Cold Revenge (Willis/Carter #6)(90)

‘How?’

‘By saying you co-operated.’

‘No. DC Willis, you are an abomination of a woman. You will have nothing but sadness in your life because you deserve nothing more. You have crossed me. You’d better keep looking behind you now because I will be there.’





Chapter 45


When Willis got back to Fletcher House she went straight over to talk to Maxwell and Tucker.

‘You were right, Chris, he knows where Yvonne is, I’m sure. How well are you doing with the search?’

‘We need to narrow it down. We can’t possibly check every field on every farm, it will take us a month. Yvonne Coombes won’t have a month.’

‘Eb, can we go and talk to Rachel McKinney?’ asked Tucker.

‘If we ring her, she will say no,’ said Willis. She looked across at Carter who was checking something on Hector’s desk.

He nodded. ‘Chris, you and Willis go.’

Maxwell shook his head. ‘I’m better off staying here, Tucker knows what we need to know and so does Ebony. I trust them to go.’

‘Is your mum in?’

A young girl had answered the door of Rachel McKinney’s flat in Lewisham. It was the ground floor of a converted Victorian terrace.

The girl turned and shouted into the hallway, ‘Mummy, someone at the door!’

‘Rachel McKinney?’ Willis showed her badge to the woman as she approached. ‘This is my colleague, DC Tucker.’

‘Yes, hello, what is it you want?’

Rachel McKinney had hair streaked with purple and grey, and piercings in her nose and eyebrow. Her look was of one who had been an addict once, her face mottled and her skin dull, but her eyes were bright and light brown. She was petite, no more than five foot. She wore black leggings and a sloppy jumper, and the Indian bracelets around her wrists jangled as she walked. The scars from Douglas were still evident on her face and arms and what was visible of her chest. There were straight lines, square angles, missing rectangles of skin and flesh. She’d had plastic surgery in the few years after it happened but nothing could completely heal where he had partially skinned her, removing areas of flesh. Fingers on her right hand were missing; they had been burned so badly that the surgeons had fused two together to enable her to hold a pen. She had stated that she did not remember the attack. She remembered getting in the van and she remembered the walk to the gravesite.

‘We wanted to talk to you about what’s been on the news recently. You must have seen it?’

They followed her into the lounge where she ushered her daughter into another room.

‘Get out of your uniform now, Vivi, and you can play on the iPad until I say it’s time to stop, okay?’

The daughter nodded with all the enthusiasm and angelic compliance of a girl who was so happy she was about to burst.

Rachel showed Carter and Willis into the kitchen, a large space, big enough for a table.

‘What is it you want to see me about? I’ve been following the media about the case. I saw your press conference.’

‘A woman has been kidnapped and we believe she might be being held at a place Jimmy Douglas will have once known. Please, Rachel, have you thought any more about trying to remember where he held you?’

‘I’ve thought of nothing else, but it doesn’t mean I can help you.’

‘Rachel, can we just take ten minutes of your time and ask you a few questions?’ Tucker asked.

She looked at Tucker. ‘Do I know you?’

‘I was around the last time, working on the Heather Phillips case, but I was a lot younger then. I remember talking to you. Your scars have healed well.’

She nodded and stared at him until her memory slotted him into place. ‘I do remember you, it’s funny how at really awful times you remember people’s kindness. You were kind to me, I felt you understood what I was going through.’

‘You’ve done really well for yourself, you’re a great role model for Vivi. Did you ever manage to finish your law degree?’ asked Tucker.

‘God, no, that seems like a different life back then. I suppose I am still dealing with some aspects of the law; I’m working for the rape crisis charity locally.’

‘It’s a great charity,’ said Willis.

‘Unfortunately the need seems to be growing,’ McKinney answered.

‘How are things for you now?’ asked Tucker.

‘Things are good, thanks. I still need a bit of help now and again when I get low.’

‘Rachel, it’s great to see you doing so well, and we appreciate you seeing us today,’ said Tucker. ‘We’ve come to talk to you about what happened to you in 2000. You’ve heard about the deaths of Nicola Stone and Millie Stephens, and about the graves at Lambs Farm, on the TV earlier today.’

‘That’s right, yeah. I don’t know what I felt really. Violence of any kind, against anyone, is wrong. I kept thinking how frightened they must have been. Nicola Stone was vilified. I mean, the public never forgave her but really, what she did wasn’t the worst thing.’

‘She doesn’t deserve your sympathy,’ said Willis. ‘She was with Douglas at the time you were abducted, she knew all about it. She was involved.’

Rachel hesitated and frowned. ‘How do you know that?’