Cold as Ice (Willis/Carter #2)(32)

‘No. They turned the place upside down searching for something, I don’t know what. Didn’t find out.’

‘Were they looking for Danielle?’

‘No. Manson. Someone called Manson. Danielle said it was Niall Manson, Jackson’s dad. She said that he must have given her address. He’s a – you know . . .?’ She whispered. ‘A drug dealer . . . and that’s why she’d left him in the first place.’

‘Did she seem very worried about it?’

‘No. If I’m honest, that’s what shocked me. I thought to myself – she just thinks that’s normal. She said she’d speak to him. She didn’t seem that bothered, or maybe she wasn’t showing it. She didn’t like me knowing about that side of her life. But she phoned and apologized a few days later and asked me to come to the Christmas fête in the park today.’

‘Would you recognize the three men again, Mrs Collins?’

‘Yes I would – they were covered in tattoos and piercings. Terrible teeth. It was awful.’ Tracy shook her head. She was looking at him wide-eyed. ‘I seriously wondered whether I should see Danielle again. I thought about it, you know . . . it’s not a world I know about – drug dealers and gangs. They pushed me against the wall, frightened the life out of poor little Jackson.’

Ebony went into the kitchen with Jackson and opened up the forensics kit on the kitchen worktop. She looked around the immaculate room with its colour scheme of black and white with bold red kettle and toaster.

Jackson was watching everything Tracy did. Scruffy had come into the kitchen too and he was sniffing out the corners of the room in search of crumbs.

Carter looked at the photos on the wall of the lounge. Tracy looked young in them, she was getting married, on holiday. She was happy and smiling. There were no recent ones.

‘I think he wants water,’ Ebony called from the kitchen, looking at Scruffy. ‘He’s panting a lot. Shall I find a container from the cupboard?’

‘I’m coming,’ answered Tracy. ‘I’ll find one.’

Tracy came in and stopped as she looked at Ebony and the forensics kit being opened on her worktop.

‘I hope you don’t mind,’ said Ebony, seeing the scowl again. ‘I need to take your fingerprints and a couple of swabs from you and Jackson and then I’ll need the clothes you’re wearing please.’ Tracy shook her head although she kept the worried expression as she pulled open cupboards and began looking for a bowl for Scruffy.

‘What for?’

‘Just to check for fibres and things that might help us understand what happened in the flat. And, as you have handled Jackson, we need yours too. I’ll get someone to bring some clothes over for Jackson. Maybe you’ve got a T-shirt and jumper he can wear for now?’

‘Yes. Yes, of course.’

Tracy pulled out a stack of freezer containers, pulled one off the top and filled it. Scruffy splashed water on the tiles as he drank. She lifted the bowl and placed kitchen paper beneath it. Carter was in the other room talking to Jackson, who had wandered from the kitchen. He flicked through the TV channels and found something that seemed to settle him. Then he rang Sandford out of earshot.

‘What?’ He had his usual what the hell do you want now? tone. Sandford, head of the SOCOs, always had the sound and look of a man dying to be elsewhere and begrudging the time spent talking to Carter. ‘There were definite signs of a scuffle in the flat and a sign of forced entry at the door but it looks like it’s been cleaned up. It could have happened a few days ago.’

‘Yeah, it did. The place was broken into then. We think the father of the little boy may have been involved in that.’

‘I’ve found some documents about him, the boy’s birth certificate and child support stuff. I’ll send them over to Robbo to trace.’ Sandford continued his report. ‘There’s recent blood, last twenty-four hours. Not a massive amount, but enough to be unusual. It’s in several sites around the flat. The heaviest flow of blood, a pattern of ten heavy drips, starts in the kitchen.’

‘Any weapon? Anything that could have caused it?’

‘Not so far. The bleeding continues from the kitchen out into the bathroom and there is blood around the basin.’

‘Maybe she was trying to clean up the wound?’

‘Maybe. There is also a smear on the bathroom cabinet. It may have been a defensive wound. There is a cast-off splatter pattern by the door in the hallway, halfway down the wall. Blood came down from a height and the droplets dispersed.’

‘There is dried blood in the boy’s hair – at the top of his head, so if the blood is hers then he was definitely there when she left the house?’

‘Yes. He would have seen what happened.’

‘Thanks. We’ll photograph it and take a sample.’

Sandford hung up. Next Carter rang Robbo.

‘We’re back at the grandmother’s house. Just talked to Sandford, who confirms that it looks like she was taken by force. Mrs Collins, the grandmother, was there on Monday, when she was threatened by three white males who broke in. They are connected to Danielle Foster’s ex, Niall Manson. Find him for me, Robbo. Sandford’s found some details on the father.’

‘He sent them over to you.’

‘We got them. I’ve been looking at his file.’