The Fourth Friend (DI Jackman & DS Evans #3)(72)

‘Believe me, I don’t either. Sometimes I don’t even know what is real and what is fantasy. I see things, I hear things, I smell things, and I know they aren’t there. I’m a mess, Marie, and I don’t blame you for hating me.’ His voice was low. ‘But I’m still going to ask you that favour.’

Marie felt drained. The fight had gone out of her. ‘I don’t hate you. I couldn’t. What do you want?’

‘I want you to tell Jackman everything, and also Ruth Crooke. I know I’m for the high jump, so will you just allow me a few hours? Go to see them later this afternoon? Then I’ll throw up my hands and come quietly.’

Marie’s head throbbed. ‘But why?’

‘The Eva May. For the sake of the others, I want to take her out on her maiden voyage. I’ve got to make sure the tides are right, so I’ll leave Stone Quay around eleven. It won’t take long, two hours max. It’s something I really need to do. Then I swear I’ll face the consequences.’

Marie thought about that wonderful hour on the quayside. She would let him have this last break, because after that, his career would be over, and Tom Holland would probably haunt him for the rest of his life. ‘I’ll give you until two this afternoon. And, Carter? Never ever lie to me again.’

‘Thank you, Marie. For everything.’

‘I’m a fool,’ she whispered, but there was no one to hear.





CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Carter drove onto Stone Quay at around four in the morning. He parked the Land Rover close to where the Eva May bobbed proudly in the water.

The silence was overwhelming.

He sat without moving, watching the clouds scud over the river.

For once, the voices were silent.

He got out of the vehicle and stood for a moment in the familiar spot, listening to the birds call and the river lap against the Eva May’s hull.

He turned and saw Silas walking towards him, Klink ambling close to his heels. He had a flat package under his arm.

‘So it’s today, is it, young’un?’

Carter nodded.

‘Then I guess you’ll be wantin’ a bit o’ company?’

Carter drew in a deep breath, then exhaled. ‘No, Silas, not this time. But I am going to ask you to do something for me, and I swear it will be the last time I do.’ He rubbed his hand through his windblown hair. ‘This favour. It’s not exactly above board.’

The old man gave a snort. ‘Since when have I cared a jot about that?’

Carter smiled. ‘I know, you old rogue, but still, it goes against the grain to ask you.’

‘Then don’t ask. But you know I’ll help you, no matter what.’

‘Remember the old Causley Eau pumping station?’

‘Aye, on the Saltern Drain. Been falling to bits for years since they stopped usin’ it.’ Silas thought for a while. ‘They say it’s dangerous, so no one goes there anymore.’

‘I know.’

‘Then we better get off, hadn’t we? I’m supposing you want to be back to catch the tide?’

Carter opened up the side door of the Land Rover, and called to Klink. ‘In you get, lad.’

‘Boot’s good enough for him, grubby little tyke.’

Carter shook his head. ‘Not this time. I need the space.’

Silas shrugged. He slid the flat, badly wrapped package behind the passenger seat.

They drove for a few minutes, then turned down a slip road and bumped along the drain edge for about a quarter of a mile.

The old pumping station had been empty for years. The steam engine that had helped feed water from the reclaimed saltmarsh fields had been moved off to a museum, and now a new station did all the pumping and drainage.

Carter backed up the Land Rover close to the building and got out. He produced a key from his pocket and opened the padlocked doors.

Klink refused to get out, even when Silas ordered him to. Carter decided that he was better off where he was, so they left the dog in the vehicle.

With Silas a few steps behind him, Carter walked slowly and deliberately towards the back of the building, where he used a second key to open a small storeroom. If Silas was shocked by the smell, he didn’t show it. And Carter made no comment.

The bundle was tightly wrapped in layers of extra thick black plastic sheeting, taped tightly with gaffer tape, and carefully concealed behind some old rotting wooden shelving units.

Between them they half dragged and half carried the cumbersome bundle to the Land Rover. Carter opened up the back and they pushed it into the boot.

Klink gave a low growl. Silas spoke to him quietly, but his hackles were raised.

They said nothing on the trip back to Stone Quay, but it wasn’t an uncomfortable silence. Carter felt like a boy again, back where he ought to be, sitting next to Silas Breeze, the only man he really trusted.

It took them no time at all to get Suzanne’s body off the quay and into the Eva May. He tried hard not to imagine what she looked like after eighteen months, but he had seen too many rotting corpses in his time on the force not to know. Even so, he felt no compassion for her. She had been a cruel, heartless bitch. Whenever things didn’t go exactly her way, she turned on Tom. She physically battered and abused him, and the gentle giant never raised a hand or said a word against her.