Dead of Winter

Chapter 25

Carter had gone to lie down in the exhibits room where they’d put up a camp bed. He left instructions to wake him in three hours. They were taking it in turns to grab a few hours’ kip through the nightshift. In the ETO, Ebony looked across at Jeanie. She looked very pale.

She was on the phone to her husband Noel.

‘I’m not going to make it back, love. . give her a kiss from me. . I expressed milk; it’s in the fridge.’ Jeanie closed her eyes as she listened to her partner’s silence — not hostility, just concern. But they had no choice. Noel was going to be another couple of years studying for his teaching qualifications and one of them had to pay the mortgage. Damn. . Jeanie felt the tingling in her breasts as she heard Christa cry in the background. Jeanie snapped her eyes open and put a smile on her face as she answered: ‘No, not coming back at all tonight, I’m sorry. Looks like we’ll all be working nonstop until this case ends. . love you.’

Her hand lingered on the phone as she finished her call and looked up from her thoughts to see Ebony pointing discreetly at a damp patch on Jeanie’s chest.

‘Oh shit.’ Jeanie brought her arm across to hide it. She stood and pushed her chair away. ‘I’ve had enough. I’ll be back in a couple of hours. I need to get home and feed my baby. If Davidson asks, tell him it’s milking time back at the zoo.’ She smiled at Ebony. ‘Won’t be long. I’ll see you in a couple of hours — four max. I’ll take my nap at home.’ She picked up her bag and left.

There were only four of them in the ETO now. Ebony went to talk to Robbo, sitting on his own in the Intel room. He was on the phone to Sandford, who was at Blackdown Barn.

‘Yeah. . I’ll ask her now.’ He held the phone away from his mouth and looked up at Ebony as she walked in.

‘Sandford wants to know whether you want to go back to Rose Cottage with him and Bishop?’

‘When’s he going?’

‘Tomorrow sometime. He’ll let you know. Yes or no?’

‘Yes. If I can.’

‘He wants you to get hold of the gardener anyway.’

‘Okay. I have his number.’

Robbo got back on the phone to Sandford. ‘She’ll come with you, if she can. . but she’ll contact the gardener either way and speak to you tomorrow. . By the way. . I’ve contacted several manufacturers for plastic curtains. I’ve got the samples for you. Yeah, yeah. . I’m alright here thanks. It’s nice and warm here in the office.’

Robbo hung up and checked his watch. ‘Although probably no good to call your gardener now at three-thirty in the morning. Right. .’ He clapped his hands together in front of his face and snapped his eyes open wide. ‘Coffee and then back to work. You heard from Carmichael since you went to see him on the farm?’

‘No. I have a funny feeling he’s not there.’

‘Yeah. . that was always on the cards,’ Robbo shouted over grinding coffee beans. ‘You couldn’t expect him to take it lying down. You tell him the people who killed his wife and child are back in town and you send him an open invitation to hunt for them himself. He’s got nothing left to lose. You better go back there and see if you can find out where he’s gone.’

‘If he did come looking. . how would he do it?’

‘If I was him? Either I would get to someone in this department — call in an old favour, ask me for instance — or I would dig up any contacts in the underworld I could beg, steal or borrow from and go undercover.’

‘Has he?’

‘What — asked me? No. I checked with Sandford and Bishop — none of us have had a call or any contact with him. He doesn’t need us then. He must have another way in.’

‘Would you have helped him?’

‘Probably. We all feel like we let him down. We let his wife and child down. Nobody came out of it with justice. It was in the days before we had a designated murder squad. A team would have been assembled when it happened. Davidson was in charge. It was up to him to choose his team — doesn’t mean they were the best for the job. Davidson would also have been responsible for all the clever stuff, working out logistics, analysing; all the things he doesn’t have to do now. . we have crime analysts to do it.’ Ebony took a cup of coffee from Robbo and looked around for the sugar. He gestured over to the shelf with the coffee beans. ‘What was he like when you went to see him? What is his life like out there? I haven’t seen him since it happened.’

‘He lives in the middle of the Yorkshire Dales. The nearest town is twenty miles away. He lives like a hermit really. He works really hard. I don’t know what else to tell you. I felt he was just working; it wasn’t a home. Maybe that’s the kind of man he always was. What was he like thirteen years ago?’

‘He was dedicated to his job, to his family. That was his world. He hardly ever came out with the lads. It wasn’t surprising he lost it after the murders. Someone pulled his world from under his feet. He had nothing left worth living or staying together for.’

‘Really? He fell apart?’

‘Oh yes. He had what would have been called a nervous breakdown, except no one wanted to call it that.’

‘Could he have had mental problems before the murders? He had an affair. Did that surprise you?’

‘Yes. It did. I’ll be honest — I find that completely out of character.’

‘Do you think he could have killed his wife and child, Robbo?’

‘I think he could have done it if he had already gone stark raving.’

‘Certain parts of Rose Cottage look like that’s what happened. There’s a madness out there but also a containment. You know what I mean? Yes, the women were horrifically mutilated, parts of their bodies removed, but at the same time, where is the blood? If someone ran through rampaging and killing, how come they anaesthetised them first?’

‘You cut someone open they usually die. You cut them open under anaesthetic you have a while to play.’

‘It must have been planned. The way Blackdown Barn was planned. If it’s the same man: Chichester?’

‘Has to be the same killer. The monster’s still out there.’