Dead of Winter

Chapter 6

Carter followed Harding into Davidson’s office. Harding sat in a chair by the window, beneath the framed portrait of Davidson meeting a retired Prime Minister. Davidson turned to see Bishop walking in behind them.

‘Trevor? You didn’t make the meeting?’

‘Sorry, got delayed. But it was worth it.’ He closed the door behind him. Davidson sat down behind his desk. Bishop put two A4 printouts on Davidson’s desk next to one another. ‘Let me show you. I ran a check on a print I found last night in Blackdown Barn. See the points highlighted in yellow? It’s a perfect match to one from a cold case.’

Davidson smiled. ‘Great result, Trevor. What was the cold case?’

‘This one-’ Bishop tapped his finger on the print to Davidson’s left, ‘was found at Blackdown Barn. And this one?’ He looked up at Davidson. ‘Found next to the body of four-year-old Sophie Carmichael thirteen years ago.’

Carter was struggling with the name for a few seconds before the realization crossed his face and he turned to Trevor. ‘Sophie Carmichael? As in Inspector Callum Carmichael?’

Trevor nodded. Harding said nothing. She was watching Davidson’s reaction as he bent over the prints and his hands gripped the edge of the desk. Carter looked around at the others. His eyes rested on Harding. She was still watching Davidson. He could see that she needed no reminding about the case. But then, he knew she had been there. She’d been the pathologist then. Davidson looked up after what seemed ages. He had composed himself a little.

‘Do you have a name for me, Trevor?’

‘No, sir. But there is no doubt.’

‘There was someone in the frame for it at the time, wasn’t there, sir?’ Carter looked at Trevor and then Davidson. There seemed to be an awkward silence. Davidson didn’t answer; he looked deep in thought. The room had become charged, poised. Trevor answered.

‘Maria Newton. She was the mother of the other woman murdered in the cottage along with Carmichael’s wife Louise. Her name was Chrissie Newton. She was there with her baby son Adam who survived the attack. Maria Newton died before we could take her prints, two weeks after her daughter was murdered.’

‘Shall we allocate officers from the team to reopen the case, sir?’ Carter asked. Davidson still didn’t answer. He continued studying each photo in turn as if hoping to find a discrepancy in the match; but he couldn’t. He glanced Harding’s way. She stared back at Davidson but gave nothing away. She knew, more than anyone else in the room, what this news meant to him: not a great opportunity to clear up a cold case, especially one that he had failed to crack first time round. It meant his failings would be under scrutiny again.

‘No. Not at this present time. Not until we have something more to go on. We don’t have a name. We only have a match. We can’t spread our resources too thin. We don’t have the money to chase up a cold case at the moment. We are stretched to the limit already.’

‘Sir?’ Carter waited. Bishop wasn’t hurrying to put the prints away. Everyone was waiting. ‘This is a hell of an opportunity, sir.’

‘Maybe. . maybe.’

‘Sir?’ Carter looked confused. Harding and Bishop said nothing.

‘I will not be rushed into a decision. I need time to consider the implications of this. Before I am ready to reopen the Carmichael case I want to know what we are letting ourselves in for.’ He looked around the room. No one was moving, everyone waiting for him to say more. He sat back in his chair. ‘You forget I was the SIO then too. We took on the case because we felt we owed it to a fellow MET officer to handle the case within the MET. I thought I was taking on a fellow officer’s case and we would come out of it getting justice for him, but we didn’t. We came out of it with two women and a child brutally murdered and seemingly the only person who could have done it was him. We came out of that case with more questions than we went in with.’

Davidson stared down at the prints on his desk.

Bishop spoke; ‘It was difficult. Louise and Sophie weren’t meant to be there that evening. Carmichael was supposed to pick them up but he didn’t show. He was the first on the scene the next morning. He said he arrived at about eleven. On that Saturday evening someone went to Rose Cottage and they brutally murdered everyone in the house except for the baby, who they left sedated, perhaps they had plans for him and ran out of time.’ He shook his head. ‘This wasn’t a quick process. These women were butchered, tortured over many hours. Louise was raped.’

‘Yes,’ Davidson agreed as he looked down at the prints on his desk. ‘And the only DNA apart from a handprint, this handprint-’ he pointed to the partial palm, finger and thumb print on his right, ‘was Carmichael’s. That was everywhere in abundance. He was covered in his daughter’s blood. He said he moved her. But why would a trained police officer do such a thing?’

