THE FOURTH FRIEND a gripping crime thriller full of stunning twists

by Joy Ellis

  At the end of the story, he sat back, as if he were in a briefing and waiting for feedback.

  Sam spoke first. ‘I think that I too would feel enormous guilt in those circumstances. But if a friend is holding something back, they’ve drawn a line. It’s not easy to know whether you should cross it or not. If Tom had given just a little, I’m sure you would have been there for him. He put up the barrier, not you.’

  ‘I should have done more. I should have at least done something.’

  ‘What exactly? If Tom was experiencing abuse at the hands of his partner, it would be very hard for him to admit it, to anyone.’ Sam shook his head. ‘Statistics show that the number of women convicted of perpetrating domestic abuse has more than quadrupled in the past ten years, but only a very small percentage of men actually tell anyone.’

  Carter hung his head. ‘I’m sure you are right, but I can’t bear to think of him suffering like that, and I didn’t realise.’

  ‘But you still spent time with him, didn’t you?’ said Laura. ‘You didn’t abandon him. You worked on the boat and kind of hung out together?’

  ‘Yes, that didn’t change.’

  ‘So you were there for him. It’s important for someone who is in a difficult relationship to have some downtime, and you supplied that. And I’m betting you didn’t slag off his wife to him, did you?’

  ‘I never even spoke about her if I could help it. And I did sometimes make the effort to join in with something she had organised, like the odd barbeque, but it wasn’t often.’

  ‘No matter. You were still a constant in his life.’ Sam paused. ‘This hypothesis has not actually been proven, has it, Carter?’

  ‘No, but it makes perfect sense. And her previous husband has apparently admitted that the same thing happened to him.’

  ‘Do you know the man? Do you trust his word? He could have an axe to grind. I suggest you wait until you know a little more before you go into meltdown over this.’

  Carter gave a dry laugh. ‘I think I’ve already done that, don’t you?’

  ‘You reacted badly to an unpleasant suggestion,’ Laura said evenly. ‘It’s understandable, considering the circumstances. If it were anyone else, I would say back off, leave that case to your colleagues, but knowing how much you want to do one last thing for your friend, then . . .’ She pulled a face. ‘Are you really up to seeing this through?’

  ‘I have to be. I can go into meltdown when it’s all over.’ He stood up. ‘I feel such a fool for behaving like that, but I’m okay now. I’d better get back to work and try to explain why I disappeared.’

  ‘Don’t say too much, Carter. Just keep it simple and don’t make a big thing out of it.’ Sam stood up and shook Carter’s hand. ‘If Laura should be busy and you need to talk, I’m retired now. I have all the time in the world to listen.’ He took a card from his wallet and handed it to Carter. ‘I hope you get to the bottom of it all.’

  ‘Me too, Sam, and thanks for listening. Poor Laura here is used to it, but I can be a bit of a challenge, I’m afraid.’

  After he had gone, Laura flopped down in her chair. ‘Now do you see why I worry?’

  Sam tilted his head. ‘I’m not sure what to think about that abrupt mood swing. It was pretty spectacular.’

  ‘It’s a new phenomenon. He’s usually very contained, sometimes almost insular. Or else he appears totally laidback and rational. He is a damned good actor, but this wasn’t a performance.’

  ‘I noticed the way he moved his head, as if he were trying to find the source of something, like a sound, or a smell?’

  Laura picked up a pen and toyed with it. ‘When he “sees” his dead friend, he always smells burning.’

  Sam’s face clouded over. ‘Burning? Always the smell of burning?’

  She nodded, and told him what had happened during the crash.

  They fell silent, each one thinking about Carter’s state of mind. Finally Sam said, ‘I think that young man needs watching very carefully. I’m just not sure how you should go about it. Who is going to be there to spot the warning signs if he isn’t coping?’

  ‘His DI is very understanding, and he has a close friend who works with him. I’m just worried about putting too much pressure on her. He drains her at the best of times. Lord knows what he’ll do if he gets any worse.’

  ‘He is worse, Laura. And we need someone to look out for him. There’s an unstable element to that young man, and it concerns me greatly. She only needs to watch and report if she gets concerned. I really think you should talk to her.’

