Medea's Curse (4 page)

‘I ended up in the Office of the Public Prosecutor because I couldn’t shake the idealised
view of justice I’d had as kid,’ Liam told her as they waited for dinner. She’d agreed
to listen if he’d get to Travis as soon as the food arrived. The truth was, he was
good company.

‘And what was that about?’

‘My da’. I guess you’d tell me that it was because I couldn’t stop him beating up
my ma, right? That I’m compensating now for what I couldn’t do then, by going after
the bad guys. Does that answer your question?’

‘Do you think it does?’ Natalie grinned. One point to her.

‘Well it’s working; little while ago I put a drug boss behind bars for a ten-year
minimum. Ice was scarce on the street for weeks. I have to confess that felt good.
I’d have done anything to get his brother as well.’

‘Anything?’ It sounded flirtatious and Natalie cursed herself silently. It wasn’t
as if he needed encouragement.

‘Almost. As long as no one innocent gets hurt.’

Natalie looked at him sceptically.

‘I had a case when I was green,’ he said. ‘Guy named Tim Hadden; alcoholic, wife
beater, record as long as your arm. He always maintained his innocence.’

‘Don’t they all?’

‘Mostly, but in this case he was. DNA testing came in and we had another look. And
I’ll never be sure that when I first prosecuted him I didn’t let my dislike of the
man interfere with the facts.’

‘He got out?’

Liam paused, and she found she couldn’t read him. Anger? Regret?

‘He was killed in gaol while they stuffed around with the paperwork.’

It shed light on why he was open to reviewing Amber’s case.

‘My da’,’ he concluded, ‘was a walking Irish stereotype; the bad one, unfortunately.’

‘You think your father got in the way of your objectivity when you prosecuted Tim
Hadden?’ Natalie had put her observation into words before she remembered she was
out socially, not in her office.

Liam drained his glass. ‘Same again?’ he asked as he headed to the bar. He returned
just as the food arrived. Natalie brought him back to the reason for the dinner.

‘So what happened to Travis’s daughter, this one with the new girlfriend?’

‘If I knew that I wouldn’t be asking for your help. Not that there aren’t other attractions…’

It occurred to Natalie that he worked his sex appeal without thinking. A habit. ‘You
think I can help because…?’

‘The first priority is finding the child. We wouldn’t normally be involved this early
in a case but ever since the Leskie debacle we want to make sure we get everything
right from the beginning. They may not find the child. The police don’t have enough
points of proof for a charge. No forensic evidence, all hearsay. No one’s talking,
probably everyone’s lying about something and the obvious answer isn’t falling into
our laps.’

‘You make it sound like a Mafia hit rather than a missing child.’

Liam shrugged. ‘Nothing that well organised. Stupid eejits behaving badly.’

‘Smart enough to keep you guys running in circles.’

‘Which is why I’d be wantin’ you running around with me.’

Was it her imagination or did the brogue thicken when he was spinning a line?

‘So take me back to the beginning.’

Liam cut his steak and it bled on the plate. ‘Travis and Amber broke up straight
after the plea hearing. Poor hard-done-by man: tries to stand by the bitch who murdered
his daughter, but in the end he has to put the love of his surviving child first.’

Natalie tried picturing Travis in the role of hero. Some women found him cute. But
the poor-me attitude that appeared by the second interview had alienated her long
before Amber had started to reveal the level of domestic abuse. Which was more psychological
than physical, but every bit as effective. Travis had been a clear factor in Amber’s
depression. Had he been supportive, their daughter would probably still be alive.
Which was the primary reason for Natalie’s avenging-angel moment on the Supreme Court
steps.

The memory of putting Liam on his backside was still sweet. She suppressed a grin.

‘What’s she like?’ she said. ‘Travis’s new woman?’

‘Tiphanie Murchison. First name spelt T.I.P.H.A.N.I.E.’ His look suggested that the
quirky spelling said it all.

‘Let me guess. Small, vulnerable and a bit plain. Maybe an abusive background, if
not at home then in the schoolyard.’

