Lee Weeks - Dead of Winter

‘Is that our motive then, Ebb? Kill the wife and kid and start again with wife’s money and the new woman?’

‘Except the new woman left for Australia soon after and according to her statement at the time, the affair had been over for a few months. Carmichael has never remarried. So I don’t know really. I have the full autopsy reports now. I’ll read them through and be ready to clarify things with Carmichael tomorrow. It will take me a few hours to go through it and then I’ll bring my bag into the office, ready to leave early tomorrow morning, Sarge.’

‘Stay there, get a few hours’ kip.’

‘Okay, Sarge. . and Sarge, I talked to Mr Simpson, the letting agent: Chichester bought the bed in the cellar himself. That means the Arsenal shirt is down to him and nothing to do with the previous tenant. We were right about the room with linoleum — he had the carpet removed before he got there and had the linoleum put down, and more shelves put up in the bathroom.’

‘What about the curtains in that room, Ebb? He left them in every other room, why not there?’

‘I asked Simpson about those — he said Chichester told him he’d be bringing his own.’

‘Sandford’s found what looks like the remnants of a plastic curtain up at that bedroom window. We need to find out what that room was intended for: don’t think it’s a bedroom. Maybe it was a place to store something that needed to be kept germ-free.’

‘I’ll talk to Simpson again. He needs leaning on; he made money out of Chichester that he doesn’t want to talk about. He also deleted emails that went between him and Chichester.’

‘Did you manage to find out what Harding really thinks about Davidson and the situation? Davidson still doesn’t want to reopen the case.’

‘I think she’s keen to get it right this time — she gave me the full autopsy reports — but at the same time she supports Davidson.’

‘Covering her arse then. .’

‘Looks like it, Sarge. I’ll talk to her again when I get back tomorrow. She wants me to let her know how he is.’

‘Pass by me first. There’s only one person Harding cares about. And only one back she’s watching, and that’s her own.’

‘But she does care about doing her job, Sarge. She doesn’t like getting things wrong.’

‘No, well, good luck with getting to know Harding. It would take a braver man than me.’

‘What time are we leaving tomorrow, Sarge?’

‘Not me, Ebb. . just you. You are a fresh pair of eyes, no preconceptions. You can see it as it is. Anyway, I’ll be more use here. You alright to go on your own? You were trained as a FLO.’

‘Yeah, but it was decided I wasn’t really cut out for it.’ She paused, turned towards the window. She was thinking. She caught her reflection in the glass. She looked like a frightened rabbit: all eyes. She looked away quickly. ‘Okay, no problem.’

‘Take an overnight bag. There’ll be plenty of motels to stay in nearby. You’ll be fine. Ring me.’

Ebony put down the phone and got into bed, pulling her duvet around her as she snuggled down for a few hours work. Tina knocked in the door.

‘You free?’

‘Sorry, Teen. Give me an hour or two and I’ll take a break then. You okay?’

‘Just need a girly goss and a catch-up that’s all. I want to show you some of the other guys I’ve been looking at on the dating sites. Some really gorgeous ones — be great for you.’

‘Okay, give me a while. I’ll come and find you when I’m done.’ Three hours later she heard Tina moving around in the bedroom below, getting ready for bed. Ebony felt a pang of guilt. She thought about getting up and going to say goodnight and spending ten minutes trawling through Tina’s choice of men on the internet — men who were always flashy and fancied themselves much more than they did Tina. But Ebony knew it wouldn’t be just ten minutes and she still had a lot of work to do. She’d gone through Carmichael’s file a hundred times and still she hadn’t found the answers she was looking for. Why would someone kill them in that way and why did they leave the little baby alive? She spread out the pictures of Louise and Chrissie and looked at them again. Her eyes went from one to another. Something was bothering her. Blood. Where was the blood? The women should have been lying in pools of it; it should have been everywhere. But it wasn’t. She looked at the list of forensic samples that had been deemed to be cross-contaminated. In death the women had touched one another. Their backs had touched somehow. Ebony began re-writing her findings. What if the samples were not corrupted? It was getting light when she finally slept where she sat on the bed, surrounded by pictures of the dead.

Carter came off the phone to Ebony and walked into the Major Incident Room. Robbo was sitting at his desk with his cafetière. When he saw Carter coming he slid his chair from one end of his desk, picked up a sheet of paper, and slid back.

‘Here’s how far I’ve got.’ He read from the sheet in his hand: ‘The vehicle in the driveway at Blackdown Barn: a man. . Mr Arnold Williams. . delivers the bi-monthly parish paper to Blackdown Barn. He remembers seeing a van in the driveway on several occasions. It was a large Transit type, almost like a Tourer, but regular-shaped, not fancy: no windows; it was white.’

‘Number plate?’

‘No. . he says the back doors of the van were always covered.’

‘We know its length. Find me a make and model. Use the moulds from the tyre tracks to see what tyres it took.’

Robbo pointed to the screen. Carter came round to have a look.

‘I fed in the information from the tyre prints and it came up with a basic model of van; most of the major manufactures made a Transit-type vehicle like this. It’s a working van rather than a run-around. The tyres indicate that it’s less than three years old. Meant to carry a lot of weight.’

‘Ebony says that when she went back to Rose Cottage she met a gardener there who says he repaired the gatepost after that night. It took out the whole upper section in a clean chunk. Could it be this van type?’

‘There was no mention of that in the case file. I never saw a statement from him.’

‘Yeah, I know. We need to get the exhibits from the Carmichael case back over here from the warehouse and see for ourselves.’

‘So how’s it going working with Ebony Willis?’

‘Yeah. . I’m sending her up on her own to interview Carmichael tomorrow; she’s swatting up on the case tonight.’

Robbo gave him that look that said: interesting but risky.

‘She’ll be alright.’ Carter sucked his finger where the cuticle was bleeding.

‘Hopefully. . She’s a bright kid.’

‘Funny how you see her as a kid.’

‘Everyone’s a kid to me. I’m not long after Davidson when it comes to retirement. Of course I don’t have any choice, being a DC. He could stay on. You help solve this one, Dan, they should seriously consider you for promotion.’

‘Maybe. I won’t hold my breath. Just passing my exams doesn’t seem to be enough. Ebony will probably get there before me.’

‘Ebony’s going to have to battle against prejudice. She’s going to have to prove herself every step of the way if she hopes people will forget what happened to her. If she hadn’t already joined the Force when it happened she would never have been allowed in.’

‘That would have been a tragedy,’ said Carter. ‘I can see how much she loves it. She wants this career so badly. She’ll make it, despite what she’s been through — or maybe because of it.’

‘Yeah,’ said Robbo. ‘She’s a sponge when it comes to info, techno stuff. She’s been asking me about the latest in this and that. Even though it’s not her department.’