August 4, 2025 • 49 mins
Flesh and Code will be back with a brand new episode next week, but if you can't wait to find out what happens next in Travis and Lily Rose's story, you can listen to all episodes early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.
While you're waiting, we wanted to share another limited series that we think will captivate you. It’s called Stolen Hearts.
The podcast follows Sergeant Jill Evans, a small-town cop in Wales with a less than impressive record in her love life. That is, until she meets Dean - a wealthy, charming entrepreneur who seems perfect in every way. But when Dean vanishes without a trace on Halloween night, Jill is left to unravel a mystery that challenges everything she thought she knew about love and trust. From Wondery and Novel, Stolen Hearts explores the dark side of modern relationships and the devastating price of misplaced trust.
Binge all episodes of Stolen Hearts exclusively and ad-free by joining Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Start your free trial by visiting wondery.com/links/stolen-hearts/ now.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/alkebulan-love-podcast--6699830/support.
While you're waiting, we wanted to share another limited series that we think will captivate you. It’s called Stolen Hearts.
The podcast follows Sergeant Jill Evans, a small-town cop in Wales with a less than impressive record in her love life. That is, until she meets Dean - a wealthy, charming entrepreneur who seems perfect in every way. But when Dean vanishes without a trace on Halloween night, Jill is left to unravel a mystery that challenges everything she thought she knew about love and trust. From Wondery and Novel, Stolen Hearts explores the dark side of modern relationships and the devastating price of misplaced trust.
Binge all episodes of Stolen Hearts exclusively and ad-free by joining Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Start your free trial by visiting wondery.com/links/stolen-hearts/ now.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/alkebulan-love-podcast--6699830/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, listeners. This is Hannah Maguire, co host of Flesh
and Code.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
And I'm Seruti Bala. We'll be back with a brand
new episode of Flesh and Code next week, but if
you can't wait to find out what happens next in
Travis and Lily Rose's story, you can listen to all
episodes early and ad free right now by joining Wondry
Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
While you're waiting, we wanted to share another limited series
that we think will captivate you.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
On Flesh and Code, we've been exploring how technology can
blur the lines between real and artificial connections and the
dangers of opening your heart to an algorithm. But sometimes
the most devastating betrayals come from flesh and blood relationships
that seem just too good to be true. That's exactly
what you'll discover in Stolen Hearts. It follows Sergeant Jill Evans,
(00:51):
a small town cop in Wales with a less than
impressive record in her love life. That is until she
meets Dean, a wealthy, charming on up who seems perfect
in every way. But when Dean vanishes without a trace
on Halloween, night, Jill has left to unravel a mystery
that challenges everything she thought she knew about love and trust.
(01:12):
From Wondery and novel, Stolen Hearts explores the dark side
of modern relationships and the devastating price of misplaced trust.
We're about to play episode one of Stolen Hearts. If
you want to hear episode two and the rest of
the series, you can listen exclusively and ad free right
now by joining Wondry Plus, start your free trial in
(01:33):
the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or by clicking the
link in the episode description now.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
For listeners in the States, the following episode contains references
to the Old Bill, which is the police super drug
which is a chain of pharmacies, and Big Ben, which
is the name of one of the bells in the
clock tower in the Houses of Parliament, but which here
is used for a very different purpose. It also contains
some strong language.
Speaker 4 (01:59):
Are Like a lot of small towns in the UK,
Haverford West manages to be both charmingly quaint and slightly depressing.
(02:20):
It's in Wales, about one hundred miles from the capital Cardiff.
It's a small community nestled in the countryside. The sort
of place where medieval churches mix with empty shops and
greasy kibab houses. But for those that are born there,
many choose not to leave because despite the slightly rundown
high Street, it's the kind of place that you can
(02:42):
get on with your life without too much fuss.
Speaker 5 (02:45):
It's very quiet, it's peaceful, it's close to the sea
and where we live it's just your bog standard residential
cul de sac, and nothing out of the ordinary ever
tends to happen.
Speaker 4 (03:01):
And Sam, one of the fifteen thousand residents in Haverford West,
loves that about this place.
Speaker 6 (03:07):
Except today that's going to change.
Speaker 4 (03:14):
It's the third of November two thousand and six and
Halloween has come and gone. Leftover pumpkins, dot a cross, doorways, unsmashed, unbothered.
Speaker 6 (03:24):
It's getting late.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
As Sam winds her way through the dark roads lined
with trees and fields leading up to her own quiet street,
her headlights start to sketch images of an unusual sight
ahead of her. Strangers on her road, lots of them,
and they're all in uniforms.
Speaker 5 (03:42):
Wow, there are just police cars everywhere here, lined on
both sides of the road.
Speaker 4 (03:49):
But she doesn't stop and stare because it's none of
her business what's going on.
Speaker 5 (03:53):
I went into my house, chucked off my work gear,
getting my uniform, or chucked in the wash and things.
Speaker 6 (04:02):
Her husband though, well, he can't resist.
Speaker 5 (04:06):
I hear my husband shout, quick, come quick, come and
look out the window. They're searching Jill's house.
Speaker 4 (04:15):
Sam and her husband are not the only ones showing
neighborly concern.
Speaker 5 (04:20):
I could see neighbors just peering around corners and peeping
over fences. Everybody could see everything open, all the curtains,
every blind. Officers rifling through all of her things, pulling
out bits and pieces from everywhere, picking things apart upstairs, downstairs.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
The house in question belongs to a police officer, a neighbor.
Everyone in the road knows, Sergeant Jill Evans.
Speaker 5 (04:49):
The gossip was just wolf like wildfire through the street.
Speaker 4 (04:53):
And who could blame them? I mean, a raid like
this in their town, and for a.
Speaker 6 (04:57):
Police officer, no less.
Speaker 4 (04:59):
It's been a long time since anything this exciting happened
in Haverfood, West, and Sam's husband has.
Speaker 6 (05:05):
A theory as to what or who might be behind
the commotion.
Speaker 5 (05:09):
He said, I wonder if it's him, And I said,
what do you mean him? He said, well, the guy
she was with, I'm wonder for something to do with him.
Speaker 7 (05:19):
And I said, well, gosh, it could be.
Speaker 4 (05:23):
It's been seventy two hours since a man was shot
dead and the trail has led the police to Jill's Doore,
a trail lined with tens of thousands of pounds broken
hearts and shower gel Haverfood West has never seen anything
like it. But the truth is that this little town
(05:44):
is about to witness one of the greatest and strangest
love stories the world has ever known.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
You're listening ad free on Wondery Plus.
Speaker 8 (05:59):
I'm John Robins and joining me on How Do You Cope?
This week is the actor and comedian Tom Rosenthal.
Speaker 9 (06:04):
My girlfriend and I conceived a child and we had
sadly had a miscarriage.
Speaker 8 (06:09):
Right.
Speaker 9 (06:10):
I had no idea that that had really affected me
until I went on this pilgrimage, and it took me
twelve days to work it out. We're in a church
and a guy was just doing a sort of standard
prayer and like, I really lost it.
Speaker 8 (06:22):
Yeah, So that's how do you Cope? With me? John Robbins.
Find us wherever you get your.
Speaker 6 (06:27):
Podcasts from Wondering and Novel.
Speaker 4 (06:34):
I'm Kerry Godnoman and this is Stolen Hearts Episode one.
Speaker 6 (06:38):
The Governor, I can hear what.
Speaker 10 (06:42):
Now.
Speaker 11 (06:43):
I just want us to be somehow.
Speaker 12 (06:51):
That makes.
Speaker 11 (06:56):
Says there are matches made in heaven, Pairings that seem
like they were always meant to be.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
Two people who, when you see them together, they just
make you think, of course, William and Kate, Posh and becks,
pie and mash, fish and chips, curry and rice, cheese
and tomato, beautiful, inevitable, boring. I much prefer the second
kind of pairing, the kind that, on the face of it.
Speaker 6 (07:39):
Seem utterly impossible.
Speaker 4 (07:44):
Romance novels and rom coms are full of these, And
if they've taught us anything, and that's questionable, they've taught
us that these are supposed to be the most perfect partnerships.
Speaker 6 (07:56):
The stories are all the same.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
A rejection here, a heartbreak, a last minute realization, a
desperate race against time to get to the train station,
the airport press conference to confess undying love to each other,
or they'll end up sharing one last tragic kiss in
the ICC as behind them, a big old boat sinks.
(08:19):
Roll credits this kind of love comes at a cost.
Of course, our heroes will have to risk everything for it,
but in the end it's all worth it. The heart
is always worth it. So that's the theme. But now
(08:41):
you need to get to know a leading lady. Twelve
months before her house is turned over by the police, Jill,
who's thirty eight, is out on the streets of Haverford West,
doing what she does best, being a cop with her
athletic build and sharp crop blonde hairstyle that was sous
with every strong woman of the naughties. We join her
(09:03):
notebook in hand as she reluctantly scribbles whilst a man
in a panama hat tells her about what might very
well be the crime of the century.
Speaker 12 (09:13):
What had happened. He bought this car someone in the night.
He'd taken the badge off the front of the car
and got his garden squirrel and stuck the garden squirrel
onto the bonnet with super glue.
Speaker 6 (09:23):
Yeah, that's the case.
Speaker 4 (09:25):
This is what fourteen years of police training has brought
Jill two a garden ornament and an ongoing war between
two feuding neighbors over a parking spot.
Speaker 12 (09:34):
So yeah, this garden squirrel perched on the bonnet of
his car. Well, I thought it was hilarious and he
was furious. He was going, what do you think about this?
And I was like, I'm just going to start laughing.
Maybe people in bigger cities would go that's ridiculous, why
would you even be called about that? But we would
be called about the smallest things because it mattered to people.
(09:54):
You know, whether it was a big crime or a
small crime, it's still mattered.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
Although Haverford West might not be a hub for master criminals,
Jill has made herself the hero that this small town needs,
and she has the awards to prove it. A photo
with the Prime Minister here, a commendation for taking down
a drug dealer there.
Speaker 6 (10:14):
Jill doesn't need a big city to make big waves.
Speaker 4 (10:17):
But in truth, Jill enjoyed a simple diet of country crime.
Speaker 12 (10:21):
You get burglary, get theft, you get the assault, the fighting.
On a Saturday night, the farmers would come in and
the rugby boys would come in and they'd all fight
and a lost dog, missing child, Just the same thing
all the time, over and over and over the same
people you'd go to arguing and the same people assaulting people.
Speaker 4 (10:40):
But after a long day of keeping the streets of Haverford,
West safe, Jill heads home for the real work, caring
for her two daughters. With a domestic routine as militant
as her efforts in the force. Jill fixes dinner and
prepares school uniforms for the next day.
Speaker 6 (10:55):
But at the end of the.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
Day, no matter how full her life is, there's something
missing underneath.
Speaker 7 (11:01):
I was probably very lonely.
Speaker 4 (11:03):
Yeah, Jill's love life is nonexistent and over cups and
cups and cups of tea and more than a few
custard slices, she laments her misfortunes with her best friend Jenny.
Speaker 13 (11:14):
Jill needs to be loved. Jill needs to be wanted.
That's the way she is. She's just got zest for
life and energy. She's always striding out, you know, one
hundred miles an hour. She beams life. Basically, it's not.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
That Jill hasn't had her share of relationships by this
point in her life. Jill's burnt through three engagements, two marriages,
and one affair for good measure.
Speaker 12 (11:38):
I would describe myself as a bit of a mess.
My taste in men it was all over.
Speaker 4 (11:45):
The shop and there was no shortage of men in
the local police department, where Jill stands out as one
of the only female sergeants, and you'd better believe she's
had her fair share of admirers. It all started in
nineteen ninety two with a bloke called Ian, back from
Jill's days as a new recruit at the police academy.
