As I started my Mitsubishi on the slow, tedious drive down the mount, the question was where to start my new day’s investigations?   It was possible that old Lawrie Grimes knew more than he had told me the previous day, and might be more forthcoming without the presence of his replacement Bear Ross listening in.   On the other hand, if I could track down the Hilliards (whose home address could be located from the local electoral roles in the Glen Hartwell City Library of course), it might be worth another chat with the elderly couple.

Throughout the drive to the Glen my mind wavered between Lawrie Grimes and the Hilliards, before finally settling upon the elderly couple.   Reaching Glen Hartwell I drove up Blackland Street and had almost reached the library on the corner of Dirk Hartog Place, when my eye was caught by the fluttering of paper.   Looking to my right I saw an ad. for the Glen Hartwell Herald Daily Mail in a metal holder, and thought, “Of course, the newspapers!”   If seven people had been butchered in the area in 1982, the newspapers would have had a field day revelling in all the gory details at the time, and would have back-copies or clippings stored in their records section.

Moments later I pulled up outside the Herald Daily Mail, situated opposite the railway station in Theobald Street.   The Mail was housed in a small-fronted, three-level building, with the printing presses on the top level, the reporters and business offices at ground level, and the records department in the basement.   After paying the $25.00 finders’ fee, I explained to the small, balding, bespectacled records clerk, Mendell Watts, that I was interested in finding details of the seven unsolved murders committed in the area in mid 1982 …

“Oh yes, yes,” said Watts, hitching his glasses a fraction up the bridge of his nose with one finger, licking his lips, eyes shining from interest, “yes I remember the case very well.   As luck would have it, I only started working in the basement a few days before the first murder was committed … otherwise I might have missed some of the more sensational details!”

“How lucky can you get!” I thought, careful not to voice the thought aloud, for fear of offending Watts.   It turned out to be fortunate for me that he had picked up the gory details, since apart from being able to locate clippings almost immediately, he was also able to supply me with many details off the top of his head, details which confirmed Lawrie Grimes’ story.