‘Different when it’s your family, I suppose,’ said Carter.

Davidson shook his head, a worried man. ‘The more we looked into it the worse it looked for Carmichael. Things began to be uncovered about him. It turned out he was going through a bad time. He’d been behaving strangely, out of character, before it happened. He was diagnosed with massive mood swings. He was ex-military. He had Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.’ Davidson sighed. ‘Carmichael was our chief suspect for the murders at Rose Cottage. But we didn’t have enough evidence to charge him. He was in no state to tell us what happened. So, we protected our own that day. We closed ranks. It left questions but no answers.’

‘Could he have done it?’ Carter asked.

‘Easily.’ Davidson nodded his head slowly. ‘Would have been very easy for a man trained like he was. He was in the Special Boat Service. He’d been held captive at one time.’

‘Did he ever show signs of cracking beforehand’ sir?’

Davidson looked across to Harding for an answer.

‘No,’ she said. ‘But we know a lot more about Post-Traumatic Stress now than we did then. It could have come out at any time.’

‘And,’ said Davidson, ‘the women would have trusted him. Carmichael could have walked in, killed his daughter Sophie without anyone knowing and then come back downstairs and killed the women. He could have been there all night. He had no witnesses to back up his alibi that he arrived the next morning. He could have been there all night.’

Carter shook his head. ‘What’s the motive, sir?

‘He inherited a lot of money when his wife died. Maybe that was it, or maybe he was not himself that night. Maybe he went in there with one of his military buddies, off his head with drink, drugs, PTSD. It took a madman to do what someone did at Rose Cottage and Carmichael fitted the bill.’

‘What about Chrissie Newton’s mother? What made her a suspect?’ asked Carter.

‘She had known mental problems,’ said Bishop. ‘She was on medication and was volatile. She and Chrissie had fallen out in the weeks before Chrissie’s death. The scene looked like a maniac had done it. People, the press, made assumptions that she had killed herself out of remorse for her actions and set her own house on fire.’ Davidson looked up at Harding and then around the room at the others. ‘We let that presumption ride. Maria Newton died before we could verify that it was her print next to Sophie.’

Davidson gathered the prints together and pushed them across the desk to Bishop. ‘You can go, Trevor. I’ll let you know what we’re going to do about it in due course. And Trevor? This whole conversation stays within this room, understood?’ Davidson looked at each person in the room and waited to get their individual agreement. Bishop nodded, picked up the prints and left. Harding remained. She sat watching from the sidelines. Her top leg twitching. Davidson looked at Carter. ‘I want you to find out everything you can about Carmichael now. Go and see him. He lives on a remote farm in Yorkshire. Find out what he’s been doing for the last thirteen years. He didn’t explain some things at the time. Find out why he moved his daughter at the scene. He was a trained police officer — why would he move one of the bodies? I want to know what the state of his marriage was. If he was screwing someone I want to know. . ask around. Ask Robbo in Intelligence. He worked with Carmichael. Now, after all this time, people might be willing to open up. If there is anything about Carmichael we didn’t know thirteen years ago I want it out now, do you understand, Carter?’ Davidson waited. Carter nodded.

‘I would like to send DC Willis down to Rose Cottage, sir. We need to get the whole picture.’

‘Okay, but DC Willis is to be made aware that the only leads we are looking for are ones that will help to solve the Blackdown Barn case. I repeat, I am not reopening the Carmichael case at this stage. Understood?’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘Concentrate on the bodies we have now.’

‘I’ll go with her to Rose Cottage,’ said Harding.

Davidson looked over at Harding and Carter could see his mind working.

‘Do you think that’s necessary? Our priority is here.’

‘Any help I can give might be useful at this stage. I went there the first time round. It’s surely better to have her go with someone who worked on the case last time.’

Davidson nodded but he didn’t look pleased about it.

Carter left Davidson’s office and walked back down the corridor to the second largest office on the floor, the Major Incident room. It was the room where all the initial calls came in and the information was loaded onto HOLMES, the central program which sifted and collated Major Incident data. The room had four long desks and housed eight staff in all, at the moment there were just two: Robbo and Pam the civilian employee who answered the phone and logged the calls.