Speaker 7 (12:04):
Well, I always to describe him as Bruce Willis.
Speaker 6 (12:07):
Yeah, not sure about that.
Speaker 4 (12:10):
Jill kept her crush quiet as best she could, but
it all came out one night when Jill and Ian
volunteered to collect the trainee copper's traditional Friday night takeaway,
a perfect time to make the first move.
Speaker 12 (12:22):
He volunteered to come with me to get the food,
and he had these massive hands and these like shovel hands.
Who's carrying these drinks? And I was quite nervous because
obviously there's an attraction. We came back and he kissed
me in the corridor.
Speaker 4 (12:38):
Clearly, Ian didn't worry about personal relations getting in the
way of his career or his marriage for that matter.
You see, Ian wasn't exactly single. Every time he swore
he'd leave his wife, Jill's heart broke a little more
and Ian stayed married for a little bit longer, so
Jill met a new man, David, also a copper, known
(13:03):
to ride a police motorbike like he'd stolen it, but
off duty, David poodled around in his plain old Citron
people carrier.
Speaker 13 (13:13):
David wasn't a barred relationship. It just wasn't exciting enough.
Didn't have enough guid up and go with him For Jill.
Speaker 4 (13:19):
David proved at the end of the day a motorbike
wasn't exactly a personality, and without it, he struggled to
match her energy levels.
Speaker 12 (13:28):
I'm very strong, willed, sometimes outspoken, sort of like we're hard.
Speaker 7 (13:33):
Have nice things if you can.
Speaker 12 (13:35):
Whereas David still drives the same plane car, does the
same plaining thing. David's very quiet, very don't lock the boat,
don't stand out, follow the crowd.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
In other words, Jill found him boring. But love conquers
all right.
Speaker 7 (13:51):
I didn't love David, and I don't think David loved me.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
Oh right, fine, anyway, she married him happily ever after,
at long last, Like every great love story, Jill was
prepared for a lifetime with steady plane David and he's
playing car. They even had a daughter together. But everywhere
(14:15):
Jill goes, there's the man that only Jill thinks looks
like Bruce Willis. Ian at the supermarket, Ian out on patrol,
there's Ian again. Ian Ian Ian, tall, dark, handsome and
still very married.
Speaker 6 (14:32):
Ian.
Speaker 7 (14:33):
You'd meet eyes and there'd be this look between us.
Speaker 4 (14:36):
That look soon gave way to snogging, and eventually the
only thing between them was several broken hearts and a
whole lot of confessing. After Jill and Ian's affair came
to light, and just like that, Jill went from two
bad options to none. Best friend Jenny wasn't worried, though
she knew that it wouldn't be long before Jill found
(14:58):
a new man, and she did the man with whom
she had her second daughter, Police Constable Hugh nickname Cuddles.
Speaker 6 (15:09):
Jenny wasn't a fan.
Speaker 13 (15:11):
I never liked him from the start, so I refused
to go to the wedding.
Speaker 4 (15:15):
No matter because it quickly ended in tears, specifically Jill's,
when Jenny found her on her own doorstep after another
explosive fight with Hugh. When they went round to the
house to pick up Jill's things, they found them all
piled up in the garden on fire.
Speaker 12 (15:33):
A big bed was pierged on the top, like a
candle on a cake.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
Big Ben in this case was a giant novelty dildo
that Jill had bought as a joke for a party.
Speaker 12 (15:42):
All the rubber had melted and it was just the frame.
And remember Jenny saying to me it was a big.
Speaker 7 (15:48):
Ben on the top.
Speaker 12 (15:50):
And I was crying at the dose all this, and
I just went, oh my god. We just burst out
laughing because it was just what she said, that's big Ben.
Speaker 4 (16:00):
And with the untimely demise of big Ben came the
end of marriage number two. Jill moved into a new
home and began a fresh start with a less than
fresh feeling.
Speaker 12 (16:11):
I was in the bath upstairs and the en suite,
and it was cold, the water was lukewarm. There was
a skylight just above me, and the moon was coming in,
and I just cried and cried and cried and thought, well,
I'm here, I am again, second bloody divorce. I'm just thinking,
what's the point. There is absolutely new point in just
looking for a relationship. You'd be better off on your own,
But obviously I didn't want to be on my own.
(16:31):
I think everyone wants to have that relationship that they
feel wanted and appreciated and loved in, and I just
hadn't found it.
Speaker 4 (16:39):
And so in two thousand and six, after sixteen years
of bad relationships, and over one of those many cups
of tea, Jenny gives Jill the advice on the lips
of every best friend, of every newly divorced comrade, get
yourself online, girl, and Jill's new type simple, just don't
(17:01):
be a bloody copper. After putting the kids to bed,
Jill would fire up her old desktop computer in the
living room while on the landline to Jenny, and she'd
be looking through seemingly endless profiles of middle aged, overweight, building,
divorced men. And they're all looking for no strings attached fun,
(17:22):
posing in front of cars that they don't own, and
probably holding a fish.
Speaker 6 (17:27):
Every heart's desire. But it's not doing it for Jill.
Speaker 12 (17:32):
I said to Jenny, I'm going to come off. It's
just do my adding. But I'll have one more look.
Speaker 6 (17:38):
This time she tries something different.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
As New Year's comes around with the promise of new beginnings,
Jill widens her search. Now she's not only looking for
a match in Haverford West, or even in the Hole
of Wales, but any man anywhere in the entire United Kingdom.
Speaker 6 (17:59):
And then.
Speaker 12 (18:03):
It was his eyes that made me look twice.
Speaker 6 (18:06):
Staring back at her in an arm army suit.
Speaker 12 (18:09):
A navy blue suit. He was bald and he had
a smile. I would describe him as a man's man.
You would look at him and go, he can handle himself.
I'd met an actual proper man. That's how I can
describe it.
Speaker 4 (18:27):
Really, Dean Jenkins brooding with bulging biceps, a businessman and
he's looking for a wife. Maybe it's because he's the
first decent looking man within three hundred miles of Haverford West.
But Jill doesn't wait to message him. She sends him
a few.
Speaker 6 (18:46):
The gist is you.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
Found your future wife. The only problem is she lives
in Wales. It isn't long before Jenny hears all about it.
Speaker 13 (18:58):
Look, she said, look at this guy. He's a businessman
from London. I was all for it, thinking that he
looked fine, the profile sounded good. She liked the look
of him.
Speaker 4 (19:06):
The best part he wasn't a cop. When Jill first
picks up the phone and here's Dean's voice. He has
her at hallo, or rather he has her at Hello
Darling a.
Speaker 12 (19:20):
Laugh because his accent was so pay a mash darling.
Initially I was really nervous, but the conversation wasn't nervous
at all. And I think we spoke for about an
hour and didn't really notice the time at all.
Speaker 8 (19:33):
We just clicked.
Speaker 4 (19:34):
Dean and Jill quickly find their connections. They've both been
married before, both parents to two children, all girls, and
they've both got high flying careers. Dean tells Jill that
he's made his fortune selling his own personal brand of
male grooming products, is called the Governor Range.
Speaker 12 (19:53):
And I initially thought, oh, this is rubbishal what's he
on about? And he said, no, no, I'm serious. He
said that if you google it up online, so I
was scribbling down Governor, Governor Range, how do you spell that?
He said, go to super drug because he said, you're
not going to believe me, and it'll be on the shelf.
And I say, oh, no, I believe you. I'm not
going to go and look. And I'd be quite cool
on the phone.
Speaker 6 (20:12):
But Jill isn't cool. She's very curious.
Speaker 4 (20:16):
I mean, come on, a little window shopping never hurt anybody.
Speaker 6 (20:21):
So she sifts through the shelves.
Speaker 4 (20:22):
Confronted with endless, bold male products with bolder slogans on
strength and masculinity, all in the pursuit of getting a
man to wash.
Speaker 6 (20:31):
Jilly's on the hunt.
Speaker 12 (20:33):
So there I am in super Drug, now going, oh,
Governor Age, go rage, govery rage.
Speaker 14 (20:38):
It's there.
Speaker 12 (20:40):
Picked it up, but I remember it now. The bottles
were black and white. Then I flipped the bottle over
and Dean's face was on the back.
Speaker 4 (20:48):
As Jill stares at Dean's brooding face, her heart begins
to flutter.
Speaker 12 (20:53):
For someone in little Pembrokeshire to meet. So who's got
a shower gel? Range in super Drug was a big
thing for me at that, and I was like, I
can't believe my luck. Never mind those two marriages that
have gone, WHOA hit the jackpot.
Speaker 6 (21:07):
It's all going so well.
Speaker 4 (21:08):
It doesn't even matter to Jill that one of Dean's
products is a blood red body wash called beat the Filth.
I mean, Jill knows all too well that the filth
is commonly slang for the police. Even so she's coy
about telling Dean exactly what it is she does for
a living. For now, she just says that she works
in law sort of, and it does the trick.
Speaker 12 (21:28):
He got on so well and he started to form
that attachment, and I remember thinking, we haven't met yet.
He could have a completely bogus picture on there. A
lot of people can fall head over heels with an
image they build of that person. There could be a
completely fake picture up there, and the person they're talking
to could be completely fake behind the telephone call. But
(21:49):
people form an image in their head and you can
fall in love with that person before you actually meet.
Speaker 6 (21:55):
It's a fear that Jenny teases Jill about.
Speaker 12 (21:58):
She said he might be like forty stone and sixty
five years of age, and then what you're going to
do And I'm like, oh, don't, please, don't do this
because I'm going to be gutted.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
They decide to meet up for their first date. Jill
makes her way to Cardiff. It's the halfway point between
her and the dreamy Dean. She's nervous. All the heartache
and all the mistakes, all the missed opportunities and failed
attempts at finally feeling love to have now led her
to hear a small two star hotel.
Speaker 6 (22:31):
With a breast to settle herself.
Speaker 4 (22:33):
Jill steps onto the sticky tile floor of a bar
that seems less than prepared for true romance.
Speaker 12 (22:39):
I was thinking, oh no, this is it now, this
is make or break.
Speaker 6 (22:52):
Hello, it's Chloe here.
Speaker 15 (22:53):
I'm an investigative reporter at The Observer, and I originally
broke the story about the salt part a few weeks ago.
It's the story of a woman who wrote a best
selling memoir about a true story, except all may not
be what it seemed.
Speaker 13 (23:14):
She's made a lot of money out of ruining my
family's life.
Speaker 15 (23:17):
At the beginning, listen to the slow newscast wherever you
get your podcasts.
Speaker 4 (23:33):
The hotel bar on a Friday night is a lively place,
but when Jill hears a man call her name, it
cuts through the noise like a hot knife through butter.
Speaker 12 (23:43):
I didn't know he was there, but he called my name.
He goes Jill Juel. She's got this funny way of
saying Jill. Jeel tea around and he was there and
it was like, oh.
Speaker 8 (23:54):
My god, hello, Darling torn a tweet.
Speaker 4 (23:57):
The first thing Dean Jenkins notices about Jill is how tall.
She is several inches higher than him. But Dean's not
a man who was easily daunted. He's used to getting
what he wants, and as soon as he sees Jill,
he wants her.
Speaker 8 (24:11):
I'd be crushious. I can't deny it.
Speaker 4 (24:14):
By his own account, Dean doesn't show his emotions easily,
but meeting Jill Evans sets his pulse racing.
Speaker 8 (24:21):
When we meet, it as though we've been together one
hundred years. That's how it was. It was like putting
a pair of gloves on, going, oh god, we sure
we have known each other forever. That's how it felt.
Because he was very comfortable each other's company. She was
a character. She made me laugh. I mean, Dann, we
laughed a lot, and at the time I wasn't laughing
that much in my life, so it was a breath
of fresh air.
