Cold Revenge (Willis/Carter #6)(59)

‘How are your boys?’

‘They’re lovely, growing up fast. James likes to be called Jay, he’s as tall as me now.’

‘That’s not hard.’

‘Yeah, right, we can’t all be long leggy giants like you.’

‘What are they into?’

‘Jay is sporty. He likes his football, basketball, anything with a ball, basically. The younger one, Billy, is the quiet, clever one; he spends too much time playing video games but still manages to come top of the class. Thankfully they both still do pretty much what I say. But then, they haven’t hit the dreaded teens yet.’

‘I bet you were a wild child?’ said Willis.

‘God, yes, and now when my boys are driving me mad my mum gives me that smug look and follows it with, “It’s payback time”. If she says it one more time I’m going to deck her. Seriously, I was a nightmare. I did everything I could to piss her off. My dad would give me anything I asked for. My mum had to rein him in all the time and I got away with murder.’ Zoe looked across for a response from Willis but she was absorbed in her phone. ‘I’ve tried the Internet.’

‘Oh, yeah?’ Willis gave a half-hearted reply whilst answering a text from work. She felt tired tonight. They’d had just a few hours’ sleep since Nicola Stone’s body had been found and the work didn’t seem to be easing off. Now, with the graves at Lambs Farm, the pressure was on and the press would have a field day once they discovered the Douglas connection.

‘It wasn’t Tinder, it was one of the other ones; you have to view it like a job. It definitely feels like hard work.’ Zoe sighed. ‘What about you, Eb? Are you seeing anyone at the moment?’

‘No. I’m too preoccupied with other things, and I’m not keen on bringing a man back to mine.’ Willis was not sure she liked what she was feeling. Her good friend and her ex who she hadn’t quite decided was an ex were dating and she wasn’t sure she was entirely okay with that.

‘Ha . . . how many times did you do that anyway?’ Blackman teased.

‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean truthfully, Eb. You told me ages ago that you never let them stay at yours.’

‘Well, that may be true. I just like my own bed, my own space. I don’t want anyone else in it.’

‘What about cuddles? Everyone likes a good cuddle.’

‘I’m not that keen. It feels claustrophobic. I don’t know.’

‘Okay, you don’t have to justify it to me – seems perfectly reasonable.’ She smiled. ‘I would consider agreeing; I mean, everyone likes to have the whole bed to themselves except . . . a sleepy morning shag is my favourite. Actually a shag any time is one of my favourite things.’

‘Too much information!’

‘Not with Tucker and me, not yet anyway. When are we going to go out again? I haven’t had a boogie for ages.’

‘The last time was your birthday, I think.’ Willis smiled, but she felt hurt even though she knew she had no right to.

‘That’s way too long, Eb. Let’s put it in the diary, get some of the others on board. Meal, club, tequila shots, the whole shebang!’

‘Do you promise not to start pole dancing again?’ Willis smiled. She knew if she asked that Zoe would drop anything she had going with Tucker, but she wasn’t going to do that.

‘Absolutely not – where there’s a pole, you know I’m going to end up wrapped around it, and I’m taking you with me this time.’

Blackman took a sip of her gin and tonic as Carter set the drinks down. ‘Jeesuz . . . thanks, this is just what the doctor ordered. You’ve had a busy day at the site, I hear?’

‘Three gravesites, two bodies,’ said Maxwell, sitting down opposite. ‘But we’ve found a plastic chest, like the ones you get from the DIY places, and it’s clear it was used to stash drugs in. We also found a plastic photo frame with the name Ash carved into it, that was in the new grave they’re digging out right now.’

‘Ash? The young lad who lived in the van with his mum?’ said Blackman.

Carter nodded. ‘We are assuming it refers to him, but we can’t see the photo any more.’

‘So, Zoe, how has it been with the Heather Phillips team? What have you learnt?’

‘It’s been really good, I think I’ve got a clear idea about the original investigation now. Shall we work through the suspects at the time?’

‘Go for it,’ said Carter, already halfway though his pint.

‘What about John Phillips, Heather’s dad?’ asked Blackman. ‘I doubt he would have done it himself but could he have hired someone else to do it?’

‘Is there any money gone out of his bank?’ asked Maxwell. ‘That would cost him a few grand at least.’

‘We need to get more evidence against him first before we start looking into his bank accounts. The press would have a field day,’ said Carter.

‘The team don’t like John Phillips,’ said Blackman. ‘He was, and still is, a bully. They say he controlled Heather so much that the only way she could get any privacy in her house was to barricade her bedroom door. They queried the marks on the inside of the door when they first went round to investigate her disappearance. It was Mrs Phillips who told them Heather sometimes barricaded herself in after she’d fallen out with her father but her mother was just as bad; we think she instigated and encouraged the abuse.’