Page 82 of Murder in the Family

JJ NORTON

Which as that article says, would have given him a very good reason not to have stopped.

MITCHELL CLARKE

Exactly.

JJ NORTON

Did you speak to the Sydney police?

MITCHELL CLARKE

I did. They told me the driver responsible was never found. And there was nothing at the scene to help ID the vehicle – no paint fragments oranything like that. But one local resident did hear a very loud engine noise at around that time.

ALAN CANNING

Did the police ever suspect it could have been a motorbike?

MITCHELL CLARKE

Apparently not. And it’s too late to follow up on that now, of course. And no way of tracking down the bike either, to see if it had any damage—

JJ NORTON

That might not have been conclusive anyway. If it was just a glancing blow the bike might have come off completely unscathed.

MITCHELL CLARKE

So as at now this avenue looks like a dead end. But even so, it may offer us one possible – and I think compelling – explanation for why Luke Ryder suddenly decided to leave the country.

HUGO FRASER

Andwhy someone might have wanted to kill him. One of the victim’s relatives would be right up there as a potential suspect. Always assuming they knew where Luke had absconded to, of course.

ALAN CANNING

Yes, but that wouldn’t have been easy. And they’d have to be carrying one hell of a grudge to still be on his case seven years later, on the opposite side of the world.

JJ NORTON

What do we know about the victim?

MITCHELL CLARKE

(sighs)

Not much, I’m afraid. The police were a bit cagey about the whole thing. I got the impression the family put a lot of pressure on them not to releasethe man’s name. There were ‘personal reasons’ apparently.

BILL SERAFINI

(knowingly)

Someone who was where he wasn’t supposed to be.

JJ NORTON

That would be my guess too – maybe a married man caught going over the side—

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