Dead of Winter

Chapter 61

Carter and Ebony left the Tapps’ house and walked back across to the detective’s pool car. The smell of cold takeaway greeted her as Ebony opened the passenger door.

‘Have you finished with that?’ They’d picked up something for lunch from a drive-through on the way. A half-eaten burger was on the top of the dashboard.

‘Be my guest. .’ Carter watched her, amused. He pressed another square of nicotine gum out of the packet and substituted it for the old one.

Ebony started on the cold chips.

‘Nobody feed you at home?’ Carter shook his head in disbelief as he watched Ebony foraging for lost chips at the bottom of the bag.

‘Got to eat when you can, Sarge.’ Ebony wiped the ketchup from her hands with the napkin provided and brushed the crumbs from her trousers. ‘Tina feeds me sometimes. She likes experimenting. She likes doing Jamie’s Thirty Minute Meals but we never have all the ingredients so it ends up as Tina’s Two Minute Mash-ups.’ She made a mental note to herself to find Tina when she got back to Fletcher House. She took out her pocket notebook and pen. ‘So he didn’t sleep there last night.’ She talked and scribbled. ‘He came in at half eleven in the morning the next day. He works all the way out in Hertfordshire. There’s no way he’s just popped back. Wherever he’d been he didn’t want to talk about it. . but it’s not the first time he hasn’t come home. You can tell when a woman has given up bothering to argue back or to stand up for herself. That’s where Helen Tapp is. She’s a bullied wife who is trapped. She said he’s having an affair at the moment. . with someone special, she said.’

‘We’ll get surveillance on him. He didn’t have an answer about the third ticket. What if that was his girlfriend on the CCTV of Alex?’

They got back to Fletcher House and went up to their floor. Jeanie rolled her eyes sympathetically towards them and then towards Davidson’s office as they walked into the ETO.

‘Davidson wants to see you both.’

Davidson was fuming: pale and shaking with rage. ‘He’s complained. Michael Tapp’s complained.’

‘He’s a slippery fuck, sir. We thought it was worth a shot.’

‘What. . to intimidate one of the parents of a missing child?’

Davidson drummed the top of his pen on his desktop.

‘He’s a liar, sir,’ said Carter. ‘He’s hiding something, not least that he’s having an affair.’

‘Plus. . the other mothers from Alex’s school think he’s a creep and screws around,’ said Ebony.

‘Being a serial shagger isn’t illegal. Harassing someone for it is. You two stay away from them unless you clear it with me first. Leave it to the Family Liaison Officer. Leave it to Jeanie, for Christ’s sake.’

‘Yes, sir. .’ They turned to leave.

‘Ebony. . you went to see Carmichael — what did you find out from him? What were your impressions of the way he was?’

‘I thought he looked quite rough, sir. He looks like he has gone beyond sleeping.’

‘So he’s working undercover?’

‘Yes. And his name is Hart. He’s been identified by the surveillance team looking at Digger’s club.’

‘That team is being shut down now. The objective was to find Sonny and it’s been accomplished. What information could he give you?’

‘He knew about Justin de Lange’s past history. He says he doesn’t know where de Lange is. I made it clear to him that we have a possible DNA link to Justin that we can’t prove without finding him. I said that solving his wife and child’s murder depends on solving this case and that there is the life of a fourteen-year-old boy at stake now.’

‘How did he respond?’

‘He seemed not to want to think about that, sir. He says he will do things on his own and his own way.’

‘Then we’ll bring him in. . he can’t be allowed to run around on a vendetta.’

‘Sir,’ said Ebony, ‘he’s working undercover. He could still prove a valuable link to Digger.’

‘I agree,’ said Carter. ‘But I think we should put more men on to watch Digger and Martingale. We need to make them all nervous. Even if Martingale has nothing to do with it, he may be a target somehow. Carmichael may try and get to them. We should keep them under surveillance. Carmichael has to be contained until we find the killers and the boy, sir. We need to use him wisely but we can’t afford not to watch him. .’

Davidson pressed his hands against the edge of the desk.

‘Ebony? You’re the one closest to him. . what’s your opinion?’

‘I think Carmichael is in the middle of something and if we pull him out now we may never find Alex Tapp.’