Cold as Ice (Willis/Carter #2)(79)

‘Then he chose a chain that doesn’t match the rings. It doesn’t look feminine,’ Jeanie said.

‘From another victim?’ asked Carter. ‘Or from him then?’ Carter had stopped making coffee and was focused on Jeanie. ‘Something which was his?’ Robbo was nodding.

Carter looked at his watch. ‘I have to go and meet Ebony. She’s making her way to my house.’

Jeanie’s eyes stayed on Carter as he got up to put his coat on. He looked her way and waited.

‘The more we find out about Hawk, the more nervous I become about Ebony undercover,’ Jeanie said eventually, looking from Carter to Robbo.

Carter put on his coat and stood for a few seconds in the middle of the office. He gave a small nod of the head.

‘That’s why we need her to succeed more than ever.’ He looked over at Robbo.

Robbo was swinging the chain from the ends of his fingers. He had a smile on his face.

‘Maybe we have a little piece of him here. Maybe this is his first mistake.’





Chapter 35


Carter met Ebony outside his house.

‘I would have stayed longer but I think he needs a change,’ she said.

Carter shook his head with mock disapproval. ‘I showed you how to do it.’

‘Yeah, but I know how fussy you are about things. I couldn’t risk getting it wrong.’

Archie woke up and grinned sleepily at his dad.

‘Hello, little man – handsome little devil.’ He turned to Ebony. ‘Hope you got a lot of compliments.’

‘Yeah – I did. They all thought he was the spitting image of me.’

Carter shook his head in disbelief.

He turned his key in the front door and then came back for the buggy. He unstrapped Archie and handed him to Ebony to hold as he folded the buggy and in one move lifted it and took it inside the house. He stacked it in a purpose-built cupboard behind the front door. She followed him into the house, trying not to look like she was holding Archie at arm’s length even though she was – he smelt. Archie was wriggling to see his dad. Carter took him from her and went to change him. He brought him back in a new stripy suit and held him on one hip as he called Ebony into the kitchen.

‘Come and talk to me while I get him some food.’ He put Archie into his high chair whilst he began banging about in the kitchen. ‘Tell me, what did you find out?’

‘Emily Styles was known to the group I’ve enrolled in.’

‘She and Danielle Foster were both at the college – we know that,’ Carter said as he searched for Archie’s bowl in the dishwasher. ‘Robbo said that they crossed over in a couple of their subjects.’

‘It’s a friendly group,’ said Ebony as she perched on a kitchen stool and played with Archie who was getting impatient for food and banging his hand on the table of the high chair. ‘They do a fair bit of socializing. I think it will be easy to get inside it. I have a couple of numbers; the women seemed really friendly. I’ll be meeting one of them tomorrow – she’s going to help me prepare for the course, catch up.’

‘Any men on the course?’

‘There’s one I’ve met so far – another single parent, Christian Goddard. He seems to be everyone’s answer to Brad Pitt, has the pick of the women. He’s a good-looking, natural dad type. He told me to look him up on Facebook. I think he probably scores with most of the new women. Robbo’s still working on a Facebook profile for me now. I don’t want to risk getting it wrong.’

‘Yep. No problem. Robbo left some stuff here for you. Plus he wants me to take some photos of you and Archie.’ He stopped stirring Archie’s food for a moment, went into the lounge and came back with a buggy. ‘You take this buggy – it’s an older version of Archie’s. And we got you a realistic doll.’ Carter unwrapped the doll and held it in his arms as if he were burping it. ‘It’s one of those realistic feeding, pooping ones that they give to teenagers to put them off having kids.’

‘Actually that’s not bad.’ She smiled. It was a mixed-race doll with black hair. ‘As long as no one wants to talk to it.’

‘You’re just going to have the best behaved but permanently wrapped-up baby there is.’

She looked across at Carter, who had put the doll on the worktop. ‘How’s Tracy coping? What’s happening with the investigation?’

‘We confirmed that it’s Danielle’s voice in the background when Hawk called Tracy. The phone call came from a mile radius of Tracy’s house. We can’t narrow it down any further. The phone is a pay-as-you-go mobile, bought in Swindon. We’re talking to colleagues down there just in case they’ve had missing women who might fit the bill. We might get lucky. They might have a suspect for us.’

‘What’s that you’re feeding Archie?’ Ebony screwed up her face. ‘Looks like puke.’

‘Sweet potato, sweetcorn and cod. I freeze it in batches. He loves it.’

‘Yuck.’

‘Ebb – you okay with this UC work?’

‘I think so, Guv.’

‘We’ll be with you every step of the way.’ She nodded. ‘And you have good friends on The Dark Side. You know that don’t you, Ebb? We care for you.’ She looked puzzled. ‘Not just Tina. I care. You know that?’ She nodded. She wasn’t sure where that came from.