Lee Weeks - Dead of Winter

‘When you came here that morning, Doctor, what was it like?’

‘I was on my way back from Brighton when I got a call asking if I could cover for a colleague who was on duty but sick. It was a sunny day. It had been a glorious weekend. It was on my way home so I agreed. When I got here the officers who answered the 999 call from Carmichael were gone; two from the Brighton murder squad were already here.’

‘Why did they hand it over to the MET to deal with? Why didn’t it stay with the Brighton squad?’

‘Because he was a serving MET officer, I suppose. Davidson made the decision he wanted to do the best he could for Carmichael. That turned out to be an impossible task. I didn’t question it at the time. Of course. .’ She turned to look at Ebony in the gloomy hallway. ‘That was the first mistake.’

Ebony opened her file. ‘Here in this hallway there were bloody smears on the wall and Louise’s handprints all the way down it. It says in the report that the blood on the wall was Sophie’s. She must have seen her daughter killed, at least wounded, before she was dragged down these stairs.’

They walked into the first room on the right.

‘Chrissie Newton was in here.’ Harding pulled away the rug that covered the stone floor in the lounge. ‘This is the spot.’ A fat brown spider scuttled away towards the hearth.

Ebony held the picture of Christine Newton in her hand.

‘Was the woman from Blackdown Barn, Silvia. . was she opened up like that?’

‘Yes.’

Ebony walked across to the window and pulled back the curtain. The gardener had gone ‘They found an open bottle of wine, half a glass poured out. It was left over here beside this window; there was a small table here at the time. Maybe she was watching someone arrive when she drank it, never finished it.’

Ebony followed Harding as she walked along the hallway and down two steps to the stone-floored kitchen. ‘And Louise Carmichael was in here. Over there by the back door. Sophie was laid out beside her.’

Ebony stood in the kitchen by a small table. ‘Sophie had collected pebbles. They were found a bucket in here on the kitchen floor. They must have spent the day on the beach. Then come back here, given Sophie and Adam their tea: they found the washed-up plates, kids’ knives and forks on the draining board.’

They walked back past the lounge and Ebony led the way up the stairs. Shadows of the dead ivy outside the landing window flitted across the old plaster walls.

‘All the bodies were on the ground floor. I never came up here. I had no need,’ said Harding.

At the top of the stairwell they came to a small bathroom with an old enamel bath.

‘It says in the report that the water was left in the bath, just six inches. There were toys in there. So Louise must have been bathing Sophie when it started.’

‘Louise?’

‘Coming, Chrissie,’ Louise called down from the bathroom. ‘Just giving Sophie a bath.’

Chrissie stood at the bottom of the stairs:

‘I’ve started on the wine. .’ she giggled. ‘Do you want me to bring you a glass up there?’

Louise leaned her head back towards the door. She was on her knees beside the bath, her hands in the water. ‘You did well to hang on. .’ She smiled as she filled up one plastic beaker with water and tipped it into another; Sophie was concentrating so hard not to spill the water that her tongue stuck out the way her dad’s did sometimes, when he didn’t realize he was doing it. ‘You carry on. . I’ll wait, thanks. I’ll read to Sophie and get her settled and then I’ll be right down. Are you sure you don’t mind us staying for another night? Callum must have got held up at work. I am sorry.’

Louise swished the water back and forth through her fingers. She listened and heard Chrissie sigh. She smiled at Sophie.

‘I know that Callum and I have been through a lot. I know that sometimes it all gets too much for him.’

Louise made the face that always made Sophie laugh. It was a gorgeous laugh that tilted Sophie’s head backwards and came from the middle of her body: pure joy.

‘What are you going to say to him if he does turn up?’ Chrissie called up from the foot of the stairs.

‘I don’t know.’

‘He cheated on you, Louise. You can’t just ignore it.’

‘I’m not ignoring it. . I’ve thought about it for so many nights since I found out. I’ve tried so hard to make sense of it.’

‘What is there to make sense of. .? He’s a lying, cheating bastard. He slept with another woman. You’re more forgiving than I could ever be, Louise. I like Callum but I know I could never forgive him. I’d leave him if I was you.’

‘I can’t. Whatever he’s done. . I know that he loves me and he loves Sophie. And I know that he’s sorry.’

‘Anyway, it’s your business and don’t be silly, it’s no problem to put you up for another night; I’m glad of the company. Someone’s arrived.’

Chrissie turned at the sound of a vehicle turning in outside. The cottage was at the end of a lane. No one needed to come down that far unless they were coming specifically to the cottage.

‘Maybe that’s Callum now.’

She carried her glass of wine into the lounge and drew back the curtain to look outside.

Ebony walked into the first bedroom on the left. The rooms were dark, the walls bare. Harding came to stand beside her. Ebony looked at the crime scene plan of the upstairs.

‘This is the room where baby Adam was found alive.’

‘He’d been taken to hospital by the time I arrived.’

They went into the next room. The bed had gone. Only faded paintings of country gardens and bluebells in the spring remained on the walls.

‘Louise and Sophie slept in here. Louise may have had time to put her to bed, but she didn’t have time to go back into the bathroom and empty the bath, tidy it up.’

‘There was no trace of anaesthetics in Sophie’s bloods,’ said Harding. ‘All the others were anaesthetised before being killed.’

‘She would never have got her to sleep naturally if she was frightened.’ Ebony shivered; the cottage was colder inside than it was outside. ‘If she knew there was trouble coming Louise must have hidden it well.’ Ebony looked upwards. ‘It says in the report that Sophie’s blood was across the ceiling. It was a quick death then, an execution. Maybe to shut her up.’ She glanced across at Harding at the same time as she flicked through the notes from the scene.

‘So Louise witnessed her daughter’s death, or at least the start of it, and then she was dragged downstairs and raped.’

‘Yes,’ said Harding. ‘Louise’s body was naked when it was found downstairs. Her knickers and shorts were found in the lounge. The rest of her clothes were missing. She had multiple bruises on her arms and legs, groin area, consistent with rape.’

Ebony stood on the landing and looked down the stairs. ‘She was dragged downstairs and then she saw her friend being horrifically and slowly murdered and waited three hours to be killed in the same way herself.’

Harding joined her at the top of the stairs. ‘Pressure marks and nylon fibre imbedded in the wrists and ankles of both women. They were rendered inactive, also given large amounts of sedation, which could have been used to keep them quiet while being tortured. Someone spent hours on these women.’

‘You knew Carmichael. Do you reckon he could have done that?’ asked Ebony.

‘Yes,’ answered Harding. ‘He could have. He was trained to murder when he was with the SBS. He could have done it in his sleep. Carmichael had secrets, Ebony. Things emerged about him after the murders.’