Page 176 of Murder in the Family

JJ NORTON

(looking up)

Actually, I might have something to add.

He gets up, goes over to the pinboard and points to one of the photos.

Remember this? The picture ‘Luke’ had in his wallet that we all thought was taken in Australia?

Camera zooms in on the PHOTO of a woman and a small blond boy standing stiffly outside a one-storey house with a concrete water tower in the background.

I’ve been wondering about this for a while. Obviously in theory this picture could be exactly what we assumed it was to start with: i.e., an image of the real Luke Ryder, which he had in his backpack when that bus bomb went off.

HUGO FRASER

Which ‘Eric’ found and kept because he knew it might help corroborate his identity? With Florence Ryder, for example.

JJ NORTON

Precisely. And I can see why he’d keep it, on that basis – it could be damn useful. But keeping it is one thing; keeping it in hiswalletis quite another.

Remember, it was the only photo he had in there. To my mind, that argues something much more personal.

LAILA FURNESS

I agree. That’s about ‘identity’ in a much more intimate sense.

MITCHELL CLARKE

Sorry – I’m not with you – are you saying this is actually a picture of Eric Fulton, so not taken in Kalgoorlie, like we thought, but in Alabama?

HUGO FRASER

(shaking his head)

No, JJ’s logic would still apply. We know this man wasn’t really Eric Fulton, any more than he was really Luke Ryder. An image of the real Eric would have no personal significance for him, so he’d have no reason to carry it around.

JJ NORTON

(nodding)

Exactly. I don’t think this photo is ofanyof this man’s aliases. I think it’s actuallyhim. The one thing from his real past that he allowed himself to keep. For whatever reason. In which case—

HUGO FRASER

—if we can work outwherethis was taken, we might just be able to work outwhohe was.

JJ NORTON

(pointing towards him)

In one.

BILL SERAFINI

(under his breath, frowning)

Why the hell didn’t I think of that?