Frozen Grave

Chapter 10

In the morning, Sandy opened an eye at the sound of the cars arriving to park for the day. She recognized the sounds of individual cars. She crept out to take a look and to watch the people. None of them ever took any notice of her or her master. She watched the young woman get out of her car. She did the same thing every day. She got out and put on her coat and then she reached back in for her backpack. It smelt of food.

At ten, Carter and Willis were back in Robbo’s office with him and his staff. They had worked late into the night.

‘Did you check her PC yet, Robbo?’ Carter turned in his seat to ask.

‘We’re still doing it. It will take time.’

Carter picked up the sheets to read through Olivia Grantham’s phone records.

‘About one in five of these texts is sexually explicit,’ said Hector. ‘And they’re from different men.’

‘Did you have trouble getting into the phone?’

‘No. I managed to bypass her code easily. It looks like she gives several men the same surname: Naughties. So we have Peter Naughties, Mark Naughties, JJ Naughties. I Googled Naughties. It’s a website for swinging Londoners.’

‘I know it. Naughties is the one advertised on the Tube, isn’t it?’ asked Carter. ‘The one with the woman with heavy eye make-up saying “Shhh” and the man stripping off in the background?’

‘That’s the one,’ answered Robbo.

‘Start phoning these men – the ones she’s been texting,’ said Carter, looking at Hector. ‘No – on second thoughts, ring all of the male contacts you can find on her phone. We need to know if they met her, if they had sex with her and, if so, then we need the details. Check out where they were on Sunday evening. Tell them Olivia Grantham has been involved in an incident and we’re trying to trace her contacts. Try not to give too much away. I want to know exactly who they are, what they do for a living, any previous for anything at all. We need to build up more of a picture of Olivia’s life and we need to talk to her workmates again. Someone must know who she’d been seeing.’

‘Do we need to be discreet?’ asked Hector. ‘They could be married.’ He looked at Carter’s expression. Carter had a face that read: ‘Who cares?’

Carter shrugged. ‘Okay. We’ll be respectful… for now.’

Robbo sat forward in his chair and pulled images up on his screen.

‘You attended the post-mortem?’

Carter nodded. ‘Yes. Dr Kahn, Harding’s stand-in, performed it. Have you got the post-mortem report yet?’ he asked.

Robbo pressed the download button on the screen and Willis came round to his PC to view it.

He brought up the photos of Olivia Grantham’s body on the mortuary table, then zoomed in and scanned down the photo of the first overall view of the body. Willis sat down in front of the screen.

‘Three cracked ribs, broken humerus.’ Robbo said, bringing up the X-ray. ‘Several bite marks,’ he added as he continued to study it. ‘Kahn says here that she died from a brain injury caused by a head wound, but that there was internal bleeding and a ruptured spleen. Beaten to death, basically.’

They took a few minutes to look through the photos. Carter sat back.

‘Mob frenzy that someone paid for.’

‘Gang rape can’t have been what she was looking for or buying in to?’ said Robbo. He looked at the photo of Olivia that was on the Linkedin site. It was the profile of a family lawyer. ‘She was headed for great things in her company: ambitious and bright. All the things you’d expect.’

‘Except her sex life was lacking and she was looking to spice it up,’ said Carter.

‘You think of lawyers as cautious types,’ said Pam. Her desk was neatly divided into piles of files. She was the senior researcher in the room. She spent her time trolling through details on websites and checking facts.

Carter shook his head. ‘Not this one, Pam,’ he said as he continued looking through transcripts of the texts. ‘Her bucket list was getting longer by the minute.’

‘She had plenty of sex equipment in her flat,’ said Carter. ‘She’d already tried more than the average person.’ He looked Willis’s way. She was quieter than he liked her to be. He wished she’d spend more time speaking her thoughts.

‘Detective Willis?’

‘Yes, guv?’

‘The sex equipment in Olivia Grantham’s flat. Is she a giver or a taker?’

‘The hood with the mouthpiece was definitely a woman’s. I think she must have been submissive.’

