Frozen Grave (Willis/Carter #3)(70)

‘Okay,’ she said reluctantly.

‘What do you think about Harding getting involved?’ Carter asked.

‘I think she needs reining in. She’ll be surfing all the dating sites and she’ll have joined half a dozen looking for Ellerman to hook in further. Dr Harding strikes me as unpredictable in her emotional affairs.’

‘Bunny boiler, you mean?’

‘Yeah, I do. She’s tough on men even in the workplace. Let alone ones that cross her in bedroom affairs.’

‘I know, but she already knows Ellerman and she knew Olivia Grantham. She seems to have something that Ellerman wanted – still wants.’

‘Not the sex then,’ said Willis. ‘Is it all about the money now for him – the money for his investments?’

‘We’ll pay a visit to his wife tomorrow. I want to talk to her on her own. We need to decide if she’s complicit in any of this – after all, she stays with him for a reason.’

Carter dropped Willis off outside her house.

Willis opened her front door and picked up her post from the shelf just inside and carried it up to her room on the top floor. She stopped to listen at Tina’s door, heard nothing so went on up to her room.

The room temperature was only just above freezing. She flicked on the halogen fire, got undressed in front of it and into pyjamas and her onesie that Tina had given her for Christmas. She checked her mail and discarded it and then tapped her password into her laptop. She had a friend request from Skype. She looked at the name Scott Tucker wanted her to add him. He was online.

She logged on to Skype and added him. She saw his face appear. She squinted at the screen to try to make out what was around him. It wasn’t the station she could see, it looked like a lounge. He seemed to be sitting on a dark-coloured sofa. Behind him was a wall with a large black-and-white poster of a wooden pier. She heard the sound of a television.

‘Hang on a minute,’ he said and the TV sound stopped. ‘That’s better – can’t hear myself think.’

Willis smiled. ‘What were you watching?’

‘Um, not sure really – some thriller from some place that looked even colder than here. Wait a mo – I can’t see you.’

‘My camera is disabled.’

‘I don’t know – you politically correct gurus . . . only in London could you buy one of those.’

She smiled again. She also wondered if he’d had a glass or two. ‘Any more luck with neighbours seeing the Aston Martin or any other unusual car activity?’

‘Yes, two more sets of neighbours have seen it sometimes, in the week, parked overnight. There have been some other sightings of cars that may not be common on this street – a Range Rover has also been seen a few times but it’s possible that belongs to a relative of someone on the street.’

‘Any CCTV to look at for the Tuesday evening when she died?’

‘We are looking at the motorway cameras but it’s not a small job. There is no CCTV in the immediate area around Station Road. I’m still waiting for Gillian Forth’s phone records but – a traffic cop I know told me he met her recently on the dating site she used to meet Ellerman, according to the letter, called Love Uniform Dating. He met her once. I’ve had a look at it. There are a lot of military types down here. That’s what she was after, he said. She told him she wanted someone high-ranking – who spent a lot of his time away.’

‘I suppose that counts Ellerman out – he isn’t military.’

‘No . . . it doesn’t count him out of anything. Everyone tells a few lies on the dating sites. You know: he says, I’m six foot two and he turns out to be two foot six. Or I’m a size twelve and she turns out to be a size twenty-two. Plus, he could say he was retired.’

‘Did you find him on there?’

‘No, but he could have hidden his profile till it all calms down. We’ll keep looking.’

She smiled to herself as she thought about what he said about the dating sites and the way people lied. Tina said she did it all the time. She said sometimes you turned up and the person looked nothing like the man in the photos. But then, Tina also said she could speak several languages and Willis knew she was barely proficient in one.

‘You sound like you know a lot about it?’ Willis asked.

‘Me? I’ve only just come out of a long-term relationship so I don’t need any more trouble for a while. But it’s just one more way of hooking up, I guess.’

‘Okay . . .’ Willis didn’t know what to say. She was glad he couldn’t see her face. She felt awkward. Her heart missed a beat when he said he’d been in a relationship. ‘Well, I’ll keep you informed if anything to do with Gillian Forth turns up this end. We are looking into all of Ellerman’s movements and I’ll let you know if anything turns up there too.’

‘Okay – you off to bed now?’

‘Yes. Night.’ She went to switch off Skype but he leant into the camera.

‘So you’re not sitting in your pyjamas and that’s why you don’t want me to see you?’

She smiled. ‘Might be.’

‘Okay, Detective Willis. This is Detective Scott Tucker signing off for now. Night. You are the weakest link – goodbye!’

‘Night.’