She went into the bedroom and closed the door.
‘You first,’ he said.
She told him about Poppy’s message—the email with the photo of the article—and what Trent had said about Maddie’s pregnancy.
‘That’s weird,’ Jimmy said.
‘What is?’
‘I’ve been through the whole file now.There’s no record of your dad giving a statement.’
Nel frowned.‘You still think it’s just poor file management?’
‘I don’t know.’A pause.‘This contact of his, you reckon it’s Frisk?’
‘I think so.Trent didn’t deny it.’
‘I wonder what else Frisk knows.He didn’t offer up any information about the case when I asked him if I could look at the file, but he was very quick to give me the go-ahead.’
‘Where’s O’Neill these days?Maybe we should talk to him.’
‘He died a couple of years ago.’
She sighed.‘Bugger.’
‘Did Trent say anything else?’
She thought of the mysterious comment Trent had made about Jimmy.She didn’t know how much weight to give it but it had thrown her a little.She trusted Jimmy, but now she was questioning her judgement.What wasn’t he telling her?
‘No, nothing else.’
They went round in circles debating what to do about the emails.Nel suggested replying, but Jimmy said it would inflame the situation.He said he’d follow up with the internet company, but that until then it was best to do nothing.She knew he was right—without proof that Ryan was sending them, there really wasn’t anything they could do—but it seemed ridiculous all the same.
‘So, what were you going to tell me?’Nel said eventually, remembering that Jimmy was the one who called her with news.
‘Well, as I said, I’ve been through the file.A lot of it is what you’d expect.Photos.Transcripts of interviews with you, Ryan, the fishermen who saw his car, but then I came across a DNA report done on evidence collected at the scene.’
There was a flutter in her stomach.‘What evidence?’
‘Investigators found a number of hairs at the lookout the day Maddie was reported missing and sent them off for analysis.From what I can gather, they must have thought the hair had been pulled out because there were a number of strands found in a clump, follicles attached.They asked Ryan about it when they interviewed him—it’s in the transcript—but he flat out denied even being there.’
‘What about the ring?Did they ask him about that?’
‘He denied knowing anything about that too.He said Maddie was wearing it when he broke up with her months before and he hadn’t seen it since.Anyway, they were able to create a full DNAprofile from the hair sample.Hair’s good, especially if the follicle’s attached.’
‘Do we know whose DNA it is?’
‘We know it belongs to a man, but that’s it.Back in 2010, the national DNA database was less than ten years old and they didn’t come up with a match.These days the database has been around for twenty-five years and a few things have changed, which could work in our favour.’
‘Like what?’
‘Well, back then they only searched for a direct match, so the person who the sample came from had to have their DNA stored in the database already.The chances of that were pretty slim.Since then, they’ve introduced familial searching, which means now a search can identify biological relatives of an unknown profile.’
‘Right,’ Nel spoke slowly, trying to follow his thinking.‘So you think the database might give us an answer now?’
‘The odds are a hell of a lot better.If Ryan, or one of his brothers, has their DNA stored, we’ll get a match.If the sample does actually belong to Ryan, that is.Anyway, it’s good news.’
‘How soon will we hear something?’
