I went back to my desk and looked up Homicide’s number. For the first time in years, the roller-coaster seemed to be slowing down. Maybe it might even come to a halt soon, and I’d be able to get off. Then again, maybe not. No-one was available to talk to me. I left an angry message that I was to be called urgently, making sure to tell them that I was calling on the Coroner’s behalf. Sure enough, one of their senior officers called back soon after. After I got off the phone, I walked down the hall to tell Jan what they’d had to say.

‘I just spoke to one of the Homicide Bosses,’ I said. ‘I think he pretty much shat himself about the urgency of you wanting to see them. Either way, they’ll be here for a meeting with you on Friday at 10 am. Is that sweet?’

‘Sure is! Did you tell them to bring something yummy, like a cake or something?’

‘No, I didn’t…but I guess that could be arranged.’

Jokes aside now, Jan spoke very seriously. ‘Now Pete, you’re sure there’s nothing else I should know?’

‘No, Ma’am. I swear. The bones are the last thing I need done. I know you’re going out on a limb, and I really appreciate it.’

She looked at me earnestly. ‘You know, you made me feel so welcome when I came here, and I won’t forget that. I know you’re an honest bloke, and you’re a lot like me, except for the bloke part.’ She let out a hearty laugh. ‘What am I talking about? We’re nothing alike. If I go down, Seymour, you’re coming with me.’

‘I appreciate that, Ma’am, but I assure you, we won’t be going down on this one.’

Later that day, I got a phone call. It was Rod Dayment from Homicide. ‘Pete, how’s it going? I heard the Coroner wants to see us on Friday and wants to know why the bones haven’t been taken to America. She hasn’t got the shits with us, has she?’

Sensing his concern, I played along. ‘Mate, she ain’t real happy. The bones have been lying around for years, and the Americans are the leading experts in this kind of stuff. She wants to conclude as many unsolved murders as possible, and the DNA testing is the last thing that needs doing. She wants to know when it’s going to happen.’

‘Mate, we’re making inquiries with the Americans, and it looks like they’ll be able to do it. I might have to provide them with an overview of our investigation in return for them pushing it up the list for us, though.’

Whilst I had all the time in the world for Rod, who was a bloody top bloke, I hated the way he said ‘our’ investigation. No it wasn’t; it was mine and Mick’s.

‘That’s good news, Rod,’ I said. ‘I think the Coroner will be very happy.’

She was, and so was I. I got to work that Friday with a new spring in my step; it might be over, once and for all. It was 9 am when the Coroner came to my desk.

‘I think we might have this meeting in the courtroom, at the bar table. It might reinforce to them what the hell we’re working for here. It’s a bit more imposing in there, and it might make them feel a bit more uncomfortable. Hopefully they’ll tell us what we want to hear.’ I loved her accompanying grin; knowing yet cheeky.

‘Ma’am, I like the way you think. I’ll open the courtroom.’

The Homicide blokes got there just before 10 am. Geoff McNevin, the Boss, was accompanied by Rod Dayment and Neil Tuckerman, who was assisting Rod with the investigation. They walked into the Prosecutor’s area, adjacent to the courtroom.

‘G’day, Pete,’ Rod said as he walked into the room.

‘G’day, Rod. How’s things?’

‘Good, thanks, mate. You know Geoff, don’t you?’

‘Yeah. G’day, Geoff,’ I said, shaking his hand.

‘And this is Neil Tuckerman,’ Rod continued.

‘G’day, Neil,’ I said, and shook his hand too, before turning, very casually, to pick some papers up from my desk. ‘The Coroner wants to see you in the courtroom. There’s more space in there. I’ll take you in and let her know you’re here.’

I led them into the room, switched on the lights and indicated the chairs where they were to sit. ‘I’ll be back in a minute,’ I said, and headed for Jan’s office.

When I arrived, I paused at the Coroner’s door for a moment and watched her reading a court document. A couple of gentle knocks on the door got her attention. ‘The Homicide boys are here, Ma’am. I took them into the courtroom, and they’re awaiting your presence,’ I said with an overly exaggerated polite tone.

‘Oh, isn’t that nice,’ she responded, with an equal measure of sarcasm. ‘I guess I’ll just have to join them. Are they nervous?’ Her smile told me she hoped they were.

‘A little. It’ll be interesting to hear what they’ve got to say.’

She rose regally from her desk and, walking with the grace and poise of a head of state about to sign a peace treaty that was totally in our favour, followed me down the hall. As she entered the courtroom, the Homicide boys moved to rise from their chairs.

