Dead Of Winter (Willis/Carter #1)(102)

Robbo phoned Ebony back. ‘Here’s the sequence. It’s one used for the emergency services.’

‘Okay.’ Ebony tapped in the code and the lock released. ‘Thanks, Robbo. I’ll be in touch. I’ll ring you and tell you what I find. Where’s Carter?’

‘He’s gone to arrest Martingale.’

She texted Jeanie . . . I’m in.

Jeanie replied: Found the ambulance.





Chapter 71


Martingale’s fingers played piano on the mouse pad, humming away to Nessun Dorma. He felt the beads of sweat gather at his brow and begin the descent down the side of his face. He could still see her in his mind. The bittersweet pain of love remembered from summer days and summer nights brought a smile to his lips and a sting to his eyes, brought him pleasure in the pain; but only for a few seconds; his eyes snapped open. He wiped them irritably. Nobody understood what he was trying to do. Nobody ever would, but it was him that history would remember, not the small insignificant people. Nicola was the only other human being he had ever loved. She had become part of him, like his right arm, like his beating heart. All those years he watched her grow, only to find that she had a fault in her. A fault that he had given her. It was unbearable . . . but luckily for Nicola he could even mend that. He could make everything right for her. He gave her life. He made her into his angel.

He stood and went to the window. He had seen the car parked down the street. As if he wouldn’t know he was being watched! As he shielded his eyes from the low sun he saw another car pass and park and he recognised it as another detective’s pool car. The number plate not fixed, the colour blue, an insignificant little car. He saw it pull in front of the surveillance car.





Chapter 72


Ebony stood looking down the corridor, listening to the hum of the pipes overhead. There was a sickly heat in the corridor from the pipes that ran overhead and served the hospital central heating system. She walked on to the next room: a treatment room. Shelves packed with dressings and tubes, syringes in packs. Ebony looked at the floor; it was the same linoleum as in the room upstairs in Blackdown Barn.

The last door at the end of the corridor opened up into someone’s world. This was a place where someone lived and slept, dreamed of being somewhere else, thought Ebony. She stepped into a world with posters on the world of faraway places – Greek Islands and Asian cities. A small kitchen area and microwave was in the far right corner. There was a bed at the other end of the room, a bathroom off to the right. There was a woman’s pair of pink fluffy slippers at the end of the bed. There were photos of puppies and kittens and, on top of the television in the corner, there was a framed photograph of a man; Ebony recognized that it was Martingale in his youth and in his arms was Nikki. Her face was almost the same as it was now. Ebony walked across to the bed and knelt to smell the pillow. It was stuffed with lavender flowers. Next to the bed was an orchid.





Chapter 73


Martingale turned back from the window and looked at the clock. He took a deep breath and switched up the volume on the music. He closed his eyes and listened to the girl’s beautiful voice that filled his senses. This was ultimate perfection. Martingale looked at the clock again . . . he texted Nikki.

I can’t go with you, I’m sorry, my darling. Go straight to the plane. Run, my darling. I will be with you. Always. Run . . .

He took a few deep breaths; he was calm now; his heart was racing but all around him he had gained a clarity; his life in high definition, 3D. The orchids filled his senses with memories of perfection.

He walked out through the kitchen and trailed his fingertips along the flowers that hung down from the ceiling or grew up from the floor. They bent a little to his touch and then sprang back, resilient . . . survivors . . . Martingale reached into the cupboard where he stored his gardening tools and took out the fuel he used to start up the bonfires. He took the bottle and the box of matches back to the living room and poured a third of the contents over the armchair before sitting in it and pouring the rest over his head, then he switched the music up as loud as it would go and he lit the match.





Chapter 74


Nikki didn’t check her phone; it was on silent. She parked up in the hospital car park and stopped briefly at reception.

‘All ready for the operation at one, Mrs Morell?’ Ivy jumped at the sound of her voice. Ivy nodded. ‘Everything alright?’ She nodded again. She opened her mouth to say: ‘There are police officers here with a search warrant and they’re probably in your office right now’ but nothing came out and then it was too late because Nicola had passed her and was gone. Something told Ivy she’d done the right thing.

In the basement below them, Ebony left the room and doubled back along the corridor; she opened the first door on her left and heard the sound of a ventilator. She saw a young lad amidst a sea of tubes and machines that flickered and beeped. She crept nearer to look at his face. It was hard to tell whether it was Alex: his face was so bloated. She looked around the room and saw the Arsenal shirt on a chair. She backed out of the room and sent a text: Have found Alex.

Nikki walked down the corridor to the service lift at the end. She checked her phone on the way and saw a message from her father:

. . . run, my darling, run . . .