Dead Of Winter (Willis/Carter #1)(87)

‘Alex and Aaron? Are they best mates?’

‘Not best mates, if I’m honest. Aaron was um-ing and ah-ing whether to go with him to the Arsenal match. I wish he’d said no now. In fact I had to insist he went, he said Alex was being weird. Or he said Alex had been going through a weird patch.’

‘Weird?’

‘He’d dropped out of the squash club; he was spending a lot of his time on his own, Aaron couldn’t get hold of him, that kind of thing. He didn’t answer Aaron’s calls – moody, teenage stuff. Fourteen is a bad age for boys. I’ve got three. They start getting hormonal, throwing their weight about, flexing their muscles.’

‘What kind of a child is Alex?’

‘Sensitive. Like his mum. The dad, Michael . . . different altogether; pushy dad, one of those that screams on the sideline at matches, always wanting Alex to do better. He’s a bully to Helen. She always looks so harassed, never has time or money to enjoy life. Since my divorce my life has taken off. The kids are happier without the constant rowing; the house has a happier atmosphere. But I’m lucky – it was always my money, my house. Helen is not so lucky.’

‘So you think there are problems in the marriage?’

‘God, I feel for Helen. I hope you find Alex soon. As I said, I really wish I’d never allowed Aaron to go to the Arsenal match that day. I wouldn’t have let him if I’d known that Michael had no intention of going with them.’

‘You thought he was going to watch the game?’

‘He said he was. He’d bought a ticket.’





Chapter 58


Robbo brought up the surveillance pictures from opposite Cain’s. Ebony and Carter were looking over his shoulder.

‘Here we see Tanya getting into the car. Here . . .’ he blew up the image, ‘is a man’s arm. He’s in the centre of the taxi. He has blocked out the window with his back but, there’s more.’ Robbo pulled his chair close and glanced across at Pam proudly. She beamed back.

‘Pam and I have been looking through CCTV footage for hours.’ Robbo moved the screen on to another image. ‘This is taken from the corner of Brewer Street by the CCTV there.’

Carter leant in to get a better look.

‘What’s that?’ Carter followed Tanya’s eye line as she was talking to someone who sat across from her. Carter pointed to a light area in the frame.

‘That’s what I wanted to know. So I blew it up and here . . .’ Robbo clicked on an enlarged grainy section of the photo.

‘It’s his blond hair,’ said Ebony.

‘It’s Hakuna bloody Matata,’ said Carter. ‘Justin de Lange, got to be. Any more shots of him?’

Robbo shook his head. ‘Still looking. The taxi cab disappears.’

‘What about tracing it to the Mansfield?’ asked Ebony.

‘I tried. No sign of it.’

‘We could ring the receptionist and ask her if she was working then? She’s friendly.’

‘I’ll do it.’ Carter picked up the phone and dialled the number Robbo handed to him.

After a ten minute chat with Ivy he looked very pleased with himself as an officer came into the Major Incident room to speak to him.

‘Sergeant Carter? Chief Superintendent Davidson wants a word.’

‘Who gave you permission to interview Mr James Martingale? Not content with visiting him at his work . . . you went to his house; invaded his privacy. I’ve just had him on the phone complaining.’

Carter stood in front of Davidson’s desk.

‘Part of the revisit into the Carmichael case, sir. With respect, sir, now we have the knowledge that the victims were all harvested we need to investigate every person capable and around when Chrissie Newton was murdered and when the victims were killed at Blackdown Barn.’

‘He wasn’t here. Martingale was in Poland.’

‘We only have his word for that, sir. Both him and Justin de Lange could have been here. Martingale has a small airline company which transports medical supplies via Germany and onto the rest of Europe. He could have come here without being seen. I have a list of Martingale’s financial concerns—’

‘You asked him for details about his finances . . . his accounts?’

‘Just an overview of which companies he’s involved in, sir.’

‘Don’t waste your time in trying to unravel Martingale’s financial dealings. It would take an army of lawyers to read all that small print. Don’t get distracted, Carter. Focus on the victims.’

‘I am, sir. We’ve just looked at the footage outside Cain’s when Tanya left the night she was killed. We’re still looking but there’s a pretty good chance Justin de Lange was the man in the taxi with her.’ Davidson looked away, annoyed.

‘Doesn’t sound like you have conclusive proof to me. If you’re thinking of getting him in for questioning it has to be more than that.’

‘We’re working on it, sir. I just talked to the receptionist at the Mansfield. Doctor Harding put Tanya’s death at six a.m. By seven-thirty a.m. on that morning one of the Mansfield’s light aircraft had taken off. She says Justin de Lange booked it and he asked her to organize the transport of human organs to the plane.’