Steve got on the next flight to Australia. By the time he arrived, the police had deemed Scott’s death a suicide. Steve refused to believe this. “It just didn’t seem possible that he would have killed himself without saying goodbye,” he later said. Scott had been a star academic finishing up a Ph.D. in mathematics. He’d travelled to Sydney regularly to meet with an adviser, who told Steve that they’d made a date for the following week. Yet Steve recalled a constable saying, of North Head, “This is where people go to jump, mate—especially homosexuals,” as if that settled the matter. Steve was dismayed to learn that, although Scott’s wallet hadn’t been found, the cliff top hadn’t been treated as a possible crime scene. The police had moved Scott’s clothes before photographing them, compromising potential evidence, and they hadn’t canvassed the area for witnesses. Steve pressed for a thorough investigation, but a coroner’s inquest, conducted to ascertain the manner of death, concluded that, “in the absence of anything to the contrary of the evidence,” the suicide finding was sound.journey-inline-newsletterinline-newsletter