The Coroner (61 page)

    'I've
made a lot of mistakes, too.'

    'No
more self-destructive thoughts?'

    'Nothing
serious . . . They're always there, lurking in the shadows, but as long as they
stay there, it's fine.'

    'Panic
attacks?'

    'Not
in the last week or so. I feel pretty steady.'

    'You
sound almost disappointed.'

    'You
don't feel as much medicated . . . I'm not complaining.'

    'You're
mending. Think of the drugs as a sticking plaster. You'll only need them while
the wound's healing underneath.'

    'I
suppose . . .' She eased back into a sitting position, wiping away the last of
her tears.

    'Tell
me, how are things with your son?'

    'Fine.
He's coming to stay with me next week for the summer, maybe longer.'

    'His
cannabis problem?'

    'I'm hoping
he'll get into girls instead.'

    'And
you won't have a problem with that?'

    'Of
course I will, I'm his mother, but at least I can scare the bad ones away.'

    Dr
Allen smiled. 'You know, whatever's happened between you, you'll never fix the
past, but if you get the present right, you can at least come to terms with
it.'

    Jenny
said, 'I'm a coroner. I spend my life laying things to rest.'

    Detective
Sergeant Williams and his team successfully brought Sean Loughlin to justice.
At Newport Crown Court, he pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Danny Wills
and not guilty to the murder of Katy Taylor. At his subsequent trial, evidence
was heard that on the day of Katy's disappearance he had lawfully purchased an
air pistol in the style of a Glock handgun which, it was alleged, he used to
persuade her into his vehicle. Loughlin declined to give evidence and was
convicted. He was sentenced to mandatory life imprisonment with a
recommendation that he serve at least twenty-five years.

    Kevin
Stewart was tried for perjury and, following evidence from Jan Smirski given
via video link from Poland, pleaded guilty to a single count of perverting the
course of justice. He was sentenced to four years. Williams attempted to bring
similar charges against a number of other staff at Portshead Farm but the Crown
Prosecution Service decided not to proceed to trial for lack of evidence.
Darren Hogg continues to work as a CCTV operator, though shortly after the
Danny Wills inquest he was transferred by his employer to an adult jail. Elaine
Lewis remains in the USA and attempts to extradite her to the UK have so far
proved unsuccessful. Giles Hartley and his instructing solicitors were formally
investigated but no criminal charges arose.

    Despite
a lengthy investigation, no documentary evidence was discovered implicating Frank
Grantham in a corrupt deal to sell local authority-owned land to UKAM Secure
Solutions Ltd. The company, meanwhile, completed the purchase and is currently
building a secure training centre with capacity for five hundred trainees. The
identity of the whistleblower who handed the tender document to Marshall was
never discovered.

    Andy
and Claire Taylor made an official complaint about the initial handling of the
investigation into their daughter's death. While the Independent Police
Complaints Commission found several shortcomings in the CID's response, these
were attributed to lack of resources; elements of the investigation were found
to be regrettable, but no individual officer could be said to be at fault.

    By
remortgaging her home, Tara Collins engaged a firm of forensic data retrieval
experts who traced the alleged fraudulent transactions made on her laptop to a
wi-fi connection in a Starbucks coffee shop in Burtonsville, Maryland. No link
with UKAM or its associated companies was proved, but the judge at her trial at
Bristol Crown Court accepted there was no case to answer and ordered the jury
to return a not guilty verdict.

    Nick
Peterson left the Severn Vale District Hospital to take up a position at a community
hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa.

    An
inquest into the death of Harry Marshall held by the Bristol Central Coroner
reached an open verdict. Neither Mrs Marshall nor any of her daughters
attended. However, at a short chapel service held following Katy Taylor's
reinterment, she read the lesson, her late husband's favourite passage from the
King James Bible: Isaiah 61:

    The
Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach
good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to
proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that
are bound.