Page 96 of Murder in the Family

JJ NORTON

Which makes it evenmorelikely he was running from something.

MITCHELL CLARKE

(to Bill)

What do we know about this Fulton guy? Apart from the fact that he came from Alabama. Do we know why he was so keen to leave his real name behind?

BILL SERAFINI

I’m on it, but right now, we don’t know much.

ALAN CANNING

On the contrary, you seem to have discovered a vast amount in a remarkably short space of time.

JJ NORTON

You certainly have. I, for one, am impressed.

They all agree.

HUGO FRASER

Of course, you know what this means, don’t you?

There’s a silence; they’re all staring at him.

This man Fulton – he ended up being murdered, six years and three thousand miles from that bomb blast, because he was, or someonethoughthe was, ‘Luke Ryder’.

Fulton went to all that trouble to lose what we can only assume was a dangerous real identity, only to find himself with an even more dangerous fake one.

Out of the frying pan, and all that.

MITCHELL CLARKE

Or maybe it was his own past that caught up with him? Someone worked out he wasn’t ‘Luke Ryder’ at all, but Eric Fulton?

There’s another silence, as they take in the full implications of this.

JJ NORTON

(taking a deep breath)

So where does that leave us? Where do we go now?

HUGO FRASER

(laughs)

It’s like that old Irish joke: ‘I wouldn’t start from here’.

LAILA FURNESS

(turning to him)

But we have to gosomewhere, don’t we? Is it the real, pre-Beirut Luke Ryder we should be focusing on, or the fake one after it?

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