Frozen Grave

by Lee Weeks

  ‘They’ve been coming around here, intimidating people, for long enough,’ said Sheila. ‘That dog will kill, sooner or later: he can’t control it—’

  Simon interrupted: ‘We’re bound to get it, living this close to an estate like the Hannover.’

  ‘So this isn’t the first time he’s been round here?’ Blackman turned to Sheila and Lyndsey.

  Simon turned to go past the women and walk inside.

  ‘It’s since the murder – it’s got worse,’ Sheila said.

  Simon held up his hand to silence Sheila.

  ‘Let’s not get carried away with this. He’s a mindless thug, that’s all.’

  ‘Sheila – what have the clients said to you?’

  ‘Martine, Mason, Spike, they’re all too scared to come here. They saw something that night. People are staying away – too scared to come here for food. Shameful the way they behave, these gangs. It’s a disgrace.’

  ‘Sheila – it’s okay,’ said Simon.’ I’m going to be keeping an eye on things tonight. Any trouble and I won’t hesitate to call the police.’

  ‘Has anyone seen Toffee’s friends?’ asked Zoe. They shook their heads.

  ‘But Lolly’s been killed and they definitely did it,’ said Sheila.

  ‘We don’t know that, Sheila,’ said Simon.

  ‘Yes, we do. They were bragging about it to Lyndsey when they stopped her the other day; weren’t they?’

  Lyndsey nodded. ‘They said they raped her and then injected her with corrupted heroin just for a laugh. She died in agony.’

  Zoe was keeping one eye on Simon as Sheila talked. She wanted to ask him what he gave to Balik but decided she’d bide her time and talk to Carter first.

  ‘I can get extra protection here. I will make sure the search for Balik is stepped up,’ she said. ‘Okay, Mum, you ready?’

  ‘Thank you, Diane. You’re a great help,’ Simon said as they walked towards Zoe’s car.

  ‘I’ll be back tomorrow,’ Diane said. Simon looked surprised. ‘Well, you’ll need me, I’m sure.’

  ‘We certainly do,’ Sheila called out. ‘We need all the good help we can get. Thank you, Diane.’

  Zoe waited until the patrol car had come and then dropped her mother home – she was too adrenalin-fuelled to go home herself and sleep.

  Martine was waiting at the station ticket office, to see if her friend would be working there tonight. She pulled her shawl up over her head, against the bitter wind.

  ‘Spare some change,’ she asked a man walking through the station.

  ‘No, sorry.’

  She was waiting for Larry to appear on the other side of the ticket barrier and let her in, but there was a new face.

  ‘Where’s Larry?’

  ‘Not working here this week. You got me instead. What do you want?’

  ‘Larry lets me sleep in here, in the toilets. Please can you let me in?’

  ‘Wish I could, love; but it’s more than my job’s worth.’

  ‘Please. Larry does. I need somewhere safe tonight.’

  ‘I understand you got troubles but I can’t help. You need to be on your way now. Larry will be back next week.’

  ‘Please.’

  ‘There’s no one can help you here. Go on now.’

  She turned back out into the cold. She thought about where to get warm and thought of Mason; he would keep her warm and she could cuddle Sandy like a hot-water bottle.

  Sandy listened to the sound of boots on gravel and began to pant. She looked at Mason and knew that she couldn’t go anywhere. The enemy was coming to them and they were already backed into a corner. Sandy licked Mason’s face in her anxiety. He stirred but he didn’t wake; she kept one eye on the edge of the fencing and waited, knowing that every instinct she had was to run but knowing too that she couldn’t.

  Balik moved through the car park with the swagger of one who knows his prey is cornered and there’s just enough competition to make a fight interesting. He scraped a stick along the walls of the railway arches as he walked with his five deputies towards the far corner, like he usually did, where the fence met the road and where Mason and Sandy were hiding.

  Martine came as far as the car park and hid behind a parked car when she heard the swagger chant of the Hannover Boys. The last time she had heard that, she’d watched a woman being killed. Now Martine hugged her knees as she hid by the wheel arch of the car and listened to the chanting as they moved across the car park, flushing out their prey. Everything inside her told her she must run. Survival was a solitary ambition. Now she must only care about herself. Martine picked up her bag and ran.

