Frozen Grave

Chapter 59

Harding left her car where it was as they raced back to the house.

‘Whose car is that?’

There was a green Mini Cooper parked outside Megan’s house.

Megan opened the door to see a short-haired blonde woman sitting at her kitchen table.

‘Where’s my husband?’ Dee Ellerman looked behind them, as if she expected him to walk in as well.

‘We don’t know.’ Harding came forward. ‘We think he went up onto the moors.’

Megan got some kitchen towel and held it against her cheek to stop the bleeding. ‘Where are Paula and Emily?’ she asked, looking around.

‘No one was here when I got here. The door was open,’ Dee replied.

Megan looked at Harding. ‘Perhaps they followed us? Maybe they decided to go and look for us?’ Megan stared at Dee. ‘Jo and I will go and take a look towards the moor if you stay here in case they come back. The police are on their way.’

Dee shook her head. ‘Don’t involve the police. You shouldn’t have done that.’

‘Why did you decide to come, Dee?’ asked Megan.

‘To see for myself, to face it all. But I don’t want the police involved.’

‘Stay here, Dee. We’ll get back as quickly as we can.’

Outside, the wind buffeted them as they ran up behind the back of the house to the pony’s field. Harding went one way, Megan the other as they looked for Paula and Emily. After fifteen minutes they met up again outside the house. The door was open slightly.

‘They must be back.’ Megan looked at Harding, relieved.

She pushed the door open and looked around the kitchen. She glanced back at Harding. There was no noise coming from inside the house. Megan nodded in the direction of the sitting room. Harding followed. It was empty. Beyond the lounge, the hallway and stairs up to the landing walkway and the bedrooms were completely dark. Megan turned.

‘There’s no one here. If we go back outside we stay together, okay?’

‘Yes, one hundred per cent.’

It was pitch-dark. The wind had dropped, the road was speckled with hail. The moon emerged again – ringed with silver. The granite tramline once again stood out white against the dried moorland.

‘Where would they have gone?’ Megan asked as she held on to Harding’s arm.

They walked upwards towards the Tor and dropped down over the back, past the quarry, and stopped as something moved in their path. It was Ellerman. He was crawling towards them in the moonlight.

‘Stay where you are,’ said Harding.

‘I need help. I’m hurt.’

‘Stay where you are,’ she repeated, as she motioned for Megan to wait, in case it was a trap.

He leant back against a rock and clutched his leg in pain. Something was sticking out of it.

‘Please help me.’

Harding walked forward and knelt beside him. ‘What’s the matter?’

‘I’ve been hurt.’

Harding looked at his leg. He flinched as she prodded the wound.

‘Stay still, help is on its way.’

‘I saw my wife’s car. I tried to find her. Is she okay? She tried to run me off the road.’

‘She was okay last time we saw her,’ Harding said.

They heard a voice calling from above them.

‘JJ?’

‘Run,’ said Ellerman. ‘Hide.’

‘From who?’ Harding looked around. ‘From what?’

‘Just do it – for Christ’s sake.’

Megan looked around and started running towards the quarry. Harding followed. They got down to the base and hid amongst the rocks. Harding picked up a rock in her hand.

They looked up at the sound of the gate to the quarry opening. The sound was magnified in the stillness that had followed the storm. Illuminated by the moon they saw Paula being pushed forward by Emily.

‘I know you’re in here!’ shouted Emily. The quarry rang with her voice. Megan and Harding kept quiet.

‘You saved me the job of coming for you,’ Emily shouted down at them.

Harding saw Emily standing, squaring up her aim on the clifftop, waiting for the clouds to part again, and then she took aim.

‘Put the weapon down.’

It was Carter, standing at the gate to the quarry. Harding closed her eyes and sighed gratefully.

‘You need to stop now.’

‘Where’s my wife? Did you find my wife?’ Ellerman crawled forward towards Carter. ‘I saw her car go past.’

‘I’m here.’ Dee stood ten feet away.

‘Please, Dee, help me now. Everything I did was for you.’

Emily focused on Dee and then back at Ellerman.

Paula stepped forward. ‘Dee?’ She realized who it was.

Dee didn’t move closer to Ellerman; she stayed where she was.

‘I don’t love you, JJ. I haven’t loved you for a long time.’

Emily was agitated. ‘You see? You need to start your life again, with me, JJ.’

Ellerman stifled his pain in his sleeve as he tried to move forward.

‘Dee, please.’

‘It’s over, JJ. You destroyed the only good thing we ever had between us. I’ve found someone else now.’

In the moonlight his face was drained of blood. The act of moving had shifted the arrowhead and punctured his femoral artery. He stood and staggered towards Emily.

‘Help me. I need you.’ He sank to his knees and his chin dropped to his chest.

Emily kept her bow pointed at Carter as she backed a few steps towards Ellerman. ‘Help me up. We can still get away. We just have to get to my car.’

‘Yes. I’m going to look after you. We only need one another. You’ll see.’

Emily reached an arm down to help him up. He got wearily to his feet.

‘Okay. We can make it. You ready, JJ?’

‘I’m ready.’

He gripped her tightly and drove her forward over the edge of the cliff and the quarry filled with screams. There was a cracking sound in the middle of the deepest of the three lakes at the base of the quarry. The moon shone down on Ellerman lying on the top of the frozen surface as it slowly cracked around him. His eyes were open. His skull was smashed – blood leaked warm onto the frozen surface. Emily moved once, a spasm, then she sank with him into the black water.

Smith was in the cells by the time Carter and Willis got back from Devon. Carter and Willis stood outside the interview room.

‘What’s going to happen, guv?’

‘We have all we need to convict Balik of Olivia Grantham’s murder.’

‘What about Smith’s sister, Emily?’ Willis looked at him incredulously. ‘She murdered the women.’

‘We don’t know if it was her or Ellerman setting others up to do it and transporting them in his car. We have yet to find that out. Maybe we never will.’

‘Pretty sure it was Emily: she taught Toffee to use the Internet, she had access to the PCs used to message Harding and the others.’

‘Yeah, but I understand how things went wrong for her. I can see that she was a good person, just deceived one too many times. She needed help along the way when she didn’t get it. She found it in someone like Ellerman,’ said Carter. ‘Ellerman was the root of all this.’

‘Guv?’

We convict Balik, job done. Ellerman got what he deserved.’

‘Case isn’t closed.’

‘No, case isn’t closed, but I’m satisfied with the outcome.’

‘What are we going to do with Smith?’

‘He hasn’t done anything wrong as far as I can see. He may be a twat but he hasn’t done anything we can convict him of. He’s lost his sister, that’s enough.’