Frozen Grave (Willis/Carter #3)(46)

After the first set of interviews, Willis and Carter headed back to the Dark Side.

Robbo was at his desk, engrossed in sorting the images from the crime scene. Pam was at hers. Hector was out of the office. ‘How did the interviews go?’ Robbo looked back and forth between Carter and Willis for an answer.

‘We interviewed four men who had some kind of encounter with Olivia Grantham. Only JJ Ellerman is of serious interest. The other three have watertight alibis. They only saw her once each.’

Willis went to sign in to Hector’s empty workstation.

‘What was Ellerman like?’ asked Robbo. Pam stopped her work to listen to the reply.

‘He’s a smart-looking man.’ Carter looked towards Willis to confirm.

‘Yes,’ she agreed. ‘He cares a lot about his appearance. He keeps himself in good shape but he looks frayed around the edges. He sweats a lot. He is arrogant and thinks he’s cleverer than he actually is.’

Carter smiled.

‘Exactly – couldn’t have put it better myself. He looks down his nose at the world. He is Mr In Control. Selfish, self-absorbed and ruthless.’

‘Nice guy then; can see you two warmed to him.’ Robbo smiled. ‘What did he say about his relationship with Olivia Grantham?’

‘He said as little as he could get away with,’ answered Carter. ‘He definitely didn’t want to talk about the fact that he might have been fond of her. But he admits they went to dinner, they had a friendship besides just sex. But he didn’t seem to really care that she was dead. He certainly wasn’t that shocked by it. Do we know any more about him, Pam?’

‘I think I’ve found him on seven dating sites so far,’ said Pam. ‘On three of them he has his photograph; it’s a version of the photo on his website, taken at the same time by the look of it. He describes himself as someone slightly different each time – his age is always between forty and fifty. His height varies, interests always include classic cars and his income is always huge. That seems to be the key for him – he is how much he earns. He wants everyone to know. In each of the adverts, he uses the same line: self-made man, used to luxury.’

‘Except he doesn’t earn it any more,’ said Carter. ‘What about the classic cars?’

‘He still has those. He has four altogether. A Porsche is amongst them. That’s been SORNed as has a Ferrari. Two cars are taxed and on the road. They are registered to his address. He must keep the Porsche and Ferrari somewhere else.’

‘It costs a lot of money to keep a car in perfect condition,’ said Robbo.

‘What about the Spanish Hacienda company, Pam?’ asked Carter. ‘Have you found anything else on it?’

‘Not yet. Do you want me to contact the Spanish police in the area?’

‘Hold fire with that. I think we’ll follow up the interview with a home visit, just to keep the pressure on Mr Ellerman.’





Chapter 25


Dee Ellerman stared down onto the garden below her. The gardener was tidying up after the storm the previous week. She wondered that he didn’t feel the cold. He had just a T-shirt on and the temperature had dropped to below freezing.

She opened the window. ‘Mike, do you want tea?’

He stopped on his way towards his van, dragging a large fallen branch behind him.

‘Lovely.’ He smiled.

‘Come in for it.’

‘Okay. I’ll just put this in the van and I’ll be there.’

He came back and hovered in the doorway, afraid to step into the clean kitchen. ‘I’d be better off outside. I’m going to drop bits all over your floor.’

‘It’s okay. It doesn’t matter.’

He started unstrapping his boots. He didn’t like to appear rude and his hands were blocks of ice, even though he’d managed to work up a sweat moving all the wood.

‘Biscuit?’

He sat where she pulled out a chair for him at the table. ‘Never say no to one of those.’

She opened a new packet of chocolate digestives, having been out to buy them that morning.

She placed a plate with biscuits down in front of him and sat opposite.

He took a slurp of tea and it burnt his mouth but he didn’t want to show it. ‘That hits the spot.’ He snapped a biscuit in half and put one half in his mouth. He looked around the kitchen, trying to think of something to say. He saw her open laptop on the worktop.

‘You studying? How’s your car-maintenance classes going?’

‘Good, thanks.’

‘And what are the other classes you’re taking?’

‘Spanish and IT, website design.’

‘God, I could do with that – I’m rubbish at creating a website.’

‘I could help you.’

‘That’s kind but I think you’d soon realize you’d have your work cut out. I’m next to useless. You must be quite good.’

She nodded towards the laptop. ‘I enjoy it.’

‘You used to be a hairdresser, didn’t you? I remember your husband mentioning it once.’

‘Yes. When I was young.’

‘You’re not old now.’ He smiled.

‘You know what I mean.’

‘You could start it up again.’