Frozen Grave (Willis/Carter #3)(12)

‘He asked me to look after it.’

‘You didn’t ask him where it came from? You didn’t look at it?’

‘No, I was busy this morning. I was still working when you came in, if you remember. I hadn’t had time to look at it.’

‘So Toffee gave it to you this morning; what time?’

‘At eight. I found him outside when I opened up.’

‘What did he look like?’

‘He had a few cuts on his face. He looked agitated, upset. He looked a mess, but then he often does. I tried to make him come in but he wouldn’t.’

‘We asked you if anything strange had occurred and you didn’t think to mention this?’

‘Because it isn’t strange for here. Fights are common. Injuries happen every day when people live in these circumstances.’

‘Where do you think he will have gone?’

‘I don’t know exactly. He hangs about with another man, Spike. He’s not here either. I think if you try the parks, bus stations – just about anywhere there’s shelter and they can sit and drink. They never go far.’

‘Do you have a photo of him?’

Simon shook his head. ‘Sorry. He’s about five nine, very thin. His hair is grey, curly. He wears a brown jacket with a lighter-coloured collar.’

‘And Spike?’

‘He’s shorter, bald; with a spider’s-web tattoo on his neck; he’s an ex-con. He’s more vocal. He gets drunk faster. We’ve had to throw him out of here for fighting.’

Sandy woke instantly from a deep sleep when she heard someone approach. She had learnt to stay absolutely still, next to her master, and to strike at the last minute if the threat came too near him. She would not step away too far from the man she had to protect.

As the man got within a few feet, she leapt out and wagged her tail and pushed her big head inside the man’s hand to lick his palm.

‘All right, girl. Stay quiet now.’

Mason groaned. ‘Toffee?’ He was having difficulty opening his eyes – they had swollen up as he dozed. Toffee sat down on the blue coat and he examined Mason’s face. Mason brought up his hand to cover it.

‘You’re in a state, lad.’

‘I’m okay.’

The pair sat for a few moments in silence as they listened to the train thunder past overhead. People were getting in their cars in the car park. Doors slammed, laughter hung shrill in the air.

Toffee turned to watch Sandy as she went across to the next archway, to look for food amongst the rubbish.

‘Why did you go back?’

Mason shrugged and propped himself up. His head tilted back on the side of the stone. He squinted at Toffee, shook his head. Then he closed his eyes again.

‘That face will get infected. You need to clean it, stitch it up. We can’t take you to A&E – they’ll be watching. I’ll go and find you something to do it with and get you a drink too – help to ease the pain. I’ll be back. Stay here. Here’s some money, in case you need it.’

He rolled two twenty-pound notes tightly before pushing them into the lining of Mason’s coat.

‘I don’t want it.’ He shook his head.

‘Take it. You earned it, lad.’





Chapter 6


After they watched Simon walk back into the hostel, Carter started the car. He called Robbo again.

‘We’re bringing in Olivia Grantham’s phone but I need a team of officers to go in to Hannover Estate within the next hour. I want to hit it quickly and a message sent out to signal we mean business. If we leave it too long, gang members will have had time to intimidate any possible witnesses and time to cement stories. Make sure the gangs know we’re not going anywhere. I need a team of ten officers, in pairs. Have armed police on standby. We need to find Mahmet Balik—’

‘Guv?’ Willis interrupted. ‘I want to go in as part of the team.’

Carter nodded. ‘Robbo – correction, we’ll give this phone to a patrol car to bring in to you and we’ll coordinate the search of Hannover Estate ourselves. Pick officers who know this area where you can; we’ll wait at the entrance to Parade Street.’

Hannover Estate was an amalgamation of postwar red-brick council housing and newer high-rise concrete towers. The two had been botched together with social housing based on small streets and balconies, gardens and civic pride. The reality had been the opposite. Families who didn’t care for the community had been dumped there and the place became a breeding ground for gangs. There had been no more building since the early 1990s. The estate was slowly being left to decay from the inside out, as the council stopped maintaining it in the hope that it would slowly empty of residents when their lives became intolerable.

They waited in the car with a map of the estate up on Carter’s iPad and worked out how they were going to cover the whole of it.

‘It will take several days to make sure we catch the people at work,’ said Carter as he moved the map on the screen. Willis jotted down the names of the various areas.

‘We will split the estate into five sections and you and I will take the one here, nearest to the crime scene. This is also the roughest end, where the gangs are causing the most trouble. We’ll try and catch them by surprise. Where is Balik supposed to be living?’