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The man sitting across from Jack appeared quite ordinary. An older man in his 50’s with salt and pepper hair, brown eyes, and a face aged by poor choices. The only thing that truly distinguished Alfie Simmons was that he was one of the rare prisoners at the Melbourne gaol to ask for a meeting with a Detective Inspector after having been imprisoned for several years. Alfie had informed the prison officials that he needed to confess to a crime but that he would only discuss the details with DI Robinson.
Alfie slid a worn picture towards him on the table. It was a photograph of a pretty girl with slightly messy braids. One could almost imagine that she had been stopped in the middle of a game of tag and would, once the picture was secured, escape to resume playing.
“That’s my Annie. Her ma and I…well, we never got around to making anything official but we loved each other. Cora died of TB four years ago and Annie was placed with the nuns ‘cause we weren’t seen as a real family as we weren’t official. I figured she would get schooling and learn a trade. Figured she’d be taken care of.”
Jack’s heart tightened because he sensed where this tale was going. Alfie’s next sentence proved him right.
“Annie went missing a year ago. Police claimed that she must have run off but she wouldn’t have done that. She was as good as a lamb.
When I read about you and your missus saving those girls, I knew…I knew that that’s what had happened to my Annie. When word of what the slavers did hit the gaol, men got plenty angry. It’s one thing to steal or mug or kill a man but even in prison people don’t take to men who hurt or sell children.”
Jack nodded in understanding and let him continue.
“Some of the others decided to make an example of the toff. Figured that they’d give him a taste of his own medicine.”
Alfie turned a little green and shook his head before continuing.
“Hell of a way to die. Me, I wanted the copper who got rich by looking the other way while our babes were sold into hell. I wasn’t the best of pa’s, I drank too much, and spent my fair share of time in here but I figure when I see her and my Cora on the other side, the least I could do was tell them that I took out the monster who let that happen to her. I could at least do that much as a father. I can go to the gallows knowing that I looked that man in the eye and let him know that he was being sent to hell by a father who loved his daughter.”