  Zoe was still angry – her anger was legendary. No one – but no one – talked to her like that and got away with it. It was one of the reasons she’d been so grateful for passing the detective exams and keeping her head. She knew it was in her – the same anger that, made someone a criminal and made her a cop. But anger was frowned upon now in the modern force. Handling others with kid gloves didn’t come naturally to her and had been bad news when it came to role-playing in the cadet training school. But, luckily for her, her common sense had won the day and she had passed. Detective Inspector Dan Carter was her mentor. She had to learn from him and he watched over her. She phoned him now.

  ‘Sir, sorry to disturb you.’

  ‘That’s okay – shoot.’ Carter had just come off the phone to Harding and he was sitting in his kitchen, going through Olivia Grantham’s last text messages.

  ‘Something happened tonight at the hostel – Mahmet Balik turned up when I was waiting to give my mum a lift home.’

  ‘Did you call for back-up? You didn’t approach him on your own?’

  ‘It was a difficult decision, sir. He didn’t see me; I was in my car. He approached Smith. I saw Smith give him something. Then the volunteers, along with my mum, came out and I had to act, so I tried to arrest him but it turned out he wasn’t alone.’

  ‘Sure you okay?’

  ‘Yes, just too angry to go to bed right now, so I’m seeing if I can find any of Toffee’s friends. Sheila, who helps at the hostel, says that Balik has been looking for them. He threatened them all as he left.’

  ‘He might think one of them has the money that Toffee was carrying. What did Smith give him?’

  ‘Something compact, from his closed hand. Could have been money. I’m pretty sure he knows I saw it but he didn’t volunteer any information about it.’

  ‘We need to look into Smith a little deeper. We need to get hold of Toffee’s friends fast before Balik does, bring them in for questioning and offer them some safety to testify. Could be our chance to get a gang member off the street. Where are you now?’

  ‘Down by the railway arches in Shadwell. There used to be a car park here that homeless people slept in at one time.’

  ‘Keep me posted.’

  Zoe slowed down and reached the road that ran beneath the railway arches in Shadwell. As her car turned the corner, she saw the dog’s eyes caught in her headlights and youths running away across the car park. She drove round to the other side, to see if she could get a better look – she was pretty sure that it was Balik and his gang. They had gone.

  Martine ran back to the parade of shops where she knew Spike slept. She found him by the shop door. He didn’t move as she approached. She knelt beside him and shook him but he didn’t wake.

  Mason turned onto his side to vomit as the burning flashes of grinding pain in his gut caused him to heave. He reached for Sandy. The blood was pouring into his eyes and he couldn’t see. He couldn’t hear her. He panicked as his hand reached into darkness and touched just the gravel of the car park and the wet of blood. He found the softness of her ear and traced his fingers to her muzzle. Her face was torn. Her eye smashed. No movement, no breath. He called her name again. He felt down her head to her neck and the injuries there, the bites that had ripped her flesh. Her shoulder had a large open wound there. His hand reached around her ribs to her heart. For a few seconds he fe
lt nothing beneath his hand but then the faintest beat touched his palm.

  Chapter 40

  In the morning, Willis caught the bus up to Archway. It was dark, an hour before rush hour started. The streets had a post-sales scruffiness to them now that the Christmas decorations were down and the sales were finished. January depression had set in on the high street as hatches were battened down against the economic climate.

  Willis closed her phone and stood to get off the bus as it pulled in at Archway Station. The cold smacked her in the face as she stepped down from the bus.

  She entered the code at the door and took the lift up to the third floor in Fletcher House and went straight to see Carter, who was on the phone to Harding.

  ‘I got a text from the Dogger last night,’ Harding said.

  ‘What did he say?’

  ‘Just that he was still waiting.’

  ‘What did you take that to mean?

  ‘I messaged him on Naughties and said I’d be in touch but I haven’t yet. Could be that.’