Speaker 4 (24:42):
They set her in at a table, Jill's fingers wrapped
around a gin and tonic.
Speaker 12 (24:46):
It was ice in the glass. The glass was going
ding ding ding ding ding with the ice, and what's
that noise? And he was so cool and he just
went she glassed, Darling. He goes, you're shaking, and I
was like, oh, laughing. But he was so laid back,
and if he had any nerves, you never see them.
He was rock solid on top. I knew straightaway that
(25:08):
it was going to be something between us.
Speaker 4 (25:10):
After a drink, they decide to go for a walk.
Dean's never been to Cardiff before, and for a girl
from Haverford West like Jill, Cardiff is very much the
big city. Groups of scantily clad young girls bustle around
lads with square haircuts, cheap cologne, and tight shirts. But
Jill and Dean don't take any notice of all the hubbub.
(25:32):
They're too busy focusing on each other.
Speaker 8 (25:35):
This is a very strong one. It's like you can
admire someone who knows what they want and goes to
get it, and she was like that sort of person.
So we kind of clicked in that way. Tom was
just flying as he was walking the streets, just laughing
and joking with each other, you know, bouncing off each
other about life and then laughing about life.
Speaker 4 (25:54):
Squeezing into a small table of a local Indian restaurant,
Dean pulls out Jill's chair for her and orders them
both to drink a gin and tonic. For Jill, a
volker and coke for himself. They order their curries, and
as they start to tuck in, a stag party walks
through the door. The groom's brandishing a pair of pink,
fluffy handcuffs.
Speaker 12 (26:12):
Dean made a quip about the handcuffs and he said, oh, bit,
you've got a pair of them or something like that,
and I said, oh no, we've got a black, rigid pair.
And he goes, who you are like this? And I said,
oh no, we're a uniform and he went, you are
what are you talking about?
Speaker 8 (26:25):
And she said, I'm a police officer and he just.
Speaker 12 (26:30):
Went and the curry came out.
Speaker 4 (26:33):
Jill freezes, she's seen this reaction before, and normally it
means the date's ruined. But then Dean's face breaks into
a grin, and I said.
Speaker 12 (26:42):
Is that a problem, And he goes, why would it
be a problem. He said, no, not all he says it.
He goes, listen to my darling, I got every respect
for the old bill.
Speaker 4 (26:49):
Dean doesn't ask too many questions, and Jill's relieved that
her job is quickly discarded as an area of interest.
It's getting late and the two of them are still
giggling like school kids.
Speaker 8 (27:02):
You kind of think. We don't need to go home.
It doesn't mean we can talk all night. We was
flirting with each other. You're close, you're going in for
the big one.
Speaker 12 (27:12):
It's just a kiss. There was nothing seed in it.
There was no sleeping together or anything like that.
Speaker 7 (27:22):
It was refreshing.
Speaker 4 (27:25):
Finally real romance get in there, Jill. Over the coming weeks,
Jill and Deine take every opportunity they can to see
each other. When the kids are away, Jill and Deine
go out to play every other weekend hotels in Wales,
hotels in England. Even when they're apart, Jill and Dene
(27:47):
hold each other close.
Speaker 12 (27:48):
We would probably spend about fifty texts to each other
a day. Every morning it would be hello, darling, what
have you got ahead in your day? Or how are
you feeling today? It was like talking to your best friend.
Speaker 4 (27:58):
And as you'd expect, there's even a couple of cheeky photos.
Speaker 6 (28:02):
Cheer up, my lovely. How can you be sad when
this woman is all yours?
Speaker 16 (28:06):
You?
Speaker 6 (28:06):
Lucky lucky man.
Speaker 4 (28:08):
Over tea in Welsh cakes. Jenny's getting her share of
the story, whether she wants it or not.
Speaker 13 (28:14):
He was into boots. He was into kinky boots and
I think he was buying her boots.
Speaker 4 (28:18):
Is that a share or an overshare? Who's to say
either way. Dean, it turns out, is a big fan
of boots.
Speaker 8 (28:26):
I'm a sucker for a woman with play boots. I
don't know why, I don't know what. It's just we've
all got something.
Speaker 4 (28:32):
And that's not the only gift Dean's got for Jill.
One weekend, about six weeks after they first met, Dean
calls Jill after work.
Speaker 12 (28:41):
He said, I've booked your flights. You just need to
sort her out the kids, and he'd arranged it all
and he said, just need your passport and I've booked
and pay for your flight.
Speaker 4 (28:48):
My god, goodbye two star hotels in Cardiff and hello
romantic weekend away to Italy.
Speaker 6 (28:58):
Bologna to be press.
Speaker 12 (29:00):
We stayed at this little hotel in the side street,
a bit gothicky, but the rooms were very elegant, very nice.
Speaker 4 (29:09):
Dean is here on business, and not just any business.
They're here for cosmoprov one of the most prestigious beauty
trade shows in the world, and all elegance, all decadence,
statement upon statement, display of elite fashion, big money and
the krem de la Creme of the glittering cosmetics industry.
Dean is in his element, shaking hands, mingling, gliding through
(29:33):
crowds of beauty aristocracy past tables of hair straighteners and mascaa.
Speaker 8 (29:38):
She saw my business world, how I worked, and how
it came about and what it does. It was a
nice for her to see Dean the businessman. This is
what I'm about. So anybody that gets to share that
season real me, because that's what I'm like. She got
me real sometimes she got the real me.
Speaker 4 (30:03):
In the evening, Jill, Dean, and the beauty aristocracy head
out for dinner at an expensive restaurant in the heart
of town.
Speaker 8 (30:09):
Tiny restaurant so exclusive.
Speaker 4 (30:12):
Jill takes her seat at the table next to Dean
and opposite his business partner, George.
Speaker 6 (30:17):
George is a big deal.
Speaker 4 (30:19):
He's Dean's most successful colleague, a giant in the beauty industry,
with his products displayed in London's Posh's department store. Jill's
desperate to make a good impression, but this swanky restaurant
only makes our small town girl feel even more out
of place.
Speaker 12 (30:34):
We go to the table, we sit down. I'd say
I'll have a pizza. I'll have cheese and tomorrow pizza
and they go, oh, you mean a margarita, and I go, oh, yes, margarita.
They would say champagne. I'd say prosecco, and I remembered thinking,
I'll just say the right word for God's sake. Never
mind the cheese and tomorrow, I just say margarita, and
then you'd be fine.
Speaker 4 (30:56):
By the time the desserts have come around, Champagne has
relaxed everyone except Jill, who's nervously fidgeting with her false nails.
Speaker 12 (31:04):
I was fiddling, fiddling, and I heard it go ting.
Speaker 4 (31:07):
One of her nails breaks off her finger and goes
sailing through the air across the table towards George.
Speaker 12 (31:16):
And I watched it go up in slow motion and
down and land in his ice cream on the spoon,
which was ready to go again with another mouthful. And
I'm like, oh no, no.
Speaker 6 (31:28):
George lifts the spoon up to his mouth.
Speaker 12 (31:34):
Please don't eat this, Please don't eat it, and something
in my head was going, he isn't going to eat it.
Speaker 6 (31:43):
He did eat it.
Speaker 7 (31:45):
He goes, what.
Speaker 6 (31:48):
Is this?
Speaker 12 (31:49):
It's her nail? Bring the owner here, and I'm like,
oh no, they got all the waitresses check their nails,
and there was big huha, take all the ice cream back,
blah blah. It wasn't until we left this restaurant and
he was like, I see that nail being and I
went to tell you, and he goes, what And I said,
this showed the missing nail hand and he goes, oh,
(32:11):
you're joking, and I went no, and he just burst
out laughing and thought it was hysterical. But I was mortified,
going like, oh my god, how embarrassing.
Speaker 6 (32:23):
The love struck pair wonder under the Italian moonlight.
Speaker 8 (32:27):
I wanted to feel amazing and special. She was getting
from me what she'd never had from anybody else in life.
Speaker 7 (32:37):
He just fit.
Speaker 12 (32:38):
I'd always had this image of sort of person I
wanted to be with, but it never seemed to end
up with that image, whereas he epitomized the image that
I had. We were very different. You go, you make
me laugh so much, you say, beat you so down
to earth. You don't feed me the bullshit that people think.
I want to hear. That's what I love about you.
Speaker 4 (33:00):
That's right, Dean's dropping the elbomb. It's intense. But Jill
doesn't mind.
Speaker 12 (33:07):
Jenny used to say to me, I can't believe you've
met someone who's minted, got his own business. He treats
you brilliantly, and look, you're going away and doing stuff,
so which is what you always should have been doing.
And I can't believe it either. I'd finally found what
I was looking for.
Speaker 4 (33:29):
Back in Haverford, West, the gray reality of normal life
seeps in along with the British reign.
Speaker 6 (33:35):
But Jill's seen how life can be.
Speaker 4 (33:37):
She doesn't want it to stop, can't let it stop,
and a conversation in Italy has planted a thought in
Jill's mind.
Speaker 12 (33:45):
I always wanted a their child, and he said he'd
always wanted a sun.
Speaker 6 (33:49):
It's eight weeks since their first date. Jill takes the plunge.
Speaker 12 (33:53):
We agreed that we would try at first.
Speaker 4 (33:57):
Best friend. Jenny's a little taken aback. All seems so fast.
Speaker 13 (34:01):
I used to think it was a bit crazy getting
pregnant mine, but there we guys. What they they planted together.
He was in love with her and she loved him,
and they were gonna have a baby and everything was
going to be wonderful.
Speaker 4 (34:13):
But one person has yet to approve a person that
even Dean holds his tongue for. And so one day
in April, Dean and Jill set off on a three
hundred mile journey to a steakhouse in Surrey to meet
his mother, Joyce, matriarch of the Jenkins family. Joyce's sharp
(34:35):
of mind and blunt with her words. You get the
sense that leading the Jenkins tribe has not been an
easy job.
Speaker 6 (34:42):
And at first Joyce is a little wary of Jill.
Speaker 12 (34:46):
She was very upfront.
Speaker 10 (34:48):
I thought I was just a bit suspicious when she
had two kids by two different policemen.
Speaker 14 (34:53):
Oh I don't know if I like that very much.
Speaker 6 (34:55):
But Jill's not one to be phased.
Speaker 4 (34:58):
If she can break up a local bust up between
rugby lads on a Friday night, and she can disarm
the skepticism of even the most ferocious mother in law.
Over dinner, the two women get talking.
Speaker 10 (35:09):
She came across as being very professional, and she was
studying to become an inspector. Oh oh, well, maybe he's
found someone on his wavelengths. And she seemed to make
him happy. I had a love time for her, love
time for you.
Speaker 6 (35:25):
Thank God for that. And that's not all.
Speaker 4 (35:29):
Over time and more meetings, Jill and Joyce become more
comfortable with one another, until eventually Jill reveals that she
and Deana have got some news to share.
Speaker 14 (35:37):
Or said, you know, me and Dina trying for a baby,
and I don't know that's nice.
Speaker 4 (35:43):
But when Jill's back is turned, Joyce turns to Dean
with a simple question and a sweet motherly tone.
Speaker 14 (35:49):
Said to Dean those famous words, what fuck are you
doing to do?
Speaker 8 (36:03):
It?
Speaker 4 (36:03):
Does all seem a bit fast, doesn't it? But Jill's undeterred.
She's thirty eight and she can feel her biological clock ticking.
Although it takes a couple of months of trying, Jill
gets pregnant. No turning back. Now Jill and Dean are
tied together forever. As spring turns to summer, it's time
(36:41):
for Jill to let her colleagues know about her hunky
new boyfriend. For once, Jill's been trying to keep her
work and her love life separate, but now she's having
a baby, it's time to spill the beans. One of
the first people Jill confides in at the Haverford West
Police station is Sergeant Kevin Jones, a bear of a man.
