Cold Revenge (Willis/Carter #6)(38)

‘Yes, agreed,’ Maxwell said, ‘but the killer brought us to Lambs Farm to make that link, past to present.’

‘Well, I hope that we kill several birds with one stone, and that, in trying to show us a link to Douglas, the killer is really showing us a link to himself,’ Carter replied.

Willis nodded. ‘I’ve been reading all I can on him, and looking at the case files from back then, and it seems Douglas was hardly ever alone; he took someone with him on a lot of his trips to farms in the week. He got lonely, they all say that, there was always someone going with him. It means interviewing everyone again, from last time round.’

‘This killer could be a glory hunter who has taken it upon himself to act as a vigilante against Douglas and his disciples,’ Hector said.

‘If he was a glory hunter, I think he would have come out and told the world by now,’ countered Willis. ‘I think this was personal between him and the disciples, that’s what it feels like to me.’

‘His disciples must be a little nervous now, they may feel it’s worth opening up to us, if their lives are at risk,’ said Maxwell.

‘Yes, exactly,’ replied Carter. ‘They may decide prison is a better option than being carved up like a Christmas turkey.’

‘As long as they don’t end up in a prison where Douglas is the chef?’ Maxwell smiled.





Chapter 23


After the meeting, Carter went in to see his boss, Superintendent Bowie, who was in charge of all the four MIT teams at Fletcher House. His main role was to liaise with those higher up and the press. They knew one another well. Bowie wasn’t much liked by the people who served under him. He was the opposite of Carter, who was a man’s man to the core. Bowie was work-shy and seemed to sneak his way through life. He had had numerous affairs during his career but always seemed to come out of them unscathed, whereas the women he dated had had their careers halted or been forced to resign. But Carter had time for Bowie – he respected him and he understood him in many ways. Behind the watery blue eyes and the limp blond hair, the ill-fitting suits and the unpolished shoes was a man who had helped crack the biggest paedophile ring Britain had ever known and he did it undercover.

‘You’ve been busy,’ said Bowie.

Carter closed the door behind him. ‘Yeah, you have no idea.’

‘Two disciples dead. Looks like someone is on a vendetta. Can they be linked for certain?’ asked Bowie.

‘No. It’s not the same weapon used. The only thing that links the murders is the histories of the victims.’

‘The angle of the wounds, the method is comparable on both victims?’

‘Not conclusive. We can’t be sure this is the same killer, we have too little to go on. On paper, these are completely different. The first involved a vicious hammer attack on Millie Stephens, followed up by stabbings in her neck, whereas Nicola may have attacked her killer first. We have a blood sample, but it doesn’t match anything else we have on record.’

‘What is the progress on Millie Stephens?’ asked Bowie.

‘I’ll find out exactly how we’re doing in a minute, I’m about to head to a meeting. It wasn’t sexual or robbery as her bank card was there. There haven’t been any similar attacks on the streets. We have to think this is a personal attack on Millie and not on her lifestyle.’

‘Drugs? Pimps?’

‘We don’t think so. We think it likely the killer must have gone to the park to talk with Millie, probably because Queens Drive where she lives is heavily policed, and there are a lot of kerb-crawlers, so someone might have seen. No way is she going to go into a park with someone she doesn’t know for thirty quid, that takes her away from the street for an hour longer than needed. She knew this person and similarly Nicola Stone opened the front door to someone she knew or trusted. We haven’t found anyone who links them both, in their daily lives. This has to be about the fact they were both disciples.’

‘And you have found some human remains?’

‘The killer led us there, to Lambs Farm. We start the exhuming tomorrow first thing.’

‘We have to assume security was breached for someone to have found Nicola.’

‘What are her protection team saying?’

‘They’re not taking the blame. It was probably a mistake made by the victim herself; she confided in the wrong person, we think, but it’s early days.’

‘Nicola Stone, Millie Stephens, both were always suspected of knowing more about Heather’s disappearance than they admitted to. I spoke to the head of Stones’ team ten minutes ago, they are carrying out their own internal inquiry into what happened. He’s filled me in on the basics of where she’s been since she came out of prison. She’s lived in three places. Margate, Bristol and then here in north London.’

‘Why was she moved every time? Was she found out?’ asked Bowie.

‘She was, in two of the places. She’s pretty recognisable. She should have had some work done on her face; people have long memories. But she lived on benefits, she didn’t exactly live the high life.’

‘There will be no prints on record from her,’ said Bowie, ‘no DNA, and any prison records would have been removed from the database as part of her new secret identity. That should delay the press finding out,’ he added. ‘Once that happens there will be no stopping it, the floodgates will open and we will have to deal with enormous pressure over the failed Heather Phillips case. If this is a vendetta against anyone around Douglas we’d better get hold of the other disciples we think might be at risk.’