Cold as Ice (Willis/Carter #2)(57)

‘Don’t worry. He’ll be looked after by the police vet.’

‘Thank you. They said he should be able to come home in a week or two.’

‘As long as he’s going to be all right in the end, that’s the main thing. Jackson will be happy to have him back.’

Once they’d arrived at the house, Jeanie made tea for Jackson. Tracy was restless.

‘I want to go and see Steve now and tell him that I need him to come home. Is that okay?’

‘Can you drive like that?’

Tracy pulled a big mitten glove over her injured hand. ‘Should be fine. It’s an automatic.’ She hesitated. ‘But – I don’t have to go if you think I should stay here, if it would be better for Jackson.’

‘No – you go.’

After Tracy had left, Jeanie gave a now wide-awake Jackson a snack and decided to have another session with him. She was aware of the ticking clock for memory recall with a child his age. She also needed to ease his mind about what had happened with Scruffy. She cleared Jackson’s plate and moved him in to sit at the lounge table. She took the puppet of Scruffy out of the bag.

‘Who’s this, Jackson?’

Jackson looked at it – his mouth turned down and quivered: ‘Poor Scruffy.’

‘Yes – this is Scruffy and Scruffy had an accident today, didn’t he?’ Jackson nodded. ‘But do you know what, Jackson? He is such a strong little dog that Scruffy is doing very well and should be back here very soon.’ She counted seven with him on his fingers. ‘Then we’ll have to look after him, won’t we?’

Jackson nodded. Jeanie wiped his eyes and nose.

‘Okay, Jackson you don’t need to worry now. And who’s this?’ She pulled out the next puppet, the small blond boy.

‘Jackson.’

‘Good boy. Yes, it’s Jackson and Scruffy. Here . . .’ She put the two together on the table and put her hand back into the bag. ‘See Jackson and Scruffy are playing together?’ He wasn’t listening. ‘Jackson . . . listen to me a minute . . .’ He was distracted. His face had crumpled and big tears welled up in his eyes. He tried to get down from the chair and accidentally knocked the bag of puppets out of Jeanie’s hand and onto the floor. The puppet with the Daddy Pig face fell out.

‘Listen, Jackson. Who’s this?’ She picked up the Daddy Pig puppet.

Jackson immediately screwed up his face in anger and shouted at the Daddy Pig puppet: ‘NO!’

‘What is it, Jackson?’

‘Poor Scruffy. What’s Scruffy barking at?’

‘Is that what Nanny said?’

He nodded, big moves of his head. ‘Scruffy doesn’t like that man.’

‘Which man is that?’

‘The man next to Scruffy in the park. Scruffy barking.’

‘Who was that man?’

‘Mummy said, “Get out. Get out.” Nanny said, “What’s Scruffy barking at?” Leave Scruffy alone. I banged my head.’ Jackson touched the bump on his forehead.

‘Is that why you tried to get off Nanny’s lap? Because you saw the man hurting Scruffy?’ Jackson nodded. He was becoming upset.

‘Do you know the man who hurt Scruffy, Jackson?’

Jackson nodded. ‘Daddy Pig. No, no, NO!’

‘Was it the same man who hurt Mummy?’

He nodded, kept nodding; his eyes looking far away as they filled with tears.





Chapter 26


Robbo stood next to Carter, ready to speak at the meeting in the Enquiry Team Office. The place was packed. It was the largest of the offices and always used when a meeting of the entire team was necessary. With the discovery of a new victim even Chief Inspector Bowie was present. Behind Robbo the photos of Emily Styles and Danielle Foster were pinned to one of the many boards around the walls. He pinned a new photo next to them.

‘I’ve just got the results of the X-rays from Doctor Harding – taken while she’s waiting for the body to thaw. The victim had a history of traceable injuries from when she was hit by a car as a child and we have a match with dental records. It’s definitely this woman. Pauline Murphy.’ It was a photo of a dark-haired woman in her twenties taken at a winter wedding. ‘She went missing a year ago in December 2012.’

A murmur went around the office as the team took in the timescale being talked about. Ebony was sitting at her desk opposite Jeanie. Everyone had been called in to the meeting. Jeanie had a lot she wanted to say.

‘Pauline disappeared without trace after a night out with friends. It was believed that she had started to make her way home alone when she was abducted. She was last seen leaving a bar on Upper Street at one in the morning. Like the others, Pauline was a single parent. She had a child of three who has since moved to France with the father.

‘Pauline was described by those who knew her as a loyal friend; she was a sweet-natured woman who had struggled academically because she was dyslexic. She was attending an evening class once a week studying IT.’

Carter turned and looked at the map on the board behind him. ‘He dumps a body in the middle of one of London’s best-known open spaces. The Heath covers over seven hundred acres.’ It was colour-coded for the areas. ‘She was found here.’ There was a red sticker placed over where they found her body.