Robbo had worked in nearly all the departments within the ‘Dark Side’ of MIT17.

‘Did you hear about the print Bishop found?’ Carter sat down next to him and helped himself to the bag of Haribo sweets next to Robbo’s PC.

‘Yes. It’s a turn-up for the books.’

‘Any thoughts about it?’

‘Plenty.’ He pushed the plunger on his cafetière down and indicated that Carter could grab himself a mug. Robbo looked across to Pam to ask if she wanted coffee. Pam was the woman Robbo’s wife had been convinced he’d been having an affair with at the last social. Robbo was flattered his wife thought he could still muster up some interest from the opposite sex but Pam was happily married and Robbo had never been remotely tempted to stray in his twenty-three year marriage to Arlene.

‘We’re trying to put together a whole picture of Carmichael. You served with him, didn’t you? What kind of bloke was he?’

‘Yes, I served with him. There’s a few of us here that were around then: Davidson, Harding, Bishop, Sandford and me.’

Robbo had joined the Force at the same time as Davidson. They had worked together often along the way but while Davidson had flown up the ranks, Robbo had clipped his own wings. He loved what he did and he knew he did it well but he would stay a DC because he couldn’t take the stress of being in command. He never sat the exams to take him any higher.

‘I didn’t socialize with him. He wasn’t one for going off to the pub after work. He was fanatical about the job: you got the feeling Tactical Firearms Inspector was the role he’s been made for. Plus he had a huge knowledge about Intel work. I wish I had him working in here now. He was allowed access to stuff in the SBS, spyware that we can only dream of. There was nothing Carmichael couldn’t hack into.’

‘I’ve been asked to look into the Carmichael case by Davidson.’ Robbo stopped pouring out the coffee and looked at Carter with an inquisitive expression. ‘Discreetly,’ clarified Carter. ‘So I need you to dig it all up for me; all the stuff they didn’t want to talk about at the time; all the things they really don’t want dug up now.’

‘That discreet, huh?’

‘Yeah. . If they didn’t want me to they shouldn’t have given me the job. The first thing I want to do is look into who else was in the frame for it.’

‘There was Chrissie Newton’s mother Maria, who died in a fire.’

‘I need the report into that.’

Robbo wheeled his chair across to his PC. ‘Okay, I’ll get it for you now. I remember it at the time. She died two weeks after her daughter was murdered. I remember people trying to interview her about it. She was barking. She had collected ten years’ worth of newspapers in her house, piled up in the rooms. The place went up like a matchbox. Okay. . here it is. .’ He printed off the report. ‘Inconclusive, basically.’

Carter took the sheet from him and skim-read it. ‘Not obviously arson as in petrol through the letterbox. It was blamed on faulty electrics. She had antiquated wiring in her house. It wouldn’t have taken much. The whole house was gutted and most of it fell down. It made for an impossible job forensically.’

‘Chrissie Newton’s father, James Martingale, was he in the frame?’

‘No. He wasn’t here; he was working in one of his hospitals abroad.’

‘Is he still working as a surgeon?’

‘Very much so. He operates on the rich and famous. He’s become a big name in these last thirteen years. He’s the brains behind that chain of private hospitals — the Mansfield Clinics. They’re big money, with hospitals all over Europe and South Africa. They specialize mainly in cosmetic procedures.’

‘There must be stuff to dig up on him.’

‘I’ll give it a go but I know he’s Mr Charity. He gives away a massive chunk of the hospitals’ profit mainly to children’s charities. He set up a charity in his daughter’s name after she was killed: the Chrissie Newton Foundation. At the time he put up a million-pound reward for information leading to the arrest of the murderers. Still didn’t get us anything — in fact it slowed things down as we had half of our officers out on wild goose chases as so many of the calls that came in were false.’ He shook his head sadly. ‘I remember the whole thing was a mess; nothing went right. Forensic exhibits were not stored properly. We didn’t have a drying cupboard for the blood-stained clothing then. Louise Carmichael’s was hung up next to her husband’s and Christine Newton’s clothes to dry — bound to be cross-contamination. There were no leads that didn’t keep doubling back to Carmichael. In the end it was damage limitation rather than justice. Maria Newton was killed in the fire and the press pointed the finger at her and we just let it stay pointed. Carmichael went to live like a hermit — he doesn’t keep in contact with anyone so far as I know — and the case just gradually faded away and slipped down the list of things to deal with. Tell you what, Carter. It feels good to see it back at the top of the agenda.’

