‘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 they stayed as long as he and Maggie could snuggle down together. As they lay there, with one thin sheet pushed down over their naked bodies by the powerful draught from the ceiling fan, they could hear Penny crying in the bedroom next door.
‘Since moving to London, I’ve seen Dad three times. And the second time was the day he told me he was dying.’ There was so much guilt in Jack’s whispered voice. ‘I thought I didn’t need to see him all the time, because he wasn’t going anywhere. I wish—’
‘Don’t wish for things you can’t change, Jack. Just love him while you can.’
Jack watched a yellow and green gecko crawl along the ceiling directly above his head.
‘Mags,’ he whispered, and the movement of her fingers in his chest hair told him that she was awake and listening. ‘How far gone are you?’
‘A few months already,’ she said. ‘But I only just found out.’
They went on to have a whispered conversation about practical things such as maternity leave, pay drops, the price of nappies and whether they’d need to move from the flat. They both knew that money was tight now, so when the baby came, it’d be even worse. Maggie pointed out that Charlie would never have got medical insurance, being terminally ill, so their pensions and money from the sale of the bungalow would disappear if they didn’t get him home quickly. She wasn’t begrudging the way Jack’s parents had spent their life savings; she was pointing out that Penny would probably be left with little or no money of her own and so would need looking after financially. Maggie and Jack would soon go from having no dependants, to having two.
At last, as a gentle snoring came through the paper-thin walls, Maggie and Jack allowed themselves to relax and drifted off to sleep.
The next morning, Maggie dealt with all of the medical notes and the medication they needed to take back to the UK with them, while Penny sat in the chair by Charlie’s bedside, watching the two most important men in her life play dominoes. She smiled as she recalled the days when Charlie would allow Jack to win; now it was Jack allowing his dad to win. By the time the first game was halfway through, Penny’s head was nodding and her eyes were closing. Charlie and Jack exchanged glances. Neither of them needed to mention the terrible stress Penny was under; they just allowed her to sleep.
The German police had found the coach, torn it apart and found nothing. No money, no sign of the women. However, under the guidance of Ridley, they had discovered that the front edge of each seat and the top edge of each seat-back had all been recently re-sewn. Jack’s hunch about the seats being stuffed full of the stolen cash was right. Unfortunately for Ridley, it seemed that the staff at Hyatt House had ‘lost’ the women’s booking information — and the coach park around the back was not covered by working CCTV. The women had switched from the coach to a new vehicle or vehicles, unseen, and Ridley had no idea what sort of transport he was now looking for or the pseudonyms the women were using. So far, no known forger of passports and ID documentation had been connected to the women. Ridley was stumped. And for the first time in this entire investigation, he wished that Jack was there.
In West London, Angela’s neighbour Irene from number 36 had been worrying ever since she’d directed DC Warr to Rob’s garage. Unable to bear it any longer, she opened a secret drawer in her bureau and took out a mobile phone which had one number stored in it. She sent a WhatsApp message:
Jack Warr knows about Rob’s garage and the coach. Sniffed about the bins too. Dining chairs were admired by all at afternoon tea on Monday! Love to the kids. Irene.
Then she took out the SIM card and flushed it down the toilet. She watched the water settle, made sure the card had gone, then put the kettle on.
Chapter 35
Jack couldn’t believe how beautifully Maggie had transformed their spare bedroom for Charlie and Penny. There was bedding he’d never seen before and framed photos he’d not seen in years. The effect was spoilt slightly by the commode and the stash of cardboard urine bottles underneath the bed, which Maggie must have snatched from the hospital the second she got the call from St Lucia.