Dead Of Winter (Willis/Carter #1)(79)

‘What do you mean?’

‘She ended up dead in a house where there was a trafficked pregnant woman. She didn’t get there by accident. She was vulnerable, she was troubled.’

The care home manager was flustered and looked as though she suspected a hint of accusation in Carter’s tone. She replied curtly: ‘Shannon was a difficult child, Sergeant, who needed watching like a hawk – that’s why she was sent to a rural location. The only contact she had with the outside world was on organised outings.’

‘What kind of outings?’

‘To the zoo, the museum. We even took her to Thorpe Park as a treat paid for by our sponsors, the Chrissie Newton Foundation.’

On the drive back Ebony phoned Robbo. She had two missed calls from him.

‘I tried to reach you.’

‘Sorry . . . there’s no signal out here . . . We found out that there’s a connection to Martingale here. The Chrissie Newton Foundation sponsored trips for Shannon.’

‘I was just about to say that.’

‘Okay . . . we’ll be back in a couple of hours.’

‘Okay, but if you’re looking for something to do on the way back I have Martingale’s home address if you want to ask him about Shannon Mannings? I checked at the hospital; he’s not due in today. The receptionist Ivy says he takes Mondays off.’

‘Okay, thanks . . . text it to me and I’ll talk to Carter.’

She hung up and turned to Carter.

‘I have Martingale’s private address.’

‘Ahh?’ Carter looked interested.

‘But is it harassment, Sarge? Davidson’s keen for us to avoid upsetting Mr Martingale.’

‘Is it on the way?’

Ebony looked up the postcode on her phone.

‘I guess we could go back into London that way. It’s North London . . . Hampstead. It could be on the way.’

‘No problem then . . . it’s only polite to keep him informed. Let’s go and see what he can add to the story.’

‘Do you need me to put the sat nav from my phone on loud speaker?’

‘No I don’t . . . Christ almighty, Ebb, you are gadget girl with that thing. Can it make us a cup of tea? You know, something I would really find useful? My dad was a cabbie. He read me the Knowledge instead of nursery rhymes. I know every road in and around London.’

‘Really, Sarge?’

‘No of course not bloody really.’ He smiled. ‘Keep it to hand, Ebb. If we get lost you can ask the oracle for directions.’ Ebony sat looking at it in her hand. Carter glanced across. ‘You don’t need to hold it; I’ll let you know if we get lost.’

‘It’s not that, Sarge . . . It keeps turning on by itself.’ She looked across at Carter. He was alternating between looking at the road, at her face and then her phone.

‘What do you mean?’

‘It means someone could have put spyware on it.’

‘What would someone do that for? Hack your bank account?’

‘My bank texts me if any sum of money goes out of my account that’s more than a hundred quid. It can’t be that. Anyway, I don’t have any overdraft facility and I never have any money in the bank. It must be to do with the investigation.’

‘How does someone put spyware on your phone?’

She was still holding the phone in her hand and staring at it. ‘It would have to be loaded on manually. It can be done in a few seconds.’

‘At home then . . . who do you live with?’

‘Tina from the canteen. Two other girls, one’s a nurse, the other’s a teaching assistant. I’ve never had trouble before. It doesn’t seem likely they would start it now. Tina would need to go on a course to be able to do it and she wouldn’t bother anyway. The others? Just can’t see it.’

‘Did you take that phone up to Carmichael’s?’

‘Yes. But I never left it anywhere for a minute. I made sure of it.’

‘You sure?’

‘The only time I didn’t have it on me was when I was helping him sew up his dog after a fox tried to tear it apart.’ She looked across at Carter. ‘He wouldn’t do it then?’

‘Take the battery out and the SIM card. Use my phone; ring Robbo back now – he’ll know what to do.’

Carmichael was still reading through the latest from Micky whilst tracking Ebony when he lost the GPS signal, but he already knew that she was in the car with DS Carter and they were driving away from the children’s home where Shannon Mannings had gone missing at Easter seven months earlier.

Carmichael had known it couldn’t last for ever. He’d known that at some point he was going to be shut down. He’d already downloaded all the case files and much more. But now he knew he was on his own.





Chapter 52


Ebony was still chewing things over – she had a sinking feeling about the phone.

Carter looked across at her.

‘You can’t do anything about the phone now, Ebb. Robbo will tell us the damage when we get back. You forget about it now and concentrate on the job in hand. James Martingale.’

Carter parked a little way up the street and they walked back to a large detached house. It took a few minutes for Martingale to answer. A cat stopped to wind around Carter’s legs. Carter bent down to pet it.