(37:01):
Kevin knows all about Jill's checkered love life, and so
he's naturally supportive.
Speaker 8 (37:06):
He wasn't a police officer for a start.
Speaker 16 (37:08):
He seemed to be reasonably well off, so he wasn't
freeloading or anything like that.
Speaker 8 (37:13):
And she was very happy.
Speaker 16 (37:15):
Yeah, I think she'd found mister Wright.
Speaker 4 (37:18):
And it's Kevin that Jill goes to when she has
her first argument with Dean, who is technically speaking still
married and Jill wants him to hurry up and get divorced.
Speaker 12 (37:29):
He told me that it was over. They were just
waiting for the divorce to go through. For me, the
fact that it was over was like, well, how long
do you wait then?
Speaker 6 (37:38):
Stranger?
Speaker 4 (37:39):
Yet, Dean would sometimes have his phone off when Jill called,
and when Jill pulls him up on it, Dean responds
with a burst of short, angry text messages. Just hang on,
I'm just going to get into character now.
Speaker 6 (37:51):
One two lower one one two.
Speaker 8 (37:53):
I should do it. You are banging out of order.
Speaker 6 (37:56):
I turned my phones off to go to sleep. Only
you are very quick to judge me when all I
do is for you. I have never made you or
yours feel not good enough.
Speaker 16 (38:06):
I've been divorced before, and I said, I got to
be honest with Jill. You know, if he's going to
do his wife and he's divorcing his wife and she
doesn't know about you, the last thing he wants is
the phone going off with you on the phone and
him having to explain who this is, because if she
finds out this amicable divorce and might be going through
will not be amicable anymore if she thinks he's got
another girl. I said, so I don't blame him for
(38:27):
doing that. So he doesn't have to explain what this
phone call is until he gets back.
Speaker 4 (38:31):
You know, Kevin's advice makes Jill doubt herself. Is she
just jaded after all those terrible exces? Is she sabotaging
the one good relationship she's ever had?
Speaker 6 (38:41):
Maybe she should just cut down some slack. It's not you, babe,
it's me. You've done nothing wrong.
Speaker 4 (38:48):
You get it from all angles at present, the one
that gives you the hardest time is me. I'm so
so sorry. I can't speak. I feel too upset and
too ashamed.
Speaker 16 (38:57):
They hadn't spoken for two or three days, which is
at first they had not spoken with that amount of time,
and she said or she'd rung him, and she said,
all Lockedan, you know, I haven't think about it, and
said I am still going to be seeing you. And
he burst into tears on the phone. He burst into tears,
and so I thought you were going to finish it,
you know, I thought it.
Speaker 8 (39:13):
Was all over. I'm really glad that it doesn't because
I didn't want it to finish.
Speaker 16 (39:16):
And I was like, okay, well he seems about that.
Speaker 4 (39:20):
A few weeks later, Dean sends Jill a text with
the news she's been waiting so long to.
Speaker 6 (39:25):
Hear sorting divorce.
Speaker 8 (39:27):
But I am on my way happy.
Speaker 4 (39:29):
Days, so what if they had a blip. Jill trust
Dean with her life. He becomes a part of the
family and he fits like a glove. He joins Jill's
family on holiday in France, and Dean finds time to
do quick business with Jill's brother, who sells him a
new car.
Speaker 6 (39:47):
Of course, it's a jag.
Speaker 4 (39:48):
I mean, Dean already has one in silver, but this
one's in blue, so frankly it's a must have.
Speaker 6 (39:53):
Anyway, It's nothing the governor can't afford.
Speaker 12 (39:56):
He look in my wardrobe and he'd say I'm going
to buy you some clothes. It'd be like you need
to buy you a new wardrobe.
Speaker 6 (40:03):
To prepare for the baby.
Speaker 4 (40:04):
On the way, Dean helps Jill pick out a new car,
a slick black Chrysler with a DVD player in the
back seats for her two girls, and just in case
anybody wasn't aware that they were totally in love, Dean
suggests they get matching GUV license plates, a nod to
his governor range, and Dean says that with the new
baby just around the corner, he's going to take the
(40:26):
next big step.
Speaker 6 (40:27):
He's going to move to Wales to be with Jill.
Speaker 4 (40:33):
It's not going to be easy moving his business with
his two girls in London, but he's determined to make
it work for now, though Jill and Dean are still
long distance, meeting up on weekends. One Sunday afternoon, with
Jill in the passenger seat, Dean drives her home and
in true Dean form, he's driving over the speed limit.
Speaker 12 (40:56):
I said, you better wash your speed in you get stopped,
and he's had something. I'm like, Oh, I can't afford
to get stopped. I'll be back in prison or something
like that, and I went what he was laughing And
she's got your said gullible to believe anything, And of
course I was like, oh yeah.
Speaker 6 (41:08):
Whatever, gullible. I'm not so sure about that. Jill's a
cop after all. What's for sure is that she's obsessed.
Speaker 4 (41:17):
And in case Dean hasn't picked up the hint, she
sends him a pitch perfect voicemail about in.
Speaker 16 (41:24):
About you in La about you, babout.
Speaker 13 (41:34):
Ten minutes ago, you little soul.
Speaker 4 (41:49):
With summer giving way to autumn and the leaves turning brown,
Jill can't wait for the big day to finally come.
When Dean moves to Wales, they text each other day
and night. I love you so much that I reckon
I must have loved you from the day I was born.
Speaker 6 (42:06):
Yep, that's it, true love.
Speaker 4 (42:08):
Never experienced it till now, my lovely gorgeous man.
Speaker 6 (42:11):
Kiss, Kiss, and.
Speaker 4 (42:12):
Again thirty seconds later. I just happen to want to
tell you that you do things to me that nobody
else ever could, and I love you for that. I
know you're under pressure on all sides at present, but
I just want you to know that I am with you,
and no matter how top it gets, nothing will break
us and we will see that light at.
Speaker 6 (42:31):
The end of the tunnel. Kiss, Kiss. Dean's there every.
Speaker 4 (42:35):
Morning, Morning, Sexy, Kiss, and at lunchtime.
Speaker 8 (42:40):
Love you Kiss.
Speaker 4 (42:46):
Soon Halloween creeps around the corner. Jill has five months
before their bundle of Joy is due to be born.
She's never liked Halloween, a trait she's passed on to
her daughters, who are filling up on Harribo suitets. Before
any trick or treatise, try and come around them.
Speaker 12 (43:00):
You can expect to a knock on the door tonight
because it's Halloween and trick or treatis will be out
in force.
Speaker 2 (43:05):
Exactly Well, for most people, it's just a bit of fun,
but after problems last year, extra police will be on
duty in case things get out of hand.
Speaker 4 (43:14):
As usual, Jill's playing text tennis with Dean. After a
few rounds of flirty banter, he signals a break in play.
He's got his girls and he needs to drop them
back with their mum.
Speaker 6 (43:24):
Babe, don't phone me for at least half an hour
dropping kids back.
Speaker 8 (43:26):
Kiss, Kiss.
Speaker 4 (43:28):
Jill cooks dinner, hot dog, says a daughter's watch TV.
Speaker 6 (43:33):
After a couple of hours, she checks.
Speaker 12 (43:34):
Her phone nine o'clock came, nothing, Nothing came at ten,
nothing came at eleven, so I thought, oh, maybe it's
just gone on. I'll just go to bed. Didn't really
seek much because I didn't hear from him because it
wasn't like Kim. And then work the next morning and
still nothing, no message on the phone.
Speaker 6 (43:52):
Babe?
Speaker 4 (43:52):
Where are you not like you to be so quiet
and not? It's forming in Jill's stomach. Babe, when you
do this to me, it makes me worried. But I
shall presume you're doing your own thing and will contact
me when you're ready.
Speaker 6 (44:06):
Kiss.
Speaker 4 (44:08):
After six hours, Jill's fear curdles into rage. Dean, this
is ridiculous. I'm worried, sick. Can't you just text me
something so I know you're okay. By two pm, Jill
is in full on worst case scenario mode. It's all
becoming too much. She phones Dean's mum and Joyce in.
Speaker 3 (44:28):
Me to me, George.
Speaker 4 (44:29):
She's ing me to me George, Dean's business partner, the
one who Jill have given the finger, or rather the
fingernail too.
Speaker 10 (44:35):
He'll wring you, he said.
Speaker 14 (44:37):
He'll wring you as soon as he can.
Speaker 4 (44:39):
Jill hangs up relieved but not convinced. As a police sergeant,
Jill has a sixth sense for trouble, and she can't
shake this nott in her stomach.
Speaker 12 (44:50):
I was thinking, something's wrong, something's wrong. Your imagination starts
giving you all these scenarios.
Speaker 4 (44:57):
But like any good parent, Jill keeps the root by
making the family tea and preparing the school uniforms. Every
second scrapes at her nerves until finally.
Speaker 6 (45:11):
The phone goes off. It's a text, but it's not
from Dean.
Speaker 4 (45:15):
It's his sister Debbie, with an instruction go to a
phone box and call me.
Speaker 12 (45:22):
I said to the girls, I've run out of milk.
I won't be long. It was a really frosty cold night,
freezing cold, but I wanted answers, so I went up
to the phone box.
Speaker 4 (45:33):
Jill opens the door to the phone box and a
foul smell hits her.
Speaker 12 (45:37):
And I remember looking down and going, oh, no, what
am I standing in here?
Speaker 6 (45:41):
She punches Debbie's number into the machine.
Speaker 12 (45:44):
And her for his words were there's been armed robbery.
Speaker 6 (45:48):
Dean's been arrested.
Speaker 12 (45:51):
It was like a spinning top, you know when there's
old spinning tops and someone's pressing down, present down, It
gets faster and faster and faster, and I felt that
as my head was going, I actually thought she was joking.
And I said, this.
Speaker 14 (46:02):
Is ridiculous, Denny.
Speaker 12 (46:04):
You need to tell him now right it stop manse
stupid stories and if he doesn't ring me, that's it.
The relationship will be over. And she went, will you
listen to what I'm telling you?
Speaker 6 (46:13):
This is true?
Speaker 12 (46:14):
Have a look on the news. She put the phone down,
and I'm the phone box thinking what the hell is
going on?
Speaker 4 (46:23):
Jill catches sight of herself in the reflection in the glass, cold,
scared and confused. Does she even recognized the woman staring back?
Back at home, she frantically turns on her TV.
Speaker 9 (46:39):
This is where the shooting happened, outside of Building Society.
Speaker 8 (46:42):
In New Bromney.
Speaker 9 (46:44):
It's thought the forty two year old victim was killed
after he opened fire on police.
Speaker 6 (46:51):
That's coming up on Stolen.
Speaker 4 (46:54):
Hearts from Wondery and Novel. This is episode one of
(47:14):
six of Stolen Heart's Stolen Herts is hosted by me
Kerry Godleyman and written by Kim McCaskill, Tom Wright, and
Anna Sinfield. Our producer is Tom Wright Associate producer Anna Sinfield,
Assistant producer Amalia Sortland, Additional production by Leona Hamid, Fact
(47:36):
checking by Andrew Schwartz and Fendall Fulton. Managing producers are
Lutter Pundia, Olivia Webber, Sharie Houston.
Speaker 6 (47:44):
And Charlotte Wolfe.
Speaker 4 (47:45):
Music supervisor is Scott Velasquez for friss On Sync, music
and sound design by Nicholas Alexander. Additional engineering by Daniel Kempson.
Executive producers are Max O'Brien, Mike Lee Row and Johnny McDivitt.
Novel executive producers are Erin O'Flaherty, George Lavender, Marshall Lewis
(48:06):
and Jensargent.
