Lost Souls by Jenny O'Brien (android e book reader txt) 📕

By the same token that was the reason she hadn’t told anyone about the change in her relationship with Rusty. She’d have to tell Amy sooner rather than later but they hadn’t managed to catch up for a proper chat in what seemed like ages, and conversations about their personal lives were best left to when they were off the premises.

Reining in her thoughts, she shifted her attention over to Jax who, with his boyish good looks and lopsided grin was as easy to read as a comic. ‘Tell me about your morning, Jax. Any luck with the neighbours?’

‘Not a huge amount, I’m afraid. The neighbours in the houses bordering the Frys didn’t see anything. In a way I’m quite surprised. An estate like that with so many residents – you’d think they’d be in and out of each other’s doors borrowing sugar, but not a bit of it. They gave me the impression that everyone keeps to themselves, the few bad ones ruining it for everyone.’

‘Isn’t that the usual way?’

‘Probably. The drug problem on the estate is common knowledge and something that may hamper the investigation if people are reluctant to talk. Obviously there’s s-s-still some out at work so I was going to drop in again this evening.’

‘Good plan. Don’t forget to add it to your timesheet and that goes for the rest of you,’ she said, with a tilt of her head. ‘I’m sure DCI Sherlock will be quite happy to pay overtime rates for something as important as this. So that’s Jax and Marie sorted. Malachy, I want you to go through our list of undesirables. Loath as I am to admit it, we can’t ignore the possibility that someone might have picked her up on the off-chance and, as Marie has quite rightly reminded us, we have our fair share of weirdos on our patch. That’s it for now unless anyone has anything to add?’

Owen placed his sandwich back down on his folded paper serviette and swallowed hard. ‘I know it’s not the time but if I could fill you in on the issue that arose this morning, ma’am?’

‘I’m all ears, Detective,’ Gaby said, her smile lessening the impact of her tone.

‘There’s a problem over at the Welsh Hills Memorial Gardens.’

‘What, that funeral place behind the Welsh Zoo?’ Marie interrupted.

‘You know it?’

‘Not well or anything. It’s where my grandfather was cremated a while back.’

Owen stared at her. ‘It seems as if there’s a bit of a mystery, which will need further investigation. It’s a little difficult to get your head around but basically one of the groundsmen found something unexplainable when he was cleaning out the cremator.’

‘Hold on a minute. The cremator. I take it that’s where they burn …?’ Gaby asked.

‘Exactly. Another word for furnace,’ he said, again glancing in Marie’s direction. ‘A bony residual is left following cremation, which has to be crushed down into a powder but not before all the metal parts have been removed and disposed of separately.’

‘Gruesome but fascinating. Everyone okay with this?’ This time they both glanced towards Marie, who was now examining her black, low-heeled slip-ons as if they were the most significant thing in the room. Since the recent failure of her marriage Marie had been holding on to her emotions by a thread of steely resolve. Neither of them wanted to be the one to cause her to snap. Owen only continued after a slight nod from Gaby.

‘Well, anyway, to cut a very long story short, yesterday evening, when the handyman was cleaning out the cremator, he found three metal hip replacements and, as he said himself, unless someone has been going around North Wales on three legs, we have a problem on our hands.’

‘Okay, but surely not an urgent one? It’s not as if the corpse is going anywhere.’

‘I’m not so sure about that.’

Gaby watched as Owen stood and made his way across to the window, his hands dug deep in his pockets in what she’d come to term his thinking pose. Over the last few months, the stocky Welsh detective had become more of a friend than a colleague but that friendship didn’t in any way influence the contribution he made to the Major Incident Team. Owen was a complex individual with rigid principles and the darkest sense of humour but no one could match his insight into the criminal mind. There was something bothering him. Something that he had to work out first. Despite the urgency, he’d only speak when he was ready.

He turned finally, his hands still entrenched in his pockets, his habitual twinkling eyes for once serious.

‘There’s been a smattering of elderly people who have gone missing. Not many but always disappearing without a trace. Remember the one last year that we ended up putting down to a suicide, for want of a better explanation?’

‘Miss Jane,’ Jax interrupted.

‘Yes, that’s her. It was before your time, ma’am.’ Owen sent Gaby a brief look. ‘I remember because of the unusual surname, kept thinking I was forgetting to add something at the end like Smith or Jones.’

‘Same here,’ Jax said. ‘Apparently it’s common enough in Cornwall. Anyway that’s by the by. We all assumed that her body would turn up eventually – it hasn’t yet. The case felt as if she’d upped and disappeared into thin air. The thing that worried us the most, at the time, was the full washing machine in addition to the packed fridge. Who goes to all that trouble if they’re going to top themselves and, if it was an accident it’s likely that the body would have been found by now.’

‘As we’ve already said, there were no clues. We’ve been waiting for a body – it’s very difficult to forge a crime out of her disappearance without either a body or a motive.’ Owen met Gaby’s gaze. ‘But it’s not only that. How did the additional prosthetics get into the coffin? I had a chat with the funeral director over at Prince and Sons and she was