Finding the bones, p.28
Finding the Bones,
p.28
‘Oh.’
‘Not forever,’ he hurried on, ‘or not at this stage. I’m going to give it time, at least six months. I owe that to Tess, to get her settled in. And see how it feels to be there.’ He grimaced. ‘That get you off the hook? I figured you were going to turn me down in any case.’
Jackie met his grimace with one of her own, and they both chuckled. The tension between them fell away. ‘Kinsella,’ Jackie said, ‘I’ll miss you like hell. I really will. But I’ve had stuff going on and I need time to let it settle. Also, you were right when you said I push people away. I want to think about that, about why I do it, and see if I can get myself into better shape. I need to get my own shit together before I commit to anyone. Or anything.’
‘Well,’ Kinsella said, ‘don’t take forever. I’ll probably be around, although when the ladies in West Australia get a look at this –’ he circled a hand around his face ‘– who knows?’
‘Oh, mate. Talk about tickets on yourself!’
Jackie balled up her sandwich bag and scrambled up. She held out a hand for Kinsella and pulled him to standing. The momentum brought them close, and for a second she thought he was going to hold her. But he dropped her hand, dusted grass from his jeans. On an impulse, she tilted her face up and kissed his cheek. ‘Come on, cowboy. Back to work. I’ll tell you about the meeting with Harwood on the way.’
They parted at Level 8, Kinsella continuing up to Strike Force Hawk. Jackie, meanwhile, spent time catching up on cases with her two other sergeants, Kyle Robertson and Cathy Kaur, and, with Bennie and Sharna, reallocated the workloads of her reduced team.
She left the office at four. They owed her a couple of hours, she reckoned, and she wanted to get to the shops. She had nothing in the house, and she’d decided to cook dinner for Luke and Frankie. Their first meeting should be private.
On the way home she thought about what to make. Fish would be good. Grilled, with salad, smashed potatoes. Schalk used to like that combination. She smiled, remembering. Maybe she should phone Schalk, surprise him. She considered it. No, she decided. Not yet. Give herself tonight first, then prepare for Luke’s departure. Get to know her mother. Get to know herself while she was at it. Find out who she was now, what she wanted and what it meant to be free. There was a new world order to discover. It would take time, but there was no rush. She had the rest of her life in front of her and could do what she liked with it.
24.
By Monday morning the rain had stopped and a weak sun struggled in the sky. It was freezing, with a chill that told of snow in the mountains. Holidays, so Belle could stay in bed smoking and trying not to think how completely she’d failed to stop Richter and his plans. Perhaps it was time to concede, to sell up and find somewhere else to live, somewhere easier.
Eventually she pulled on her dressing gown and socks and went downstairs for coffee. The day stretched ahead. She felt blue, that was it, blue. No Nelson. No call from Stanton to wait for. Even irritating old Margie was away, gone to Brisbane for the duration. Belle had to concede that for her, the Cross had lost its buzz. Perhaps she’d go for a walk around Annandale, get a feel for what living there would be like. Or Balmain. It would please her father, if nothing else.
The phone rang. Frankie Rose, not giving up. Belle listened, argued, agreed. ‘Okay. Where? Twelve noon, the Tropicana. If you’re not there on the dot, I’m gone.’
It was already late. She went back upstairs, put on black tights, long black-fringed, suede boots, a midi-skirt, a poloneck black jumper. She piled her hair on top of her head and secured it with a tortoiseshell plastic clasp, changed her mind and took it down, let it tumble on her shoulders. She added gold hoop earrings and, leaning close to the bathroom mirror, applied black eyeliner and a couple of coats of mascara, armour against the meeting to come.
She shrugged on her orange shag coat, took up her black leather handbag, and went downstairs into the winter sun, where she caught sight of her neighbour, Narelle Docherty. Narelle admired her outfit, and Belle showed her the St Christopher she’d got from Nelson. She gave Narelle a couple of cigarettes and walked on.
A block further on she spotted Trevor Curran’s red Mazda parked almost at the end of Catherine Street. He was inside; she could make out the silhouette of his head through the back windscreen. He looked like he was just sitting there, waiting. For what? Had he been there all night? Bloody Trevor. She stopped, wondering if she should retrace her steps to avoid him.