Speaker 1 (48:07):
For Wondering, that was episode one of Stolen Hearts. You
can binge the rest of the series and find out
what really happened to Dean exclusively an ad free right
now by joining Wondry Plus, start your free trial in
the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or by clicking the
(48:29):
link in the episode description Now.
Speaker 2 (48:31):
And don't forget to tune in next week for our
next episode of Flesh and Code, where we'll continue to
unravel the complexities of AI relationships and they're very Human
Consequences follow fleshing Code on the Wondery app or wherever
you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes of
Flesh and Code early and add free by joining Wondry
Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. And
(48:55):
before you go, be sure to tell us about yourself
by completing a short survey at wondry dot slash survey.
And if you have a tip about a story you
think we should investigate, please write to us at wondery
dot com slash tips
Hello, listeners. This is Hannah Maguire, co host of Flesh
and Code.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
And I'm Seruti Bala. We'll be back with a brand
new episode of Flesh and Code next week, but if
you can't wait to find out what happens next in
Travis and Lily Rose's story, you can listen to all
episodes early and ad free right now by joining Wondry
Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
While you're waiting, we wanted to share another limited series
that we think will captivate you.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
On Flesh and Code, we've been exploring how technology can
blur the lines between real and artificial connections and the
dangers of opening your heart to an algorithm. But sometimes
the most devastating betrayals come from flesh and blood relationships
that seem just too good to be true. That's exactly
what you'll discover in Stolen Hearts. It follows Sergeant Jill Evans,
(00:51):
a small town cop in Wales with a less than
impressive record in her love life. That is until she
meets Dean, a wealthy, charming on up who seems perfect
in every way. But when Dean vanishes without a trace
on Halloween, night, Jill has left to unravel a mystery
that challenges everything she thought she knew about love and trust.
(01:12):
From Wondery and novel, Stolen Hearts explores the dark side
of modern relationships and the devastating price of misplaced trust.
We're about to play episode one of Stolen Hearts. If
you want to hear episode two and the rest of
the series, you can listen exclusively and ad free right
now by joining Wondry Plus, start your free trial in
(01:33):
the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or by clicking the
link in the episode description now.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
For listeners in the States, the following episode contains references
to the Old Bill, which is the police super drug
which is a chain of pharmacies, and Big Ben, which
is the name of one of the bells in the
clock tower in the Houses of Parliament, but which here
is used for a very different purpose. It also contains
some strong language.
Speaker 4 (01:59):
Are Like a lot of small towns in the UK,
Haverford West manages to be both charmingly quaint and slightly depressing.
(02:20):
It's in Wales, about one hundred miles from the capital Cardiff.
It's a small community nestled in the countryside. The sort
of place where medieval churches mix with empty shops and
greasy kibab houses. But for those that are born there,
many choose not to leave because despite the slightly rundown
high Street, it's the kind of place that you can
(02:42):
get on with your life without too much fuss.
Speaker 5 (02:45):
It's very quiet, it's peaceful, it's close to the sea
and where we live it's just your bog standard residential
cul de sac, and nothing out of the ordinary ever
tends to happen.
Speaker 4 (03:01):
And Sam, one of the fifteen thousand residents in Haverford West,
loves that about this place.
Speaker 6 (03:07):
Except today that's going to change.
Speaker 4 (03:14):
It's the third of November two thousand and six and
Halloween has come and gone. Leftover pumpkins, dot a cross, doorways, unsmashed, unbothered.
Speaker 6 (03:24):
It's getting late.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
As Sam winds her way through the dark roads lined
with trees and fields leading up to her own quiet street,
her headlights start to sketch images of an unusual sight
ahead of her. Strangers on her road, lots of them,
and they're all in uniforms.
Speaker 5 (03:42):
Wow, there are just police cars everywhere here, lined on
both sides of the road.
Speaker 4 (03:49):
But she doesn't stop and stare because it's none of
her business what's going on.
Speaker 5 (03:53):
I went into my house, chucked off my work gear,
getting my uniform, or chucked in the wash and things.
Speaker 6 (04:02):
Her husband though, well, he can't resist.
Speaker 5 (04:06):
I hear my husband shout, quick, come quick, come and
look out the window. They're searching Jill's house.
Speaker 4 (04:15):
Sam and her husband are not the only ones showing
neighborly concern.
Speaker 5 (04:20):
I could see neighbors just peering around corners and peeping
over fences. Everybody could see everything open, all the curtains,
every blind. Officers rifling through all of her things, pulling
out bits and pieces from everywhere, picking things apart upstairs, downstairs.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
The house in question belongs to a police officer, a neighbor.
Everyone in the road knows, Sergeant Jill Evans.
Speaker 5 (04:49):
The gossip was just wolf like wildfire through the street.
Speaker 4 (04:53):
And who could blame them? I mean, a raid like
this in their town, and for a.
Speaker 6 (04:57):
Police officer, no less.
Speaker 4 (04:59):
It's been a long time since anything this exciting happened
in Haverfood, West, and Sam's husband has.
Speaker 6 (05:05):
A theory as to what or who might be behind
the commotion.
Speaker 5 (05:09):
He said, I wonder if it's him, And I said,
what do you mean him? He said, well, the guy
she was with, I'm wonder for something to do with him.
Speaker 7 (05:19):
And I said, well, gosh, it could be.
Speaker 4 (05:23):
It's been seventy two hours since a man was shot
dead and the trail has led the police to Jill's Doore,
a trail lined with tens of thousands of pounds broken
hearts and shower gel Haverfood West has never seen anything
like it. But the truth is that this little town
(05:44):
is about to witness one of the greatest and strangest
love stories the world has ever known.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
You're listening ad free on Wondery Plus.
Speaker 8 (05:59):
I'm John Robins and joining me on How Do You Cope?
This week is the actor and comedian Tom Rosenthal.
Speaker 9 (06:04):
My girlfriend and I conceived a child and we had
sadly had a miscarriage.
Speaker 8 (06:09):
Right.
Speaker 9 (06:10):
I had no idea that that had really affected me
until I went on this pilgrimage, and it took me
twelve days to work it out. We're in a church
and a guy was just doing a sort of standard
prayer and like, I really lost it.
Speaker 8 (06:22):
Yeah, So that's how do you Cope? With me? John Robbins.
Find us wherever you get your.
Speaker 6 (06:27):
Podcasts from Wondering and Novel.
Speaker 4 (06:34):
I'm Kerry Godnoman and this is Stolen Hearts Episode one.
Speaker 6 (06:38):
The Governor, I can hear what.
Speaker 10 (06:42):
Now.
Speaker 11 (06:43):
I just want us to be somehow.
Speaker 12 (06:51):
That makes.
Speaker 11 (06:56):
Says there are matches made in heaven, Pairings that seem
like they were always meant to be.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
Two people who, when you see them together, they just
make you think, of course, William and Kate, Posh and becks,
pie and mash, fish and chips, curry and rice, cheese
and tomato, beautiful, inevitable, boring. I much prefer the second
kind of pairing, the kind that, on the face of it.
Speaker 6 (07:39):
Seem utterly impossible.
Speaker 4 (07:44):
Romance novels and rom coms are full of these, And
if they've taught us anything, and that's questionable, they've taught
us that these are supposed to be the most perfect partnerships.
Speaker 6 (07:56):
The stories are all the same.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
A rejection here, a heartbreak, a last minute realization, a
desperate race against time to get to the train station,
the airport press conference to confess undying love to each other,
or they'll end up sharing one last tragic kiss in
the ICC as behind them, a big old boat sinks.
(08:19):
Roll credits this kind of love comes at a cost.
Of course, our heroes will have to risk everything for it,
but in the end it's all worth it. The heart
is always worth it. So that's the theme. But now
(08:41):
you need to get to know a leading lady. Twelve
months before her house is turned over by the police, Jill,
who's thirty eight, is out on the streets of Haverford West,
doing what she does best, being a cop with her
athletic build and sharp crop blonde hairstyle that was sous
with every strong woman of the naughties. We join her
(09:03):
notebook in hand as she reluctantly scribbles whilst a man
in a panama hat tells her about what might very
well be the crime of the century.
Speaker 12 (09:13):
What had happened. He bought this car someone in the night.
He'd taken the badge off the front of the car
and got his garden squirrel and stuck the garden squirrel
onto the bonnet with super glue.
Speaker 6 (09:23):
Yeah, that's the case.
Speaker 4 (09:25):
This is what fourteen years of police training has brought
Jill two a garden ornament and an ongoing war between
two feuding neighbors over a parking spot.
Speaker 12 (09:34):
So yeah, this garden squirrel perched on the bonnet of
his car. Well, I thought it was hilarious and he
was furious. He was going, what do you think about this?
And I was like, I'm just going to start laughing.
Maybe people in bigger cities would go that's ridiculous, why
would you even be called about that? But we would
be called about the smallest things because it mattered to people.
(09:54):
You know, whether it was a big crime or a
small crime, it's still mattered.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
Although Haverford West might not be a hub for master criminals,
Jill has made herself the hero that this small town needs,
and she has the awards to prove it. A photo
with the Prime Minister here, a commendation for taking down
a drug dealer there.
Speaker 6 (10:14):
Jill doesn't need a big city to make big waves.
Speaker 4 (10:17):
But in truth, Jill enjoyed a simple diet of country crime.
Speaker 12 (10:21):
You get burglary, get theft, you get the assault, the fighting.
On a Saturday night, the farmers would come in and
the rugby boys would come in and they'd all fight
and a lost dog, missing child, Just the same thing
all the time, over and over and over the same
people you'd go to arguing and the same people assaulting people.
Speaker 4 (10:40):
But after a long day of keeping the streets of Haverford,
West safe, Jill heads home for the real work, caring
for her two daughters. With a domestic routine as militant
as her efforts in the force. Jill fixes dinner and
prepares school uniforms for the next day.
Speaker 6 (10:55):
But at the end of the.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
Day, no matter how full her life is, there's something
missing underneath.
Speaker 7 (11:01):
I was probably very lonely.
Speaker 4 (11:03):
Yeah, Jill's love life is nonexistent and over cups and
cups and cups of tea and more than a few
custard slices, she laments her misfortunes with her best friend Jenny.
Speaker 13 (11:14):
Jill needs to be loved. Jill needs to be wanted.
That's the way she is. She's just got zest for
life and energy. She's always striding out, you know, one
hundred miles an hour. She beams life. Basically, it's not.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
That Jill hasn't had her share of relationships by this
point in her life. Jill's burnt through three engagements, two marriages,
and one affair for good measure.
Speaker 12 (11:38):
I would describe myself as a bit of a mess.
My taste in men it was all over.
Speaker 4 (11:45):
The shop and there was no shortage of men in
the local police department, where Jill stands out as one
of the only female sergeants, and you'd better believe she's
had her fair share of admirers. It all started in
nineteen ninety two with a bloke called Ian, back from
Jill's days as a new recruit at the police academy.
Speaker 7 (12:04):
Well, I always to describe him as Bruce Willis.
Speaker 6 (12:07):
Yeah, not sure about that.
Speaker 4 (12:10):
Jill kept her crush quiet as best she could, but
it all came out one night when Jill and Ian
volunteered to collect the trainee copper's traditional Friday night takeaway,
a perfect time to make the first move.
Speaker 12 (12:22):
He volunteered to come with me to get the food,
and he had these massive hands and these like shovel hands.
Who's carrying these drinks? And I was quite nervous because
obviously there's an attraction. We came back and he kissed
me in the corridor.
Speaker 4 (12:38):
Clearly, Ian didn't worry about personal relations getting in the
way of his career or his marriage for that matter.
