Web diary

Winter hit last night – a mighty cold front came over and the temperature dropped to almost zero. I froze all night.

We had to get up early and go back to the hospital – this time to see a neurologist about the pain in Laura’s arm. I insisted on seeing her x-rays. The doctor tried to put me off by saying it would take four hours to find them and he didn’t have the time. I pointed out that he was admitting the gross inefficiency of the hospital. Anyway, he rang back later in the afternoon and told me he’d located the x-rays, re-examined them and found that Laura’s arm had been fractured!! Laura was relieved and vindicated – now it can be treated. But her faith in doctors and hospitals is further reduced. And so is mine.

After the hospital, I went to visit Mira Carroll, the police reservist who was assigned to my mother’s case. She is a sweet, bright, intelligent lady in her 60s who is doing this work voluntarily because she sees it as her life’s mission to help other people. I liked her a lot although it said a lot about the police detective’s attitude that he would delegate the whole case to this little old lady (they disparagingly called her “die ou tannie” at the station). Anyway, Mira was making some headway with the case when they suspended her from police duties because she had stood for local council elections! She’s been barred from doing any more work on the case.

After talking to Mira, I began to realise there was little point in persisting with this investigation. Mira agreed, saying it was in Laura’s best interests to drop it. Even if they do find him, Laura will have to go through the trauma of the court case, which could take a long time and involve a horrific cross examination where she may feel she is on trial. The chances of finding him now are very slim because no one is investigating the case!

Either we wait and hope Mira will be reinstated to the case, which could take more than a month and may not even happen, or we find someone else in the police force, or we try and find a private detective, which will be very, very expensive.

There is the possibility there has been some kind of cover up. If this kid comes from a wealthy, influential family, we don’t stand a hope in hell.

I left Mira’s place feeling very frustrated, helpless and despondent. It seems to me more than ever that the best thing to do is to let it go and concentrate all my energies on helping Laura to heal – mentally and physically – and getting her to Australia.