Read Online Person or Persons Unknown by Anthea Fraser - Free Book Online

you?’
    Quickly and as succinctly as possible, Rona outlined her proposal. When she finished, there was a lengthy silence.
    â€˜What do you think?’ she asked, when the suspense became unbearable.
    â€˜Not too keen, to be honest. Principally because I don’t want to be responsible for you getting into deep water, and it seems to me that’s the way you’re heading.’
    â€˜But surely it would be interesting to follow someone’s search for her birth parents?’
    â€˜Don’t be naïve, Rona; you know as well as I do it’s the murder angle that interests you. Oh, I know you’ve been there before, but at least on those occasions you stumbled into it unknowingly.’
    â€˜Surely being aware of it would give me an advantage? Quite apart from that, though, I’d like to have a go at running the father to earth. OK, so he went to Oz twenty-five years ago, but he might have come back since. If I could find
one
parent for her, it would be something.’
    There was another pause. ‘If I said no, would you still go ahead?’
    Rona considered the question. ‘Possibly. I was saying to Max that, either way, I’d set myself a time limit to come up with something. If there was absolutely nothing after six weeks, I’d give up. And I reckon, if I have to, I can afford to waste six weeks.’
    â€˜And if something
did
come up?’
    â€˜Well—’
    â€˜I take that as a “yes”. Tell you what: I’m not going to commission this article, and if you write it, I might not publish it. We may need the lawyers to look at it, for one thing. But if you produce something interesting and I feel it’s appropriate to the magazine, then I’ll certainly consider it. Will that do?’
    Rona sighed. ‘I suppose it’ll have to,’ she said.
    That evening, she phoned Zara.
    â€˜Rona! I wasn’t expecting – you said the end of the week.’
    â€˜I know, but I’ve reached my decision.’ No need to tell her of Barnie’s reservations. ‘I’m prepared to spend six weeks looking into your family, on the understanding that if I can’t find anything in that time, I’ll give up. Are you agreeable to that?’
    â€˜Oh.’ Pause. ‘I suppose so.’
    Take it or leave it
, Rona thought. ‘If you want me to go ahead on those terms, I’ll need quite a lot more information.’
    â€˜Of course – such as what?’
    â€˜For a start, photocopies of your birth and your mother’s death certificates. And I could do with
her
birth certificate, too; that would give your grandparents’ full names and address.’
    â€˜Oh, yes! I never—’
    â€˜Did you check for a marriage certificate, by the way?’
    â€˜I checked, but I never expected to find one.’
    â€˜And you didn’t?’
    â€˜No.’
    â€˜The next thing is, did you by any chance take copies of the write-ups in the papers?’
    â€˜Yes – every mention we could find.’
    â€˜That’s great – could I borrow them? There’s no point in duplicating the work.’
    Selina Someone
’s proper name might appear in the reports, Rona reckoned; failing that, she’d turn up the electoral register. The girl was sharing with Gemma, dammit; it was inconceivable that she hadn’t known more than she’d said.
    Now for the tricky bit. ‘There’s one thing more, Zara. If I find what we’re looking for, or any part of it, I must have complete freedom in writing it up. You can read it before I submit it, but on the understanding that the only changes I’ll agree to are errors of fact. In other words, even if there are parts you’d rather I left out, they’d have to stand.’
    â€˜You mean, once you’ve started, I can’t change my mind?’
    â€˜Not without very good reason.’
    â€˜OK, I suppose that’s fair