title: The Mystery of the Old Brown Suitcase
author: Patricia E. Topakian
description: With a degree in journalism from New York University, Patricia E. Topakian worked in marketing for several years before opening an importing business. Recently, she and her husband began a real estate investment business in Raleigh, North Carolina where they currently live with their three young children.
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  ![Family Connections by Anna
  Jacobs](images/scale~1920x1200~familyconne-1551105331-65.jpg)
  
  
  ![Canelo](images/scale~1920x1200~canelotitle-1454015556-29.png)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ## ­CHAPTER 1
  
  
  ### Perth, Western Australia. March
  
  
  It was the first month of autumn but the weather was still hot. Gina Porter
  wiped the sweat from her brow as she braced herself mentally to clear another
  room of her father’s possessions. His hoarding had been a joke in the family
  for years but now that he was dead, it wasn’t funny any longer, because there
  was only her to deal with the house.
  
  
  ‘You should have cleared out some of this stuff yourself, Dad,’ she said aloud
  as she looked round the cluttered room.
  
  
  She almost tossed the crumpled plastic bag on the pile of rubbish then
  inspected its contents ‘just in case’. Inside was a brown paper carrier bag,
  its creases worn, its string handle greyish and limp. How old must this be?
  She hadn’t