Cold Justice (Willis/Carter #4)(91)

‘Send us everything you have on this story, Robbo. I wouldn’t put anything past those two.’

‘Okay, will do. Who’s your number-one suspect for Samuel’s abduction at this point?’ asked Robbo.

‘It’s got to be Kensa Cooper,’ said Willis with a glance towards Carter, who nodded his agreement.

‘Have you brought her in for questioning?’ Robbo asked.

Carter answered, he was instantly irritated.

‘If we hound Kensa she will freak and we’ll never find him, and if we take her into custody, and she is Samuel’s carer, he will die. Simple as.’

‘That’s a big dilemma, isn’t it?’

‘Yes, Robbo,’ answered Carter. There was a pause as both sides of the telephone line understood that what was said next had to be said.

‘The public, and Bowie, are getting impatient, Dan, they want him found. They don’t want all these other things to distract you. There’ve been murmurings of possible disciplinary action over your handling of this Stokes murder. Raymonds has friends in high places.’

‘Yeah, we have a pretty good idea how he got those. His cousin, the pimp, made sure it was party central for VIPs down here.’

‘Bowie has been told to warn you off any investigation into the goings on in Kellis House.’

‘Even though it may have a direct link to Samuel’s abduction?’

‘Yes.’

Carter took a deep breath. He knew what would be happening there in MIT 17. Bowie would be going ballistic on a daily basis. Carter was not filing his reports on time; thank God Willis was getting hers in. The pressure on Bowie to answer questions he didn’t have a clue about would be unbearable and the rest of the team would be getting it in the neck.

‘No problem, Robbo. He remains my number-one priority. I’ll make sure DS Pascoe has all the help he needs with the Stokes murder and I’ll stay well clear of any historical stuff at Kellis House.’

Robbo signed off. Carter looked across at Willis. He smirked.

‘We have ruffled some influential feathers, Eb. But it’s all right. Don’t look so worried.’

‘What do you want to do?’

‘I want Sandford into Kellis House and I want it taken apart. We don’t know what kind of search was done before we got here. We don’t know whose orders Pascoe and the team are following. The only people we can rely on are ourselves, right?’

Willis didn’t answer. She was staring out into space as she ran things through in her head. Carter was used to waiting. She nodded.

‘I think we should bring Towan in for our first interview.’

‘Yes,’ answered Carter. ‘We’ll leave Raymonds to stew a little. I don’t want him to think he’s first in the queue for anything.





Chapter 39


Robbo finished the call to Carter and looked across at Pam, who was peering intently at her monitor. Her face was lit with the reflection from the screen; as it changed and she typed, her eyes read from left to right and it was reflected in her glasses.

‘I’ve contacted his last employer, the recruitment agency in Marylebone. It seems he was a rising star for a while but then partied too hard. There was mention of a drug dependency and he used up his three warnings. The manager I talked to said it was a sad outcome. They had him earmarked for a share in the company but he messed up. He ended up being a bad influence on the newer members in his team.’

‘So, do we have the connections in place in Gordano services?’ He looked across at Hector. ‘All set?’

Hector was watching his screen intently.

‘Just waiting for confirmation from the contact. They’re getting nervous. They don’t want to blow their own investigation: it’s been going for nearly a year. They don’t want any information leaked.’

‘Understandable. Tell them, these two will be taken out of the frame – they’re just a couple of amateurs.’ Pam stopped typing.

Hector continued his online conversation and then sat waiting, tapping his pencil tip on a notebook. Watching the screen.

‘Yes! And thank you kindly, sir.’ Hector tapped his reply as he talked. ‘We can watch the transaction on here. It’s about to start.’

Robbo and Pam dashed across to watch the footage.

‘This is shot from a haulage lorry,’ said Hector.

The filming started as the lorry was coming into the Gordano services and heading for the signs towards the lorry park. The date and time was running in the corner of the screen.

3/2/2014 time 21:31





‘Look, there’s Marky’s car. They must have moved from one car park to the other.’

From the camera angle they could make out the back end of Marky’s car tucked in between two lorries. There was a break as the film jumped; the lorry came to a standstill.

‘Here we go,’ said Robbo as they watched first Marky then Jago get out of the car and be approached by a man dressed in a cleaner’s uniform from the services. When he spoke his voice had been wiped so that they couldn’t hear the names being used.

‘He must be the undercover officer they have working at the station,’ said Robbo. Two men got out of their lorry and joined them. The undercover officer shook their hands.

‘Do we know anything about who these men are?’ asked Pam.