Page 38 of Murder in the Family

HUGO FRASER

A world away, and even more so back then. About as poles apart as two places could be that are barely a mile from each other. You’re talking drugs, violence, gun and knife crime. Not a pretty picture.

MITCHELL CLARKE

(looking at him)

And almost all of that was – andis– the direct result of deprivation, poor housing, even poorer education, and yes – sorry, but I have to say it – endemicand ‘institutional’ racism. Those stories need telling.

HUGO FRASER

(holding up his hands; he’s wearing designer leather gloves)

Hey, I’m not disagreeing. Look at me. I’m hardly your average WASP.

BILL SERAFINI

So how did you find out about the Ryder case, Mitch? Doesn’t sound like your usual beat.

MITCHELL CLARKE

It wasn’t. But like many local journos I kept a watching brief on police radio traffic—

CUT TO: Library FOOTAGE of police scanner; CLOSE-UP as user tunes in, picking up snatches of police dialogue.

BILL SERAFINI

You listened in, right? To get the inside track on what was going down?

MITCHELL CLARKE

And I heard them calling a car to that address and I just had a hunch. Bad shit just doesn’t happen round here.

(gestures round at the street)

I mean, look at this place.

Anyway, I had nothing else on, I was close by, so I came over on spec.

BILL SERAFINI

And what did you find when you got here?

MITCHELL CLARKE

Well, as you can see, the house isn’t even visible from the road – it took me about five minutes just to find this bloody gate. I parked up over there, on the other side of the road, and when the squad car arrived and got buzzed in, I got out and followed them up the drive on foot.

ALAN CANNING

Which, of, course was unlawful—

MITCHELL CLARKE

Technically, yes.

ALAN CANNING

Not just technically. Actually. That’s why you ended up—

---