Dead of Winter

Chapter 38

Sandford was waiting for them at Sonny’s flat. Ebony stood in the hallway outside the kitchen door. Sandford wasn’t letting them go any further.

‘Okay. . we understand. . we’ll check in with you again later. . but what are your first impressions? Anything interesting? Documents, clothes, PC?’

Sandford shook his head. ‘Someone’s been through the place before we got here. We’ve been through the drawers — nothing. Whoever went through Sonny’s flat wasn’t looking to burgle it. They left some very expensive music kit behind: a Bose sound system, antiques. They would have ransacked the place. They didn’t. The person didn’t break in, no sign of forced entry: they had keys or someone let them in. We might find prints but I doubt it. I tell you what I did find is this.’ He held up a bag with the contents of a U-bend. ‘This is from the bathroom. The hair is an identical length and shade to the hair I found at Blackdown Barn; my guess, same woman. There was also hair in the bed, same woman. There are two toothbrushes here. We should get DNA from those. I’ll let you know as soon as I hear back.’

‘We’ll take a trip back to Blackdown Barn in the next couple of days,’ said Carter. ‘How’s it going out there?’

‘Slow. The cellar floor is proving a massive task. There are previous building works beneath it. We haven’t even started on the garden yet. Cadaver dogs are due in tomorrow.’

They left Sandford to it.

Carter steered Ebony towards a café.

The café was gaudy at the best of times but now at Christmas it had been overloaded with tasteless decorations and fake snow that clung to the window and looked suspiciously real. They collected their cutlery and sat down.

‘We’ll keep on leaning on Digger.’ Carter ordered the same as Ebony: a Full English, which was served all day even though it was past lunch time. He didn’t even bother to ask them to grill the bacon. He waited for her to pass the salt. ‘Sonny’s death will shake him up a bit and now we have the link directly to him and Sonny,’ he said as he buttered his toast. ‘It’s bound to make him nervous. If Sonny sold him Silvia then Digger must have sold her on to Chichester. We’ll tell him about Sonny now. Maybe he’s got himself involved in something he won’t like.’ Carter stopped and peered past the window decorations at the darkening day outside.

‘Christ, I hope it isn’t snowing again.’

‘It’s fake.’

‘Thank fuck for that.’ He stopped and looked across at Ebony. ‘What’s the matter, Ebb? You can usually talk and eat.’

‘Carmichael. . I can’t get hold of him; I’ve been trying, every hour.’

‘What’s on your mind?’

‘Carmichael. If he’s involved, it’s murder.’

‘Not technically.’

Digger was eating lunch at his usual table in Cain’s when they got there: eel pie and mash. He ate it with a white cloth napkin and ornate silver cutlery.

He looked up and groaned when he saw them walking towards him.

‘Not again, surely?’

Carter showed Digger a close-up of Sonny on the autopsy table. ‘Fished out of the Thames along with his car,’ said Carter. ‘Twenty-four hours in the water, the bottom feeders have been busy.’

‘Good-looking chap, whoever he is.’ Digger shook his head as he mopped up the gravy with French bread. ‘Such a pity, a waste.’

‘The car, you mean?’ Carter grinned. ‘Yeah, tragic. A red Ferrari deserves better.’ Carter looked around, swivelled on his heels. ‘You sleep here, Digger?’

‘When I’m working, yes. I have an apartment upstairs. It’s not palatial. . why?’ The look on Digger’s face said he knew what was coming.

‘You have a flat anywhere else?’

‘I have a few properties in London. Why?’

‘You let people like Sonny stay in them?’ Carter tapped the photo.

‘That’s Sonny?’ He leant in to get a better look at the photo. ‘Sorry. . apologies, Sergeant. I know Sonny. . Oh goodness, what a shame. Digger picked up the photo of Sonny’s bloated, damaged face. ‘Any idea who did that to him?’

‘Probably that eel you’re eating. The flat?’

‘Occasionally I allow others to use one of my properties; it’s good for business. I rented a flat to Sonny just a short walk from here. He’s been renting it now for a few months.’

‘Anyone else stay at that flat, Digger? Anyone been there recently as well as Sonny? Anyone else got a key?’ Digger shook his head. ‘Then that leaves you well and truly in the frame, doesn’t it, Digger? Someone had a key and let themselves in and then promptly removed anything interesting. We’ve been left with Sonny’s clothes and a toothbrush or two. Someone went to some trouble to clean up in there. Any ideas?’

‘Sorry, Officer. . no. Sonny paid me whether he stayed in it or not. He paid his rent on time and that is all I asked. I have no idea who stayed there with him.’

Carter sat down opposite Digger. Digger pushed his plate to one side. Ray came to take it away.

‘Let’s talk it through, Digger. Let me level with you. I wanted to talk to Sonny because I thought he could tell me about a case we’re working on. A woman and her baby have been murdered at a house on the outskirts of Totteridge.’

Digger looked suitably surprised. ‘Not the ones in the news?’

‘Yeah. . those.’

‘You think Sonny had something to do with it?’

‘The baby was Sonny’s. Now we all know Sonny did a side-line in rape as well as trafficking. We also know that you and he were good friends, business partners. He was in here almost every night.’

‘Please, Sergeant, don’t waste your breath. I know nothing about any pregnant woman. All my women are happy to be here and working in my clubs.’

‘The murdered woman could have been one of your girls. She could have worked here.’

‘Or in any other place,’ Digger said calmly.

‘They cut her open, took out the baby and left both of them to die. . nice people. You might be next on their list. . first Sonny then you maybe? You better start talking, Digger, before it’s too late. Tell me about a man named Chichester. . he bought the dead woman either from you or from Sonny a year ago.’

‘No comment.’

‘What’s the future for you without Sonny to supply you with girls?’ Digger shook his head, went to plead his innocence again. Carter held up a hand to stop him. ‘Now. . just say you wanted more girls. Just suppose you were still in that sordid world? Who you gonna call now Sonny’s gone? Anyone come forward to offer you any deals? Deals that, of course, you refused?’

Digger didn’t answer straight away. He dabbed his mouth with his cloth napkin.

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’

Carter smiled to himself as he turned on his heels and walked out of Cain’s. The pavement slush was turning into an ice rink as the temperatures began to plummet and it re-froze. Inside the car he turned on the ignition and waited for the windscreen to clear, gave up and wiped away the condensation with his sleeve.

He turned to wink at Ebony.

‘No harm in giving Carmichael a little help if he’s managed to set himself up as the new Sonny, need to make it look realistic’ Carter took his phone out and read an incoming text. ‘We need to head over to the Mansfield hospital. Justin de Lange has got the file I asked for on Martingale’s financial interests.’

Ebony was still preoccupied with her thoughts. ‘But Sarge, Carmichael said to me he knew Sonny was small fry; he may have just got rid of him to be able to take his place.’

‘Yes, maybe Ebb, but this is all supposition and we don’t need it right now. If we can keep up with Carmichael he may save us a lot of work. He was right, we don’t have a UC agent. We need him.’

‘We don’t need him to be murdering the suspects.’

‘Not technically murder,’ he said, pulling slowly away into the gritted part of the street. ‘It’s probably endangering life.’

‘He punched someone in the head and then left them to drown.’ Ebony looked about to keep arguing the point.

‘Either way, Ebb, it’s over, done. We’ll hear from him soon enough. I’m looking forward to meeting Justin de Lange,’ he said, changing the subject.