Cold Revenge (Willis/Carter #6)(47)

‘We think it’s possible. This can only harm Douglas’s chances of getting out in a few months’ time. He’s headed for celebrity chef status, he has backing already.’

‘Are you going to talk to him?’

‘It’s being organised. I’m sending DS Ebony Willis, do you remember her?’

‘Mixed race? Tall? Mother was a murderer?’ Davidson smiled. ‘She made sergeant then?’

‘Yes, she’s well-respected. As you point out, she has a unique perspective on life and human nature.’

‘You call that human? She’d better be more than well-respected, she’d better have nerves of steel.’

‘She has, and she isn’t afraid to face a highly intelligent killer. After all, she had one as a mother.’

‘How is her mother?’

‘Still in Rampton, she’s not going anywhere, not since she cut a woman’s baby out of her stomach. That’s Belladonna for you, the nurturing kind.’

‘One thing I will tell you is that, when we were investigating Douglas and the foot and mouth epidemic was in full swing, you could smell the smoke from the burning carcasses for miles.’

‘I remember it well. The whole country remembers it.’

‘At the time,’ said Davidson, ‘I thought to myself, perfect time to get rid of a few bodies.’





Chapter 26


‘. . . This was in the other, we knew it didn’t have a body but . . .’ Dermot lifted the lid of a plastic chest that they had dug out of one of the gravesites. ‘Although the chest is in perfect condition, that’s the joy and the curse of plastic, never degrades, does it? But the stuff inside has had it. I’m guessing these were someone’s stashes of drugs.’

Willis and Maxwell had been there all morning, whilst the graves were dug out and the soil was transported bucket by bucket down to the sifting station at the entrance to the field. One set of human remains had been found so far, but another, lower down in the field, was yet to be excavated, even though it had been positively identified by the dogs. Sandford was sticking to his plan of taking things carefully so as not to cross-contaminate.

‘So, he dug holes to put chests of drugs in and then used the hole to bury someone if needed?’ Maxwell asked.

‘Saved for a rainy day,’ agreed Dermot. ‘That’s pretty smart.’

‘Yes, maybe,’ said Willis.

‘They were dug in pretty much the same timeframe,’ said Sandford. ‘The palynologist is at work analysing samples but these graves are identical to the structure, size and shape of Rachel McKinney’s, the one at Hill Farm. You’re looking at the same technique, same tools used to dig them.’

‘Seems like when he found a field he liked, he came back to it many times,’ Willis said. The wind was getting up, the tarpaulin over the tents billowed. ‘We should scan the rest of the fields at Hill Farm.’

Maxwell was deeply engrossed in the dig.

‘How many more like this then, Chris?’ asked Sandford.

‘I’m not sure. From my list? We could easily dig up a hundred fields and get lucky with three,’ said Chris.

Sandford nodded. ‘I understand. Three would be a significant find, especially if we know once we strike lucky with one grave, there will probably be more.’

‘If this is Douglas’s work, do we know how many people we could be talking about?’ asked Dermot.

‘We know he worked for the Champion farm feed company for three and a half years altogether,’ answered Willis. ‘That certainly would have been his easiest time to kill and bury, with perfect access to burial sites like this, but he could have been killing all his adult life. We need to find someone who saw him do it and who isn’t a disciple.’

‘How likely is that?’ asked Dermot.

‘We are working through all the original statements from people who attended the parties at Hawthorn, or were working as farmhands and got invited to the bungalow,’ answered Willis. ‘A lot of them saw things they weren’t comfortable with but nothing conclusive. There were allegations of rape that came out when people were asked about things that might have gone on at the farm, specifically the bungalow, but the SIO, Davidson, concentrated all his lines of inquiry on what he believed would lead to a conviction and that wasn’t an account of a rape at a party. As short-sighted as that was by him, we’re going to have to go back and re-interview and reinvestigate those allegations.’

‘You’re putting people through a lot,’ Sandford sounded dubious, ‘to look for the missing piece of jigsaw?’

‘Yes, and more of them need to come forward to support each other. There’s a big cloak of silence over Jimmy Douglas.’

‘Why?’

‘Because he was popular amongst the adults, the farmers, the farmers’ wives,’ answered Maxwell. ‘He was every gay young lad’s crush. He knew what people wanted and he gave it to them. They didn’t want to see anything bad in him. That’s what he enjoys more than anything: controlling others, he is the puppet master.’

‘Willis, what about Douglas?’ asked Sandford. ‘You okay with taking him on? It’s a big responsibility.’

‘You saying I’m not up to the job?’ She smiled at him.