Cold Revenge (Willis/Carter #6)(63)
‘Shit . . . I was going to tell you, but it didn’t seem that important. It’s just a couple of dates to the cinema and a meal, that’s all.’
‘She’s a friend of mine.’
‘I know.’
‘It’s a bit shoddy.’
‘I thought you wouldn’t care.’
‘I don’t. I probably care less now that I know you are the kind of bloke to date my friend without actually breaking up with me. Okay. Well, I have to go now, Scott. I’m interviewing Douglas again tomorrow. I have a lot on my mind.’
‘I’m sorry, Eb. I fucked up.’
‘No, you didn’t. You got it right. Zoe is great; she’s a lovely warm human being. Be nice to her, or else! Good luck with everything, Scott.’
‘Don’t say that.’
‘What?’
‘That good luck, arrivederci, fuck-off shit.’
Carter came out smiling and tucking cards into his wallet as Willis hung up. She felt unsettled by her own harsh words but she didn’t want it to show on her face.
‘What did you think of Cathy Dwyer?’ asked Carter, getting into the driver’s seat. ‘She definitely wasn’t expecting our visit, although she must have known it was likely.’
‘Just not at ten at night in a bar around the corner from her home, I guess,’ said Willis.
‘I think she’ll sleep on it and be all sugar and sweetness in the morning. Hopefully by that time we might know more about the other remains in Lambs Farm.’
‘What did you find out from the woman at the front of house?’ she asked.
‘I found out that it was Maria’s boss with Dwyer, and that she’s in business talks with him and the others at the table. Maria gave me his business card and the card from one of the others.’ Carter put the cards from the restaurant on the dashboard and took out his phone as he scanned the cards into his search. ‘What do you know about these two companies?’ He showed her the phone. ‘Accommodation Guru and La Luxe Living, two big companies.’
‘Hotels, restaurants?’ asked Willis.
Carter nodded. ‘I’m sending these over to Hector to get him to work on it by the time we see her tomorrow.’
Chapter 32
The next morning Carter’s phone made the particular jingle that meant he had received a text from Willis. He called her as he headed to shower, looking in on Archie on the way.
‘Eb? What have you got for me?’
‘We have two hits on victim ID. The first victim recovered is Simone Levin, a street worker from Blackpool who went missing in ’99. She has no connection to Douglas that we know of, his name was never in the frame for her disappearance. The second victim is a twenty-five-year-old called Anthony Poulson, known as Tony. He was last seen in May 2000 when he was wanted for assaulting his girlfriend. He had been inside for aggravated burglary, arson, and juvenile crimes. Both sets of remains have been taken to a forensic anthropologist to get more information on exactly when they died.’
At twenty to eight, Willis saw Carter parking up and went across to meet him as he left his car in the car park under Fletcher House along with the SOCO vans.
‘Did you manage to get any sleep?’ asked Carter as she approached.
‘Like a baby,’ Willis answered.
‘Liar.’ Carter walked with her to the entrance to Fletcher House, where they passed their IDs through the scanner and entered their department. Carter had called another meeting and Blackman was there this time.
‘What about next of kin for Tony Poulson?’ Carter asked her when they’d got started.
‘He has a sister in Glasgow, she said he left in May in 2000 and she didn’t see him again. He came to ask her if he could borrow some money and that was the last she saw of him. She said he was thinking of going across to stay with a friend of his in France but when she didn’t hear from him she contacted the friend and was told he’d not been seen there either. She said no one has seen him since.’
‘Did he have any connection to the area, or to Lambs Farm, did she know?’ asked Willis.
‘No. She’d never been that far south herself, and she said her brother never mentioned knowing anyone from the Watford, Chesham area. She’d never heard of Jimmy Douglas or any of the other names from the farm.’
‘What about the other graves?’ asked Hector.
‘More human remains are possible. I had hoped it would be Heather, then it would have been enough, wouldn’t it?’ said Chris, who looked tired and despondent.
‘The female, Simone Levin? What are her team saying?’ asked Carter.
‘Hers was an isolated incident,’ answered Hector. ‘No other girls had gone missing from the streets and with no body they just shelved the case. We have new forensic results from Cedar Court – a positive on two partial fingerprints that will at least help to eliminate someone and we have a hair which is not Nicola Stone’s. We’ve pretty much traced everyone from Millie’s phone that we can, but as you can imagine there are an awful lot of untraceable numbers on there. We’ve got officers working their way though the list of party-goers on July twenty-second, still hoping to find someone with a big enough grievance against any of the disciples. DC Blackman is now dealing with the follow-ups.’