Chapter Twenty-one
Winter 1976It never ceased to amaze Matthew how every year, on the first day of winter, a cold front would envelope the city to signal the change of season. He had caught the ferry from Manly, and a thick fog had shrouded the harbour for most of the journey. As he walked up from Circular Quay to the Central Court of Petty Sessions in Liverpool Street, his breath had frosted in the early morning air and he smiled to himself in satisfaction. Raised in the Blue Mountains at over three thousand feet above sea level, he was used to a colder climate than Sydney, and the brisk air invigorated him.
Matthew had explained to Jessica Vandermeer that the committal proceedings in her case were really a formality. The hearing was before a stipendiary magistrate, where the prosecutio