Then she reconsidered. One absolute last chance, one last throw of the dice. Apologise to Trevor, sweet-talk him. He’d probably have come down from whatever he’d taken the night before and would be more receptive now.
She checked her watch. She’d be late for the meeting with the wife. Well, too bad. Why go at all? Much more sensible to blow her off. There was no point in seeing her anyway. Stanton would come home, tail between his legs, Frances Rose would get over her snit, and the whole thing would be forgotten. What a relief.
Belle walked up to Trevor Curran’s car, leaned over, and rapped on the window.
Author’s Note
Finding the Bones was inspired by actual people and events in Sydney’s Kings Cross in the 1970s and eighties.
The first idea came from thinking about the fate of Juanita Nielsen, a young activist and heiress who vanished in 1975. She was most probably killed by organised crime, but her body has never been found and her disappearance ranks as Australia’s most famous cold case. What would happen, I wondered, if her remains surfaced today? That led me to consider other major players of the time, such as Roger Rogerson, awarded and disgraced policeman, who died in jail as I was writing the book; Abe Saffron, the criminal ‘King of the Cross’; and Saffron’s associate, Jim Anderson.
There are other real-life echoes to be found but these were the sparks that ignited the story. That’s all they were, though – sparks. Finding the Bones is total fiction, a what if, a riff. I enjoyed writing it and hope you enjoy it too.
For those who want to know more about the history behind the book, I’ve listed some topics below, together with source material I used for research. There are also many websites to explore and you can, as I did, go down some very deep rabbit holes.
Juanita Nielsen (22 April 1937–4 July 1975) disappeared after attending a meeting at the Carousel nightclub in Kings Cross on 4 July 1975.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juanita_Nielsen
Begg, Zanny (director) Juanita Nielsen NOW: A Documentary (2022) [film], Enigma Machine, Australia.
Rees, Peter (2021, updated edition) Killing Juanita, ABC Books, Sydney.
Roger Rogerson (3 January 1941–21 January 2024) was an Australian detective sergeant in the New South Wales Police Force and a convicted murderer. During his career, Rogerson received at least thirteen awards for bravery, outstanding policemanship and devotion to duty, before being implicated in two killings, bribery, assault and drug dealing, and then being dismissed from the force in 1986.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Rogerson
Jenkins, Michael (director) Blue Murder (1995) [television program], ABC, Sydney.
McNab, Duncan (2016) Roger Rogerson, Hachette Australia, Sydney.
Abraham Saffron (6 October 1919–15 September 2006) was an Australian hotelier, nightclub owner, and property developer who was one of the major figures in organised crime in Australia in the latter half of the twentieth century.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abe_Saffron
Most accounts of Abe Saffron include his associate Jim Anderson (1930–2003), a notorious ‘hard man’ and a major player in Sydney’s underworld in the 1960s and seventies. Anderson was a prime suspect in Juanita Nielsen’s death.
Jim Anderson’s obituary: http://www.milesago.com/people/anderson-jim.htm
Reeves, Tony (2007) Mr Sin, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest.
Kings Cross (especially in the 1980s)
Nowra, Louis (2013) Kings Cross: A Biography, NewSouth Publishing, Sydney.
Tilse, Tony and Seet, Shawn (directors) Underbelly: The Golden Mile (2010) [television program], Nine Network, North Sydney.
The 1980s in Australia
Bongiorno, Frank (2015) The Eighties: The Decade That Transformed Australia, Black Inc, Collingwood.
Sydney in general
Falconer, Delia (2020) Sydney, NewSouth Publishing, Sydney.
Nowra, Louis (2022) Sydney: A Biography, NewSouth Publishing, Sydney.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Forensic Investigator Jane Joseph, to Deb Wallace and to Lynne Walker for their willingness to share their expertise, answer random emails and be excellent company in general.
