Buried (DC Jack Warr #1) - Lynda La Plante Page 0,118

care for him until the day he died? Would he feel this much weight in his heart at the thought of losing the man who’d taught him to ride a bike, chat up girls, make a bow and arrow, and appreciate the beauty of the English countryside? Had Harry ever really loved anyone? Jack was proud to belong to Charlie Warr. And he hoped that his child would be proud to belong to him.

*

Robert Chuke’s face was now on the evidence board, alongside Angela’s. Ridley had just got off the phone to Police Captain Gallatos of the Hellenic Gendarmerie in Greece, who had said categorically that the coach they were searching for had not crossed his borders.

‘Right!’ Ridley barked as he emerged from his office. ‘We’re going to focus on Angela Dunn and Robert Chuke. She’s the youngest. She went from being a maid in a brothel, to being a housewife and mother. She wasn’t even trusted to be at The Grange on the night of the train robbery ‒ she was off somewhere babysitting Kathleen O’Reilly’s kids. And she wouldn’t have had the nous to lie to her own kids about going to Greece, so I still think that’s where they’ve headed. Maybe they dumped the coach. But she’s our weak link. We find her, we find them all.’

‘Sir?’ In Jack’s absence, Laura felt she had to remind Ridley how much Jack rated the intelligence of the women. ‘These women have stayed under the radar for so long because we underestimated them. They’re relying on it. They hid guns from Craigh, they hid their involvement in the train robbery from Newman and Thorn. With all due respect, sir, I don’t think we can dismiss any one of them as being a weak link.’

‘So what do you suggest?’ asked Ridley.

‘It’s all smoke and mirrors, and misdirection,’ she said. ‘Angela was banking on the kids mentioning their holiday, so we’d assume that’s where they were heading. But if you ask me, I think Greece is the only European country they’re definitely not in.’

*

Laura sat alone in the squad room. All the desk lights were off, apart from hers. Behind her, Ridley’s door was open, meaning he must be in Superintendent Raeburn’s office. She had demanded daily updates since the dead-end accusations thrown at Barry Cooper’s army buddies.

They didn’t know the exact day the women had left the country, but they did know that it had to be after Darren’s arrest, so Laura had put out an ‘all ports’ warning requesting CCTV spanning three days. Now, she was watching CCTV footage of a coach matching the one Rob had bought in London, pulling off the Amsterdam ferry and heading south along the N236. Thirty minutes later, the N236 split into the N238 and the A28, and a faulty intersection camera resulted in Laura losing sight of the coach.

Ridley walked in at that precise moment and sat down at Jack’s desk.

‘Pick a road to follow,’ he said. ‘I’ll take the other one.’

And together, they worked into the early hours.

*

By 11 p.m., Maggie and Jack had arrived at Victoria Hospital in St Lucia. Charlie was asleep in a private room, and Penny was at his bedside, struggling to sew a rip in the knee of his jeans.

‘Hello, Mum,’ said Jack, and she burst into tears, running into his arms and putting her head on his chest. He held her there for what seemed like an age. ‘It’ll be fine,’ he murmured, knowing that wasn’t true.

While he comforted her, Maggie unpicked the mess Penny had made of Charlie’s jeans.

‘He ripped the knee when he fell,’ Penny wept. ‘I tried to catch him, but he was too heavy. Oh, Jack, I thought I’d lost him. I thought I’d lost him!’

‘Where are you staying, Penny?’ Maggie asked. There was no reply. ‘You’re meant to be aboard ship tonight, so I’ve booked you in with us.’

Penny nodded, but Maggie could see she hadn’t really taken it in. And even though Charlie was sedated, they had to prise her away from the hospital on the promise that they’d come back the next morning at eight o’clock. It was well before visiting hours, but the rules had been set aside for them.

‘They’re so kind,’ Penny said between sobs, but Maggie knew that it was because they didn’t think Charlie had long left to live.

The Le Haut Resort was only three stars, but it had a swimming pool and almost all the rooms had a beach view. Jack didn’t care where