‘It’s not there yet. Davidson won’t reopen the case until he has a reason to. He says if we solve Blackdown Barn, we’ll go a long way to solving the Carmichael case.’

Carter went to find Ebony.

‘We need to talk. Let’s grab a coffee.’

The canteen was busy. Ebony’s housemate, Tina, worked behind the counter. She was on the cooked food section today. Her eyes lit up when she saw Carter, and Ebony groaned inwardly when she spotted Tina had fresh lippy on. Christ, she thought, she’s been waiting for him. .

Carter winked at Tina and she giggled.

Ebony put her tray forward. ‘All-day breakfast please, Teen.’ Tina loaded up Ebony’s plate. She hovered with a spoon dripping beans over Ebony’s tray.

‘More beans, Ebb?’ she said in a sickly sweet voice, her eyes on Carter.

‘No, thanks. . me and the tray have got enough.’

Carter counted out his change for his coffee and cake and Tina placed it neatly on his tray.

They went to sit on the far side of the canteen. Carter shook his head in disbelief as he watched Ebony tuck into the plate of food.

‘Christ, where do you put it all? You must have hollow legs.’

Ebony reached over for more ketchup while Carter took out the Carmichael file he’d got from Robbo.

‘We have a lead on this case but it’s not the easiest. Have you heard of Callum Carmichael?’

She froze, mid-mouthful. ‘The policeman whose wife and child were murdered in a holiday cottage?’

‘That’s the one. Trevor Bishop found a print in the master bedroom at Blackdown Barn that matches one at Rose Cottage where the Carmichael murders happened.’

‘I only vaguely remember the case; I was a teenager at the time. I was surprised to see it still on the board when I started here.’

‘It will stay on the board until it’s solved.’

‘I looked it up after I saw it there. The press coverage was mixed. There was talk of there being a cover-up. There was very little to go on.’

‘The handprint was it. That was the sum total of evidence. I’ve been talking to Robbo. He was serving at the time. He says it was a mess-up. Just now, in his office, Davidson glossed over certain facts but it’s well known that there was cross-contamination of forensic samples: some DNA samples were lost, others corrupted. They didn’t have the dedicated equipment we have now. Things weren’t as slick.’

‘What’s going to happen now, Sarge?’

‘For whatever reason, Davidson’s not prepared to reopen the case at the moment. He wants us to do some groundwork first. He’s asked me to find out everything I can about Carmichael. He wants an update on Carmichael’s life. He wants to know what he’s been doing for thirteen years and he wants to know if there’s any dirt that people didn’t feel they should dish up at the time but will now.’ Ebony stopped eating, her eyes widened. ‘Yeah. . I know,’ said Carter. He pushed the file across to her. She began looking at the handwritten notes of the first officer to respond to Carmichael’s call:

17 May 1998

Arrived at Rose Cottage 11.35 a.m., responding to call from Inspector Callum Carmichael. Inspector Carmichael is present at scene. He appears to be in a confused state and is saying very little. He is showing signs of having handled the bodies. He has blood on his clothing. Three bodies: two women and a female child. There is a male infant alive upstairs, who appears to be sedated.

The first body is that of Christine Newton. She has been cut open down the length of her torso.

Ebony looked at the photos: Chrissie Newton’s naked body was on the floor in the lounge. She was lying on her back, her arms loose at her sides. Her head turned to one side. The whole of her torso was opened up like a butchered pig.

Carter reached over and closed the file as someone walked past their table.

‘Read it later. Davidson wants us to go to Yorkshire and talk to Carmichael. We’ll catch a train up there tomorrow and get a car left for us at the station. He lives in the middle of the Yorkshire Dales; it will take us too long to drive the whole way. In the meantime talk to everyone you can about him.’

‘Did Davidson say how he thinks Carmichael could have carried it out, Sarge?’

‘It was a toss-up between money he stood to gain and PTSD. Carmichael had served in the SBS. He had seen action in Iraq. He had been part of Special Forces. Davidson says he was diagnosed with mood swings. He said he could have gone into military mode and gone berserk.’

