Cold as Ice (Willis/Carter #2)(42)

‘That’s the girl who was fished out of the canal?’ asked Manson.

‘Yes.’ The atmosphere in the room changed. Carter’s eyes hardened on Manson.

‘Never heard of or seen her before.’ Manson stiffened. He began looking nervous again.

Carter watched Manson as he displayed all the attributes of someone who was lying. His breathing pattern had changed; he was sweating.

‘You better start telling me the truth, Niall, because I got witnesses that say they saw you and Danielle arguing. They heard you rowing and you turned up outside the college where she’s studying. Did you see this woman there?’

Niall sat back in his chair and stared at the wall defiantly.

‘CCTV footage will confirm it, Niall. You want to save me the time, time that could cost your Danielle’s life?’

Niall rocked on his chair and then sat forward, elbows on his knees.

‘All right. I went there. So what? I went there to see the bloke she’s seeing.’

‘What for? You said you didn’t care.’

‘She’s still mine. My property,’ Manson corrected himself. He sucked air in behind his front teeth. ‘Tsss. I wanted to frighten him a bit.’

‘Did you see her?’

‘Yeah. I saw her.’

‘And him? Who was she with?’

‘Some weedy fucker.’

‘Describe him to me.’

He shrugged.

‘Was he white, black?’

‘White, six foot, average.’

‘Colour of his hair?’

‘Brown.’

‘What did you do? Did you follow them?’

‘Yeah. I wanted to see; make sure.’

‘Did you?’

Niall shrugged. ‘I saw enough. That dead woman – Emily Styles – that’s the only time I’ve seen her. They went their separate ways at the station. I’m not saying it was definitely something going on but there could have been. You know what I mean?’

‘So you went to her flat to talk about it? Yeah, and?’

‘We rowed, sure. She told me to fuck off.’

‘Did she admit to seeing someone from the college?’

‘She didn’t deny it.’

Carter watched Manson – he was telling the truth.





Chapter 18


Jeanie watched Carter arrive and park up before she left Tracy, and went out to talk to him in private. She waved for him to stay where he was and got into the passenger seat.

‘How is she?’ he asked.

‘She’s very shaken,’ said Jeanie.

‘Did he demand a ransom?’

‘No. Do you think he will?’

‘I don’t know,’ said Carter. ‘He had months to make contact in Emily’s case but the Styles were never contacted either to ask for money for her release or to taunt them like this. And yet we know she was alive all that time.’ Jeanie looked back at the house as she thought. The lounge was lit up. She saw Tracy hugging Jackson as they walked past the lounge window.

Jeanie looked across at Carter. His face was dark. The sky outside was grey. Overhead the clouds were full of snow.

‘He phoned Tracy to tell her he had her daughter and to involve her in her daughter’s suffering. If she’s in the loop we could use it.’

‘In the loop?’ Jeanie looked at him incredulously. ‘So we feed him Tracy to heighten his pleasure?’

‘I was thinking more that we could work on her being a human side to this. A mother figure, someone he might build a rapport with.’

‘We are talking Tracy – who gave away her only child for adoption and has more make-up than Boots the chemist?’

Carter smiled. ‘You’re a miracle worker, Jeanie – think about it for me at least.’

‘Yeah. I’ll file it under “more stupid ideas from Dan”.’

They watched Tracy come to stand at the window.

‘I’m going to have to tell her everything we know now,’ Jeanie said. ‘It’s only fair she is told about Emily Styles.’

Carter was nodding, thinking. He leaned forward and studied the other houses around. The curtain in a house across the road moved in the front window.

‘Do you think he might be watching the house?’ Jeanie asked.

‘I don’t think so.’ They sat in silence for a few minutes: both deep in thought.

‘I want you to push hard interviewing this little boy – Jackson. It’s a difficult process,’ said Carter, shrugging. ‘I understand it’s not going to be easy. But we can’t underestimate the importance of that little boy’s memory and we can’t afford to lose it.’

‘I don’t know much about Down’s, to be honest, or what his limitations are.’

‘You’ll have to work it out. Research it. Do it on the job. Use your intuition.’

Jeanie shook her head. ‘I don’t feel qualified to handle it. Have you talked to Child Protection?’

‘Yes, but I think you should handle the whole thing. You’re Family Liaison and you’ve been in Child Protection. Too many people in the house might just make him more worried and freaked out. We have a woman in the morgue, and one missing, and he’s the nearest thing we have had to a witness. What has he said so far?’