Deconstructing Bridges

Chapter Thirteen

It was not possible.
Matthew repeated those words as he hurried back to Eddie's desk, collapsing into the chair and yanking the file open, rifling through.
He remembered the name, recognised it instantly from the case file when Bethany had spoken it only moments ago.
Nichole Lawson.
How was it possible?
"Matt, what is it? What's wrong?"
With eyes glazed over in astonishment he looked up at Hayley who had looked over from her desk. At the sight of his face, she quickly stood and came to crouch beside him.
"What happened?"

When he found the section he was looking for, his index finger ran over the page, guiding her searching gaze. He could barely think of speaking. He was aware of her sharply drawing her breath in as she glanced at him in shock.
"Lawson? As in...?"
He couldn't answer. Snapshots from the last couple of days were flicking through his mind like a slideshow, it was happening so fast he almost felt as though he was fighting to grab onto the details.
They had thought Bethany had called her 'Coal'.
No, not 'Coal'.
Cole.
Nichole Lawson.
Seventeen years of age when both her parents and younger sister Sara had been murdered in their Ballarat home. She'd arrived at the family home shortly after they had discovered the youngest sibling Alexandra had first gone missing ten years ago.

Nichole Lawson was the eldest, almost forgotten sister of Alexandra Lawson, the warehouse victim.

He heard steps land beside him and he looked up, still overcome with shock.
"Eddie? Is it possible?"
His partner lifted his hands in a helpless gesture.
"Let me talk to her. You have to let me talk to her."
"Matt..."
Eddie was already shaking his head, but then abruptly looked behind him and they saw the captain standing opposite him and he stood, the folder still within his hands.
"We have to verify it first. Don't assume anything just yet. It could be a trick."
"Do you really think that?" he asked, the knuckles of his hands white with tension as he stared at Parker.
"I'm not taking any chances. Not with this case. There's too much on the line if we're wrong."
Matthew was already shaking his head vehemently in disagreement.
"Captain, if it's right, if you verify it and it's the truth, please let me be in there with Eddie when you talk to her. I have to look her in the eye. I have to hear it for myself. Please."
Parker glanced at both of them.
"We're already being watched, Matthew. We can't mishandle this. I told you before - this case is not getting taken away from me."
He paused.
"But I'll think about it."
Parker looked down at the file in his hands before placing it down on the desk. Matthew recognised the photographs which had previously belonged on Parker's office wall. The pictures of the victims. As Parker stared wearily at the array, Matthew did not have to guess whose picture had him so enthralled, nor why he was studying it as though he had never seen it before.

As his ears roared, Parker explained to him that Bethany Reilly and James Krause had just stepped out to talk further in Krause's office. Bethany was adamant that no one talk to Nichole again without her presence, and had even pushed for her to have a medical check. Since yesterday's incident with Eddie, she had not slept, had not eaten or even accepted a drink of water.
"Bethany was having a pretty heated fight with Krause when they walked out just now. She's determined to get her out, at least on bail, she's convinced that she can get a judge to agree. And I don't know if we can stop it. I don't even know if we should stop it. There's a lot we don't know, but if she was the sister..."
Parker turned, his arms crossed.
"Of all the things I was prepared for when we found out that she was an imposter, this wasn't one of them. I'm sorry, Bridges. I really am."
Matthew stood, his hands repeatedly clenching and releasing, still trying to think of a plausible explanation.
"Like you said. It could be a lie. Right? It could be a lie? This still doesn't make sense. People don't just disappear and come back with a new name. She's... Why-?"
He sank back into his chair and Parker leaned forward onto the desk.
"We'll find out. If she's hoping to cut a deal, she has to share what she knows. There is no way that Krause will support anything without that as a bare minimum. I'm going over there now. I want to be there when Krause decides what charges are going to be laid down. As soon as I know anything, I'll let you know."
Matthew picked up the file as Parker walked away, and as he carried it back to his own desk his mind felt like it was about to implode. Everything inside his body was on edge as thought there was a demon inside trying to fight its way free. Perhaps there was. The disbelieving demon desperately wanted to go back to that cell and find out for himself if it was true, but instead he forced himself under sufficient control to sit and stare as his computer screen.