Cold Revenge (Willis/Carter #6)(40)

‘You staying near here?’ asked Carter.

‘King’s Cross; it’s okay for now. We’ll see how long this case goes on for, how much help I can be.’

‘I hope a lot.’

‘Yes, of course. It’s a mainly scientific process. As long as I get all the information I can do my job and make a difference. If you give me all the information you have on it, I can make a start.’

‘Get in, I need to talk to you, I’ll give you a lift.’

‘That’s okay, I can walk.’

‘No, I need to talk to you, get in. King’s Cross?’

‘Thanks, by the station will be great. I need to go to the supermarket inside.’ He got in the car.

‘Are you living on your own? No girlfriend? Wife?’

‘No . . .’ Maxwell’s voice trailed off, he sat looking out of the window as they waited at the end of the road for people to cross.

‘What brought you over to the UK originally?’ Carter never veered from the forthright approach.

‘Well, you know, one of those decisions you make after a break-up.’

‘Okay, I get it. It’s the best cure – hit the road. Just don’t drink and dial, that’s my advice, too easy to do these days. The first time you get your heart well and truly mashed is the worst. You will get over it but you’ll never forget. I’m still in love with all my exes.’ Chris looked across and chuckled. ‘Yeah, really,’ Carter grinned, ‘I miss all of them, in some way.’

‘Are you married now?’

‘Not married but I’ve been with my partner Cabrina for about eight years. We have a son, Archie. We’ve just moved out to Barnet for the schools. I’m finding it difficult to get back in time to see him in the evenings now. It’s always a trade-off, I suppose. Ah well, we’ll see how it goes, it’s always hard to settle at first, isn’t it? How long were you with your lass?’

‘Three years.’

‘That’s tough.’ Carter glanced over and nodded sympathetically. ‘Do you have family over here?’

‘No, unfortunately I don’t.’

‘But you were brought up here, weren’t you?’

‘I came to school here, yes.’

‘What school was that?’

‘It’s closed down now, it was a small private one in Norfolk.’

‘You don’t have an accent from there.’

‘No? Well that’s a shame.’

Carter laughed. ‘Do you think you’ll like working in MIT 17?’

‘So far so good.’ Maxwell smiled. ‘I am updating the information relating to all those individuals who were questioned as part of the investigation at the time of Douglas’s arrest: their addresses, old and new, where they work, where their kids go to school, where they go to the gym. I am going to plot sets of diagrams and see if we get a crossover, old suspects and new. I also thought, if you don’t mind, until I am given sufficient information to help more with the Nicola Stone murder, I’d work on possible search sights for Heather’s body. I’ve used data they had in 2001 and I’ve contacted all the farms that Douglas used to deliver to; the company still exists that he worked for. I’ve been on the phone to farmers but I’m not getting a lot of help. I’ve asked each farmer to talk me through each one of his fields that can be accessed fairly easily from the road, within a mile of the road, as we know that the rape victim Rachel McKinney was walked across a field to a pre-dug gravesite. What about McKinney?’

‘She’s come a long way to find peace with herself. She’s still very fragile. She is a single parent now and you get the sense she’s doing okay but it’s not easy. She still has all the scars from Douglas. I find it unbelievable that he wasn’t convicted of attempted murder. But he had the touch of genius to win over a jury that didn’t understand what they were hearing. They didn’t believe the facts and, because she was barely able to speak during the trial, there was no other side to the story and no evidence that he caused those injuries to her body. He said they had sex in the van, full stop. I’ve been thinking about what you said earlier on – take a few days to go around looking at the farms of interest, speak to the farmers and see them first hand. Come with us in the morning and look at Lambs Farm and liaise with Mr Sandford, our crime scene manager.’

‘Okay.’

‘What were the other cases you worked on?’ asked Carter.

‘One was a serial killer in France, a delivery driver. It was a tough case, he murdered hitchhikers, and we had a hard job tracking him down, but we managed it.’

‘What about his victims?’ Carter asked.

‘He confessed to two but we found four more. It was always the same with him, he chose sites he knew, always within an hour’s drive. They were similar places, same remote areas or near reservoirs. It is a major thing, deciding where to bury a body. A lot is at stake and the killer will be making mental notes everywhere he goes; he’ll be storing up co-ordinates, making checklists. It’s never a random choice, even if he thinks it is. And when he thinks it is, especially then, he will give himself away.’

‘Wow, impressive, clever stuff.’ Carter smiled.

Willis opened her front door and heard the sound of the television coupled with Tina’s laughter. It took a moment for her to realise Tina was talking to someone and not just laughing at something on the TV.