‘Kent’s ChiefConstable,’ she added, as if she could tell what he was thinking.
It took amoment for Morton to digest the news. Daniel Dunk’s BMW was registered tothe highest ranking police officer in Kent. ‘I don’t get it,’ he said.
‘Meneither. All I know is that it's not a personal car; it's one of morethan half a dozen used for the security of key members of the government, likethe Prime Minister, Home Secretary, Northern Ireland Secretary, et cetera.’
‘Are you sureabout this?’
Juliette’s bodysagged. ‘I was suspended. How much surer do I need to be?’
‘So DanielDunk’s working for the Chief Constable of Kent?’ Morton said, as much tohimself as to Juliette. Although this latest development had made thepicture even more abstract, he still thought with great excitement about allthe new pieces of string and coloured drawing pins he needed to add to his ColdrickCase Incident Wall.
‘Christ knows,but something dodgy is going on. Not even five minutes after I’d run thenumber plate search I was hauled into the inspector’s office and told toexplain myself. I said I saw the owner of the vehicle acting suspiciouslybut he wasn’t having any of it, suspended me there and then. I’m startingto think fifty grand is nowhere near enough money for this job of yours.’
‘Hmm,’ Mortonagreed, attempting to mentally place the new acquisitions to the ColdrickCase jigsaw. ‘You said Olivia Walker is in charge of the security ofkey government ministers – would this happen to include the Secretary ofDefence?’
‘PhilipWindsor-Sackville, yeah, I believe so. Why?’
‘I’ll make acup of tea and bring you up to speed.’
Morton strolledinto the kitchen, unable to shake the name Olivia Walker. He knew hername from somewhere else. But where was it? He boiled thekettle, searching his mind for a match.
Then it struckhim.
She was theofficer in charge of the investigation into Mary Coldrick’s death.
What acoincidence!
‘There’ssomething else about your Chief Constable,’ Morton said, handing Juliette a mugof tea.
Morton toldJuliette everything about the Coldrick Case, even the finerdetails that he had previously skipped over. Juliette clasped the mug oftea like a frozen vagrant and listened intently to him, only interrupting toclarify when something had taken place. ‘But this was last week,’she had said. ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ He’d told her it wasbecause he hadn’t wanted to bore her.
Morton carriedthe copper box and the photocopy of the Windsor-Sackville arms to hisstudy. He carefully placed the photos of James Coldrick and his mother,along with her letter inside the box and tucked it away under his desk. Opening up Juliette’s laptop, he punched ‘Windsor-Sackville’ into Google. Only seven million two hundred and fifty thousand websites to trawlthrough. The top results concerned Frederick James Windsor-Sackville.
BBC – History – Windsor-Sackville(1880-1965)
Frederick James Windsor-Sackville was aConservative politician andprominent member of government. His much laudedwelfare reforms…
www.bbc.co.uk/history_figures/windsor_sackville.shtml - 25k
Time 100: Frederick JamesWindsor-Sackville
The illustrious statesman who served hiscountry in WW1 before becomingChancellor of the Exchequer.
www.time.com/time/time100/leaders/profile/windsor-sackville.html - 33k
Windsor-Sackville – Wikipedia, the freeencyclopedia
Political family headed up by FrederickJames Windsor-Sackville. He was born 18 May 1880…
En.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windsor-Sackville –359k
Morton scrolled down past genericbiographies of Frederick James Windsor-Sackville, wanting to find outinformation about his son, Sir David and his grandson, the current Secretary ofDefence. Most of the websites that he clicked on seemed to agree thatDavid James Peregrine Windsor-Sackville was a rising star in the Conservativeparty prior to World War Two. Then, having gained a place in Churchill’sCoalition Government, he secured the family’s fortunes at a time when othergentry were losing theirs, by landing large reconstruction contracts for hisfledgling company, WS Construction. Having helped populatehalf of post-war Britain with cheap prefabs, David became a key member of thegovernment’s rebuilding programme; many of Britain’s most unsightly 1950sconcrete monstrosities owed their creation to WS Construction and David JamesPeregrine Windsor-Sackville. A knighthood followed in 1964. Maintaining his place close to the centre of the British political system, itwas inevitable that his son, Philip would follow in his footsteps, ascending tothe role of Secretary of Defence in the current Coalition Government. Asstated by Dr Garlick, David married Maria Spencer in 1945, their first child,Philip, arriving the following year in December 1946. Morton took a pageof notes before clicking on the family’s own website.
The Windsor-Sackville Family
Information, quotes, speeches andbiographies on this distinguished British family.
www.windsor-sackville.org.uk/ - 28k
He looked around the website ‘of this mosteminent of English families’ designed with elegant colour-schemes and an oldEnglish style font. Clicking on the Family Tree tab, he followed theancestral line of the Windsor-Sackvilles. He studied the screen for sometime then stared at the Coldrick Case Incident Wall. The onlylogical explanation that he could come up with was that James Coldrick couldhave been the son of Sir David James Peregrine and Lady Maria CharlotteWindsor-Sackville. It certainly made sense on some kind of level. Had they placed the illegitimate James - born a year before theirmarriage - just metres away at St George’s Children’s Home and then bought hissilence when he grew up with several hundred thousand pounds? Had theykilled Mary Coldrick when she began to pry into her husband’s past? Hadthey killed Peter Coldrick when he too grew curious and began to ask the wrongquestions? Did the ‘M’ at the end of the wartime letter written to JamesColdrick stand for Maria? Could it really be as simple as that? Mortondoubted it. It all felt a bit too crowbarred into place, the kind ofsurmises dreamed up by amateur genealogists determined to find that elusivelink to royalty. He’d lost count now of the number of clients who claimedto be descendants of a mistress of Henry VIII, as if that even meantanything. Congratulations, your twenty times great grandfather was anadulterous rogue and your twenty times great grandmother was a harlot. Youmust feel so honoured to have such blue blood running through your veins.
Havingretrieved the two photographs of James Coldrick’s mother, Morton clicked on the‘Photo Gallery’ tab and scrolled down to a close up of Maria CharlotteWindsor-Sackville. He held the images close to the laptop screen and comparedthe photos. The profile shot of Maria on the website looked to Mortonlike it had been taken in the sixties or seventies and