‘Oh, no,’ she said. ‘Don’t get up; this will be an informal chat.’

I was sure that the mention of the word ‘informal’ scared them even more. She made her way to the chair opposite them, and I introduced her. She looked McNevin square in the eye. ‘I understand that the bones relating to the Keir case have been tested in Melbourne without any conclusive evidence being obtained. Is that correct?’

That was one of the things about Jan Stevenson. She’d do things so calmly and so politely, while still commanding absolute respect. She wouldn’t do anything too dramatic, but boy, all and sundry knew not to mess with her. Her personality was certainly impacting on McNevin, and he clasped his hands together as if he was praying to the Big Fella upstairs for salvation.

‘Yes, Ma’am. That’s right. We’re looking at taking the bones to America, but we’re waiting on further approval.’

‘Okay,’ she continued. ‘Now, as I understand it, police were told by a forensic scientist in Melbourne some years ago that the Americans were the leaders when it came to DNA testing. My concern is why the bones haven’t been taken there already. I take it that this is the last line of investigation?’

‘Yes, that’s right,’ Rod Dayment interjected, trying to look as comfortable as possible in a difficult situation. ‘The problem is the cost factor, and whether the Americans could guarantee a result if we took the bones over there. They’ve also been very busy, and we’ve had to wait.’

The Coroner could sense that McNevin was her man, so she clasped her hands together and leant in closer to him. ‘Right. Well, as you know, the police investigate these matters on my behalf, and I can direct inquiries in any way I see fit. So, I want you to tell me when these bones are going to be taken to America. I don’t want to hear about costs or time or anything like that,’ she said, looking at Rod Dayment. ‘I just want to know when they’re going to be taken over there.’

‘Ma’am, I will give you an undertaking that the bones will be taken over there,’ said McNevin.

She shot him a look that would have made Stalin shiver. ‘Mmmm, that’s fine, yes, but I want to know how soon you can get them over there. There has been far too much time wasted on this case already, and this matter needs bringing to a head, not the least for the deceased’s family, who must be under enormous stress waiting for these tests to be conducted.’

‘I’ll make the necessary calls and get back to you with an answer,’ McNevin said rather nervously.

‘Yes, thank you. I expect that this will be in the near future?’

‘Yes, Ma’am, it will.’

‘Right,’ she said, quite chirpily. ‘Well, I think that is all for the morning, gentlemen. Let Peter know when this will take place. Now, my understanding so far leads me to believe that if the DNA testing is successful, then Mr Keir can be interviewed straight away. Am I correct?’

‘Yes, Ma’am, that is the case,’ said Rod. If we get the results we’re looking for, we’ll be in a position to re-interview Mr Keir and charge him with Jean’s murder.’

‘I look forward to this matter being finalised soon,’ said Jan as she once again rose regally from her chair and extended her hand to McNevin. ‘Nice to meet you.’

‘Yes, nice to meet you too, Ma’am.’

Jan shook hands with Dayment and Tuckerman, and we all walked from the courtroom.

I escorted the boys to the exit. ‘I’ll give you a call as soon as we get in touch with the Americans and sort things out,’ Rod said as he shook my hand.

‘No worries, Rod,’ I said. I went back to the Coroner’s office with a huge smile. The only time I’d had a bigger smile was on the three occasions when Sue had told me she was pregnant, and the three subsequent occasions when my beautiful girls had been born.

‘Well, how do you think that went?’ the Coroner asked me as I walked into her office.

‘I think it went very well. I kinda got the feeling they couldn’t wait to be out of there.’

‘As long as they get the bones over there, then I’m happy. Let me know as soon as you hear something. Chase them like a greyhound after a rabbit if you don’t hear from them in a few days.’

‘Yes, Ma’am, will do. Hey, thanks for doing that,’ I said with genuine gratitude.

‘That’s quite okay. As I said, I’ve never stuck my neck out like that before, but for some reason, I trust you. I don’t know why; I must be losing my marbles.’

‘No, Ma’am, your marbles are in the bag. You won’t be disappointed. You just wait and see.’

‘I hope so. You’d better be right about this, Seymour.’

I went back to my desk with a tremendous feeling of satisfaction, like the one you get from a hot chocolate on a cold day, or a beer after a hard day’s work. All the moments of doubt seemed to drift away like leaves on the wind. For the first time in a long time, I felt like I could face Christine Strachan without having to weave a web of sometimes hollow promises.

