‘Yes!’ Jake’s shout of triumph startled a young mother trying to bundle her child into the car next to his.

While Jake had no idea what the word ‘Castlemaine’ was in reference to—Castlemaine in Victoria? —or precisely what O’Brien and Campbell had been up to in the past, he now knew that the sight of Ava’s mutilated fingertips had forced Liam O’Brien to invoke some kind of long-held agreement for Campbell to pay him off for something related to Ava’s murder.

Jake couldn’t use this information directly, nor tip his hand to anyone on how he obtained it, but he was on the right track. He could almost smell it.

His ring tone blared again.

‘Murphy? Perfect timing.’

‘Huh?’

‘I think we might find something of interest in Mason Campbell’s financial records …’

‘More bank statements?’

‘Follow the money. Half the time that leads you to an arrest.’

‘I was calling to say I think I’ve found one.’

‘One what?’ Jake asked.

‘Everything fits, though I have no idea how she ended up there.’

‘Murphy?’

‘I searched the national database of unidentified people for the years around when the home closed.’

‘And?’

‘A girl matching the age of the one Charlotte was talking about turned up about eleven years ago. One blue eye, one brown. Claimed to have no knowledge of where she was raised.’

‘Where was she found?’

‘St Kilda.’

Damn it.

Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten

District Hospital

Monday, 2.51 p.m.

‘As in Melbourne?’ Jake asked.

‘Where else?’ Murphy sounded pleased with him­self. ‘Said her name was Lilith, not Matilda, but everything else fits.’

‘Great find, mate. Anything else in the record?’

‘When she was found she said she didn’t have a last name, didn’t know where she came from, and had no idea how she ended up there. The police interviewer’s file notes indicate that she believed she was telling the truth. The psychiatric assessment didn’t support her having amnesia, but the psych also said she seemed to be telling the truth.’

‘Apart from her distinctive eyes, what makes you think she’s Matilda?’

‘She said she lived in a cottage near a vineyard with a huge hedge and other girls but no parents.’

‘And they never tracked down where she came from?’

‘File says they assumed she came from country Victoria, maybe the hills around the wine country. Says she might have come from one of the hippie communes up there where they don’t believe in surnames.’

‘Any way to trace her now?’

‘She was adopted out of the foster system.’

‘Have you got a name and number for the adoptive parents?’

‘Yes an—‘

‘All right, send it to me now and I’ll give them a call.’

‘Actually, I’ve already left them a message, just waiting to hear back.’