Cold Revenge (Willis/Carter #6)(36)
The man started talking and Douglas listened to how the man was sorry, how he would make it up to her and the kids, and Douglas wrote that, and when it was time to seal it into an envelope, he enclosed a letter of his own, to be posted on by the recipient. He chose the people who trusted their wives. He knew it was all about give and take in prison. Jimmy Douglas always paid his debts, good or bad.
At the end of surgery Douglas closed his cell door to regain some of his peace and prepare for his work party. He looked at his calendar, took it off the wall and turned the months over until he hit June. He saw a photo of a glorious beach in Cornwall: turquoise seas and yellow sand, cliffs that jutted into an Atlantic swell. But then, as he looked closer, he saw a skinny girl up to her ankles in the sea and he felt a stabbing sensation in his heart. A shortness of breath. Was it Heather still haunting him?
Cathy Dwyer listened to the music; it calmed her. The candles in the room gave off an erotic ylang-ylang perfume mixed with deep spicy scents from the East. The woman’s hands were oiled and as she spread her fingers up the back of Cathy’s perfectly toned thighs, Stephen Perry was having his own massage on the next bed.
‘Does he know about Millie?’ Perry asked as his calf muscles were pummelled by a petite Thai woman with fingers like steel pins.
‘Whether he does or doesn’t, we keep things light, we talk about positive things. He has a lot to contend with.’
‘You’re excited about seeing him?’ asked Perry.
‘Of course. It’s been so long.’
‘He’s going to be some fat old git, been banged up for sixteen years.’
She looked across at Perry. ‘You never got it, did you? You never understood why we women couldn’t get enough? You’re still jealous.’
‘Hardly.’
‘You should be. It was all about the power for me.’
‘Time to leave,’ said Kowalski, although there were still many more prisoners to be seen. They would start the next day where they left off. In prison letters had to wait to be written, time stood agonisingly still and all the frustrations in the world didn’t make things any easier.
The work party was on time and had a new member in it. Prisoner 66437 dragged his arthritic legs towards the minibus and heaved himself up and into his seat. Douglas was happy to be getting out. All the groundwork over the years was coming to one point. It was nine months till June when he would be released and all his planning, all the covert letters, all the half-thought dreams, would become a reality. Today was an extra-special day because Douglas was meeting someone he’d only ever contacted via others. He was meeting the man who believed in him.
As the walled garden at Gordon Stowe’s Michelin-starred restaurant was heading towards winter the majority of the salad was being brought on in the hundred-foot polytunnel. Today they had special guests in for lunch from the catering, restaurant, nightclub and bar business and they had come at special request.
Cathy Dwyer ordered the taster menu. She and Stephen Perry were staying overnight in the hotel spa attached to the old manor house and the three-starred restaurant.
‘Can I take a tour of the herb and vegetable garden?’
The ma?tre d’ smiled. ‘Of course, madame, you and your companion are welcome. Do you know the way?’
‘I can find it, thank you.’
Chapter 22
After leaving Lambs Farm Carter and Willis arrived back at Fletcher House just before six p.m. and Carter called a meeting. He addressed his team:
‘We have confirmation from the team who were supposed to be protecting her, that the person found dead today, known as Melanie Drummond, is in fact, Nicola Stone. Another of Douglas’s disciples dead, which makes two close together, is not a coincidence we can ignore. And now there’s the grave, that could be Heather in there. Someone went to a lot of trouble to show us where it was. We’ll start the dig in the morning when it’s light; conditions are bad now, the wind is up and we could be in danger of losing evidence if we try to begin right away.’
‘Nicola Stone’s protection team are blaming us, they’re spitting blood,’ Hector said.
‘Yeah, they would say that, but Nicola was obviously getting fed up with hiding away. She planned to come out of the closet when Douglas got out. She was always putting herself at risk,’ answered Carter.
Willis turned her monitor around at the end of the table so that everyone could see and started playing the video of Cedar Court recorded by Sandford. It began at first entry into the flat and made sweeps of the hall, bathroom and kitchen before slowly panning across the sitting room and turning into the bedroom where the video ended in an overhead view looking down at Melanie Drummond lying on her side. The image froze.
‘She sustained numerous wounds,’ explained Willis. ‘Post-mortem is going to take place tomorrow.’ The rest of the office had fallen quiet as they watched the video. ‘Here is a photo of Melanie Drummond aka Nicola Stone, from her passport issued two years ago when she moved to Flat 6, Cedar Close, Homerton.’
Willis held up an enlarged photo of Nicola. ‘Aged forty-six. Nicola Stone was a churchgoer, a very private person, who opened the front door in her dressing gown. Why? She had a spyhole. Whoever they were, she trusted them enough to open her door. This attack was haphazard. We do not yet know if the assailant brought a knife with them but we believe Nicola took one out from her own kitchen. Whether she instigated the attack, we don’t know.