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Aunty June
Gerry Bell, father to Derek Bell, is a retired police chief in the rural Australian town where his son Derek, the current police chief, and Derek’s high school classmate Alexander Sholt have been kidnapping, abusing, and murdering girls for about 20 years. Gerry Bell botched the investigation into the disappearance of Alexander and Derek’s first victim, a 14-year-old Aboriginal girl named Sarah Blue; at the time, no one held him to account for his failure, the way they would have if Sarah had been white, due to widespread racism. When a government oversight program sends out-of-town detective Michael Teller to investigate a possible homicide, Sarah Blue’s childhood best friend and current police officer Allie Hartley asks Michael to review the case file that Gerry compiled on Sarah’s murder. After Michael and Allie discover that Derek and Alexander are serial killers, they come to suspect that Gerry botched the investigation into Sarah’s disappearance on purpose and plan to hold him legally responsible.
Gerry Bell Quotes in Catching Teller Crow
The Catching Teller Crow quotes below are all either spoken by Gerry Bell or refer to Gerry Bell. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 1. Beth: The Town
Quotes
Dad said his old man thought the law was there to protect some people and punish others. And Aboriginal people were the ‘others.’
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Chapter 9. Beth: The Missing
Quotes
“Oh, it was a long time ago. Twenty years . . . seven months . . . six days. Not that I’m counting!” She tried to laugh, but it broke in the middle. “Sarah just vanished a week before her fifteenth birthday. She got off the bus from school, same as always, but she never made it home.”
[…]
Twenty years, seven months, six days . . . Was Dad going to be like this, decades from now when he talked about me? I didn’t want him making my death some kind of depressing mathematical reference point for his life.
“We’re police officers,” he said, and I heard the pride in his voice. “We never stop looking for the missing.”
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Gerry Bell Quotes in Catching Teller Crow
The Catching Teller Crow quotes below are all either spoken by Gerry Bell or refer to Gerry Bell. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 1. Beth: The Town
Quotes
Dad said his old man thought the law was there to protect some people and punish others. And Aboriginal people were the ‘others.’
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9. Beth: The Missing
Quotes
“Oh, it was a long time ago. Twenty years . . . seven months . . . six days. Not that I’m counting!” She tried to laugh, but it broke in the middle. “Sarah just vanished a week before her fifteenth birthday. She got off the bus from school, same as always, but she never made it home.”
[…]
Twenty years, seven months, six days . . . Was Dad going to be like this, decades from now when he talked about me? I didn’t want him making my death some kind of depressing mathematical reference point for his life.
“We’re police officers,” he said, and I heard the pride in his voice. “We never stop looking for the missing.”
