Cold as Ice (Willis/Carter #2)(41)

‘You hear that noise, Tracy?’ He breathed down the phone. Beneath the knocking Tracy could hear another noise: it was the sound of scraping. He started laughing and then Tracy heard muffled sounds of someone screaming. ‘That’s the sound of your daughter trying to get out of her coffin.’

The line went dead.

Tracy stared at the phone in her hand and looked at Jackson. He was looking up at her with Scruffy behind him. All three of them were frozen. Tracy looked back at the phone; her hand was shaking so much that she thought she was about to drop it but it was stuck to her hand like tar. It was burning in her hand. She gasped, clasping her hand over her mouth to try and halt the scream that was about to escape. The image of Danielle buried alive made her want to vomit. She turned and ran for the bathroom and clung to the cold porcelain of the toilet seat as she retched. Jackson came to stand in the bathroom. She washed her face and rinsed her mouth and stooped to see if Jackson was okay. When the doorbell rang Tracy squealed in fright. Jackson started crying.

‘Sorry. Sorry. It’s okay, Jackson. Nanny’s sorry.’

She went to look out of her lounge window and saw Jeanie’s white Renault. Tracy rushed towards the door with a sense of relief, picking up Jackson on the way. She opened the door to Jeanie, who took one look at Tracy’s face – white as a sheet.

‘What is it?’

Tracy shook her head as if to say she couldn’t tell her in front of Jackson. Jackson was watching her. Tracy stepped back to allow Jeanie in.

‘Come on, Jackson, show me how you can build a house out of your bricks. Jeanie led the way across the lounge with the box of toys she’d brought over from her house, borrowed from Christa. She ushered Tracy into the kitchen.

‘What is it?’

Tracy held the phone up and looked at it as if it were alive.

‘Someone rang me.’

‘Who?’

She stood there shaking her head, looking like she was still trying to work out what happened. She looked at Jeanie, panic in her eyes.

‘He knew my name. He says he has Danielle. I could hear her . . .’

‘What did he say to you? Try and remember the exact words.

‘At first I couldn’t understand what the person was saying. It was muffled, didn’t sound right.’

‘So it was a man?’

‘It sounded like a man. He had a really deep voice but it was slowed down, distorted like one of those kids’ toys that makes voices sound strange.’

‘What did he say?’

‘He asked if I could hear a noise.’ Tracy’s face paled again. She had started to shake. Her eyes lost their focus. Jeanie was beginning to think she’d have to get ready to catch her if she fainted. ‘It was a knocking sound.’ Tracy took some deep breaths. ‘He said it was the sound of Danielle trying to get out of her coffin.’

She turned away and clutched the edge of the kitchen sink and her face crumpled.

‘It’s all right, Tracy. You’re doing okay. Tell me, did you hear Danielle’s voice?’

Tracy began to slowly move her head, nodding as her eyes focused on some horror that was locked in her mind. She turned to Jeanie. ‘I heard someone scratching, someone screaming. I don’t know if it was her.’

Ebony looked around as the door to the interview room opened and Robbo called her outside into the hallway. She closed the door behind her.

‘What is it?’

‘Just got a call from Jeanie: It’s Hawk, he’s made contact. It seems he’s got Danielle Foster.’

‘Guv – a word?’

Ebony called Carter out of the interview.

‘Tracy Collins has had a phone call from Hawk. He told her he has her daughter. She heard the sound of someone knocking on wood.’

Carter turned to Zoe. ‘Have you got an office we can use? We need to talk.’

‘Sir – the interview room across the corridor is free?’

Robbo sat; Willis stood and Carter paced.

‘The only way Manson could be involved is if he’s Hawk’s accomplice. I don’t see it, do you?’

Ebony answered with a shake of the head. ‘He’s not the sharpest knife in the rack, Guv. Plus – you know what he cares about in life? His wallet. He’s still got a habit by the look of him and he sells drugs to feed it. No way is he into something this big without a payoff of some kind.’

Robbo crossed his arms around himself and his foot tapped. He was uncomfortable with the closed door but was too preoccupied to give into it.

‘You’re right – if he was going into the kidnap business it would be for a big ransom. Could Hawk have manipulated him somehow?

‘How?’ asked Carter. He stopped and looked at Robbo.

‘He could have used Manson to draw Danielle Foster out. We need to ask him about Emily Styles.’

‘The lawyer won’t like it,’ said Ebony.

‘No, but we may not get another chance to ask him,’ Carter replied as he stood to open the door. Robbo wiped the sweat from his face.

Willis and Carter went back into the interview room and Carter sat and leaned across closer to Niall.

‘Do you know a friend of Danielle’s called Emily Styles?’ Carter showed him her photo.

‘My client chooses not to answer that.’ Manson looked across at his lawyer. ‘My client has come in here to help with the disappearance of Danielle Foster, not to answer questions in a murder case.’