the information out of him?"
"When I met Steadman he came across as controlling, a bully. He called Emily a cheap little slut and said she duped Karl. He refuses to acknowledge Rosemary as his granddaughter, though I don't see that as a loss for her." He continued to undress the body and pass the clothing to Alice; she folded it and placed it carefully on the side.
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Matthew took Bill with him when he went to talk to Steadman and arrest him for the murder of the detective, together with two constables to search the outbuildings, the garage where he kept his tools.
"Sir," a young constable held up a piece of pipe and a heavy wrench. They both appeared clean, but Alice would be able to tell if they had blood somewhere in between the components of the wrench and perhaps on the pipe.
Steadman refused to say anything above a growl, his wife stood to one side, obviously terrified.
It was a very easy arrest; Steadman didn't deny what he had done, Matthew thought he was still surprised that the detective didn't give up his son's address even though he was being beaten.
"All he had to do was tell me where Karl was," he grunted in the interview, "I would have stopped."
"But he knew what your plans for Karl were," Matthew tapped his pen on the table, "and he didn't think you should carry those out. I'm with Dr Blake on that, Karl would have dropped out of uni, you wouldn't have been able to control him there."
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Though Alice did find blood in the wrench and inside the pipe, Steadman confessed to the murder of the detective. He was sent to Melbourne for trial, though if he pleaded guilty then he would be sentenced to hang.
"In many ways I am glad he didn't get to find out where Karl and Emily are," Matthew sighed over dinner that night, "if Karl had resisted then it may have been his body, and possibly hers, on the mortuary table."
"Does Karl know?" Jean spooned dinner into the ever open mouth of her daughter.
"I believe his mother was going to ring him, we let her have his number. There is another boy, about eleven, he's not going to survive in Ballarat when news gets out, nor is she." He leant his elbows on the table, "all because two kids weren't allowed to see each other."
"My father didn't want me to see Christopher," Jean didn't make eye contact, "look where that got us."
"Then we must make sure Rosemary has the freedom to talk to us, to let us know what she wants to do, and if she wants to marry and be a housewife I'm not going to stop her," Lucien smiled, "and if she wants to ... I don't know ... play in a jazz band ... well, as long as she's happy ..."
Jean nodded.
"Has Mrs Steadman seen Rosemary?" Alice asked, "I mean she seemed more open to her granddaughter."
"In town today, while I was shopping," Jean smiled, "everyone else was avoiding her, judgemental as ever, but I let her see her, and talk to her. She said they were thinking of selling up and moving, though she didn't think she'd get much for the house – not with the history."
"It was Steadman that murdered the detective," Matthew scowled, "not her and not the house. Do you think she'll move in with Karl?"
"Maybe, maybe not. That would depend on him and Emily, wouldn't it?"
Lucien nodded, "But if she does I hope she tells the truth about his father and how he treated her."
"We don't know anything about that, do we?" Matthew looked surprised, what had Blake found out?
"Well, you know how she was when we went to tell them that Karl and Emily were ok? How she seemed scared of him, how she wanted to see Rosemary? Thank god for dad's filing system – even though she hadn't attended surgery since I arrived his old files show her attending for unexplained injuries, black eyes, facial bruising, bruises to her ribcage ... I think he beat her."
"What about the younger boy?" Jean frowned, trying to think of any times he had been brought to see Thomas.
"I couldn't find a file," he sighed, "you could check with the other doctors in town, Matthew, or the hospital. If he was beating the boy welfare should have been involved."
"Unlikely," Matthew sat back, "he would have seen them off in short order; not even Miss Smith would have been able to get past him."
"Unless she was offering him her favours, as well as Mr Jeffs," Alice mused.
"Oh really," Jean huffed, "if she's been offering her body as payment for her silence ..." she shuddered.
"Doesn't bear thinking about," Lucien folded his arms, "but I think her bosses ought to be alerted to her dealings, too many children could be in danger because of that. I take back the idea that she was trying to have a baby of her own, I think she just wanted the sex."
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"Well," Lucien shrugged, "that's that then."
Miss Smith had indeed been asking for sexual favours in return for keeping quiet about certain forms of abuse. Mostly it was beating children, forcing them to do their parents bidding, and of course sending perfectly healthy children to the orphanage if the husband didn't comply with her demands. The husbands, usually young and inexperienced were too scared to report her but Sister Josephine had formed a network of mothers who were prepared to help the younger ones, a network nobody had any idea about, in case she lost her position at the orphanage.
"What a strange woman," Jean sighed, "how odd that she would deem it appropriate to demand sex in return for silence over child abuse."
"It's the children she failed that worries me, darling," he smiled as she settled Rosemary in her bed, "I thought the one Sister Josephine told us about was a one off, a single incident and not a system she had in place to prevent well cared for children being taken from loving homes."
"What will happen to her now?"
"She's having a psychological evaluation, but she won't be working with families anymore, or anyone, to be honest. We think she'll be confined to an asylum ..."
"Sad," Jean sighed.
"Yeah," he agreed, "drink?"
"Please."
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Jean was knitting and Lucien reading the paper when Matthew and Alice returned from dining out at the club.
"Hey," Matthew flopped down into a chair and Alice curled up at his feet, "found this letter in my in-tray," he waved a small envelope in the air, "from Karl and Emily."
"Really?" Jean put her knitting down and Lucien peered over the top of the Courier.
"Yeah, his mum and little brother have moved in with them, Bobby, that's the little 'un, has started at a local school and Karl and Emily are getting married as soon as she turns sixteen." Matthew grinned.
"Now, that's a result," Lucien raised his glass, "Karl and Emily – good luck to them."
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Alright, I played fast and loose with a lot of careers here, but I kinda started to feel sorry for Karl and Emily and didn't want to turn them into Bonnie and Clyde. What brass doesn't know won't harm them.