You see, Ian wasn't exactly single. Every time he swore
he'd leave his wife, Jill's heart broke a little more
and Ian stayed married for a little bit longer, so
Jill met a new man, David, also a copper, known
(13:03):
to ride a police motorbike like he'd stolen it, but
off duty, David poodled around in his plain old Citron
people carrier.
Speaker 13 (13:13):
David wasn't a barred relationship. It just wasn't exciting enough.
Didn't have enough guid up and go with him For Jill.
Speaker 4 (13:19):
David proved at the end of the day a motorbike
wasn't exactly a personality, and without it, he struggled to
match her energy levels.
Speaker 12 (13:28):
I'm very strong, willed, sometimes outspoken, sort of like we're hard.
Speaker 7 (13:33):
Have nice things if you can.
Speaker 12 (13:35):
Whereas David still drives the same plane car, does the
same plaining thing. David's very quiet, very don't lock the boat,
don't stand out, follow the crowd.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
In other words, Jill found him boring. But love conquers
all right.
Speaker 7 (13:51):
I didn't love David, and I don't think David loved me.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
Oh right, fine, anyway, she married him happily ever after,
at long last, Like every great love story, Jill was
prepared for a lifetime with steady plane David and he's
playing car. They even had a daughter together. But everywhere
(14:15):
Jill goes, there's the man that only Jill thinks looks
like Bruce Willis. Ian at the supermarket, Ian out on patrol,
there's Ian again. Ian Ian Ian, tall, dark, handsome and
still very married.
Speaker 6 (14:32):
Ian.
Speaker 7 (14:33):
You'd meet eyes and there'd be this look between us.
Speaker 4 (14:36):
That look soon gave way to snogging, and eventually the
only thing between them was several broken hearts and a
whole lot of confessing. After Jill and Ian's affair came
to light, and just like that, Jill went from two
bad options to none. Best friend Jenny wasn't worried, though
she knew that it wouldn't be long before Jill found
(14:58):
a new man, and she did the man with whom
she had her second daughter, Police Constable Hugh nickname Cuddles.
Speaker 6 (15:09):
Jenny wasn't a fan.
Speaker 13 (15:11):
I never liked him from the start, so I refused
to go to the wedding.
Speaker 4 (15:15):
No matter because it quickly ended in tears, specifically Jill's,
when Jenny found her on her own doorstep after another
explosive fight with Hugh. When they went round to the
house to pick up Jill's things, they found them all
piled up in the garden on fire.
Speaker 12 (15:33):
A big bed was pierged on the top, like a
candle on a cake.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
Big Ben in this case was a giant novelty dildo
that Jill had bought as a joke for a party.
Speaker 12 (15:42):
All the rubber had melted and it was just the frame.
And remember Jenny saying to me it was a big.
Speaker 7 (15:48):
Ben on the top.
Speaker 12 (15:50):
And I was crying at the dose all this, and
I just went, oh my god. We just burst out
laughing because it was just what she said, that's big Ben.
Speaker 4 (16:00):
And with the untimely demise of big Ben came the
end of marriage number two. Jill moved into a new
home and began a fresh start with a less than
fresh feeling.
Speaker 12 (16:11):
I was in the bath upstairs and the en suite,
and it was cold, the water was lukewarm. There was
a skylight just above me, and the moon was coming in,
and I just cried and cried and cried and thought, well,
I'm here, I am again, second bloody divorce. I'm just thinking,
what's the point. There is absolutely new point in just
looking for a relationship. You'd be better off on your own,
But obviously I didn't want to be on my own.
(16:31):
I think everyone wants to have that relationship that they
feel wanted and appreciated and loved in, and I just
hadn't found it.
Speaker 4 (16:39):
And so in two thousand and six, after sixteen years
of bad relationships, and over one of those many cups
of tea, Jenny gives Jill the advice on the lips
of every best friend, of every newly divorced comrade, get
yourself online, girl, and Jill's new type simple, just don't
(17:01):
be a bloody copper. After putting the kids to bed,
Jill would fire up her old desktop computer in the
living room while on the landline to Jenny, and she'd
be looking through seemingly endless profiles of middle aged, overweight, building,
divorced men. And they're all looking for no strings attached fun,
(17:22):
posing in front of cars that they don't own, and
probably holding a fish.
Speaker 6 (17:27):
Every heart's desire. But it's not doing it for Jill.
Speaker 12 (17:32):
I said to Jenny, I'm going to come off. It's
just do my adding. But I'll have one more look.
Speaker 6 (17:38):
This time she tries something different.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
As New Year's comes around with the promise of new beginnings,
Jill widens her search. Now she's not only looking for
a match in Haverford West, or even in the Hole
of Wales, but any man anywhere in the entire United Kingdom.
Speaker 6 (17:59):
And then.
Speaker 12 (18:03):
It was his eyes that made me look twice.
Speaker 6 (18:06):
Staring back at her in an arm army suit.
Speaker 12 (18:09):
A navy blue suit. He was bald and he had
a smile. I would describe him as a man's man.
You would look at him and go, he can handle himself.
I'd met an actual proper man. That's how I can
describe it.
Speaker 4 (18:27):
Really, Dean Jenkins brooding with bulging biceps, a businessman and
he's looking for a wife. Maybe it's because he's the
first decent looking man within three hundred miles of Haverford West.
But Jill doesn't wait to message him. She sends him
a few.
Speaker 6 (18:46):
The gist is you.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
Found your future wife. The only problem is she lives
in Wales. It isn't long before Jenny hears all about it.
Speaker 13 (18:58):
Look, she said, look at this guy. He's a businessman
from London. I was all for it, thinking that he
looked fine, the profile sounded good. She liked the look
of him.
Speaker 4 (19:06):
The best part he wasn't a cop. When Jill first
picks up the phone and here's Dean's voice. He has
her at hallo, or rather he has her at Hello
Darling a.
Speaker 12 (19:20):
Laugh because his accent was so pay a mash darling.
Initially I was really nervous, but the conversation wasn't nervous
at all. And I think we spoke for about an
hour and didn't really notice the time at all.
Speaker 8 (19:33):
We just clicked.
Speaker 4 (19:34):
Dean and Jill quickly find their connections. They've both been
married before, both parents to two children, all girls, and
they've both got high flying careers. Dean tells Jill that
he's made his fortune selling his own personal brand of
male grooming products, is called the Governor Range.
Speaker 12 (19:53):
And I initially thought, oh, this is rubbishal what's he
on about? And he said, no, no, I'm serious. He
said that if you google it up online, so I
was scribbling down Governor, Governor Range, how do you spell that?
He said, go to super drug because he said, you're
not going to believe me, and it'll be on the shelf.
And I say, oh, no, I believe you. I'm not
going to go and look. And I'd be quite cool
on the phone.
Speaker 6 (20:12):
But Jill isn't cool. She's very curious.
Speaker 4 (20:16):
I mean, come on, a little window shopping never hurt anybody.
Speaker 6 (20:21):
So she sifts through the shelves.
Speaker 4 (20:22):
Confronted with endless, bold male products with bolder slogans on
strength and masculinity, all in the pursuit of getting a
man to wash.
Speaker 6 (20:31):
Jilly's on the hunt.
Speaker 12 (20:33):
So there I am in super Drug, now going, oh,
Governor Age, go rage, govery rage.
Speaker 14 (20:38):
It's there.
Speaker 12 (20:40):
Picked it up, but I remember it now. The bottles
were black and white. Then I flipped the bottle over
and Dean's face was on the back.
Speaker 4 (20:48):
As Jill stares at Dean's brooding face, her heart begins
to flutter.
Speaker 12 (20:53):
For someone in little Pembrokeshire to meet. So who's got
a shower gel? Range in super Drug was a big
thing for me at that, and I was like, I
can't believe my luck. Never mind those two marriages that
have gone, WHOA hit the jackpot.
Speaker 6 (21:07):
It's all going so well.
Speaker 4 (21:08):
It doesn't even matter to Jill that one of Dean's
products is a blood red body wash called beat the Filth.
I mean, Jill knows all too well that the filth
is commonly slang for the police. Even so she's coy
about telling Dean exactly what it is she does for
a living. For now, she just says that she works
in law sort of, and it does the trick.
Speaker 12 (21:28):
He got on so well and he started to form
that attachment, and I remember thinking, we haven't met yet.
He could have a completely bogus picture on there. A
lot of people can fall head over heels with an
image they build of that person. There could be a
completely fake picture up there, and the person they're talking
to could be completely fake behind the telephone call. But
(21:49):
people form an image in their head and you can
fall in love with that person before you actually meet.
Speaker 6 (21:55):
It's a fear that Jenny teases Jill about.
Speaker 12 (21:58):
She said he might be like forty stone and sixty
five years of age, and then what you're going to
do And I'm like, oh, don't, please, don't do this
because I'm going to be gutted.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
They decide to meet up for their first date. Jill
makes her way to Cardiff. It's the halfway point between
her and the dreamy Dean. She's nervous. All the heartache
and all the mistakes, all the missed opportunities and failed
attempts at finally feeling love to have now led her
to hear a small two star hotel.
Speaker 6 (22:31):
With a breast to settle herself.
Speaker 4 (22:33):
Jill steps onto the sticky tile floor of a bar
that seems less than prepared for true romance.
Speaker 12 (22:39):
I was thinking, oh no, this is it now, this
is make or break.
Speaker 6 (22:52):
Hello, it's Chloe here.
Speaker 15 (22:53):
I'm an investigative reporter at The Observer, and I originally
broke the story about the salt part a few weeks ago.
It's the story of a woman who wrote a best
selling memoir about a true story, except all may not
be what it seemed.
Speaker 13 (23:14):
She's made a lot of money out of ruining my
family's life.
Speaker 15 (23:17):
At the beginning, listen to the slow newscast wherever you
get your podcasts.
Speaker 4 (23:33):
The hotel bar on a Friday night is a lively place,
but when Jill hears a man call her name, it
cuts through the noise like a hot knife through butter.
Speaker 12 (23:43):
I didn't know he was there, but he called my name.
He goes Jill Juel. She's got this funny way of
saying Jill. Jeel tea around and he was there and
it was like, oh.
Speaker 8 (23:54):
My god, hello, Darling torn a tweet.
Speaker 4 (23:57):
The first thing Dean Jenkins notices about Jill is how tall.
She is several inches higher than him. But Dean's not
a man who was easily daunted. He's used to getting
what he wants, and as soon as he sees Jill,
he wants her.
Speaker 8 (24:11):
I'd be crushious. I can't deny it.
Speaker 4 (24:14):
By his own account, Dean doesn't show his emotions easily,
but meeting Jill Evans sets his pulse racing.
Speaker 8 (24:21):
When we meet, it as though we've been together one
hundred years. That's how it was. It was like putting
a pair of gloves on, going, oh god, we sure
we have known each other forever. That's how it felt.
Because he was very comfortable each other's company. She was
a character. She made me laugh. I mean, Dann, we
laughed a lot, and at the time I wasn't laughing
that much in my life, so it was a breath
of fresh air.
Speaker 4 (24:42):
They set her in at a table, Jill's fingers wrapped
around a gin and tonic.
Speaker 12 (24:46):
It was ice in the glass. The glass was going
ding ding ding ding ding with the ice, and what's
that noise? And he was so cool and he just
went she glassed, Darling. He goes, you're shaking, and I
was like, oh, laughing. But he was so laid back,
and if he had any nerves, you never see them.
He was rock solid on top. I knew straightaway that
(25:08):
it was going to be something between us.
Speaker 4 (25:10):
After a drink, they decide to go for a walk.
Dean's never been to Cardiff before, and for a girl
from Haverford West like Jill, Cardiff is very much the
big city. Groups of scantily clad young girls bustle around
lads with square haircuts, cheap cologne, and tight shirts. But
Jill and Dean don't take any notice of all the hubbub.
