Page 139 of Murder in the Family

I think you could be onto something there. Maybe that’s what made it different this time.

LAILA FURNESS

But we’re just spinning on nothing without some actualfactsabout this man.

ALAN CANNING

Precisely. So, Bill – have you discovered anything more since we last got together? Did New York’s finest come up with the goods?

BILL SERAFINI

I was just coming to that.

(gets up and goes to the board)

I got lucky. One of the detectives in Manhattan PD is a guy I trained back when he was just a rookie, so I called in a favour.

(turns and pins up a photo)

Given that our current theory is that the real Eric Fulton died some time in the mid to late ’90s in New York, I got my guy to run Fulton’s picture against deceased John Does in the city for that period. And we hit pay dirt.

He gestures to the picture; it’s an autopsy shot, the eyes are closed and the face is badly bruised on one side.

Remember I said I thought the real Eric Fulton might have been the victim of some sort of violence? Well, this man died as a result of a street mugging in Brooklyn in December 1994. There were no witnesses – at least none who were prepared to make a formal statement – but there was definitely some suggestion that it could have been a hate crime. The attack took place in the early hours of the morning only a few hundred yards from a known gay bar.

The vic had no ID or wallet on him when he was found a couple of hours later, and despite repeated police appeals no one came forward. As of now, he remains officially unidentified.

JJ NORTON

You think it could be the real Eric Fulton? And our mystery man stole the ID off the body?

BILL SERAFINI

Has to be possible. There was more than enough time for someone to find him and go through his pockets before the cops showed up. And we know our man was nothing if not opportunistic. Look at what happened in Beirut.

JJ NORTON

Did you ask NYPD to run this John Doe’s DNA against Fulton’s family?

BILL SERAFINI

I did. No news as yet though.

LAILA FURNESS

(still staring at the photo)

He’d been living in New York for years and yet no one appears to have noticed he was missing?

BILL SERAFINI

Evidently not.

LAILA FURNESS

That strikes me as very sad.

BILL SERAFINI