Frozen Grave (Willis/Carter #3)(77)

She turned from him and shook her head.

‘I want to believe you.’

‘Then do. You should support me now, Paula. I think I’ve always been good to you and the girls. I’ve taken you on holiday, I’ve paid for the girls to do things they wanted to; I’ve always bought them presents. Don’t let some nutty woman come between us. Don’t let her spoil what we have – what we’ve built up between us.’

‘Not this Christmas, you didn’t.’

‘Didn’t what?’

‘You didn’t buy anything for the girls.’

‘It’s been a hard year for me. You know that. I told you, I’ve had a difficult time of it money-wise.’

‘The thing is, JJ, that’s not the only thing that’s been thin on the ground this year. You seem to have gone off me a bit, even in the bedroom. Every time I talk about a future with us, you change the subject.’

Ellerman’s phone rang. He tried to ignore it.

‘You’d better answer that.’ Paula turned and walked from the kitchen, sighing. ‘On your way out.’ She looked back at him and shook her head sadly. ‘I need more from you, JJ.’

‘Paula, I need you to have faith in me, that’s all.’

‘You can’t stay tonight, JJ. I still love you but I’m hurt. Come and see me again soon and we’ll talk properly.’

‘Okay – I understand. I will always want what’s best for us. I’ll go but I’ll be back soon, baby.’

He went across and held her and kissed her forehead. Her eyes welled up. She hated the deception but, right at that moment, she hated him more.

Ellerman got outside and took a deep breath before he looked at who was calling him. It was Emily. He declined the call and sent her a text message, telling her he’d phone her later. He had a text from Megan:

Hope you’re having a good day. Ring me when you get time for a chat. Miss you. M

Lisa had sent a text, saying that she was going to the police.

‘Bitch!’ he said out loud, and felt his anger ignite when he got back into the car.

Ellerman sat in a lay-by in his car and pulled his collar up. The temperature outside had dropped to freezing. Dee wasn’t answering the phone. Ellerman sat back in his seat and listened to the whoosh and spray of the passing traffic. He clenched and unclenched his hands on the steering wheel. He closed his eyes and sighed deeply from his diaphragm. He was boiling over with the feeling of injustice. How dare someone expose him in this way? His first thought was Lisa. She could have easily looked at his phone. He had been lax a few times now. He’d drunk a bit too much some evenings and didn’t remember the latter part of them. Not just with Lisa, with all of them. He could have left it unlocked. If one of them had got into his phone they could have also seen all his emails, transferred lots of data whilst he was asleep. Whoever did this, hated him. They wanted his blood. They wanted to ruin his life. It was all about the end gain. Nothing mattered but winning. When he was sitting in his Spanish home with Dee; when they were happy again and when money was coming in – after all, the deal for three yachts was so nearly signed – then all this would have been worth it. He needed to find more women with more money. The truth was that he couldn’t juggle all of them successfully without losing a few along the way. The ones that fell were casualties to the cause. It would all blow over and then he could regroup. If he lost some women along the way, then okay. But the money worried him. Lisa had been particularly vocal in her venom. Did the police know it all by now? He opened the glove compartment and took out his list. He crossed through Olivia’s and Gillian’s details. He circled Lisa and turned to the next page, ran his pen down the list until he came to Harding.

His phone rang.

‘JJ Ellerman speaking.’

‘Mr Ellerman, Inspector Carter here. I need you to come back into Archway Police Station again – we need to clarify a few things.’

‘Next week.’

‘Tomorrow morning, Mr Ellerman, at nine o’ clock. You know where to come. You’ll need to bring your lawyer with you this time, Mr Ellerman, and I want to see all your company accounts.’

Ellerman got out of the car and vomited. He held his stomach, tried to press in his guts as they heaved. He felt like he was vomiting up his insides. It took him three minutes to stop retching. He wiped his mouth as the traffic whizzed past and then he leant against the passenger side of the car as he took deep breaths and tried to calm himself. He opened his lungs, stuck out his chest and breathed in deeply through his nose.

Ellerman looked into the passenger footwell for some water and couldn’t find any. He rummaged round in the boot and found a plastic bottle half full of water. He drank it a few gulps at a time.

Back in the car he rang Lisa.

‘I just wanted to say I’m sorry for the way things have turned out.’

‘I don’t believe you. You’re a liar through and through.’

‘Well, if that’s the way you feel about things then there’s no altering it. I am sorry that you prefer to believe the words of a malicious trouble-maker instead of someone who has supported and loved you for the last year and a half, but I cannot stop you believing what you will.’

‘Give me my money back now.’

‘Yeah – that’s right – stick the knife in, why don’t you? You’re a petulant bitch. You can go and whistle for your fucking money. You bore me stupid anyway.’ He hung up.