(25:32):
They're too busy focusing on each other.
Speaker 8 (25:35):
This is a very strong one. It's like you can
admire someone who knows what they want and goes to
get it, and she was like that sort of person.
So we kind of clicked in that way. Tom was
just flying as he was walking the streets, just laughing
and joking with each other, you know, bouncing off each
other about life and then laughing about life.
Speaker 4 (25:54):
Squeezing into a small table of a local Indian restaurant,
Dean pulls out Jill's chair for her and orders them
both to drink a gin and tonic. For Jill, a
volker and coke for himself. They order their curries, and
as they start to tuck in, a stag party walks
through the door. The groom's brandishing a pair of pink,
fluffy handcuffs.
Speaker 12 (26:12):
Dean made a quip about the handcuffs and he said, oh, bit,
you've got a pair of them or something like that,
and I said, oh no, we've got a black, rigid pair.
And he goes, who you are like this? And I said,
oh no, we're a uniform and he went, you are
what are you talking about?
Speaker 8 (26:25):
And she said, I'm a police officer and he just.
Speaker 12 (26:30):
Went and the curry came out.
Speaker 4 (26:33):
Jill freezes, she's seen this reaction before, and normally it
means the date's ruined. But then Dean's face breaks into
a grin, and I said.
Speaker 12 (26:42):
Is that a problem, And he goes, why would it
be a problem. He said, no, not all he says it.
He goes, listen to my darling, I got every respect
for the old bill.
Speaker 4 (26:49):
Dean doesn't ask too many questions, and Jill's relieved that
her job is quickly discarded as an area of interest.
It's getting late and the two of them are still
giggling like school kids.
Speaker 8 (27:02):
You kind of think. We don't need to go home.
It doesn't mean we can talk all night. We was
flirting with each other. You're close, you're going in for
the big one.
Speaker 12 (27:12):
It's just a kiss. There was nothing seed in it.
There was no sleeping together or anything like that.
Speaker 7 (27:22):
It was refreshing.
Speaker 4 (27:25):
Finally real romance get in there, Jill. Over the coming weeks,
Jill and Deine take every opportunity they can to see
each other. When the kids are away, Jill and Deine
go out to play every other weekend hotels in Wales,
hotels in England. Even when they're apart, Jill and Dene
(27:47):
hold each other close.
Speaker 12 (27:48):
We would probably spend about fifty texts to each other
a day. Every morning it would be hello, darling, what
have you got ahead in your day? Or how are
you feeling today? It was like talking to your best friend.
Speaker 4 (27:58):
And as you'd expect, there's even a couple of cheeky photos.
Speaker 6 (28:02):
Cheer up, my lovely. How can you be sad when
this woman is all yours?
Speaker 16 (28:06):
You?
Speaker 6 (28:06):
Lucky lucky man.
Speaker 4 (28:08):
Over tea in Welsh cakes. Jenny's getting her share of
the story, whether she wants it or not.
Speaker 13 (28:14):
He was into boots. He was into kinky boots and
I think he was buying her boots.
Speaker 4 (28:18):
Is that a share or an overshare? Who's to say
either way. Dean, it turns out, is a big fan
of boots.
Speaker 8 (28:26):
I'm a sucker for a woman with play boots. I
don't know why, I don't know what. It's just we've
all got something.
Speaker 4 (28:32):
And that's not the only gift Dean's got for Jill.
One weekend, about six weeks after they first met, Dean
calls Jill after work.
Speaker 12 (28:41):
He said, I've booked your flights. You just need to
sort her out the kids, and he'd arranged it all
and he said, just need your passport and I've booked
and pay for your flight.
Speaker 4 (28:48):
My god, goodbye two star hotels in Cardiff and hello
romantic weekend away to Italy.
Speaker 6 (28:58):
Bologna to be press.
Speaker 12 (29:00):
We stayed at this little hotel in the side street,
a bit gothicky, but the rooms were very elegant, very nice.
Speaker 4 (29:09):
Dean is here on business, and not just any business.
They're here for cosmoprov one of the most prestigious beauty
trade shows in the world, and all elegance, all decadence,
statement upon statement, display of elite fashion, big money and
the krem de la Creme of the glittering cosmetics industry.
Dean is in his element, shaking hands, mingling, gliding through
(29:33):
crowds of beauty aristocracy past tables of hair straighteners and mascaa.
Speaker 8 (29:38):
She saw my business world, how I worked, and how
it came about and what it does. It was a
nice for her to see Dean the businessman. This is
what I'm about. So anybody that gets to share that
season real me, because that's what I'm like. She got
me real sometimes she got the real me.
Speaker 4 (30:03):
In the evening, Jill, Dean, and the beauty aristocracy head
out for dinner at an expensive restaurant in the heart
of town.
Speaker 8 (30:09):
Tiny restaurant so exclusive.
Speaker 4 (30:12):
Jill takes her seat at the table next to Dean
and opposite his business partner, George.
Speaker 6 (30:17):
George is a big deal.
Speaker 4 (30:19):
He's Dean's most successful colleague, a giant in the beauty industry,
with his products displayed in London's Posh's department store. Jill's
desperate to make a good impression, but this swanky restaurant
only makes our small town girl feel even more out
of place.
Speaker 12 (30:34):
We go to the table, we sit down. I'd say
I'll have a pizza. I'll have cheese and tomorrow pizza
and they go, oh, you mean a margarita, and I go, oh, yes, margarita.
They would say champagne. I'd say prosecco, and I remembered thinking,
I'll just say the right word for God's sake. Never
mind the cheese and tomorrow, I just say margarita, and
then you'd be fine.
Speaker 4 (30:56):
By the time the desserts have come around, Champagne has
relaxed everyone except Jill, who's nervously fidgeting with her false nails.
Speaker 12 (31:04):
I was fiddling, fiddling, and I heard it go ting.
Speaker 4 (31:07):
One of her nails breaks off her finger and goes
sailing through the air across the table towards George.
Speaker 12 (31:16):
And I watched it go up in slow motion and
down and land in his ice cream on the spoon,
which was ready to go again with another mouthful. And
I'm like, oh no, no.
Speaker 6 (31:28):
George lifts the spoon up to his mouth.
Speaker 12 (31:34):
Please don't eat this, Please don't eat it, and something
in my head was going, he isn't going to eat it.
Speaker 6 (31:43):
He did eat it.
Speaker 7 (31:45):
He goes, what.
Speaker 6 (31:48):
Is this?
Speaker 12 (31:49):
It's her nail? Bring the owner here, and I'm like,
oh no, they got all the waitresses check their nails,
and there was big huha, take all the ice cream back,
blah blah. It wasn't until we left this restaurant and
he was like, I see that nail being and I
went to tell you, and he goes, what And I said,
this showed the missing nail hand and he goes, oh,
(32:11):
you're joking, and I went no, and he just burst
out laughing and thought it was hysterical. But I was mortified,
going like, oh my god, how embarrassing.
Speaker 6 (32:23):
The love struck pair wonder under the Italian moonlight.
Speaker 8 (32:27):
I wanted to feel amazing and special. She was getting
from me what she'd never had from anybody else in life.
Speaker 7 (32:37):
He just fit.
Speaker 12 (32:38):
I'd always had this image of sort of person I
wanted to be with, but it never seemed to end
up with that image, whereas he epitomized the image that
I had. We were very different. You go, you make
me laugh so much, you say, beat you so down
to earth. You don't feed me the bullshit that people think.
I want to hear. That's what I love about you.
Speaker 4 (33:00):
That's right, Dean's dropping the elbomb. It's intense. But Jill
doesn't mind.
Speaker 12 (33:07):
Jenny used to say to me, I can't believe you've
met someone who's minted, got his own business. He treats
you brilliantly, and look, you're going away and doing stuff,
so which is what you always should have been doing.
And I can't believe it either. I'd finally found what
I was looking for.
Speaker 4 (33:29):
Back in Haverford, West, the gray reality of normal life
seeps in along with the British reign.
Speaker 6 (33:35):
But Jill's seen how life can be.
Speaker 4 (33:37):
She doesn't want it to stop, can't let it stop,
and a conversation in Italy has planted a thought in
Jill's mind.
Speaker 12 (33:45):
I always wanted a their child, and he said he'd
always wanted a sun.
Speaker 6 (33:49):
It's eight weeks since their first date. Jill takes the plunge.
Speaker 12 (33:53):
We agreed that we would try at first.
Speaker 4 (33:57):
Best friend. Jenny's a little taken aback. All seems so fast.
Speaker 13 (34:01):
I used to think it was a bit crazy getting
pregnant mine, but there we guys. What they they planted together.
He was in love with her and she loved him,
and they were gonna have a baby and everything was
going to be wonderful.
Speaker 4 (34:13):
But one person has yet to approve a person that
even Dean holds his tongue for. And so one day
in April, Dean and Jill set off on a three
hundred mile journey to a steakhouse in Surrey to meet
his mother, Joyce, matriarch of the Jenkins family. Joyce's sharp
(34:35):
of mind and blunt with her words. You get the
sense that leading the Jenkins tribe has not been an
easy job.
Speaker 6 (34:42):
And at first Joyce is a little wary of Jill.
Speaker 12 (34:46):
She was very upfront.
Speaker 10 (34:48):
I thought I was just a bit suspicious when she
had two kids by two different policemen.
Speaker 14 (34:53):
Oh I don't know if I like that very much.
Speaker 6 (34:55):
But Jill's not one to be phased.
Speaker 4 (34:58):
If she can break up a local bust up between
rugby lads on a Friday night, and she can disarm
the skepticism of even the most ferocious mother in law.
Over dinner, the two women get talking.
Speaker 10 (35:09):
She came across as being very professional, and she was
studying to become an inspector. Oh oh, well, maybe he's
found someone on his wavelengths. And she seemed to make
him happy. I had a love time for her, love
time for you.
Speaker 6 (35:25):
Thank God for that. And that's not all.
Speaker 4 (35:29):
Over time and more meetings, Jill and Joyce become more
comfortable with one another, until eventually Jill reveals that she
and Deana have got some news to share.
Speaker 14 (35:37):
Or said, you know, me and Dina trying for a baby,
and I don't know that's nice.
Speaker 4 (35:43):
But when Jill's back is turned, Joyce turns to Dean
with a simple question and a sweet motherly tone.
Speaker 14 (35:49):
Said to Dean those famous words, what fuck are you
doing to do?
Speaker 8 (36:03):
It?
Speaker 4 (36:03):
Does all seem a bit fast, doesn't it? But Jill's undeterred.
She's thirty eight and she can feel her biological clock ticking.
Although it takes a couple of months of trying, Jill
gets pregnant. No turning back. Now Jill and Dean are
tied together forever. As spring turns to summer, it's time
(36:41):
for Jill to let her colleagues know about her hunky
new boyfriend. For once, Jill's been trying to keep her
work and her love life separate, but now she's having
a baby, it's time to spill the beans. One of
the first people Jill confides in at the Haverford West
Police station is Sergeant Kevin Jones, a bear of a man.
(37:01):
Kevin knows all about Jill's checkered love life, and so
he's naturally supportive.
Speaker 8 (37:06):
He wasn't a police officer for a start.
Speaker 16 (37:08):
He seemed to be reasonably well off, so he wasn't
freeloading or anything like that.
Speaker 8 (37:13):
And she was very happy.
Speaker 16 (37:15):
Yeah, I think she'd found mister Wright.
Speaker 4 (37:18):
And it's Kevin that Jill goes to when she has
her first argument with Dean, who is technically speaking still
married and Jill wants him to hurry up and get divorced.
Speaker 12 (37:29):
He told me that it was over. They were just
waiting for the divorce to go through. For me, the
fact that it was over was like, well, how long
do you wait then?
