Earlier in the week, she’d contacted the chief coroner’s office with the five names on the corkboard.She figured she’d try the coroner’s office first to see if there were any suspicious deaths for any of these names—given the strange way in which the remains were buried.There would be fewer hits on those names than in the Registrar General’s records.
She was right.The coroner’s office confirmed that Jessica Hawkins, Elsie Chalifoux and Wilma Cardinal were dead and accounted for, with causes of death listed as “old age,” “heart failure,” and the maddeningly vague “natural.”It had two Annie Littles in its system, but no Emily Radcliffes.Stevens had swept into Rachel’s office two days before with the news, as soon as the fax had come through.
“What have you got?”Rachel had asked him, sitting down and leaning back in her chair.The overhead lights cast his hair a little fairer than it usually looked, and something about that, combined with the way he furrowed his brow, reminded her so much of his uncle Tom in that moment that she’d grinned.
Stevens had shuffled the short stack of pages in his hands.“One of these reports,” he said, sliding it across the desk to Rachel, “has an Annie Little with place of death listed as the Mercer Women’s Prison.December 1961.”
Rachel’s eyebrows shot up, and she nodded with satisfaction.“Excellent.”Her eyes slid down the page, and she felt a little twinge of pity.
Cause of death: Suicide
“Okay.”She’d handed the sheet back to Stevens, who looked on eagerly.“What’s the next step, then?”she said, testing him.
“Uh…Registrar General, I think?”
“You got it.Request all five of the names, then we can cross-reference birth and death certificates and see what we get.We’ll need marriage certificates, too.”Name changes for women were always a nightmare—it made everything harder to track.“We’re looking for any connection one of these women might have had to Millgate, or Huron County at all.”
Stevens had sent over the request that afternoon, but Rachel knew that, as always, it would take a few days for the registrar to come back with the records.In the meantime, they were still stumped on this unaccounted-for Emily Radcliffe.Was she dead?Or alive with a poorly managed prison record?Rachel hoped she might still be alive, as that would narrow the possible Jane Doe ID pool down to four.
Her next thought had been to get a warrant for tax records from the CRA, to see if any of that information might align with a woman who was alive and imprisoned in Toronto leading up to the early sixties.After waiting impatiently for the warrant to come through, Rachel was able to request information from the CRA: specifically, last known address andlast employer of Emily Radcliffes born between 1915 and 1945.But if the Emily Radcliffe from the Mercer prison hadn’t been born a Radcliffe, then they’d have to go back through marriage records to try to isolate new possible women.
“Rachel?”Crystal asks now from the doorway.
“Detective Mackenzie.Yes?”
“This came through for you.From the CRA.”Crystal walks in, hands her a large stack of paper.
“Thanks,” Rachel says after she’s already left, her attention turning immediately to the documents.She sifts through the pages.There are multiple hits from across the county, but two of the Emily Radcliffes are currently near Toronto.
She washes down the muffin with a swig of coffee and sits down.She runs a finger over the first record to locate the phone number, then dials.
“Hi there,” she says, introducing herself and her credentials.“I’m trying to track down an Emily Radcliffe who served time at the Mercer Women’s Prison in Toronto in the late fif—”
“I’m sorry, thewhat?”the woman exclaims.
“The Mercer Women’s Prison.In Toronto.Were you ever incarcerated there, ma’am?”
“I’m sorry,” she says, “I haven’t any clue what you’re talking about.I think you’re looking for someone else.”
She sounds genuine, so Rachel believes her.If she’s lying, Rachel has all her information now and can easily follow up.“All right, thank you for your time,” she says.
She takes a deep breath as sounds from the outer office drift through.She pulls out the record from the CRA for the second Emily Radcliffe and finds the number, but a harsh beeping sound fills her ear as a cold woman’s voice tells her it’s out of service.Frowning, Rachel hangs up and tries it again, with the same result.
“Okay,” she mutters.“Let’s see…”
She sifts through, scanning this woman’s information.She’s had a pretty stable life; just three addresses listed, the most recent of which isin the north end of Toronto.And one place of employment: Maclean-Hunter Ltd.
Rachel picks up the phone again, dials 411 and requests to be connected to Maclean-Hunter.A woman answers after one ring.Rachel identifies herself and explains the situation, and is promptly transferred to the human resources department, where she waits on hold for nearly ten minutes, doodling on the corner of her notepad as her mind wanders.When the HR rep finally picks up, Rachel gives her whole spiel and is put back on hold again while the woman checks their records.She comes back two minutes later.Rachel poises her pen over the page now, ready to write.She listens, her shoulders drooping as the woman speaks.
“Oh, okay,” Rachel says.“And when did that happen?”
CHAPTER 38
EMILY
December 24, 1961
Day 6 in isolation
