Inside the Law. Vikki Petraitis

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      McFayden walked over to the doctor who was removing his bloodied gown. ‘What’s the verdict, doctor?’ he asked.

      ‘I think she was alive when the chest wounds occurred because there is evidence of extensive internal bleeding around these wounds.’

      ‘How long would it have taken her to die?’

      ‘It could have taken five minutes or so, but she probably would have been unconscious earlier than that.’

      ‘How about the “A”?

      ‘I can’t say for certain whether she was alive then, but I think not.’

      ‘Anything else you can add?’

      ‘Only that prior to the attack she was a healthy young woman with every chance of living till she was 80.’

      With the possibility that Vivienne had suicided off the Phillip Island bridge, members from the Search and Rescue Squad searched Western Port Bay. If she had jumped, there was a good possibility police divers would find her.

      After an initial drifting period where air is expired from a body, it becomes a dead weight and sinks. But, as the body decomposes, it fills with gases and floats again. It was believed, in the early days, that if Vivienne had jumped, she should be located relatively close to the bridge. Or at least her glasses or shoes might be there.

      Divers searching the sea bed in sweeping arcs designed to cover the area under the bridge thoroughly, failed to find any trace of Vivienne.

      Even though Search and Rescue were optimistic that if she had jumped, they would find her, there had been cases of people drowning in Westernport Bay who had never been recovered. Since their search turned up nothing, it left them with two possible scenarios: either she jumped and drifted away, or she didn’t jump at all.

      At 10am the morning after Beth Barnard was murdered, a local woman called Glenda Frost received a phone call that would haunt her for years to come, although, at the time, she didn’t think anything of it.

      Her friend Pam arrived to stay at Glenda’s house in the afternoon of Monday 22 September, after working an early shift as a nurse at a Melbourne hospital. Glenda had been at work all day too, and the two friends spent the evening chatting.

      It was 10 o’clock on Tuesday morning when the phone rang in the kitchen. Pam, who was elbow-deep in soapy water washing the breakfast dishes, called to Glenda, who was getting dressed, to answer the phone.

      ‘Pam, I’m so busy today – I haven’t got time to chat to anyone. Can you answer it?’

      ‘It won’t be for me – answer it yourself!’ laughed Pam.

      Glenda hurried out from her bedroom and reluctantly picked up the phone: ‘Hello?’

      ‘It’s Viv Cameron here, Glenda.’

      ‘Hi Viv, you’re lucky to catch me, I’m normally at work by now but I’m hand-sewing at home today for the fashion parade,’ Glenda said.

      ‘Have you found out where to buy the patchwork house gift for Isobel?’

      Glenda remembered meeting Vivienne outside the post office the previous week and Vivienne had asked her where she could buy the patchwork house.

      ‘Call Dianne. Her sister makes the patchwork houses. Do you want her number? I have it right here,’ said Glenda. ‘Have you got a pencil?’

      When Vivienne went silent, Glenda assumed she was writing the number down. Vivienne’s side of the conversation was interrupted by voices – voices that Glenda assumed were Vivienne’s two young boys talking in the background. Vivienne asked Glenda to ‘hold on a sec’, before she left the phone. As the background noise stopped, Glenda covered the mouthpiece and whispered to Pam that it was Vivienne on the line.

      ‘I won’t be long.’ She turned her attention back to the phone as Vivienne returned.

      ‘Boys playing up?’ Glenda joked.

      ‘It’s okay now,’ said Vivienne.

      From her experience with dozens of phone conversations over the years, Glenda knew that Vivienne was a bit awkward on the telephone. Glenda always felt it her role to make the conversation. But today she didn’t have time.

      ‘Is there anything else you want, Viv?’

      ‘Why no... I don’t think so.’

      Just before hanging up, Glenda remembered the list of materials they both needed for patterns they were working on. She asked if Vivienne wanted her to read it out.

      ‘Oh, don’t bother now. Bring the list with you to patchwork lessons next week and I’ll get it then,’ Vivienne said.

      There was another awkward silence.

      ‘Well I’d better get back to my sewing now, Viv. See you next week at class.’

      ‘Goodbye,’ said Vivienne Cameron.

      As news of the murder swept the small Island community, people were shocked by Beth Barnard’s murder. Glenda and Pam went for a coffee at one of the local cafes in Cowes. It was there they learnt the terrible news. Neither of them knew Beth, but like most residents of the small community, they knew of her. It made Glenda think of her own safety – a woman living alone.

      Glenda and Pam made no connection between Beth’s murder and Vivienne Cameron. That wasn’t until the 6 o’clock news when Glenda turned on the television to see if the crime had made the news. It was one of the leading items.

      The reporter said that police were searching for a missing Phillip Island woman, Mrs Vivienne Cameron, in connection with the savage murder of a 23-year-old farm worker, Elizabeth Katherine Barnard. Vivienne Cameron’s car had been found on the Phillip Island side of the San Remo bridge, according to the news, and it was believed Vivienne had jumped from the same bridge to her death.

      The reporter said the car had first been seen at 5am on Tuesday although it wasn’t positively identified by police until about 4pm the same day. It was Vivienne’s sister-in-law, Pamela Cameron, who identified the car for detectives.

      Glenda froze in horror when she realised she had spoken to Vivienne some five hours after the car was first seen parked near the bridge. She was staring at the news report when the phone rang.

      ‘Glenda? It’s Pam. Have you seen the news?’

      Glenda could hardly speak: ‘Yes...’

      ‘Wasn’t it Vivienne Cameron who you spoke to this morning on the phone? How could she be jumping off the bridge at 5 o’clock in the morning when you spoke to her at 10? It doesn’t make sense.’

      ‘No. What am I going to do?’ Finding herself suddenly caught up in a murder investigation, Glenda was scared.

      ‘You’ve got to ring the police,’ Pam told her firmly.

      ‘No. I can’t.’ Her voice trembled.

      ‘Glenda, this is vital to the police. СКАЧАТЬ