Cold Justice (Willis/Carter #4)(92)

‘We just know they are a large Ukrainian outfit who smuggle just about anything.’

The men were dressed in dark jackets and wore peaked caps on their heads.

‘These two are brothers apparently.’

One of the brothers walked out of shot and came back with three bags. He handed them across to Marky and Jago and they placed them in the boot. There was five minutes of leaning into the boot as the goods were examined.

‘Now, where’s the exchange?’ muttered Robbo as they all held their breath and watched the screen.

‘Here we go,’ said Hector as Marky reached in the back seat of the car, pulled out a holdall and handed it over to one of the two men.

‘Freeze that, Hector,’ Robbo said as they examined it in close-up.

‘Is that Samuel in the bag? Samuel weighs twenty-four pounds. Pam, you got that ready?’

‘Yes.’ Pam went to her desk and pulled out a carrier bag with groceries in it. ‘This is exactly that, I made sure.’

Robbo took it off her and stood in front of the screen looking at the angle of Marky’s arm, the flex of his bicep. He handed it to each of the others in turn. ‘Are we agreed?’

‘One hundred per cent.’ They ran the rest of the film footage. ‘Even the way he’s passing it over,’ said Pam. ‘There’s nothing weighty in that bag, there’s certainly not a child. He’d have handed it over with a little more care.’

Hector ran the film on. One of the brothers put the bag onto the floor and opened it; he checked inside.

Deal done, Marky and Jago got back in the car.





Chapter 40


As Carter and Willis parked outside Kellis House, Robbo phoned them to give them the news about Marky and Jago. They got out of the car and rang the doorbell. Russell started barking at the sound. Lauren opened the door and looked expectantly at them both, but Willis shook her head.

‘He’s settled in, hasn’t he?’ Carter bent down to pat Russell.

‘A bit too much. He’s not going to want to go back to a balcony in Greenwich.’ Lauren walked back through to the kitchen.

‘How are you feeling now after the shock yesterday? Sorry you had to be the one to find him.’

‘I’m trying not to think about it. It still doesn’t seem real. I guess because I’m so tired it seems like some part of an ongoing nightmare. Do you know who killed him?’

‘Not yet,’ Carter said. ‘But his murder will not be a priority for us. We’re leaving our Cornish colleagues to get to grips with that. We’re concentrating on any relevance it has to Samuel. How are you managing for supplies, got enough to eat? Drink? I can pick up some food for us to eat here this evening from the hotel, if you’d like?’

‘Is it any good?’

‘I’d like to say it’s not bad, but breakfast was pretty ropy.’

‘Then I’ll stick to making pasta. Ebony is an easy person to cook for, aren’t you, Eb?’

Carter laughed. ‘That’s for sure. It’s quantity rather than quality she likes – no offence meant about your cooking, mind.’

‘None taken.’

Carter sat at the table and Willis perched by the sink.

‘Well, how do you like this house, Lauren?’ asked Carter.

‘I don’t, really.’

‘No, neither do I. It’s the first time I’ve seen it,’ said Carter. ‘It’s very dark and Gothic-looking.’

‘I guess those were his tastes,’ answered Lauren.

‘Just walking through the hall there – are there any paintings that have women with clothes on?’

‘Nope – all bare-breasted.’

‘Must have been a strange place for Toby to come when he was young. He must have spent his teenage years staring at the walls.’

Lauren smiled. ‘There was a long gap between when he came here with his mum and when he came here again after she left,’ she said. ‘Literally years. I think the décor would have been very different in the beginning, when they first bought the place.’

‘Are there any photos around from that time?’ asked Carter. ‘Be good to see what’s been done up.’

‘None that I’ve seen.’ ‘We haven’t really had a good look on the top floor yet,’ said Lauren. ‘That was obviously his master bedroom. There’s a four-poster and swathes of red velvet and chintzy materials. It spans the whole of the top floor.’

‘You’d hate it, guv – a spiders’ heaven,’ said Willis. ‘And the thing is, you can’t see them either until you’ve nearly stepped on one because the floor is dark.’

Carter shivered. ‘Spiders and snakes . . . hate them. What do you feel about this house then, will you be happy to sell it?’

‘It’s not my decision. It will be Toby’s. But I would want to get rid of it. Although I don’t want to leave Penhal. I don’t know how Toby can stand it in the flat in Greenwich. I feel so much nearer to Samuel here. I feel like there is still hope here and, when we find him, I want mine to be the arms he runs into.’ She turned away to stop herself from crying. ‘I wish Toby would see that we have a fight on our hands and put on his boxing gloves and get down here. People think he’s a coward, along with everything else.’