  Reluctantly, Laura picked up the phone.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  When Carter walked back into the CID room, Jackman and Marie, with Robbie and Charlie, were sitting listening to the Home Office pathologist, Rory Wilkinson.

  Carter felt his chest tighten. Wilkinson had indicated that he had an idea about what had actually happened to Suzanne. ‘Have I missed much?’ He turned on the most charming smile he could muster. ‘Sorry I disappeared. Needed to get a few things straight in my head.’

  ‘And did you?’ asked Jackman calmly.

  ‘Yes, sir. Absolutely.’ He continued to smile.

  Marie looked at him with apparent relief.

  ‘Come join the cabaret, old chum.’ With a sweeping gesture, Rory pointed to a vacant chair. ‘I was just extolling the virtues of the new forensic technology.’

  Carter noticed Jackman glance swiftly at Marie, who nodded. She seemed worried. Probably they would rather he wasn’t present.

  ‘My second forensic sweep confirms that Suzanne Holland was pushed with extreme violence. Her heel caught in the hearthrug, which halted her backward trajectory. I discovered this from matching blood stains on the carpet with what should have been matching stains on the floor. They did not match until you rucked the carpet up, as though catching your foot in it. That meant that her body probably jackknifed back with far more force than a simple topple. Her head smashed into the stone mantelpiece, she twisted as she fell, and landed with her temple down onto the cast-iron fire surround. A real double whammy, if ever there was one.’

  ‘This confirms what you surmised from the original forensic reports,’ said Jackman.

  ‘It certainly does. My motion graphics are incontestable. They are calculated on velocity, distance, and careful scrutiny of every single drop of blood that was shed, but I can add a bit more to the scenario.’

  Everyone looked at him.

  ‘She was left there, in the position that she fell, for over three hours before she was moved. And one person would not have been able to get her out of the cottage alone. Two men, correction, two people, were involved in this.’

  ‘How do you know how long she was left there?’ asked Charlie.

  ‘Again, from our wonderfully informative blood. The blood that had seeped from the body had separated into clot and serum, so I could calculate the amount of time between her dying to the time she was dragged. It came to several hours. If she had been moved immediately and dragged through fresh blood, the drag pattern would have been quite different. Plus, the drag pattern stopped, and just a few drips were then found, indicating that she was lifted from the room, hence two people required.’

  ‘And two men were seen talking outside in the garden,’ added Carter. ‘Ponytail and another man.’

  ‘Why would her half-brother be so angry with her?’ Marie asked thoughtfully. ‘Wasn’t he generally the fawning type? Creepy and quiet?’

  ‘You know what they say about the quiet ones,’ Robbie answered. ‘And if he really was lusting after her, she might have rejected his advances, making him angry.’

  Carter raised a hand. ‘Something bothers me about this Ponytail, or Ralph Doolan, as we believe him to be. He was always a loner. According to Tom, whenever he visited Suzanne he always came by himself. Max’s checks on him said the same. He has very few, if any, real friends. So who was with him on the night Suzanne died?’

  ‘This is probably completely irrelev
ant,’ Charlie smiled rather anxiously, ‘but Ralph Doolan is in hospital because of a hit and run. Do you think someone was trying to get rid of him?’

  Everyone turned to Charlie.

  ‘Someone like the man who helped him dispose of Suzanne’s body?’ he added hopefully.

  ‘I suggest you give Max and Rosie a ring and ask them to speak to the Humberside boys about that hit and run. You might just have a point there, Charlie-boy!’ Jackman looked pleased, and so did Charlie.

  Then Robbie dampened the mood. ‘What if Ralph had nothing to do with Suzanne’s actual death? The killer could have been the man in the shadows, and he called Ralph to come and help him with the body?’

  There was a collective sigh.

  Marie shook her head. ‘We need more evidence. Anything come up regarding DNA at the scene, Professor?’

  ‘Apart from some skull splinters that had been missed, the original SOCOs did a good job. There was no new DNA.’

