Page 71 of Their Burning Graves
‘We’re just so saddened by it all, none of us know what to do. I guess keeping the salon going is the only thing we can do for Sally at the moment. It’s horrible though, who would want to do something like that to her entire family for no reason at all?’
‘It’s very tragic and that’s why I’m here. I’m investigating every line of enquiry that comes up. I wondered if Jackie is around, I’d like to have a word with her.’
‘Who?’
‘Jackie Thorpe.’
The woman looked confused. ‘I’m sorry, you’ve had a wasted journey, there’s no Jackie Thorpe working here.’
Now it was Morgan’s turn to look confused. ‘There’s not? She told me she lives above the salon?’ Something wasn’t right here. ‘Have you ever employed a Jackie Thorpe?’
She shook her head. ‘Never and no one called Jackie lives above us, it’s empty.’
‘Oh, right.’ Morgan looked around to give herself a minute to compose herself. ‘Does anyone here work as an on-call firefighter?’
The woman laughed loudly. ‘You must be joking, no one here would risk breaking a nail, that’s not happening this side of the millennium. Are you sure you have the right place?’
Morgan’s cheeks were burning, she felt stupid. Just who had she spoken to a few days ago about Sally outside of the salon?
‘Does anyone here have a sibling that might work as a firefighter?’ Morgan knew she was clutching at straws, but if an employee had a sibling that might have a dodgy criminal record, they may have used this as their work address.
‘Not that I’m aware of, actually I have a client that comes in now and again who is one of those retained firefighters.’
‘You do? What’s her name?’
The woman laughed. ‘Jacqueline, I’ve never called her Jackie. She’s a little bit strange at times.’
‘Do you have her address to hand?’
‘Look, I want to help you, I really do, but you’re wasting your time. She didn’t know Sally; she only ever came in when Sally wasn’t here.’
Morgan couldn’t let it go and knew any moment she was probably going to get thrown out of the salon, but until it happened, she was going to keep asking questions.
‘Does this Jacqueline have a family, what about parents, children, does she live with them?’
‘No, as far as I know, she’s single, she’s an only child. She has no family; her parents were killed a long time ago when she was a kid. Some drunk driver crashed into them, killed them both, it’s very sad.’
Morgan nodded; she could feel something begin to click into place in her mind. But what?
‘Okay, thanks for the information. Have you got her address all the same?’
She blew out her lips, a long sigh of resignation. ‘We got a new computer system and all the addresses got wiped out. She hasn’t been in since to update it. She used to live near the fire station though, the end house nearest to it. No idea what number it is though.’
‘Thank you so much for being so helpful, I really appreciate it.’
Morgan left the shop, Jacqueline was an orphan, like her. Bless her, that must have been a terrible accident, what an awful thing to have to live with. In her car she took out her phone and logged on to the British Newspaper Archive, where she would be able to hopefully search old drink-driving accidents in the area. Her heart broke a little at just how many came up. Narrowing down the search she typed in ‘couple killed by drink-driving Rydal Falls’. A headline in the results read, ‘Couple Mown Down by Drunk Teenager’.
Clicking on that link she was taken to a newspaper article covering the court case. There were no photographs, but the article named eighteen-year-old Erica James, who was arrested at the scene of the horrific crash for drink-driving. She fully admitted it, and was given five years for death by dangerous driving. Morgan shook her head, five years for killing two people and ruining their only child’s life. It was nothing, that was no sentence at all. She typed in the name ‘Erica James’ and a few grainy pictures came up of some kids on an outdoor camping trip, another of a young girl in a school assembly, the next a teenage girl being led into court, her hair much longer, her head down. She peered at the pictures, thinking she looked vaguely familiar, could Erica James be Natalie White? It was hard to tell, it was so long ago, and Natalie White had plenty of money now to change her looks, her hair. Both Sally Lawson and Natalie White were around the same age, in fact she’d admitted to knowing her as a teenager. The only thing that made no sense whatsoever was where the hell did Jackie Thorpe come into all of this? And that was assuming Jackie was Jacqueline. Morgan squeezed her eyes shut; she was getting a headache. She had to go back and tell Ben; she could look up Erica James on their system and see if she could connect her to anyone in the investigation. As she drove back to the station she thought about Sally,where do you come into this, Sally? If I’m even on the right level? I need someone to listen to all of this and tell me whether I’m clutching at straws or have something we can work with.
FORTY-EIGHT
Morgan opened the office door for the second time this morning, only this time she was greeted by the sight of Cain, Amy and Ben sitting chatting.
‘Where did you get to, you set off way before me?’
‘I had some information about a possible lead, so I went to follow it up.’
‘Any good?’
