Cold as Ice (Willis/Carter #2)(35)

Tracy smiled and nodded but she continued to look overwhelmed. ‘Thank you.’

‘Does he sleep in a normal bed or one with a side to it?’

‘I know he sleeps in a bed not a cot. I don’t know much about his routine, what he eats or what he likes doing really.’ She held up her hands in an it’s hopeless gesture. ‘I can bath him. That’s about it. I’m sorry.’

‘It’s no problem, Tracy. Maybe he can sleep with you tonight?’ She nodded. ‘We’ll see what tomorrow brings. Maybe then we’ll know what we’re faced with.’

‘You must think this is serious to be all here like this? Taking tests and talking about unlocking things in Jackson’s head?’ Her eyes settled on Carter as the man in charge.

‘We are concerned,’ he said. ‘I won’t lie to you. She left without locking the Chubb. She left with her phone, but not her bag. And most of all she left her little boy behind. Do you think she’s the kind to leave Jackson and go willingly like that?’

Tracy shook her head slowly. ‘No. I really don’t think so. She’s very protective of him. It’s her and Jackson against the world really. If she left him then she must have thought he was safer that way. Oh God . . .’ Her eyes went from one officer to the other.

‘When did you last speak to her, Tracy?’

‘I was here at home, it was Thursday evening.’

‘Did you speak about anything in particular?’ Carter asked. He was trying to stop Scruffy from covering his legs in dog hairs as Scruffy clearly saw Carter as a potential playmate and kept jumping up on him.

‘She called to sort of apologize, I suppose, for the other night when I babysat? She said she was ringing to ask me to come to the fête. That’s where I was supposed to see her and Jackson today.’

‘Did she seem anxious? Did she say something was bothering her?’

‘No. She seemed fine – sounded good. I could hear it in her voice. She was upbeat.’

Tracy’s phone lit up on the worktop. She looked at the caller ID.

‘It’s my husband Steve. Do you mind?’

‘Go ahead,’ said Carter and the three officers left her to talk in the kitchen. Jeanie went in to sit on the sofa next to Jackson. Carter called Ebony over to him out of Tracy’s earshot.

‘We’ll leave Jeanie to take Tracy’s statement and we’ll go back to the flat now and see what Sandford’s found. By that time we might know something about Manson and about the three men who paid Danielle’s flat a visit the other night.’

Tracy came off the phone. She hadn’t told Steve about Danielle. She was hoping she wouldn’t have to; hoping that Danielle would be back. Luckily Steve had just said he wasn’t coming home that night anyway.

‘My husband’s staying at work tonight,’ she told Carter. ‘He sometimes does when he has a lot on. He’s got a camp bed there and a telly. He won’t mind for one night and then I can concentrate on Jackson.’

Carter nodded. ‘We’ll leave you and Jeanie to settle Jackson in and Jeanie will take your statement as well.’

‘I thought I’d done that already.’

‘We need it written down if you don’t mind, Tracy.’ Carter called Jeanie outside the front door to speak with her.

‘You think this is linked to Emily Styles’ death?’

‘My gut instinct says it. She even phoned the helpline. Maybe someone didn’t want her to talk. Yeah. I think we have to assume it until we know otherwise. If she turns out to have nipped out to buy an Elastoplast after cutting herself then I’ll be pleased as punch but somehow it’s all a bit wrong. If Hawk has her, Emily was held over a period of months. That means that if it is our man, we have time to find her.’

Carter left Jeanie to go back inside and Ebony came out and closed the door behind her.

Her breath came out in a white cloud as their feet crunched across the frozen pavement. It was five p.m.

Ebony paused by the car and looked across the car roof at Carter. She could see by his face that he’d had enough of Tracy’s house. He was a doer rather than a thinker. He’d only stayed long enough to know what action should come next. There was another reason he had had enough of Tracy’s home. Ebony understood it. He pulled hard on the frozen handle, wrenched open the door. Once inside, he leant over to push Ebony’s door open from the inside.

Ebony kept silent for a few minutes, busying herself with pulling on her seat belt and getting out her notebook. Jeanie had the effect of making Carter unsettled, claustrophobic. Ebony waited for him to relax again.

Carter switched on the engine. He sat thinking whilst it warmed up and de-misted the windscreen. Ebony began writing up the last few minutes of their time in Tracy’s flat and recorded the actual time of leaving. She wrote: DI Jeanie Vincent to begin questioning the victim’s son, Jackson. Returning to Fletcher House with samples of clothing. Includes bloodstained child’s pyjamas.

When she’d finished, Carter flicked off the light switch.

‘What do you think, Ebb?’

She looked back at the house. The security light above the door was still on.

‘I think that if she doesn’t show up in the next twenty-four hours, Guv, then Tracy’s and Jackson’s lives are never going to be the same.’