Frozen Grave (Willis/Carter #3)(68)

‘The internal walls are being plastered; the garden is being landscaped. The pool is in the process of being dug. It’s all happening now.’

‘You said that last time.’ She slipped her feet into her trainers and fastened them up.

‘I will ring my builder right now if you like and I can ask him what he’s working on today.’

‘You’re a master at sarcasm, JJ, but you are getting tangled in your own lies.’

He looked at her face. He had not seen this side of her. Where had his sweet little gym bunny gone? Where was the girl whose girlish looks, whose large black eyes were always filled with a sweet dark passion, always anxious to please him, to see that he was happy? She looked demented today. She looked angry enough to kill him, but at the same time she looked terribly sad. When had he seen that look before? So many times. Dee. It was Dee’s disappointment all over again.

‘I’m so sorry I’ve upset you, my darling. You mean the world to me. I can’t bear to lose you. Let’s not fall out. I promise you – absolutely promise you – that it won’t be long. Can you wait for me, darling, please?’ He reached out a hand and covered hers. She snatched it away.

‘It’s too late. I was waiting to see what you’d do when you arrived yesterday. I know you’ve been seeing someone else. You’ve lied about everything.’

‘I promise you, darling . . .’

‘Don’t bother. I’m sick of your promises. They don’t mean jack. I’m going for a run and I want you to leave while I’m out. I don’t want anything of yours here when I get back.’

He watched her open the back door and she turned to look at him.

‘I actually feel sorry for you. You’re a sad fuck-up. You’re too old for me. You’ve got old since we met. Or maybe I never noticed it like I do now.’

Lisa rested her back against the door frame and looked at him with pity. She couldn’t do what had been asked. She hated him enough but her hot head got the better of her.

‘Give me my money back, JJ, and I’ll chalk it up to experience. I’ll know better next time. We had some good times but you’re a liar and a bad one. Money back in my account by the end of the week or I am going to take legal action and I’m not alone.’





Chapter 38


Carter and Willis were on the way back from Exeter to London. They stopped at Gordano Services outside Bristol and grabbed a Costa coffee to go.

‘What did you think of Scott?’ Carter asked as they walked back towards the car. ‘Not bad-looking? You could do worse?’ He winked her way and grinned.

She shook her head. Turned away, smiling. ‘You never give up, do you?’

‘Come on – I could see you liked him.’

‘He’s a nice man.’

‘Yes, nice. Single – tick. Doesn’t have a train set in his attic – double tick.’

‘I told you that in secret. Darren’s train set was high-speed.’

‘Look – I’m only saying your past boyfriends have been a little dull. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you so interested in someone. Give it a go.’

She didn’t answer. She played with the lid of her coffee cup.

‘Eb, listen to me – I think sometimes you worry too much about your past – about your mum. She isn’t part of who you are. She is mentally ill. You’re not. You seem to date nerdy normal guys as if you’re saying: “Look, this is me – normal!” But you don’t realize there is no such thing. You should use what you have to bring to the table. Don’t fight it. Nothing will make you “normal”, thank God! Now take a chance on life and stop being so scared.’

They reached the car and Carter rested his cup on the roof as he found the keys. He looked across at her. He could see she was mulling it over. She always got that sad expression that he understood was just a look that meant she was in thinking mode. Carter unlocked the car, picked up his coffee.

‘He’s one of the good guys,’ he said as he got inside and opened the cup holder, placed his coffee in it to cool down.

‘He told me how you helped him.’ Willis looked across at him.

‘Yeah – I tried, maybe not enough.’

‘He thinks he was a scapegoat. Is that true?’

‘Yeah, definitely. We worked for a year solid on it. We were really getting somewhere. That was the trouble. We came across so many “no-go” areas that we were shut down.’

‘It sounds bad.’

‘It was. We weren’t allowed to investigate some avenues so we could do our job. We came out with more questions than we went in with.’

‘He said people incriminated went right to the top.’

‘Yes, they did. We weren’t allowed to haul them in – national security and all that bullshit. The top brass pulled rank over us and that was that.’

‘Were some senior policemen involved?’

‘Yes. Sometimes not directly, but they were best buddies with ones who were. They included politicians and judges. We couldn’t touch them so the whole thing became a mockery. Nobody came out of it satisfied but most people accepted that. I didn’t and neither did Scott. Difference was that I was Scott’s boss and a sergeant. I would have stuck with him through it all but he decided to take what they offered in the end – get out or go away. He went back to Devon. I don’t blame him.’