  Jackman stood up and walked over to the whiteboard. ‘What facts do we actually have? Rory has now confirmed that Suzanne was killed in situ, left for several hours, then moved.’ He pointed to the name Alan Pitt. ‘This man saw two men. This one,’ he tapped the ponytailed EFIT picture, ‘and an unidentified male, in heated discussion, on the garden path of Holland Cottage, at around the time she was killed.’ He pointed to Suzanne’s picture. ‘Harvey Cash, her first husband, has stated that she was a violent and abusive partner. Carter has confirmed that his friend Tom Holland changed after he married Suzanne. The changes he describes are consistent with someone living under threat from an emotionally abusive bully. She was not well-liked generally, and was known to be promiscuous prior to marrying Tom Holland. We have no indications that she was still behaving in that manner after her marriage, although we think from enquiries at the time, and from people that Max has interviewed, that she did see several men after Tom left. Which means that we cannot say whether she was faithful or unfaithful.’ He then pointed to the picture of Ralph Doolan. ‘There are allegations that this man, her half-brother, was sexually interested in Suzanne. But apart from hearsay and several descriptions of him as creepy, that is not a proven fact.’

  He stood back. ‘Have I missed anything?’

  No one spoke.

  ‘Not a lot, is it?’

  ‘Look, I hate to leave things like this, but I have to get back to my lab. I hear a cold cadaver calling me.’ Rory stood up. ‘If any other little morsel of information comes to me, I shall be in touch.’

  ‘Thank you, Rory.’ Jackman looked around. ‘I think we are finished here anyway. Back to the drawing board, folks.’

  With a scraping of chairs they all returned to their desks.

  Carter hung back, wanting to reassure Marie that he was okay, but he saw Jackman beckon to him. What? Now? thought Carter miserably, but smiled and followed his boss from the room.

  * * *

  Marie watched them go and bit her lip. Laura Archer had phoned a few minutes before Carter reappeared, and told her of his unsettling “episode” with her and Professor Page. Marie had naturally agreed to be vigilant. The call was hardly necessary, she had been on red alert for weeks!

  ‘Sarge, can I have a word?’ Robbie looked worried.

  ‘Carter looks fine, so I hope you are not still worried, are you?’ She hoped she sounded reassuring. She wanted everything back on an even keel where Carter was concerned.

  ‘Yes, Sarge, it’s not that.’ He pulled a chair close to her desk. ‘No one seems to have mentioned that if Suzanne did abuse Tom Holland, he might just have been the one who killed her. Women like that are addicted to conflict. She could have instigated an argument that ended in her death.’

  Marie leaned closer to Robbie, elbows on her desk. ‘Jackman and I had come to the same conclusion. When you mentioned someone asking Ponytail — Ralph Doolan — to help him, then the only person I could possibly think of would be Tom Holland. Who else knew him?’

  ‘My thoughts too. But I didn’t want to talk in front of Carter. Not after the last time.’ He looked apprehensive. ‘Actually I’ve changed my mind. I don’t think Carter should be here at all.’

  ‘Well, we have our reasons for keeping him close.’

  Robbie nodded. ‘Can I get permission to go back to Holland Cottage?’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘I want to go through all their personal stuff. Letters, diaries, calendars, computers, the lot.’

  Robbie was obviously on exactly the same track as she was. The discovery that Suzanne might have been abusive meant husband Tom was suspect number one. ‘A lot of it is in the evidence storage facility. It was taken and bagged and tagged after her disappearance, but go ahead. See what you can find, and I’ll call evidence storage and tell them to allow you access, okay?’

  ‘Thanks, Sarge.’ He started to get up, then sat back down again. ‘One thing that doesn’t conform to the usual abusive pattern is that Suzanne seemed to be okay about Tom spending time with his mates. Carter says they spent a lot of hours working on that old boat, but she didn’t object.’

  Marie frowned. ‘I couldn’t really say. I don’t know too much about that kind of behaviour.’

  ‘Sadly, I do. I had an old friend who got involved with a controlling woman, and it was one of the scariest things I’ve ever seen. Hence I read up on it. The thing is, they usually isolate their partner, keeping them apart from friends and family, and then poisoning their minds so that they actually become hostile towards them.’ He scratched his chin. ‘Suzanne didn’t do that.’

