‘I’m ready,’ she said quietly.
‘Point to any ones you recognise,’ Jack said.
Amanda pointed to the missing Jamaican girl, pushing the photograph forwards slightly. She then tapped the photograph of another missing girl, and a third.
‘None of the others,’ she said nervously.
Jack quickly gathered up the photographs of the ones she had not chosen. He then put the three girls side by side and asked if she could recall their names.
‘It was quite a long time ago, but that black girl was called Jamail. The second one I think was Trudie and the third was something like Nadine or Naomi?’
‘These girls all stayed at the basement flat when you were there with Rodney?’
‘Yes, he picked them up from here, from Euston Station, and brought them back to the flat.’
‘How long did they stay with you there?’
Amanda shrugged. ‘Sometimes a couple of days, sometimes longer. I never liked them being there, and we had big fights about it. Then he would lock me up and tell me to mind my own business, said he was just being friendly to them.’
‘How friendly?’
‘I dunno. When they was there I was locked into the other room. They would stay with him in his bedroom. In fact, funnily enough, I was thinking about the one I said was called Jamail, although that might not be her real name; anyway, reason I was thinking about her was because...’
Amanda bent down and picked up her small overnight bag. She unzipped it and began searching through the contents, then took out a dirty plastic makeup bag and rooted through it, eventually pulling out a silver bracelet. She kept it in her hand as she replaced everything and then zipped the bag up again.
‘I thought it was maybe one of them Pandora charm bracelets, but I don’t think so, cos they’re quite expensive, aren’t they?’
She uncurled her hand to show Jack the bracelet. It was a silver chain with a few small silver charms on it.
‘You can have it if you like. It was Jamail’s. I found it in the bedsheets after she’d gone. The clasp is broken so it’s not much use to me.’
Jack could feel his heart thumping as he smiled and took the bracelet from her. ‘Thank you, Amanda. I appreciate it.’ He placed it inside the envelope along with the photographs.
‘Can I have the money now, so I can get the next train?’ she asked.
Jack was just in time to stop her reaching out to take his wallet. ‘How much did you say you needed?’
‘A standard ticket is nearly seventy quid and I’ve only got thirty-two. You said you’d buy me some fags and I smoke the Silk Cut purple, and...’
Jack opened his wallet and took out three twenty-pound notes and a five-pound note.
‘Thank you ever so much,’ she said, grabbing them. ‘I really appreciate it. I’ll get right over to the ticket kiosk.’
Jack stood up as Amanda bent down to pick up her holdall. He was about to follow her when the waiter came out of the Café Nero and asked if he wanted to pay the bill. Jack smiled when he discovered that not only had she had two large cappuccinos but a toasted ham sandwich and two chocolate brownies! He gave the waiter a twenty-pound note and told him to keep the change. Walking back across the station forecourt towards the side entrance he caught sight of Amanda at the ticket kiosk leaning in to talk to the ticket seller.
Jack was just driving away from his parking bay when he saw Amanda crossing back over to the other side of the station to get into a taxi. He knew she had lied about needing the money for a train fare home to her parents, but he had gained so much information from her that he didn’t care.
When he got home Maggie was upstairs playing with Hannah. He went straight into his office and tossed the envelope down on the desk. He was certain that with this new information he could get a search warrant, and he would do it first thing in the morning. At least he was getting somewhere with the Rodney Middleton investigation at last, which was more than he could say about Ridley’s. He would have to conduct a lot more interviews, which would need to be very carefully planned in order to avoid alerting the Essex team. If it became known that he was involved, Jack would be in serious trouble.
Chapter Twelve
Jack had been held up in traffic due to an accident. An ambulance had crashed through a barrier as a cyclist had veered out of the bike lane into the main road, and Jack had witnessed it, so had to stop at the scene to give his details.
When he finally got to the station, eager to talk to DCI Clarke about the warrant, he found out from the CRIS Centre that Clarke and Anik were both in court that morning and would not be back until lunch time. Swearing under his breath, he sat down at his desk and wrote up his meeting with Amanda Dunn at Euston Station. He had already placed the bracelet in an evidence bag and wanted to show it to Sara before it went into the lockup. Laura walked in, carrying a takeaway coffee. She leaned against the side of his desk.
‘Did you read the memo that came in for the DCI yesterday morning? Apparently, he was really pissed off and was going to have a go at the know-it-all legal aid who’s in court this morning.’
Jack frowned. ‘What are you talking about?’
‘Rodney Middleton is going to get bail, and...’
Jack pushed his chair back angrily. ‘You are bloody joking?’
‘No, that’s why Anik is in court; he’s got a similar situation with his case. There’s a massive backlog and they’re putting trials back weeks.’
‘Has he got bail or is it under review?’
‘I don’t know. I’ve only just read the memo myself.’
‘Shit! Which court are they in?’
‘Kingston, I think, but double-check on CRIS.’
Jack spotted Sara and called out to her to join him.
‘Morning, sarge, hope you had a nice restful Sunday off.’
‘I need you to do something for me urgently.,’ Jack said, ‘I met up with Amanda Dunn yesterday.’
Sara followed Jack back to his desk as he quickly explained what Amanda had told him, and then held up the plastic evidence bag.
‘I need you to contact Jamail’s family and check if she ever owned this bracelet. Then I want you to look into the other two girls she identified to see if they were using the Christian names Trudie, Nadine or Naomi. You’ll need to go back to the missing persons reports.’
Sara took the evidence bag and the three photographs, then hurried to her desk whilst Jack grabbed his leather jacket and briefcase, before leaving the incident room together.
Kingston Crown Court was in the new annex. The old courthouse was rarely used so Jack parked up there. The old car park had been used for Covid testing and there were still lots of old signs indicating where cars and pedestrians needed to wait. Jack showed his ID to the parking attendant, saying he was due to give evidence.
Jack went in through the court’s side entrance and made his way along one corridor after another before he came out into the large reception area. There were numerous lawyers, clerics, probation officers and uniformed officers standing around in different groups, as the court was not yet in session. Any defendant being brought to trial would not have been brought up to the court yet. He looked around, searching for his DCI, but could not see him anywhere. He spotted Anik having a heated discussion with a female barrister and made his way towards them. He tapped Anik on the shoulder.
‘Where’s DCI Clarke? I need to talk to him urgently.’
Anik looked at Jack, then back to the woman he’d been talking to. ‘This is Detective Sergeant Jack Warr, Miss Georgina Bamford. I think the DCI is in one of the consultation rooms, but I don’t know which one.’