Speaker 6 (37:38):
Stranger?
Speaker 4 (37:39):
Yet, Dean would sometimes have his phone off when Jill called,
and when Jill pulls him up on it, Dean responds
with a burst of short, angry text messages. Just hang on,
I'm just going to get into character now.
Speaker 6 (37:51):
One two lower one one two.
Speaker 8 (37:53):
I should do it. You are banging out of order.
Speaker 6 (37:56):
I turned my phones off to go to sleep. Only
you are very quick to judge me when all I
do is for you. I have never made you or
yours feel not good enough.
Speaker 16 (38:06):
I've been divorced before, and I said, I got to
be honest with Jill. You know, if he's going to
do his wife and he's divorcing his wife and she
doesn't know about you, the last thing he wants is
the phone going off with you on the phone and
him having to explain who this is, because if she
finds out this amicable divorce and might be going through
will not be amicable anymore if she thinks he's got
another girl. I said, so I don't blame him for
(38:27):
doing that. So he doesn't have to explain what this
phone call is until he gets back.
Speaker 4 (38:31):
You know, Kevin's advice makes Jill doubt herself. Is she
just jaded after all those terrible exces? Is she sabotaging
the one good relationship she's ever had?
Speaker 6 (38:41):
Maybe she should just cut down some slack. It's not you, babe,
it's me. You've done nothing wrong.
Speaker 4 (38:48):
You get it from all angles at present, the one
that gives you the hardest time is me. I'm so
so sorry. I can't speak. I feel too upset and
too ashamed.
Speaker 16 (38:57):
They hadn't spoken for two or three days, which is
at first they had not spoken with that amount of time,
and she said or she'd rung him, and she said,
all Lockedan, you know, I haven't think about it, and
said I am still going to be seeing you. And
he burst into tears on the phone. He burst into tears,
and so I thought you were going to finish it,
you know, I thought it.
Speaker 8 (39:13):
Was all over. I'm really glad that it doesn't because
I didn't want it to finish.
Speaker 16 (39:16):
And I was like, okay, well he seems about that.
Speaker 4 (39:20):
A few weeks later, Dean sends Jill a text with
the news she's been waiting so long to.
Speaker 6 (39:25):
Hear sorting divorce.
Speaker 8 (39:27):
But I am on my way happy.
Speaker 4 (39:29):
Days, so what if they had a blip. Jill trust
Dean with her life. He becomes a part of the
family and he fits like a glove. He joins Jill's
family on holiday in France, and Dean finds time to
do quick business with Jill's brother, who sells him a
new car.
Speaker 6 (39:47):
Of course, it's a jag.
Speaker 4 (39:48):
I mean, Dean already has one in silver, but this
one's in blue, so frankly it's a must have.
Speaker 6 (39:53):
Anyway, It's nothing the governor can't afford.
Speaker 12 (39:56):
He look in my wardrobe and he'd say I'm going
to buy you some clothes. It'd be like you need
to buy you a new wardrobe.
Speaker 6 (40:03):
To prepare for the baby.
Speaker 4 (40:04):
On the way, Dean helps Jill pick out a new car,
a slick black Chrysler with a DVD player in the
back seats for her two girls, and just in case
anybody wasn't aware that they were totally in love, Dean
suggests they get matching GUV license plates, a nod to
his governor range, and Dean says that with the new
baby just around the corner, he's going to take the
(40:26):
next big step.
Speaker 6 (40:27):
He's going to move to Wales to be with Jill.
Speaker 4 (40:33):
It's not going to be easy moving his business with
his two girls in London, but he's determined to make
it work for now, though Jill and Dean are still
long distance, meeting up on weekends. One Sunday afternoon, with
Jill in the passenger seat, Dean drives her home and
in true Dean form, he's driving over the speed limit.
Speaker 12 (40:56):
I said, you better wash your speed in you get stopped,
and he's had something. I'm like, Oh, I can't afford
to get stopped. I'll be back in prison or something
like that, and I went what he was laughing And
she's got your said gullible to believe anything, And of
course I was like, oh yeah.
Speaker 6 (41:08):
Whatever, gullible. I'm not so sure about that. Jill's a
cop after all. What's for sure is that she's obsessed.
Speaker 4 (41:17):
And in case Dean hasn't picked up the hint, she
sends him a pitch perfect voicemail about in.
Speaker 16 (41:24):
About you in La about you, babout.
Speaker 13 (41:34):
Ten minutes ago, you little soul.
Speaker 4 (41:49):
With summer giving way to autumn and the leaves turning brown,
Jill can't wait for the big day to finally come.
When Dean moves to Wales, they text each other day
and night. I love you so much that I reckon
I must have loved you from the day I was born.
Speaker 6 (42:06):
Yep, that's it, true love.
Speaker 4 (42:08):
Never experienced it till now, my lovely gorgeous man.
Speaker 6 (42:11):
Kiss, Kiss, and.
Speaker 4 (42:12):
Again thirty seconds later. I just happen to want to
tell you that you do things to me that nobody
else ever could, and I love you for that. I
know you're under pressure on all sides at present, but
I just want you to know that I am with you,
and no matter how top it gets, nothing will break
us and we will see that light at.
Speaker 6 (42:31):
The end of the tunnel. Kiss, Kiss. Dean's there every.
Speaker 4 (42:35):
Morning, Morning, Sexy, Kiss, and at lunchtime.
Speaker 8 (42:40):
Love you Kiss.
Speaker 4 (42:46):
Soon Halloween creeps around the corner. Jill has five months
before their bundle of Joy is due to be born.
She's never liked Halloween, a trait she's passed on to
her daughters, who are filling up on Harribo suitets. Before
any trick or treatise, try and come around them.
Speaker 12 (43:00):
You can expect to a knock on the door tonight
because it's Halloween and trick or treatis will be out
in force.
Speaker 2 (43:05):
Exactly Well, for most people, it's just a bit of fun,
but after problems last year, extra police will be on
duty in case things get out of hand.
Speaker 4 (43:14):
As usual, Jill's playing text tennis with Dean. After a
few rounds of flirty banter, he signals a break in play.
He's got his girls and he needs to drop them
back with their mum.
Speaker 6 (43:24):
Babe, don't phone me for at least half an hour
dropping kids back.
Speaker 8 (43:26):
Kiss, Kiss.
Speaker 4 (43:28):
Jill cooks dinner, hot dog, says a daughter's watch TV.
Speaker 6 (43:33):
After a couple of hours, she checks.
Speaker 12 (43:34):
Her phone nine o'clock came, nothing, Nothing came at ten,
nothing came at eleven, so I thought, oh, maybe it's
just gone on. I'll just go to bed. Didn't really
seek much because I didn't hear from him because it
wasn't like Kim. And then work the next morning and
still nothing, no message on the phone.
Speaker 6 (43:52):
Babe?
Speaker 4 (43:52):
Where are you not like you to be so quiet
and not? It's forming in Jill's stomach. Babe, when you
do this to me, it makes me worried. But I
shall presume you're doing your own thing and will contact
me when you're ready.
Speaker 6 (44:06):
Kiss.
Speaker 4 (44:08):
After six hours, Jill's fear curdles into rage. Dean, this
is ridiculous. I'm worried, sick. Can't you just text me
something so I know you're okay. By two pm, Jill
is in full on worst case scenario mode. It's all
becoming too much. She phones Dean's mum and Joyce in.
Speaker 3 (44:28):
Me to me, George.
Speaker 4 (44:29):
She's ing me to me George, Dean's business partner, the
one who Jill have given the finger, or rather the
fingernail too.
Speaker 10 (44:35):
He'll wring you, he said.
Speaker 14 (44:37):
He'll wring you as soon as he can.
Speaker 4 (44:39):
Jill hangs up relieved but not convinced. As a police sergeant,
Jill has a sixth sense for trouble, and she can't
shake this nott in her stomach.
Speaker 12 (44:50):
I was thinking, something's wrong, something's wrong. Your imagination starts
giving you all these scenarios.
Speaker 4 (44:57):
But like any good parent, Jill keeps the root by
making the family tea and preparing the school uniforms. Every
second scrapes at her nerves until finally.
Speaker 6 (45:11):
The phone goes off. It's a text, but it's not
from Dean.
Speaker 4 (45:15):
It's his sister Debbie, with an instruction go to a
phone box and call me.
Speaker 12 (45:22):
I said to the girls, I've run out of milk.
I won't be long. It was a really frosty cold night,
freezing cold, but I wanted answers, so I went up
to the phone box.
Speaker 4 (45:33):
Jill opens the door to the phone box and a
foul smell hits her.
Speaker 12 (45:37):
And I remember looking down and going, oh, no, what
am I standing in here?
Speaker 6 (45:41):
She punches Debbie's number into the machine.
Speaker 12 (45:44):
And her for his words were there's been armed robbery.
Speaker 6 (45:48):
Dean's been arrested.
Speaker 12 (45:51):
It was like a spinning top, you know when there's
old spinning tops and someone's pressing down, present down, It
gets faster and faster and faster, and I felt that
as my head was going, I actually thought she was joking.
And I said, this.
Speaker 14 (46:02):
Is ridiculous, Denny.
Speaker 12 (46:04):
You need to tell him now right it stop manse
stupid stories and if he doesn't ring me, that's it.
The relationship will be over. And she went, will you
listen to what I'm telling you?
Speaker 6 (46:13):
This is true?
Speaker 12 (46:14):
Have a look on the news. She put the phone down,
and I'm the phone box thinking what the hell is
going on?
Speaker 4 (46:23):
Jill catches sight of herself in the reflection in the glass, cold,
scared and confused. Does she even recognized the woman staring back?
Back at home, she frantically turns on her TV.
Speaker 9 (46:39):
This is where the shooting happened, outside of Building Society.
Speaker 8 (46:42):
In New Bromney.
Speaker 9 (46:44):
It's thought the forty two year old victim was killed
after he opened fire on police.
Speaker 6 (46:51):
That's coming up on Stolen.
Speaker 4 (46:54):
Hearts from Wondery and Novel. This is episode one of
(47:14):
six of Stolen Heart's Stolen Herts is hosted by me
Kerry Godleyman and written by Kim McCaskill, Tom Wright, and
Anna Sinfield. Our producer is Tom Wright Associate producer Anna Sinfield,
Assistant producer Amalia Sortland, Additional production by Leona Hamid, Fact
(47:36):
checking by Andrew Schwartz and Fendall Fulton. Managing producers are
Lutter Pundia, Olivia Webber, Sharie Houston.
Speaker 6 (47:44):
And Charlotte Wolfe.
Speaker 4 (47:45):
Music supervisor is Scott Velasquez for friss On Sync, music
and sound design by Nicholas Alexander. Additional engineering by Daniel Kempson.
Executive producers are Max O'Brien, Mike Lee Row and Johnny McDivitt.
Novel executive producers are Erin O'Flaherty, George Lavender, Marshall Lewis
(48:06):
and Jensargent.
Speaker 1 (48:07):
For Wondering, that was episode one of Stolen Hearts. You
can binge the rest of the series and find out
what really happened to Dean exclusively an ad free right
now by joining Wondry Plus, start your free trial in
the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or by clicking the
(48:29):
link in the episode description Now.
Speaker 2 (48:31):
And don't forget to tune in next week for our
next episode of Flesh and Code, where we'll continue to
unravel the complexities of AI relationships and they're very Human
Consequences follow fleshing Code on the Wondery app or wherever
you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes of
Flesh and Code early and add free by joining Wondry
Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. And
(48:55):
before you go, be sure to tell us about yourself
by completing a short survey at wondry dot slash survey.
And if you have a tip about a story you
think we should investigate, please write to us at wondery
dot com slash tips
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