Page 164 of Murder in the Family

JJ NORTON

Well, she certainly didn’t keep it, did she—

TAREK OSMAN

(pushing his glasses up his nose)

No, obviously not. But as I’m sure you know, adoption records are sealed, so it’s basically impossible to find out where the child ended up. Though it would probably have been placed with a local Midlands family, given that it would have been a Birmingham local authority dealing with it.

MITCHELL CLARKE

And as far as we know she never told anyone?

NICK VINCENT (Producer)

Well, Andrew Howard must have known: he’d have seen the scar just like we just did. But he’s the only one, as far as we can tell.

LAILA FURNESS

I haven’t seen Guy today – is he OK?

NICK VINCENT (Producer)

(shrugs)

As far as I know.

LAILA FURNESS

(evidently not impressed by this as an answer)

I’m not surprised he’s distraught – everything he thought he knew has been thrown into doubt—

JJ NORTON

I know what that’s like. And the older you are the more traumatic that is.

HUGO FRASER

I’m sure we’re all extremely sympathetic. But what I’m less sure about is whether this gives us a viable new line of enquiry in the murder investigation.

MITCHELL CLARKE

True. I mean, however resentful the abandoned child might have been, he or she would have no beef with anyone but Caroline. And certainly not with a husband she didn’t meet till more than twenty years later.

BILL SERAFINI

But we knowsomeonecame to the house that night – it has to be possible it was Caroline’s long-lost kid.

MITCHELL CLARKE

(doing the math)

If the kid was born in 1979 it’d be 44 now.

LAILA FURNESS

More to the point, he or she would have been 18 in 1997 and entitled to see their records at that stage, but there’s no suggestion they made contact with Caroline then. Why leave it till 2003?

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