Buried (DC Jack Warr #1) - Lynda La Plante Page 0,23
likes of Jackie Stewart, but then something changed the course of his life and he . . . Well, he just carried on doing what he was good at really ‒ driving.’ Maggie stared at the contents of the dog-eared file, tipped out and scattered across the living room floor. ‘Dad said that, if I wanted, I could learn about my past. I snapped at him, Mags, and said I didn’t need anyone but him and Mum. But, well, by the time I got to work, I was curious.’ He picked up Trudie’s death certificate and showed it to Maggie. ‘Dead end.’
‘She was beautiful,’ Maggie commented as she sifted through the old photographs.
Jack shrugged. ‘Yeah, maybe . . . But I’m going to find Jimmy Nunn. I’ve tracked down one of his old work colleagues and Aunt Fran must know something about him.’
Frances Stanley was Trudie’s sister, and her signature was on Jack’s foster care paperwork, dated 1984. On the floor in front of Maggie and Jack were several birthday and Christmas cards from Fran, but these seemed to have stopped around the time Jack was five or six years old.
‘I think I remember speaking to Aunt Fran on the phone once. I’d won something at school and I asked Mum if I could phone her. She was proud of me. Said she’d send me something for being so clever . . . but she never did.’
‘Love,’ Maggie said gently, ‘why do you want to find Jimmy Nunn?’ Jack looked at her blankly, as though the answer should be obvious. ‘I mean, you can,’ she continued, ‘and I’ll gladly help you. But why?’
The oven pinged and dinner was ready. Maggie kissed him and took her glass of wine into the kitchen. By the time she came back, he’d gone. The hallway door was open and she could hear him talking on the phone.
‘I’m sorry to call so late, Aunt Fran.’ Jack checked his watch: 11.45. ‘Oh – I’m really sorry, I didn’t realise what time it was. Yes, I’m fine. I know, it’s been ages . . . London now. Yes, we moved with Maggie’s job . . . I’m a police officer.’ Jack laughed politely. ‘I do like it, yes. It’s challenging, you know.’
Maggie sat down on the sofa to listen.
‘The reason I’m calling is that I was wondering what you knew about Jimmy Nunn.’ Jack fell silent except for the occasional ‘hmm’, ‘OK’ and ‘I see’. ‘Well, do you know anyone who might know anything about him . . .? Yes, I know it’s old ground but . . . No, I understand. OK then, well, thank you for your time and apologies again for calling so late. Mum and Dad are fine, yes, thanks for asking . . . I’ll tell them you said hi.’
Jack came back into the living room and started to gather up the scattered papers and photos and put them back into the file. He looked dejected.
‘Don’t worry, love, you’ll find him without her,’ Maggie reassured him, and went back into the kitchen to dish up their dinner.
CHAPTER 6
Jack was first in the squad room the next day. Not because he was being keen; he just hadn’t slept well after the dead-end phone call with his Aunt Fran. He was frustrated by her apparent indifference to his request for help, and it had made him suspect she might have something to hide. For the first time in a long time, he’d had a ‘copper’s hunch’, and now he was more determined than ever to find out more about Jimmy Nunn. But he’d have to be careful: if Ridley thought he was slacking, he wouldn’t hesitate to send him back to Devon.
By the time Ridley and the others walked in, the evidence board displayed photos of all the women from The Grange along with notes to date.
‘Dolly Rawlins . . .’ Jack started as they all settled to their desks. ‘Murdered in 1995 by Ester Freeman. Freeman was released in 2017 and now lives on the Isle of Wight with a guy called Geoffrey Porter-Lewis, a retired solicitor. No record. Kathleen O’Reilly died from alcoholism and Gloria Radford died in a car crash, along with her husband, Eddie. Connie Stephens had a B & B in Taunton, but I’m not sure that she has any more. HMRC has got an old address for her, as has the Licensing Authority, Building Inspectors, local fire safety assessors and so on. I’ll keep looking. Nothing on Julia Lawson and Angela Dunn as yet.’
Ridley looked at Jack, clearly hoping he had more to say – and