  ‘Then send a message now, please – we may catch him before he starts work. Ask him if he’s all right and tell him you’re sorry for not making it but you were attacked by persons unknown in the car park. Let me know what you get in response. Did you ring the Audi garage yet about your car?’

  ‘Yes. I said someone will be along to pick it up.’

  ‘I’ll get that organized now with Sandford. Keep me informed and I’ll do the same. I will need to look into your Naughties account, if that’s okay? I’ll make sure it’s just me and Willis.’

  ‘Yes, okay. When you looked at the Naughties website, did you see my profile?’ she asked.

  ‘Hard to tell.’ Carter was lying. He had looked for it and he had found it. He knew Harding’s body very well. He’d been near it many times. He’d imagined her naked more than once. But when it came down to it, it had been her hands that had given her away. He’d watched them work countless times. She had old hands for her age. She had short fingernails, except when she had acrylics put on for something special, and this had been such a time. Harding always went for the same colour on her nails: dark burgundy. Yeah, the hands had definitely given her away, even when they were parting her labia for the camera.

  ‘That means, yes – then, okay. I have nothing left to hide, as it were. It doesn’t bother me anyway – I just don’t want to see T-shirts with photos of my bits on the front.’

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘I mean it, Carter – I’m holding you personally responsible.’

  ‘Can we have your laptop?’

  ‘No, you can’t. Don’t push your luck.’

  ‘Do you always send messages from your laptop? Carter asked.

  ‘Yes, I do.’

  ‘If we send a message and he checks the IP address, he’s going to know it’s not you.’

  ‘Then I’m going to have to do this with you. I’m not having technicians dismantle the hard drive in my laptop.’

  ‘Okay, I understand. Go online at your usual times and reply to any messages you have. We’ll be over to see you later. Did you reply to the Dogger?’

  ‘Not yet.’

  ‘When you do, keep it interested but vague.’

  He finished up his conversation and stood and picked up his coat.

  ‘Don’t get comfortable, Willis – we’re off to talk to Mrs Ellerman.’

  They parked up and walked across the road to the house. Carter was watching the movement at the kitchen window. A shadow passed there. They stood and waited after ringing the bell. Dee Ellerman was dressed in black leggings and a dark tunic top. Her dark hair was scraped back into a ponytail. She had large dark eyes that looked tired and slightly dazed as she came to the door. Carter wondered if she was on medication.

  ‘Sorry to bother you. Mrs Ellerman?’

  ‘Yes?’

  They showed their warrant cards. ‘Can we come in for a chat?’

  She looked from one to the other, before stepping back into the house.

  ‘My husband isn’t home.’

  ‘It’s you we’d like to speak to.’

  They followed her as her slippered feet shuffled across the parquet floor and into the living room. The parquet floor gave way to green-flecked carpet.

  ‘Would you like us to take off our shoes?’ He could see by her face that she wanted to say yes but instead, her eyes flicked towards the kitchen entrance. ‘We’re happy to sit in the kitchen, if that suits you better?’

  She led them into the kitchen, which was L-shaped with a living area at one end.

  ‘Would you like a drink?’ she asked.

  ‘No, thanks.’ Willis couldn’t risk spilling anything. She was clumsy to the extreme.

  ‘Love a coffee, please,’ said Carter. ‘We won’t keep you long, Mrs Ellerman. Thank you . . .’ he said when she handed him a cup. He took a sip of the coffee and tried not to grimace. ‘We wanted to have a chat with you about your husband. He seems to have got himself in a spot of trouble with complications in his life.’

  ‘The letter, you mean?’ She sat opposite Carter and Willis.

  ‘Yes. You’ve seen it?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Did your husband show it to you?’

  ‘God, no! I got a copy in the post.’

  ‘What did you make of it?’

  She sat with her elbows on the table, her hands clasped. She stared at her hands. ‘I was expecting it.’

  ‘How do you mean?’ asked Carter.

  ‘It’s not the first time women have got in touch with me.’ She glanced up at them both.

  ‘This has happened often?’ Carter said, smiling sympathetically.

  ‘It has increased in the last five years.’

  ‘Since your son died?’ asked Willis.

