An Iron Rose Read Online Free PDF

the skull. We called in the police.’
     
A police spokesman said the remains were human and had been taken to Melbourne for forensic examination.
     
    I turned to Tuesday’s paper. The follow-up story was also on the front page, under the headline: Mine Body Is Young Woman.
     
    It began:
     
The remains of a body found in an old mine shaft near Rippon yesterday have been identified as those of a young woman.
     
Melbourne forensic scientist James LaPalma said yesterday the skeleton was that of a woman, probably under twenty. It was at least ten years old. The cause of death had not been positively ascertained but an initial examination suggested that her neck had been broken.
     
A spokesman for the Victoria Police said the discovery was being treated as a murder. An inquiry was underway.
     
    The third paper, published on a Thursday in June, didn’t have a front-page story on the skeleton in the mine. The story was on page three, under a photograph of a chain with a broken catch. On the chain was a small silver star.
     
Man’s Chain Find Near Deat h Mine A man fossicking for gold with a metal detector near the mine shaft where the remains of a young woman’s body were discovered last month yesterday found a silver ankle chain police say may belong to the woman.
     
The man, who does not wish to be identified, found the broken chain about one hundred metres from the entrance to the mine shaft and two hundred metres from the track through the State forest near Rippon.
     
    The story went on to repeat the information in the two previous ones. The police asked anyone who recognised the chain to come forward. I read all three stories again, finished my beer and went home.
     

I rang the newspaper and asked for Kate Fegan, the name on the stories about the skeleton.
    ‘Kate, my name’s Milton, Geoff Milton. Canberra Times. I wonder if you can get me up to date on a story you handled about six weeks ago?’
     
    Lying comes easily when you’ve lived my kind of life.
     
    ‘Well, sure. If I can.’ She was young, probably just out of her cadetship.
     
    ‘The body in the mine shaft. Has that been identified?’
     
    ‘No. The teeth are really all they’ve got to go on and they’re no help. She had all her teeth, no fillings. She probably never saw a dentist, so there wouldn’t be any dental records. They’re pretty sure it isn’t someone local. That’s about all.’
     
    ‘Why’s that?’
     
    ‘There’s no-one missing from around that time. No-one that age.’
     
    ‘They’ve put a time on it?’
     
    ‘Within a year, they reckon. Around 1985.’
     
    ‘How’d they do that?
     
    ‘The shire put a track in there in late 1984. Before that you had to walk about five kilometres through dense bush to reach the mine. Then there’s the decomposition. There’s a scientist in Sydney who specialises in that. Reckons no later than 1985 to ’86. Firm on that.’
     
    ‘And her age?’
     
    ‘Around sixteen. They can tell from the wrist bones.’
     
    I said, ‘So there’s nothing with the remains? Clothes, stuff like that?’
     
    ‘Nothing. No trace of clothes or shoes, no jewellery. She was probably naked when she was thrown down.’
     
    ‘And the cause of death?’
     
    ‘Difficult to say. Her neck was broken. But that might have happened after death. That was in another story I wrote. Are you doing a story?’
     
    ‘Just a general piece on missing girls,’ I said. ‘So they don’t hold out much hope of identifying her?’
     
    ‘It would be pure luck, they say. I could fax you the clippings.’
     
    ‘Thanks, but I think I’ve got everything I need. You’ve been a big help.’
     
    As I put the phone down, Lew came in, tracksuit and runners, hair wet with rain, sallow skin shining.
     
    ‘You play in this?’ I said.
     
    ‘Just the short game. He made me hit about a million.’
     
    ‘He’s a hard man. Hope it’s worthwhile. Listen, I want to talk to you about school.’
     
    Lew had