by Lee Weeks
‘I’m not sure he should have stayed in the police force,’ said Willis. ‘He’s never going to get promoted.’
Carter glanced over at her. ‘Is that all it’s about for you, Eb?’
‘No, of course it’s not, but my career is massive to me and I expect that in someone . . . in someone . . . I think is worthy of more.’
‘Someone you fancy? Say it!’ he teased. ‘Say that you might like to have his babies.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous.’ They finished their coffee and Carter began driving.
‘What’s ridiculous?’ He laughed as they drove past the petrol station and rejoined the motorway. ‘Cabrina said it would happen one day and so did Jeanie. I didn’t believe it until I saw you with Scott – perfect match.’ He glanced over and smiled as he accelerated into the fast lane.
‘No, we’re not,’ she said indignantly.
‘In what way aren’t you?’
‘In every way – I will never leave the Met. I know where I belong and it’s not in Devon and he doesn’t belong anywhere else.’
‘One of those long-distance relationships then,’ Carter teased.
‘No, because in the end, one of us would have to give up something really important and it would have to be me because he’s never coming back to London and he’s never making it higher than a DS.’
‘For someone who’s adamant she doesn’t fancy Scott, you’ve really thought this through.’
She didn’t answer; she looked out of the window and watched the scenery change. Carter rang Robbo.
‘Can you also run a check on all the owners of Aston Martins in the UK, Robbo? One was seen regularly outside Gillian Forth’s house,’ Carter said.
‘Okay, will get on it. Did she definitely die in the fire? She wasn’t killed first?’
‘No. She had no chance of escape. She was in an attic room when the fire started. It went straight from the front door up the stairs – chimney effect. She fried, basically.’
Carter came off the phone to Robbo.
‘Eb – ring Ellerman for me. I want to talk to him.’
He could hear rock music in the background as Ellerman answered the call.
Jump . . . Jump for your love . . .
‘Mr Ellerman? Detective Inspector Carter here.’
‘Yes?’
The music disappeared.
‘Sorry if this is a difficult time to call. You seem to be always working away somewhere.’
‘What can I help you with, Inspector?’
‘Have you heard of the name Gillian Forth?’
‘Who? Sorry?’
‘Gillian Forth?’
‘No . . . I don’t think so. Should I?’
‘You might have seen something about her on the news. She lived in Exeter. She was killed in an arson attack on her home a week last Tuesday.’
‘No, I didn’t see it, sorry. How awful.’
‘She worked for a company called Dreamcars – you’re one of its clients.’
‘Oh, really? Never heard of them. I can’t help you then, sorry. I have no idea who she was.’
‘You sound distracted.’
‘I’m driving, that’s all.’
‘Hands-free phone?’
‘Yes. Of course.’
‘You seem strangely connected to the death of two women. I need to know where you were on that Tuesday evening.’
‘I was with a friend.’
‘I need the friend’s address and I need to talk to her or him to confirm it . . . and, Mr Ellerman . . . just to let you know – we will be applying for Gillian Forth’s phone records and we will be analysing all her computer data. If I find that your name crops up, I’m going to request your phone records and I am going to go through your life with a fine-tooth comb.’ Carter hung up. ‘Slippery fuck – that’s what he’s been called and that’s what he is.
‘I need to write up my report on today, guv,’ Willis said as they drove past the road to Fletcher House.
‘Yeah, but it’s ten o’clock and I want to make sure we get in early tomorrow for a meeting at eight.’
‘I’ll be there, no problem.’
‘I know, but I need you to come in two hours before that. We’ll check things through then and write up today.’
‘Okay,’ she said reluctantly.
‘What do you think about Harding getting involved?’ Carter asked.
‘I think she needs reining in. She’ll be surfing all the dating sites and she’ll have joined half a dozen looking for Ellerman to hook in further. Dr Harding strikes me as unpredictable in her emotional affairs.’
‘Bunny boiler, you mean?’
‘Yeah, I do. She’s tough on men even in the workplace. Let alone ones that cross her in bedroom affairs.’
‘I know, but she already knows Ellerman and she knew Olivia Grantham. She seems to have something that Ellerman wanted – still wants.’
‘Not the sex then,’ said Willis. ‘Is it all about the money now for him – the money for his investments?’
‘We’ll pay a visit to his wife tomorrow. I want to talk to her on her own. We need to decide if she’s complicit in any of this – after all, she stays with him for a reason.’
Carter dropped Willis off outside her house.
Willis opened her front door and picked up her post from the shelf just inside and carried it up to her room on the top floor. She stopped to listen at Tina’s door, heard nothing so went on up to her room.
The room temperature was only just above freezing. She flicked on the halogen fire, got undressed in front of it and into pyjamas and her onesie that Tina had given her for Christmas. She checked her mail and discarded it and then tapped her password into her laptop. She had a friend request from Skype. She looked at the name
Scott Tucker wanted her to add him. He was online.
