There is a surprise that I didn't expect, which I found disconcerting. After Nora's funeral, Jess finds the letter that the nurse, Patrick, mentioned. It was in the waste basket, and the lawyer who sent it is Marcus Summers, the youngest son of the man who found the family dead. The letter said that a client of his had information about Thea Turner. Jess, who has a difficult relationship with her mother, caused by the interferene of Nora, decides to go and see Marcus Summers.
Marcus has a confession to make, which involves his parents. He says that when his father returned home, his wife, Meg, took him to his parents' old bedroom, and there lying on a drawer was a baby. It was Baby Thea. Meg said that she had taken her because she was afraid something could happen to her. Percy was terrified for Meg, and they kept the baby for a few days, and then they decided that the best option was to leave Thea with her aunt. So one night Percy left the girl in the rose garden, but some noise behind him distracted him, so he went to check what had made that noise. He found nothing, and when he returned the baby was gone. Percy hoped that Nora had found the baby, but there was nothing in the newspapers the next day or any other day after that. And when the bones of a baby were found, Percy was burdened with terrible guilt. Marcus also confesses to Jess that it was him who took the baby when he came across the family. He had delivered some things to the Turners, and when he returned, he found them and on a whim he had taken the baby. This is part of the mystery that has been solved.
When Jess returns from Adelaide, her mother tells her that she has mail. There are two packages. One is a copy of the book written by Daniel Miller. It is second hand, and the person who owned wrote some notes, one of which refers to some possible untraceable poisons back in 1959. One is a poisonous substance found in algae that was common in Australian lakes, and Jess wonders whether the family drank from the waterhole, which had contained this poisonous algae.
The other parcel comes from Nancy, Daniel Miller's niece, who in her letter tells her that her uncle wanted Polly to have this package in the event of Nora's death. Jess takes the parcel to Polly. It is a tape, which they listen to. The recording shows the interview that Daniel had with Nora after Thea's bones were found. Then Polly shows Jess a letter that was in the parcel as well. Daniel confesses that after that interview, she saw Polly and Jess, who was just small, and something struck him as strange, and he asked Nora from something he had just realised. So he recorded the confersation on the other side of the tape. Then Nora told him about those days when her daughter had been born. She was a weak baby, and she stopped eating, and then one day she realised that she had stopped breathing completely. Nora never told anybody about the baby's death, and then she found Baby Thea outside in the rose garden, so she thought this was a present, a replacement. So she buried her daughter and replaced her with the other baby.
This was a shock for Polly and Jess. They are still at odds with each other. As we learn more about Polly, we realise that Nora was manipulative. I think that once Polly had grown up, Nora decided to take her daughter from her. Polly never meant to leave Jess behind, but Nora convinced her that it was the best, and then she put many obstacles for her to talk to her on the phone and have her during the holidays. These are things that Jess doesn't know. Besides, Nora always referred to an episode in which she found Polly with a pillow above Jess's cradle. Polly doesn't remember, and I have the hunch that this is something Nora invented.
I hope that Polly and Jess find out how they were manipulated and their estrangement was due to the plan of Nora.
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