‘This person sounds pretty knowledgeable. And from the amount of alcohol in the recipe, they were making a serious amount. Back in the day, I tried this, but failed miserably. You can use a rice maker now — that keeps the heat nice and low as you cook the grass.’ Julia paused. ‘I assume this is connected to a case. Are you going to tell me more about it, or do you just want me to keep talking?’
‘Just keep talking please, Julia.’
‘Well, this would have to have been cooked somewhere with good ventilation. The resin glands contain CBD trichomes and they get you high. The buckets in this list must be for washing and rinsing as it thickens... and see, they’ve even listed coffee filters because you pour and strain through them so none of the seeds seep through. It looks to me like they were making decarboxylate cannabis oil. That’s why the rice maker’s temp control is great, ’cos the mixture must never boil. It’s got to stay between 210 and 230 degrees Fahrenheit.’
Julia slapped the book shut and handed it back to Jack, then gave a throaty laugh.
‘Take a photocopy. When you retire, get yourself a greenhouse and a rice maker, and you’ll have yourself a nice little cottage industry.’
She perched herself on the footplate of the tractor while Jack sat in his car with his feet outside. ‘From what I remember, you’re like a dog with a bone.’ She spoke in a low, calm voice, as though she was soothing one of her children. ‘Whoever you’re after, you’ll find them. You were the only one who found us.’
As they sat in the brilliant sunshine, being cooled by the breeze coming down from the surrounding hills, Jack felt a million miles away from the stresses of the case. He felt safe talking to Julia because they were mutually bound by silence. But they were also bound by an understanding that they both came from bad places and had beaten the odds by not succumbing to the dark side of life. They both knowingly and willingly existed in the vast grey wilderness of good people who had done bad things.
‘I’m obsessed with tracking this one guy who I think is the key to everything,’ Jack said. ‘He was a nomadic kid because of his mum’s lifestyle. He got dragged from country to country, person to person. His mum got into the habit of denying he was even hers. When she was younger, that was because the men she was with didn’t want someone else’s baggage. But when she was older, I think she denied him almost out of habit. She told the neighbours he was her odd-job man — even encouraged the gossip that he was her toy boy.’
‘Sounds like half the kids I’ve looked after over the years.’
Jack smiled. ‘Sounds like me if I’d not been adopted.’ Jack had told Julia about being a foster child when they’d met previously. But that’s all she knew. She didn’t know that Jack’s birth dad had turned out to be Harry Rawlins. Or that he had been shot to death by his wife, Dolly Rawlins, the very woman who happened to be Julia’s mentor and role model. Jack was the product of an affair with a woman by the name of Trudie Nunn, a weak and highly unstable woman who hung around in all the seedy clubs waiting to be rescued by someone half decent. She struck lucky with Harry, but it was short-lived. Trudie died of a brain tumour when Jack was too young to remember her, though her death was the ultimate blessing in disguise.
‘Being saved, as you were, is why you’re so good at your job,’ Julia observed. ‘You know the look. You saw it in each one of us. I see it in the ten kids I’ve got here right now. That pain of knowing that this life isn’t as good as it should be. We got out, Jack; me and you. But it leaves scars. My scars draw me to kids like these, your scars draw you to people like your missing man. We know them because we’re always seconds away from being them.’
The wind from the hillside carried the distant sound of children shouting and laughing down into the farm. Jack took it as his cue to leave. ‘It was strangely nice to see you again, Julia.’
‘You too, DS Warr.’ Over the crest of the hill at the back of the farm, a woman appeared followed by several children of varying ages. The youngest two rode ponies and were being led by the older children. ‘Jack? Please don’t come back.’
Jack smiled. ‘Take very good care of yourself.’ Then he got into his car and turned it round. As he drove away, he could see Julia in his rear-view mirror. The woman greeted her with a kiss and the children swarmed round her legs all talking at once as they relayed their adventures. Julia was a good soul. For her, freedom did not come from fleeing abroad with tens of millions of pounds — freedom came from coming home. Jack was sure that he would think of Julia often, but he’d never see her again. And he’d never tell a soul that she was home.
Chapter 29
As Jack hit the M40 back to London, his radio display changed from RADIO 4 to MAGGIE. He thought that he should alter it to say WIFE and that made him grin. Jack was in a good mood. His visit to Julia had been unexpectedly positive and productive: he’d learnt that she was not back in the UK to ruin his life, and that the enigmatic Elliot Wetlock used to be a drug dealer and was still possibly a drug user. It made Jack happy to know that the doctor whose eyes and voice could make Maggie swoon was not perfect after all. But Jack would not tell Maggie any of this for now.
‘Hi, Mags. ETA 7 p.m. I’ll sort the takeaway as soon as I’m home. You want your usual?... Listen, Mags, what does canteen gossip tell you about Wetlock’s private life? From way back. Possibly from before he came to work.’
‘Are you driving?’
Maggie sounded sad and Jack’s mind immediately leapt to his mum. ‘What’s happened? Everyone OK?’
‘Everyone’s OK. We found out why Elliot Wetlock has gone AWOL. He found Tania’s body late last night. She’d been dead for days.’
‘Jesus, I’m sorry. I know she was a pain in the arse, but... sorry, Mags. He must be devastated.’
Maggie said that she’d still be home at the expected time and that she’d be needing a hug that might have to go on all night, depending on how depressing the rest of her shift turned out to be. Jack asked if Maggie wanted to be picked up from work, but she was actually looking forward to the run home as a way of clearing her head. Maggie didn’t volunteer any of the details surrounding Tania’s death, so Jack assumed that she either didn’t know or didn’t want to go into the gruesome details over the phone. So, Jack didn’t ask any questions. He simply kept saying ‘I love you’ until Maggie felt strong enough to hang up.
Jack assumed that Tania had OD’d, as he’d only met the girl twice and she was high both times. His drive home flew by as his mind raced to make sense of everything he now knew. Jack wondered whether Wetlock was her supplier. But, if he was, would he really bring the police into their lives? No, Jack thought Tania had been more than capable of ruining her own life. She was clearly a deeply unhappy girl, who dreamed of being rescued from a life she couldn’t escape on her own. That’s why she lived in a fantasy world — because it was better than reality.
Before Jack had spoken to Maggie, he’d been under no pressure to share what he’d learnt about Wetlock’s lifelong connection to drugs, but now, with the death of his drug-abusing daughter, it would all have to come out. Jack knew that he’d have to think of a way to explain how he’d come by the information.
As Jack’s family car sluggishly made its way back along the motorway, his thoughts shifted to a second car. Something nippier, more sexy and less homely. Seeing Julia again had reminded him that on a couple of occasions he’d stumbled across money during a case which didn’t belong to him but which he’d gratefully taken, on the basis that it didn’t belong to anyone else either. He’d been drip-feeding this money into his daily life ever since, his wedding’s free bar being the latest example. A new car would certainly be an asset now that Hannah was getting bigger and would soon be taking part in more and more social events such as Caterpillar Club and Buzzy Bees Gymnastics, both of which Penny had found being advertised in the library. Jack spent the rest of the journey home figuring out how to raise the subject of a new car with Maggie, who he knew had her heart set on a luxurious honeymoon. He wasn’t convinced they could do both — not in style.