Liam looked impressed. ‘Why doesn’t he go for the pretty ones? He’s not a bad looking
bloke.’

‘Because he needs to dominate and doesn’t want to share the limelight. Pretty girls
have too much self-esteem.’ She thought about Amber: ordinary looking, eyes too small,
facial features a bit asymmetrical. In the first police video she had been flushed
and flustered. Subsequently she had looked bewildered, disappearing into clothes
too big for her, hiding behind long, lank brown hair that fell over her eyes. Her
family had been supportive but anxious and overprotective.

Liam rested his cutlery against the plate. ‘Tiphanie looks average in the photo I
saw but she’s only nineteen. Police describe her as timid. Not bright, I guess, given
who she ended up with. A little dumpy.’ Liam looked directly at her. ‘But then I
like my women petite.’

Natalie stopped herself responding, but couldn’t prevent a flutter rippling through
her stomach. Damn it.

‘Family?’ So far Tiphanie fitted the profile Natalie had constructed.

‘Prior to hooking up with Travis she lived with her parents. Not known to police.’

Natalie wondered what it was about Tiphanie’s home life that made Travis a better
option. ‘Job?’

‘She was working on the checkout at the supermarket where Travis was doing some building
work.’

She would have known who he was, that he was married, that his wife had murdered
their baby. Welbury wasn’t that big. Had Tiphanie felt sorry for him? Was it a celebrity
thing?

‘So all seems to be going well,’ Liam continued after another mouthful of steak.
‘Maternal health centre nurse reports she was an exemplary mother.’

Was.
The child would be dead, of course. Missing just sounded better.

‘Chloe was nearly one when she disappeared. Eleven and a half months. The nurse hadn’t
seen her for a while. Tiphanie and her mother had had a falling out, so her parents
hadn’t seen them for a couple of months either. Travis’s father left
when he was
a kid and his mother was in Melbourne.’

‘Neighbours? Friends? Was Chloe in childcare?’

Liam shook his head. ‘Tiphanie was unemployed. She didn’t go back to the supermarket
after the birth. The last sighting of the child—other than by Travis and Tiphanie—was
earlier the day before. By a neighbour. She only heard her playing in the backyard,
she didn’t actually see her.’

‘What’s Tiphanie’s story?’

‘That she’d got the child breakfast and left her watching cartoons, then went back
to bed.’

‘As exemplary mothers do.’ Natalie remembered a home visit she’d done in another
satellite town, closer to Melbourne. The mother ordered groceries online and never
left the house. Her child spent all day in front of the television.

She didn’t notice Liam leaning forward until his hand brushed her hair out of her
eye. She had no time to suppress her sharp intake of breath. They briefly made eye
contact and he looked amused. Half-ready to defend himself. She reminded herself
of her two vows.

‘So what happened next?’

‘When Tiphanie got up at eleven o’clock, Chloe had vanished.’

Natalie wondered how a child of less than a year old had become accustomed to entertaining
herself for that long. Some babies who were left to cry for long periods all but
gave up. What looked like compliance was actually depression, or some infant version
of it. ‘Travis was at work?’

‘Yes. With witnesses. Impossible for him to have got home and back without being
noticed.’

Natalie thought for a moment. ‘What was his reaction, his explanation?’

‘Blaming anyone and everyone.’

‘Including Tiphanie?’

‘Not yet. The cracks have started to show but his anger is still mainly at the police.’

‘And the cops think what?’

‘At first they thought she might have wandered off but no one’s seen her. They’re
on a new estate—bit desolate but it’s not Siberia.’

‘Could she have been kidnapped?’

‘Possible. Unlikely. This is a small rural town, remember. The police are checking
the paedophile registry, but she’s very young. Even if the door was unlocked, how
would anyone know unless they’d been watching and planning? Same for those women
who kidnap because they’re desperate for a child.’

‘So the next theory?’

‘An accident that the mother covered up. She looked spaced—vacant—but we haven’t
found a body and she hasn’t cracked.’

‘Next theory?’

‘My favourite.’