She logged on to Skype and added him. She saw his face appear. She squinted at the screen to try to make out what was around him. It wasn’t the station she could see, it looked like a lounge. He seemed to be sitting on a dark-coloured sofa. Behind him was a wall with a large black-and-white poster of a wooden pier. She heard the sound of a television.
‘Hang on a minute,’ he said and the TV sound stopped. ‘That’s better – can’t hear myself think.’
Willis smiled. ‘What were you watching?’
‘Um, not sure really – some thriller from some place that looked even colder than here. Wait a mo – I can’t see you.’
‘My camera is disabled.’
‘I don’t know – you politically correct gurus . . . only in London could you buy one of those.’
She smiled again. She also wondered if he’d had a glass or two. ‘Any more luck with neighbours seeing the Aston Martin or any other unusual car activity?’
‘Yes, two more sets of neighbours have seen it sometimes, in the week, parked overnight. There have been some other sightings of cars that may not be common on this street – a Range Rover has also been seen a few times but it’s possible that belongs to a relative of someone on the street.’
‘Any CCTV to look at for the Tuesday evening when she died?’
‘We are looking at the motorway cameras but it’s not a small job. There is no CCTV in the immediate area around Station Road. I’m still waiting for Gillian Forth’s phone records but – a traffic cop I know told me he met her recently on the dating site she used to meet Ellerman, according to the letter, called Love Uniform Dating. He met her once. I’ve had a look at it. There are a lot of military types down here. That’s what she was after, he said. She told him she wanted someone high-ranking – who spent a lot of his time away.’
‘I suppose that counts Ellerman out – he isn’t military.’
‘No . . . it doesn’t count him out of anything. Everyone tells a few lies on the dating sites. You know: he says, I’m six foot two and he turns out to be two foot six. Or I’m a size twelve and she turns out to be a size twenty-two. Plus, he could say he was retired.’
‘
Did you find him on there?’
‘No, but he could have hidden his profile till it all calms down. We’ll keep looking.’
She smiled to herself as she thought about what he said about the dating sites and the way people lied. Tina said she did it all the time. She said sometimes you turned up and the person looked nothing like the man in the photos. But then, Tina also said she could speak several languages and Willis knew she was barely proficient in one.
‘You sound like you know a lot about it?’ Willis asked.
‘Me? I’ve only just come out of a long-term relationship so I don’t need any more trouble for a while. But it’s just one more way of hooking up, I guess.’
‘Okay . . .’ Willis didn’t know what to say. She was glad he couldn’t see her face. She felt awkward. Her heart missed a beat when he said he’d been in a relationship. ‘Well, I’ll keep you informed if anything to do with Gillian Forth turns up this end. We are looking into all of Ellerman’s movements and I’ll let you know if anything turns up there too.’
‘Okay – you off to bed now?’
‘Yes. Night.’ She went to switch off Skype but he leant into the camera.
‘So you’re not sitting in your pyjamas and that’s why you don’t want me to see you?’
She smiled. ‘Might be.’
‘Okay, Detective Willis. This is Detective Scott Tucker signing off for now. Night. You are the weakest link – goodbye!’
‘Night.’
Willis stared at the screen. Scott’s face loomed into the camera as she pressed the end call button and logged out. She could see he was still logged on to Skype after he’d ended the call with her. She wondered if he’d be doing the rounds of friends now. He was lonely, just out of a relationship, he said. He hadn’t really had anything to say to her. He’d just wanted some contact with the outside world. Willis didn’t really get that. Everything she wanted was inside the room. She didn’t want contact outside it.
Harding put the bag of takeaway containers into the bin and opened another bottle of wine as she settled down to surf the sites. She sat at her kitchen table but didn’t open her laptop. She knew there was something she had to do, something she’d put off. She phoned Carter. He’d just got into bed beside Cabrina when his phone rattled on the bedside cabinet. He slipped out of bed to take it.
‘Dr Harding?’
‘Sorry – I know it’s late but there is something else I need to tell you about Lorraine Chance. Are you having any luck with tracing the lorry drivers?’
‘No, not so far.’ Carter slipped out of the bedroom, wearing just his boxers. Cabrina sighed as she watched him go. He walked quickly down the stairs so as not to wake Archie. Once inside the kitchen, he closed the door.
‘What’s on your mind?’
‘My car.’
‘The damage, you mean?’
‘Yes. It happened the same night as she was killed.’
‘Okay. That’s unfortunate. But is it connected?’ Carter was beginning to think that Harding was drinking and dialling.’
‘It happened in the adjacent car park to the lorry park. I was going to meet someone there. He didn’t show up, or I’ll never know if he did or not – the minute I circled the car park I saw a light come on in a lorry’s cab and I thought that perhaps my date had made some other arrangement . . . I thought – as we were meeting for a dogging liaison – it was just possible that the lorry driver was going to watch. But, I was just about to make my way towards the lorries when the car was surrounded by youths in hoodies. They just started attacking it – well, you saw the damage.’