The call came a few days later; the bones were to be taken to America. Approval had been given to hand the bones to scientists at the United States Department of Defence. Rod Dayment left on 16 September 1997, and arranged to have some holidays whilst the bones remained in storage in San Francisco. After that, they would be taken to the U.S. Armed Forces DNA Identification Lab in Rockville, Maryland. Whilst he was over there, Rod was to give a presentation to their law enforcement officers about how the Keir case had unfolded up to the point where he’d brought the bones over, with one bone being left in Australia in case the others were destroyed. I was happy the case was finally moving again.

Nancy Koszelak was the scientist who did the testing. Her work focused on obtaining mitochondrial DNA sequences from the remains of American soldiers who were believed to have died in the Vietnam, Korean and Second World Wars. Whenever the Americans found a body or some remains believed to be from a missing G.I., it was Nancy’s job to conclusively prove that those bones belonged to a deceased serviceman. Her lab had developed special expertise in extracting DNA no matter what condition the bones were in, especially bones recovered from difficult terrain. She was doing successful DNA tests on bones that could have been in some remote Pacific jungles for nigh on sixty years, pretty amazing stuff really; precisely the kind of expertise we needed to prove that the bones were Jean’s.

She performed the tests late in October 1997 using the two biggest bones, the left kneecap and the right big toe, choosing bones from either side of the body for the best results. She analysed one bone at a time, sanding back the entire internal and external surfaces to make sure there were no contaminants. In order to be entirely sure, she washed the bones in ethanol first. She then extracted mitochondrial sequences from both bones, and found that they matched. The bones definitely came from the same person, but the real question was, did they match the genetic sequences from Christine Strachan and Gaspar Baan?

Eventually, she was able to confirm that the sequences matched. The bones were consistent with having come from a child of Christine Strachan and Gaspar Baan.

One thing I’ll say about the American scientists is that they were very thorough, leaving nothing to chance. Despite the fact that Nancy had proven that the mitochondrial DNA matched Jean’s, she passed the blood and bones to Dr Demris Lee, who was the Technical Leader of the Nuclear DNA Section. This section dealt primarily with recent death investigations, where individuals had perished in aircraft mishaps, explosions, gunshots or bombings. Ms Lee conducted her tests on 20 November.

Complete nuclear DNA profiles were obtained from both the bones and the blood, the profiles being based on nine chromosomal markers plus a sexing marker. The two bones were identical. The bones came from the body of a female, and matched the blood samples perfectly. There was no doubt about it; the bones belonged to Jean Angela Keir.

I was in my office preparing a brief in relation to a fatal motor accident when my phone rang.

‘Is that Officer Seymour? This is Officer Lyons.’

‘G’day, Mick!’ I said. ‘How are things?’

‘Bloody good, mate! I just got off the phone to Rod Dayment. The bones match the blood samples. Rod’s organising for the bones to be brought back to Australia. He’s just waiting for the Yanks to do their report. Once he gets back, he’ll get Keir in and interview him.’

‘I take it that means we have enough to charge him with Jean’s murder?’

‘Yeah, mate, this was all we were waiting for. Looks like we’ve finally got him.’

I couldn’t believe it. Almost a decade in the making, and at last, we could charge him. We’d finally reached the climax; the story was to have a happy ending. I didn’t know how to feel. I didn’t know what to think. I wondered where Keir was. Was he on another publicity mission? ‘Well, mate, you’ll be getting a lot of publicity very shortly,’ I thought. Lost in my own world, I almost forgot I still had Mick on the other end of the phone. ‘That’s bloody great news, Mick. I’ll let the Coroner know. She’ll want to know when they’re going to charge Keir.’ Without thinking about it, I then went into a bit of a ramble about all the proceedings we’d have to undertake at our end.

‘Yeah, mate,’ said Mick sarcastically. ‘I think I’ll leave you to sort all that shit out.’

No sooner had I put the phone down than I was in the Coroner’s office. ‘So, why are you so happy?’ said Jan after I’d skipped in there like a cashed-up kid walking into a sweet shop.

‘I just got news that the Americans have matched the DNA from the bones. That’s all we needed; as soon as the Homicide boys get the report, they’ll arrest Keir.’

‘That’s fantastic news, Pete. I knew I could trust you!’

‘I told you,’ I said, unable to help myself from being one of those ‘I told you so’ people. ‘Must make you feel good to know you have such good staff.’

‘Spare me,’ she said. ‘Just make sure the paperwork is crisp. I suppose you’ll enjoy having this matter finalised in court?’

‘Ma’am, words cannot express.’