The Dead Never Die: A secret buried for decades. A detective out for justice by Jason Chapman

Author:Jason Chapman [Chapman, Jason]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Offworld Publications
Published: 2025-10-02T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 24

Lower Monk Street – Abergavenny

‘Thanks.’ Fagan smiled, accepting the glass of brandy Walker handed him.

Walker coughed, rubbing his chest.

‘You okay, George?’ Fagan asked, with concern clear in his tone.

‘Chest infection,’ Walker rasped. ‘My doctor told me to take it easy at my age. Especially with these heart tablets.’ He waved a hand towards the side table, where a strip of medication lay.

Fagan sipped from his glass. ‘Sounds like good advice to me.’

Walker eased himself onto a battered Chesterfield opposite, groaning softly as he settled. ‘Well, we all have to go sometime.’

An awkward silence lingered for a moment.

‘Your colleagues interviewed me at the new police station in Llanfoist.’

‘I knew it would only be a matter of time before they called on you.’

Walker gave a dry chuckle. ‘Thought little of it, to be honest. The one leading the interview—Watkins, a decent lad—he was doing his best. But that DI, the one who cut it short? Useless. Didn’t want to be there.’

‘DI Nathan Saddler. Typical of the new generation of coppers. Nicking criminals is more of an inconvenience than an actual job.’

Walker took a small sip from his glass. ‘I suppose you want to know what happened all those years ago.’

‘I’m currently on leave, George.’

‘No, you’re not,’ Walker smiled. ‘I know you well enough to know that you won't let this rest. Especially since you were locked in John Sharpe’s cellar.’

Fagan took a deep breath. ‘In your own time, George, what do you remember?’

Walker fell silent for a moment, the weight of old ghosts stirring behind his eyes. ‘More than I care to. Even after I left the police—just after you left Abergavenny—Danny Llewelyn haunted my dreams.’

Fagan recalled the nightmare that had woken him.

‘The one thing that sticks out in my mind is how Benson handled it. Like that DI who interviewed me, he didn’t want to know.’ Walker sipped from his glass. ‘I remember when the boys’ mothers reported them missing. I was outside the police station, talking to one of the town’s residents. Arthur Cole. Can’t remember what we were talking about. Anyway, I remember sending him on his way, and Joyce and Beryl walking up from Park Street, where they lived. They said their boys, Danny and Kevin, didn’t come home the night before. They were both frantic with worry. I tried to reassure them that the boys would probably be home for Sunday lunch. I advised them to come back to the police station if their boys hadn’t come home by mid-afternoon.’

‘What happened then?’ Fagan asked.

‘I made sure I took some notes. Basic description of the boys and what they were wearing. Arthur, the man who I’d just been speaking to, came up to me and said he’d seen two boys getting into a car the night before. Then, I went back inside to make a note of it in the logbook. Benson was there, wanting to know what they wanted. So I told him.’

‘How did he react?’

‘He dismissed it as if it were nothing. He even took the notes that I had written and ripped them up.

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