Dead Of Winter (Willis/Carter #1)(86)

‘I’m here.’ Carmichael stepped up in front of him and punched him in the throat. As he doubled up onto the dance floor Carmichael calmly walked around him and hogtied his hands and feet. He picked him up and hooked his feet onto the chain hanging from the ceiling. He hoisted him upside down high above the dance floor.

‘You fucking maniac . . .’ Justin rasped as he spun in the darkness, the lights dancing over him. ‘What the fuck are you doing?’

‘I’m seeking answers. I want to see how good your memory is. I want to see if you remember me.’

‘I don’t know you!’ Justin screamed as the chain dropped six feet. ‘Never heard of you.’

‘Oh, I forgot to tell you the rules.’ Carmichael tied off the rope and then sat down on the edge of the dance floor in darkness as Justin hung upside down. Carmichael picked up his rifle and aimed at Justin. The bullet grazed his arm as it passed.

‘Fucking maniac . . .’

‘Possibly. I’m going to ask you questions. How you answer me will dictate how close I get to killing you. Let’s start. You killed the woman from Digger’s club. You butchered her and sold her organs. You alone?’

‘Yes. So what? What do you want from me? I’m a businessman. I set out to make money. If this is all about money, I will make you a deal. Fucking cut me down now and I’ll pay up.’

‘Wrong answer.’

Carmichael fired again and nicked Justin on the other arm; Justin swung screaming in the air.

Justin’s voice went high. ‘So what . . .? She was sold to me for that purpose. What do you care about her? Why does it matter how she died? I did it on my own, for profit. Okay?’

‘The bodies at Blackdown Barn.’ Carmichael could hear him listening, trying to think of what he was going to be asked next.

‘What about them?’

‘Who is Chichester?’

‘Just a name.’

‘Is it yours?’

‘No.’

‘How many people did you kill there?’

‘I don’t know.’ Justin twisted on the rope.

Carmichael waited for him to calm down. Then he fired at him again. This time it just touched his thigh.

‘Shit . . . stop fucking with me. The pregnant woman and the girl from the home. That’s the truth.’ He swung in the darkness. The soft patter of the first drop of blood landed on the dance floor. ‘Let me see you.’

‘In time. You forgot the baby. You killed the infant.’

‘What? Yes. Okay. She was pregnant. What do you want from me?’ Justin bellowed through the empty club. The chain creaked with his weight as he swung in the darkness. ‘I don’t even know you.’

‘Maybe you do.’

Justin hung still. He listened.

‘How?’

‘Someone from Blackdown Barn knows me. Maybe that’s Chichester and maybe that’s you. Someone who was in Blackdown Barn knows me from thirteen years ago.’

‘You’re mixing me up with someone else.’

‘No. I don’t think so. You have a sideline going where you carve up people and sell them as spare parts. That’s what you came here for now, to buy a girl and harvest her.’

‘Yes. Okay. So what?’

‘My wife was Louise Carmichael. She was killed along with my four-year-old daughter Sophie.’

‘You’re the policeman?’

‘I was. Now I’m the man who will decide whether you live or die.’





Chapter 57


It was nearly six when Ebony knocked on the door. It was opened by a woman.

‘Mrs Smyth?’

‘Yes?’

Aaron’s mum Julia Tompson-Smyth was talking on the phone. Ebony had heard her laughter in the hallway as she approached the front door.

She held the phone away from her ear and looked at Ebony.

‘Yes?’

Ebony showed her warrant card.

‘A word?’

‘I’ll have to call you back,’ she said into the mouthpiece. Julia was an elegant-looking woman, expensive clothes, ex-model type: still immaculately turned out and pencil thin. She was about to go out: lipstick, cloud of perfume. She walked quickly away from the door and turned to talk to Ebony over her shoulder. The house immediately opened into a family room, with a full view onto lit up, manicured back gardens that looked like no child had ever played in them. ‘How can I help?’ She stood hand on hip, her keys resting on a work surface, her bag beside them.

‘It’s about the Alex Tapp case. Can I ask you if you’ve ever seen this woman?’

Julia Smyth took the picture from Ebony and studied it.

‘No, sorry. God . . . poor family. Aaron still hasn’t got over it. It’s been four weeks now and still you haven’t found him. He must be dead by now, lying in some frozen ditch somewhere. At first I thought that must be him the other day when they found that woman . . . be better if it was really. It’s the not knowing, isn’t it? A nightmare!’

‘We are still hoping to find Alex alive.’

‘Of course. Of course, well you have to say that, don’t you?’

‘Actually we have new leads and I wanted to clarify a couple of things with you.’

‘Absolutely. Whatever I am doing can wait. I’m only going to meet my friends for drinks anyway. Please ask away.’