Thanks also to early readers Alexia Bannikoff, and the members of the Best Writers’ Workshop: Liz Allen, Peter Boyle, Yvonne Edgren, Jane Gibian, Erin Gough, Isabelle Li, Alison Martin and Tim Sinclair.
Thanks to my meticulous and collegiate editor, James Bean, whose steady hand is much appreciated.
To Jane Novak, my agent, thanks for having my back.
Special thanks to the team at Echo Publishing: Diana Hill, Cherie Baird and Emily Banyard, and to Juliet Rogers in particular. Without your support, Juliet, this book wouldn’t exist. We’ll miss you, and look forward to hearing about your adventures.
To Arnie and Henry, thanks for just being there.
And finally, many thanks to my adopted city, Sydney. I love you very much.
Also by Natalie Conyer
Present Tense
What if justice isn’t enough?
Cape Town, South Africa. Retired police chief Piet Pieterse has been murdered, necklaced in fact. A tyre placed around his neck, doused with petrol, set alight. An execution from the apartheid era and one generally confined to collaborators. Who would target Pieterse this way, and why now?
Veteran cop Schalk Lourens is trying to forget the past. But Pieterse was his old boss and when Schalk is assigned to the case, he finds the past has a way of infecting the present.
Meanwhile, it’s an election year. People are pinning their hopes on charismatic ANC candidate Gideon Radebe, but there’s opposition – and in this volatile country, unrest is never far from the surface.
Schalk must tread a difficult path between the new regime and the old, between the personal and the professional, between justice and revenge.
This investigation will change his life and could alter his country’s future.
Also by Natalie Conyer
Shadow City
Every city casts a shadow, where evil flourishes.
Sydney, Australia: The body of a young woman is found in Chinatown. She’s been beaten, tortured – and tattooed with the image of a sun. Called to the scene, Sergeant Jackie Rose asks herself whether this was a drug murder, or something else. But before her investigation can get under way, she is ordered to hand the case over to the Australian Federal Police.
Cape Town, South Africa: A local girl recruited to study in Australia has fallen off the radar. Veteran detective Schalk Lourens – recently suspended from duty – has already made plans to visit his daughter in Sydney, with emigration in mind. He decides to search for the missing girl while he is there.
Jackie and Schalk join forces, exposing a trail of corruption and crime stretching from the foreshore of the city’s iconic harbour, back to South Africa and across the world.
Together the pair must navigate a minefield of deceit and manipulation set by an enemy more powerful and depraved than they can imagine. And failure isn’t an option, because not only their own futures, but those of hundreds of vulnerable young people, hang in the balance.
About the Author
Finding the Bones is Natalie Conyer’s third novel. Her first novel, Present Tense, won a Ned Kelly Award and her second, Shadow City, was shortlisted for both the Ned Kelly and Danger Awards.
Her short stories have won several awards and been featured in anthologies such as The Only One in the World and Dark Deeds Down Under Volume 2. A collection of her stories, The Book Club & Other Stories, was published in 2024.
Natalie lives in Sydney. She is a swimmer, a TV addict, a world-class procrastinator and a crime fiction tragic who loves the genre so much she did a doctorate on it.
Echo Publishing
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Copyright © Natalie Conyer 2026
Cover design copyright © Jo Hunt 2026
All rights reserved. Echo thanks you for buying an authorised edition of this book. In doing so, you are supporting writers and enabling Echo to publish more books and foster new talent. Thank you for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing or transmitting any part of this book by any means, electronic or mechanical – including storing in a retrieval system, photocopying, recording, scanning or distributing – without our prior written permission.
Echo Publishing acknowledges the traditional custodians of Country throughout Australia. We recognise their continuing connection to land, sea and waters. We pay our respects to Elders past and present.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
First published 2026
This ebook edition published 2026
Editor: James Bean
Page design, typesetting and ebook creation: Shaun Jury
Cover design: Jo Hunt
Cover image: Old terrace houses in Victoria Street, © Gerrit Fokkema/Fairfax Media
A catalogue entry for this book is available from the National Library of Australia
ISBN: 9781760688905 (paperback)
ISBN: 9781760688899 (ebook)
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Natalie Conyer, Finding the Bones
