Cold Revenge (Willis/Carter #6)(52)
Douglas nodded. ‘It was so long ago, but it did make me sad. It wasn’t a nice way to be told.’
‘I’m sure. Never mind, you’ve come a long way, Jimmy. I hope you’re not worried about that visit from the detective from MIT 17?’
‘Not worried at all, why should I be?’
‘It’s just that I thought I recognised her name and I did some hunting around while she was in here. I have something for you, been doing a little detective work of my own and I can tell you something about Detective Sergeant Ebony Willis. She has things in her closet too. I brought you these articles to read about her and her mother.’ He hid the folder in a cookbook. ‘Her mother’s crimes make you look like a saint and you know what they say, Jimmy? Like mother like daughter.’ Kowalski hurried off.
Douglas spent the rest of the day looking at the articles about Willis and her mother. He didn’t hold a surgery for the others that day. He sent them away, closed his cell door. He had too much to think about.
He read about Bella, Willis’s mother. She would have been his match, he thought, a woman so cold, and she would have been more devious than Nicola and just as cruel. But he wouldn’t have been able to control her like he did Nicola. He thought about Nicola’s last moments. Had she relished the pain, had she shouted to Jesus to take her to him? Hallelujah! Or had she looked at her blood and wanted to drink it, wanted to watch herself die? Then he thought about Heather; was she back for revenge on him, on all of them? He stared at the spot on the wall again and practised his controlled breathing, inhaling, holding the air in his lungs, expanding his ribcage, feeling the bones stretch and the lungs fill. He practised his meditation, snatching the memory-flashes that made his pulse quicken, made him sweat, made him want to roar, and put them inside a balloon and sent it skyward.
Douglas thought about Willis. He took deep breaths and held on to them, exhaled so slowly, he felt deliriously giddy.
She must have wondered what kind of monster her mother really was. From what he had read, Ebony Willis was the only one who understood what her mother was capable of, who wasn’t fooled by her. Did that mean she was capable of truly understanding what made her tick? Strip away the skin and you find what makes the raw flesh twitch.
Chapter 28
Willis got back to Fletcher House and went to find Carter, who was calling a meeting to discuss the events of the day.
‘The protection team are spitting blood, by the way, they’re blaming us,’ said Hector. ‘They say we opened the channels to her when we started asking questions about where she was after Millie Stephens was murdered.’
‘No way,’ said Carter. ‘She’d already been moved twice because her identity was leaked.’
‘They want us to keep her identity a secret as long as we can until they can carry out an internal investigation,’ Hector said.
‘I still say both women took some finding,’ said Willis.
‘Especially Nicola Stone,’ said Carter. ‘Some kind of leak had to have happened, either within her protection team or within Cedar Court. Hector, what are her team saying now?’
‘I had a meet with one of the members of her team who said they are investigating but they say it didn’t come from them.’
‘They would, though, wouldn’t they?’ answered Carter.
‘Exactly,’ said Hector. ‘And in the next breath they are admitting they have someone under investigation who might have debt problems, online gambling problems, and might have just offered some information for sale.’
‘Ouch, nasty,’ said Carter. ‘Well, keep us informed on that, push them hard, this is a double murder case and the leak might lead us straight to the killer.’
‘I’m on it, sir.’
Willis turned a computer screen around on the desk so that everyone could see; some stood up to get a better look at the screen. She put up photos of both post-mortems.
‘The post-mortem was carried out on Nicola Stone,’ Willis announced as she handed out the sheet with a diagram of the victim and her injuries. ‘The assailant came prepared to inflict those injuries. There was no trace of the knife and it’s not the same weapon used to kill Millie Stephens. Both assailants were right-handed, Nicola Stone’s killer was five eight to five ten. We don’t know whether the same killer was responsible for both deaths, there’s not enough evidence to be sure. These murders were different in method, choice of weapon, and location, but they have motive in common: to kill someone who was involved with Jimmy Douglas, a disciple.’
Hector raised his hand to speak. ‘It doesn’t feel right to link these two murders. Why not kill Millie Stephens in her own home, just like he did Nicola? If it had been me, I would still have chosen to kill her in her own home. It could have been done relatively stress-free.’
‘Perhaps they thought her flat was too overlooked,’ said Carter. ‘Perhaps they are not familiar with the area and looked up Lee Valley Park on a search and decided that it sounded remote.’
‘We are looking at car licence plates entering the park in the previous month,’ said Hector. ‘Plus people walking on the Rivers and Weirs trail around the park. We are also looking for a match with Finsbury Park CCTV, of which there is a fair amount. I’m feeling lucky with this. I have my officers searching the Internet for any reference to these locations by individuals using the forums.’