  ‘Yes.’ She looked from Willis to Carter. ‘Craig. My son was called Craig. My husband was responsible for his death.’

  ‘Is that what you believe?’ asked Carter.

  ‘That’s what happened. He was showing off in his car. He skidded taking a corner too fast and he hit a tree. Craig died two weeks later when the life-support machine was switched off.’

  ‘We are so sorry, Mrs Ellerman. I know it must still be very raw for you.’ Carter leant forward, to put his hand on her shoulder.

  She bowed her head, composing herself. ‘Yes.’

  ‘It must be very difficult for you, especially when you’re alone here. Mr Ellerman is away from home a lot, isn’t he?’ Carter asked.

  ‘All the time. He comes home at weekends but he doesn’t always stay. This place reminds him too much of Craig. We remind each other of Craig.’

  ‘Yes, I understand; it must be so difficult. Would you like to speak to someone in our victim-support unit, Mrs Ellerman?’ Carter asked. ‘It’s always helped people in the past.’

  ‘No . . . thank you.’ She looked at the clock on the kitchen wall.

  Carter glanced at Willis; she took out her notebook.

  ‘Okay, well, we’ll get on with some questions, then we’ll be out of your way,’ said Carter as he drank the rest of his coffee. Willis took out a copy of the letter and handed it to Carter. He took it from her and opened it up, turned it round to face Dee Ellerman.

  ‘When you got this letter, what did you think?’

  She shrugged. ‘Not a lot. Nothing surprises me any more. I perhaps wondered at the amount of women on the list. That’s a lot of lies, even for my husband.’

  ‘Excuse me for asking, Mrs Ellerman, but why do you stay with him?’ asked Willis.

  Dee Ellerman turned to her.

  ‘I don’t know. I stay because we have all this together, maybe.’ She looked around. ‘Maybe because he is my connection to Craig. I couldn’t bear to leave this place, to leave Craig.’

  ‘I understand,’ said Carter. ‘But, financially, it must be a struggle. Do you have a large mortgage?’

  ‘I don’t know. I don’t handle that side of things. JJ doesn’t want me to worry about that.’r />
  ‘So what do you know about his finances? Do you take an interest in his business at all?’ asked Willis.

  ‘I listen to his plans sometimes but I don’t know the ins and outs. I never look at his bank statements.’

  ‘Did you know that he was in financial difficulties?’

  ‘Yes. The bank keeps ringing.’

  ‘That must be difficult, stressful for you?’

  ‘JJ says to ignore them. He usually manages to find some money from somewhere every month.’

  ‘The women on the list seem to have parted with a lot of money,’ Carter said, glancing at the letter.

  ‘More fool them.’

  ‘Mr Ellerman never mentioned his fund-raising to you?’ asked Willis.

  ‘No.’

  ‘So what do you feel about the women on this list?’ asked Carter. ‘Do you feel anger? Shame? Sadness? Do you feel sorry for them in any way?’

  She shook her head. ‘They knew what they were getting into. They knew he was married. They shouldn’t have done it . . . got involved with a married man.’

  ‘But he promised them he would leave you,’ Willis said, her eyes fixed on Dee.

  ‘Lies come naturally to him.’ Dee looked at Willis and glared. Her sadness had been replaced by anger. ‘He will promise anything to get what he wants,’ Dee continued. ‘He never had any intention of living with any of them.’ She rolled her eyes, as if she couldn’t care, but her hands were shaking.

  ‘What about you, Mrs Ellerman? Will you stay with him now?’ asked Carter.

  She didn’t answer for a few seconds and then she shook her head sadly.

  ‘I don’t see how I can.’

  ‘Mrs Ellerman, what do you know about the Spanish properties?’

  ‘I don’t know much about them. He’s always talking about us living out there. It’s been his goal for several years now but the business always seems to keep us here; there’s always a crisis.’

  ‘Do you have any paperwork that we can see for these properties?’ Carter asked.

  She hesitated and then stood. ‘Of course. It’s in his office.’

  ‘Would it be easier if I came with you, to help?’

  ‘Yes, perhaps it would.’

  Carter looked back at Willis and smiled.