‘Yeah… submissive but not suicidal, huh?’ said Carter, turning round to Robbo. ‘I think she must have been still learning – she was pushing the boundaries of her sexual experiences…’

‘Any good photos of her on the phone, Hector?’ asked Robbo. ‘Anything we can give Intel, to try and spot her on CCTV in the area around? She may have checked out this place before she went there on Sunday evening.’

Hector smiled, embarrassed. ‘Brings a whole new meaning to selfies. But yeah… a few headshots, normal ones. I’ll download her photo library and see who she’s with in them.’

Carter leant back in his chair to think. ‘Pam – your comment about her being a cautious type – you’re right. It had to have been someone she trusted enough. She wouldn’t have met someone in there that she didn’t know, that she hadn’t had sex with before. She was a bright woman – calculated-risk taker. How far are you on the list of phone contacts, Hector?’ Carter looked across at him.

‘I’ve phoned three so far. Haven’t been able to get hold of two others. Just about to try this one now.’

‘Okay, I’ll give it a go. Pass me over your list. I want to ring the Mr Naughties myself.’ Hector handed Carter the sheet of names. ‘Can you give me a line that can’t be traced?’ Hector nodded. Carter read off the first number on the sheet and rang from the phone on the desk. He put it on speaker. The first two numbers went to voicemail. The third call was answered.

‘Hello, is that Peter?’

‘Yes.’

‘Peter, this is the customer services department from Naughties Dating for Consenting Adults.’

‘What? Who?’

‘Naughties website. You subscribe?’

‘You shouldn’t call me.’ He hung up.

‘Okay – give him thirty minutes then we’ll try again.’ Carter rang the next number on the list.

‘Hello?’

‘Yes? JJ Ellerman speaking. Mermaid Yachts. How can I help?’ Pam and Hector stopped working.

Robbo had already started typing the name and the company into Google. Willis kept her eyes on Carter as she listened to the call. The reception wasn’t brilliant on speakerphone.

‘Hello, sir,’ Carter said. ‘Naughties Dating here – London’s favourite sexy adult encounters website. This is customer services.’

‘Pardon?’ Ellerman sounded annoyed. ‘I can’t speak now.’ Robbo gave Carter a look that said: Really? Followed by: I want no part of it. Hector grinned. ‘This is supposed to be a discreet service. You should not be ringing me.’

Carter winked at Robbo. Robbo shook his head disapprovingly. But he hid a smile as he leant over his PC, watching the seach results appear on screen.

‘Don’t worry, Mr Ellerman, your information is secure. I just need to check we’re giving the best service to you that we can. You put that you’re looking for encounters in the London area? Would you be interested in extending your search countrywide?’

‘Look, I don’t have time now. I’m busy.’ Ellerman hung up.

‘Unethical, but effective,’ said Robbo. ‘JJ Ellerman – he’s registered to an address in Richmond. He is the MD of a boat-building company that builds luxury yachts. Mermaid Yachts, as he said.’ Robbo squinted at the screen. ‘Self-made, impressive.’

‘Let’s get the full picture of him and all the others on her phone, Hector. Go back a year for me. Get all the information on her you can. What type of men does she go for? What does she look for? She must have talked it through with someone. Talk to the girlfriend she met on Saturday night. What about Facebook, Pam?’

‘She doesn’t use it much. She uses Linkedin much more but always professionally rather than socially.’

‘She’s got several dating-site aps on her phone,’ Hector said. ‘Casualsex, Sparks, Adultfun. All of them for sex rather than soulmates.’

‘Try and get into her accounts.’ Carter looked to see if Robbo would react with his civil liberties chat but he was still checking out JJ Ellerman’s profile. Carter poured out the coffee. ‘Was Olivia actually single?’ Carter asked Hector. ‘Do we know if she had a boyfriend?’

Robbo answered: ‘So far as we know, she wasn’t seeing anyone. Never been married. Bright, fast-tracked-in-her-career type. I think maybe relationships were an afterthought to her,’ he added as he printed off a résumé on JJ Ellerman. ‘Whereas, this guy, Mr John James Ellerman of Mermaid Yachts, has been married for twenty-one years. He’s really big on relationships.’