‘PTSD isn’t a bad mood.’

‘Exactly — it’s a mental disorder where people can kill and not remember. Or they choose to see it another way. This is all according to Davidson and Harding, who was the pathologist at that time. Basically, this is the last thing Davidson wants six months away from retirement. He wants us to go and see Carmichael, talk to him, tell him just enough to see if he has anything useful for us and ask him if he wants to add anything to his original statement; he must have thought things over in all these years. But the main thing is, Davidson wants him contained. If he plays nice we’ll keep him informed; throw him the odd stick to retrieve and pat his head when he does. Go with Harding this morning to Rose Cottage where the Carmichael murders happened. Ask her to fill you in on the background. She did the autopsies that day. According to Robbo she was over-friendly with Davidson at one time.’ Carter smiled. ‘It’s going to kill Davidson if he has to reopen the case. Bet he never thought he’d see this resurface. But you know what they say, Ebb. Shit sticks and bodies float.’

Davidson went to the bathroom next to his office and looked at his reflection in the mirror. Today he had on a deep blue shirt and a darker blue jacket. Grey trousers with a permanent crease. His wife Barbara bought his clothes, but he never thanked her for doing it. Their marriage had lost any ember of excitement. He had long since stopped trying to make her feel treasured or even wanted. Divorce was out of the question. He’d be damned if he’d hand over half of everything. Not at this stage in his life. Barbara could carry on enjoying her benefits as she’d always done. She’d always been happy to take a back seat. He’d worked hard to court business acquaintances outside the Force. Davidson promised himself a life again when he retired. He had a few interesting offers: big corporations that wanted him on their board. He would be travelling a lot, he would be flying first class, staying in top hotels, Barbara wouldn’t want to come. If things had worked out well in the Carmichael case then Davidson wouldn’t have had to work at all after the Police Force. He’d be Commissioner by now and retire on a massive pension. As it was, if things went badly again he would be lucky to get a job delivering groceries after he retired. The thought made him sweat. He splashed cold water onto his face then stood looking at himself in the mirror. Small beads of water still dripped from his sallow skin. Okay. . he’d made mistakes. Just six months until he could retire, for Christ’s sake. But why now did he have to find himself back in the nightmare with Callum Carmichael?

Harding came into the bathroom. She came to stand next to him. The fact they had once slept together gave them a familiarity with each other.

‘Barbara still buying your shirts?’

He turned away, pulled down a paper towel and wiped his face, small precise dabs then went back into his office; she followed. He felt a flash of anger. Once more she had overstepped the mark. Once more he felt the urge to see her naked.

‘Aren’t you supposed to be on your way to Rose Cottage this morning?’ He sat down behind his desk.

‘Yes. The owners are sending over a key. Apparently the place has hardly been touched in all these years.’

He stared at her. She knew he wasn’t really listening to her. He was white with rage. She didn’t flinch.

‘You can’t ignore it, John. You can’t stick your head in the sand. .’

‘Thank you for your support in the meeting this morning.’ He was petulant.

They listened to the sound of doors banging: people in the corridor outside his office. The Murder Squad in full work frenzy. It was what they lived for. It was what they did. But Davidson had had enough. He was six months from retiring and every part of his body and soul wanted out now, wanted a new life; he deserved it.

‘It’s no shame to admit the procedures let us down at the time. Everything’s in the open these days,’ Harding said as she sat down across from him. Davidson pursed his lips, leant forward, elbows, forearms on the desk, and pressed his fingertips together. He didn’t answer. He looked at her coldly. She glared back. ‘We did our best with what we had at the time.’ Davidson sighed, annoyed, exasperated; Harding stayed cool: ‘Reopen the Carmichael case, John.’

He flashed her a defiant look. ‘No.’

She persevered. ‘These are different times; transparency is the new gospel of the day.’

‘No. . not transparency, people just want to know every sordid fact, even if they don’t understand it. They won’t care about technical reasons why we didn’t get a conviction in this case. Why should they? The buck will stop with me. . I have everything to lose now. I made the mistake last time of thinking I would come out of it with a bright future ahead. I thought I would take on the case and reap the glory — after all, Carmichael was a war hero and a well respected officer. Carmichael wasn’t even capable of an alibi. It didn’t take long into the investigation for me to realize I had backed the wrong bloody horse.’