RACHEL
June, 1996
Rachel takes a deep breath and looks down at the phone number she’s been given by the HR rep at Maclean-Hunter.Emily Radcliffe retired fromChatelainethree years ago, and they don’t have a new phone number for her.Instead, they’ve provided the contact for the magazine’s former editor-in-chief, Doris Anderson, who’s apparently still friends with Radcliffe.Her name rings a bell, but Rachel can’t quite place it.Something to do with politics, she thinks.She’ll have to look it up later.But for now, she dials.
“Hi, Ms.Anderson,” she begins.“My name is Rachel Mackenzie, I’m a detective with the OPP in Huron County.”
A pause.“How can I help you, Detective?”
“I was given your phone number by someone in the HR department at Maclean-Hunter.I’ve been trying to track down one of your former employees.The person at Maclean-Hunter said she worked under you atChatelainein the early sixties until your departure.Emily Radcliffe: Do you know how I might be able to reach her?”
“Is she in some kind of trouble?”
“No,” Rachel says.“But I very much need to speak with her about a current investigation.She may have some detail that’s essential to the case.”
“Well,” Doris Anderson says, her voice age-crackled but strong.“Emily was my protege.One of my best journalists and employees.Yes,I can give you her phone number.We still have lunch once or twice a year.”She gives a little cough.
“And can I confirm her address with you?”Rachel reads off the one in Rosedale.
“Yes, that’s correct.Now, might I inquire as to the nature of your investigation, Detective?”
“It’s regarding the time she spent at the Mercer Women’s Prison in Liberty Village.We’re investigating the ID of a Jane Doe that was found in a cemetery up here in Huron County recently.We had five possible IDs, but we’ve been able to rule out three, leaving Emily Radcliffe and another inmate who was there around the same time, an Annie Little.I’m trying to figure out whether Radcliffe might have known Little while she was there.”
There’s a long sigh on the other end of the line.
“Ms.Anderson?”
“Yes,” Doris says softly.“Emily knew Annie Little.They were friends.And Annie died in Emily’s arms, right there in the middle of the prison mess hall with the other women looking on.Dreadful thing.Just dreadful.”
Rachel’s gut gives a little lurch of excitement, the same one she gets every time she feels that tug at the end of a good lead.If Annie Little is dead and Emily Radcliffe is alive, she might finally have the identity of her Jane Doe.Though how Annie Little ended up in Millgate remains the big question.Except…
“How…how does Radcliffe say Annie Little died?”
Doris clears her throat.“Emily vehemently maintains that Annie Little was murdered by the prison doctor, but it could never be proved.That horrid woman went down for corruption and abuse, but not for the murder.She claimed one of the matrons must have been careless, allowed Annie Little access to an overdose of medication, and that she deliberately took her own life after years of psychosis.But Emily believes to this day that Annie was well in the mind, and was murdered.”
“The coroner’s report deemed it suicide,” Rachel tells her.
“Mm.Is that so?”
“Yes.”
“Mm,” Doris grunts again.“Seems a rather unlikely cause of death for a woman who perished in front of a hundred witnesses, all of whom said the only matron who took any action was the one later accused of recklessly allowing access to the drugs.It seems rather odd, does it not, that that particularly inept matron would be the one to care so much about Annie Little’s fate, and attempt to save her life.That seems rather inconsistent to me.
“But, I suppose, the hundred and twenty witnesseswereall criminals,” Doris goes on.“Prostitutes.The mentally ill.And all women.Not populations that are typically given the benefit of the doubt by society, now are they?”
“Ma’am,” Rachel says, “it’s not my place to comment on that.I’m sure you understand.”
“I wonder if coroners are corruptible,” the older woman says, her voice a little louder now.“Whether they have greater fortitude against bribery or blackmail than, say, politicians?Or judges?Police officers?”Rachel shifts in her seat, and unwittingly, her eyes seek Green, just visible through her glass door in his own office across the hall.“But I suppose that’s for you to find out.”
Rachel is eager to bring this interview to an end.She’s used to being able to command a conversation, especially if her interviewee is a woman.But something about Doris Anderson makes her shrink as though she’s being challenged by a stern and intelligent schoolteacher.
“Could I have Emily Radcliffe’s number, please?”Rachel asks pointedly.
“Yes.But Detective.”Doris pauses, and her bristly demeanor suddenly falls away to softness.“Please be…gentlewith her.I’m afraid the scars she acquired in the line of duty have never fully healed.”
“Well, she’s not in any trouble,” Rachel assures her.“I think, actually, we might be able to provide her with a bit of closure.There’s just one piece missing from this case that I’m hoping she can help us solve.”
“Which piece?”