Natalie looked at him expectantly. He leaned closer.

‘Travis kills the kid in a fit of rage the night before. He has Tiphanie under his
thumb, beats her, threatens her, whatever. He does the cover-up and keeps her in
the dark about it so she doesn’t have anything to tell us. Maybe he gave her some
pills. Would account for her looking spaced. Maybe she was out of it when he killed
Chloe.’

‘So if this theory fits—if it’s Travis—you’d have to question the previous child’s
death.’

Liam smiled grimly. ‘Exactly. One child dying might be bad luck, but two, both under
suspicious circumstances,
to two different women? Travis is the only thing tying
it together.’

‘Maybe he has poor taste in women.’

‘Maybe. Neither woman looks like a killer to me.’

Nor to Natalie. It didn’t mean they didn’t do it. ‘Amber confessed,’ she reminded
Liam, ‘and went to gaol, as you may remember?’

‘If Travis had been found guilty he would have gone to gaol for murder. He’d have
got a much longer sentence and he wouldn’t have had an easy time. If he survived.’

‘Amber hasn’t exactly had it easy,’ said Natalie. ‘She was spending most of her time
in isolation last I heard.’

‘They might reasonably have expected that she’d get a suspended sentence.’

‘They didn’t split until after the hearing,’ Natalie murmured, talking to herself
rather than to Liam. Could she have got it wrong? Had Travis been directly to blame
for Bella-Kaye’s death and now for Chloe’s, or had he driven two women to the point
of infanticide?

‘Is it possible? That Travis murdered both his children?’ said Liam.

‘Much as I’d like to see him locked up, the circumstances are different.’ Natalie
moved around some chips on her plate. ‘Still possible, but the child was nearly a
year old for one thing; out of that sleepless-night stage and too young for full-blown
tantrums. Men tend to kill children in anger. Where’s the body? Even if he killed
her accidentally he’d have to get rid of the body, and Travis isn’t a great planner.’

‘Still. Will you take a look at Travis and see what you think?’

‘He’d never agree to talk to me,’ said Natalie. To say nothing of the apoplexy Declan
would have. She was
not
going to get involved. She thought of the child in the picture
with her soft toy and sparkling eyes.

Liam looked like he’d expected this answer. ‘He doesn’t have to. He’s being called
in for a formal interview next week. Decide what questions you want asked and watch
from the other side of the screen.’

Natalie put her napkin on the plate, leaving the remaining chips. She was tempted.
Not just because of Chloe, but because of Amber, whom she owed. She drained her Corona.
She wouldn’t be going back on her word if Travis couldn’t see her, if she didn’t
directly talk to him. Liam grinned, knowing he had her.

‘Text me and tell me when and where.’ She stood up.

‘No dessert?’

‘Nope, and no coffee at my place either. I have a conference to prepare for.’

Liam laughed. ‘You’ve got tickets on yourself. What about a second date then?’

‘This wasn’t a first date. Just work.’ Which was the only reason she was going to
let him get the bill.

Not even saying goodbye to Maggie, she walked into the cool night air and slipped
into the shapeless shadows of the Collingwood streets.

Keeping one vow out of two wasn’t bad.

Chapter 5

‘Georgia’s asking to see you.’ Kirsty didn’t bother looking up as Natalie entered
the ward office.

‘Any reason?’

‘You’re the doctor.’

‘Wadhwa about?’

‘With Corinne.’

What was he complaining about this time?

‘Don’t worry, not you,’ said Kirsty, not taking her eyes off the computer screen.
‘He sent Tania into lithium toxicity and her family are complaining. I gather he’s
threatening to resign again.’

They shared a look
.

‘Do you know if the psychologist has seen Georgia’s MMPI test?’

‘In the patient record.’

Natalie grabbed Georgia’s file and sank into the chair in the corner. There was nothing
in the notes to give any hint of why Georgia was asking to be seen, which she would
have known was a regular Thursday event anyway. Wanted to be first? To feel important?
Natalie found the MMPI, the personality inventory. She smiled as she read it.