The contents of both Ava and Liam O’Brien’s diaries were stomach-turning, filled with religious references and bizarre justifications for their treatment of the girls in Ava’s care. Jake sat in his car with the engine and heater running as he looked through them. Both also used codes throughout: hints at events incompletely described, initials to represent people. What he could make out, though, again led back to Mason Campbell.

Jake needed Kelly to listen to him this time.

As he returned to the station, he ran arguments through his head about what to say to convince Kelly that Mason Campbell was just as involved in the criminal activity at the girls’ home as Ava and Liam O’Brien had been.

‘I owe you an apology, Hunter,’ Kelly said, throwing Jake off before he’d even started.

‘What for?’

‘Based on the suicide note, seems you were right about O’Brien.’

Jake had read the contents to the sergeant over the phone.

‘If I’d let you arrest him when he was here we might have him in a cell right now instead of the morgue.’

‘Sir, it appears it may not have been a suicide.’

‘What?!’

‘It looks like another homicide, similar to what happened to Ava O’Brien.’

‘You mean his fingernails were ripped out? You didn’t mention that over the phone.’

‘Not that part. The preliminary examination by the pathologist shows he may have been strangled in a similar manner.’

‘How certain is she?’

‘She’ll have clearer results later today.’

Kelly slumped back in his ergonomic chair. ‘We’re back to square one then?’

‘Not exactly. I know Mason Campbell was involved somewhere along the line.’

‘All right, walk me through it.’

Jake was pleasantly surprised by the new level of trust Kelly was displaying toward him.

‘I found Ava’s missing diaries. Skimming through, it seems she believed the home was set up and paid for by St John of God from the beginning. But O’Brien’s journals show he deceived her about that from the start. It was an arrangement between O’Brien and an “M”. I’m not certain if there was any element of coercion in their relationship, but it seems O’Brien did control his sister to some extent. I don’t think she ever fully understood that O’Brien himself was behind her establishing the home.’

‘Are you saying it wasn’t ever an official home?’ Kelly said.

‘Correct. And perhaps Ava had started to suspect that recently. I think conflict between the two O’Briens is what set off this whole chain of events, not some argument between Charlotte and Amelia about Max Campbell.’

‘So if the home wasn’t funded by the government or the church, how did it stay afloat?’