  ‘Don’t these things escalate? Maybe she hadn’t reached that stage yet? Or, maybe she liked to let him out somewhere safe, like with buddy Carter on the Eva May, because she was busy with other things.’

  ‘Like going back to her old ways?’

  ‘Bet ya!’

  ‘Good point.’ Robbie stood up. ‘Don’t tell Carter where I’m going, will you?’

  ‘No intention.’

  ‘I’ll report back to you.’

  ‘Do that.’

  * * *

  Carter left Jackman’s office. He had done everything he could to soothe his boss’s troubled mind, though it had been difficult to concentrate when he was almost choking on the acrid stench. Tom had stood like a statue, staring out of the window.

  He went into his own office and pulled the door to as far as he dare without actually closing it.

  He didn’t like the way this investigation was going. More than anyone else, he wanted a result, but he could see which way the wind was blowing, and he was sure they had got it all wrong.

  He sat down and tried to think how he could pull the investigation back onto the right track.

  First, he had to speak to Max. He needed to know the outcome of the visit to Ralphie. The corners of his mouth turned down in distaste. Ralph was one of the most unpleasant men he had ever met. He was most certainly a voyeur, and possibly a predator too, although he’d never dug up any proof, and he sure had tried. He was telling the truth when he said he barely knew the man, but the first time he saw him, nosing around his half-sister, he knew that Ralph was a pervert. Even his lovely mate, Tom, suspected him of having unwholesome needs. He pitied the nurses in that hospital, and hoped that Ralph’s personal nurse was either male, or tough as boot leather.

  Somewhere along the way he had forgotten to ask Max if he had checked out Ralph’s alibi. Though wherever he said he was, and with whom, it would have been a lie. Ralphie had probably been fingering someone’s washing line. Or, of course, he could have been busy murdering his half-sister because she’d put out for every man in Saltern apart from him.

  Carter smiled. Now there was a thought.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  Max entered Jackman’s office just before the shift was ending. ‘Charlie called, sir, so I spoke to the Humberside boys. They caught the hit-and-run car on CCTV earlier today, and they’ve pulled the driver. Turns out it was the father of a kid that Ponytail has been getting up close
and personal with. The dad had warned him off, but later found him in the garden of their bungalow with a hi-spec camera. Since it was two in the morning and he was outside his daughter’s bedroom, he didn’t react too well. Ralphie ran for it, but Dad took him out, using a pretty heavy SUV crossover. So, nothing to do with us, sir.’

  Jackman had expected something along those lines. A degenerate like that rarely got away with it for too long, even if the punishment was meted out by someone outside the law.

  ‘And his alibi?’

  ‘His friend seems to have gone AWOL, sir. Can’t track him down at all. I’m wondering if he ever existed, or if Ralph was just giving us the runaround to keep us busy.’

  ‘Most likely. So, how did it go? Did he give you any reason to suspect that he had been at Suzanne’s that night?’

  ‘Well, I’d checked the PNC and his profile was not on the National DNA Database, so I took a sample while we were there. He tried to object, told me I needed his written permission, but I explained really nicely that we have every right to take a non-intimate sample because it was necessary for investigating a serious crime. And that was that. At least we can see if he’s on Prof Wilkinson’s list from the crime scene.’

  ‘Long list, unfortunately. And he’ll most likely be there because he’s family, sort of.’

  ‘Yeah, I guess, but at least we’ve got him on the database now, so if he ever tries anything pervy again, we can tie him in.’ Max sniffed. ‘He’s a rum one, sir. But Rosie and I decided that we can’t see him killing Suzanne. He seemed genuinely cut up about her death, and to be honest, I don’t think he’d have the bottle to go up against a woman like his sister.’

  ‘Did Charlie tell you that we suspect her of being a domestic abuser?’

  ‘Yes, sir. I just feel for that poor sod of a husband. Looks like that crash took him out of a world of pain.’

  ‘Bit of an extreme way to leave her, Max.’ He grimaced. ‘Still, get off home, and thanks for what you’ve done.’

  ‘No probs, sir. I was sad there was no sangria, but Scunthorpe isn’t famous for it.’