‘Substantial. You should have told me sooner. They tried to get in the car by the look of it.’
‘Yes, sorry, that was their intention. I don’t know what they would have done then but I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t have gone my way.’
‘Who was the person you were meeting?’
‘He sent me a text message. He said he’d contacted me before. He had my number so I thought he must have, even though I didn’t have any previous messages from him. But he seemed to know what I wanted so I thought, “okay . . .”’
‘You have no idea where you met him before?’
‘None. It could have been in a bar – it could have been on a dating site.’
‘Have you messaged him at all since that evening?’
‘No. I was debating what to do.’
‘He didn’t give you a name?’
‘No, I’m sending you the message he sent me. You can see for yourself.’
Whilst he waited for it to come through, Carter went to get his laptop from the sitting room. He fired it up and got into the file on Olivia Grantham.
The message came through from Harding:
I’ll be waiting.
Carter scrolled down until he found what he was looking for – it was the last message Olivia ever received.
I’ll be waiting.
‘It’s our guy, Doctor; it’s the same man who set Olivia Grantham up, I’m sure of it. What do you remember about the people in the car park who trashed your car?’
‘Just a bunch of youths.’
‘You didn’t notice any distinctive dress – gang insignia? Any bandannas?’
‘I didn’t look that closely at what they were wearing, I was trying to stop them dragging me out of the car.’
‘Anyone you’d recognize again?’
‘One face pressed against the window – mixed race, Middle Eastern-looking – Kurdish – that area of the world. He had a dog. The dog was being held back. Having seen what it did to Olivia’s body, I’m feeling grateful now.’
‘Where is your car now, Doctor?’
‘It’s waiting at the Audi garage for a new roof to come from Germany. It’s due in the workshop tomorrow.’
‘Call them first thing and cancel, please, and I’ll alert Sandford and get him to look at the car. You really should have mentioned this before. Tomorrow, we’ll need to see if we can persuade the Dogger to answer a new message from you. Until then, Doctor, can I please suggest you don’t meet anyone else for now. We’ve just come back from looking at the body of another of Ellerman’s women from the list. Please be vigilant and please stay safe. I’ll see you in the morning.’
As she was going to bed, Harding got a text:
I’m still waiting.
Chapter 39
DC Zoe Blackman parked up in the Faith and Light hostel car park and checked her watch – she had ten minutes to wait till ten o’clock, when her mum, Diane, was due to finish her shift. Zoe’s boys were staying with friends tonight and she didn’t want Diane to have to get a taxi or a bus home from an area she didn’t know well, even though she’d said she’d be fine. Zoe was going to surprise her and take her home. She was just about to get out of the car and go in when she saw Simon Smith. She sat back in the shadows and watched him cross the car park, then she saw him stop and look back . . . Mahmet Balik walked up behind him, leading his dog on a chain. Blackman stayed where she was. She looked at Smith and wondered how he would handle it. She couldn’t hear the conversation. She was trying to work out how she was going to disarm Balik and not get mauled by the dog. She was also praying that Diane would not walk out just at that moment. Zoe watched and waited. Simon seemed to be in control. The dog stayed where it was and Balik’s arm gesturing didn’t seem to bother it. It stayed calm. Simon was nodding. Zoe watched as he took something out of his pocket and handed it across to Balik. Zoe didn’t dare breathe or move. Then the hostel door opened and her mum, Lyndsey and Sheila walked out, chatting.
Shit!
Now she had no choice but to get out of the car.
‘Mahmet Balik?’
He stood his ground as she walked towards him.
‘Correct.’
The dog growled at her.
‘You’re wanted for questioning at Archway Police Station about a death that happened on Parade Street.’
‘Yeah, sure.’ He started walking. Zoe shouted for him to stop. He
stopped with his back to her. She stood a few feet from him and the dog, which had resumed its snarling. Balik slowly turned to face her.
‘What’s the problem, Officer?’
‘I already told you. You need to present yourself at Archway Police Station for questioning. What is your current address?’
She got out her notebook.
‘My current address is no-man’s land. I’m everywhere you won’t find me.’
‘Mahmet Balik, I am placing you under arrest.’ Zoe took out her handcuffs and took a step towards him but stopped immediately as five other youths appeared in the car park and one of them stepped up and blocked her way. She pushed him hard.
‘Get out of my face. Stand back.’ She held a pepper spray where he could see it.
One of the lads opened his jacket, to show her he was carrying a knife.
‘You spray that – you will take one of us out but then you’ll be dead,’ said Mahmet. ‘After you, then I’m going to cut these people. No one’s going to leave here unless you back off.’ Zoe held up her hands. ‘And tell Toffee and his mates we will find them.’
They turned and walked out of the car park. Zoe called on her phone for back-up.
‘They’ve got to be stopped,’ said Lyndsey. ‘Can anyone stop them?’ The three women were visibly shocked by the confrontation.
‘We will.’ Blackman was just very angry. She didn’t like having to back down. ‘I’ll make sure that something’s done about it.’