Cold as Ice

by Lee Weeks

  ‘What date did you leave there?’ The short man slapped a flat hand against her abdomen. It doubled Ebony in pain and she snorted white breath as she answered.

  ‘February the eighteenth 2012.’

  ‘What day was it?’

  ‘Monday.’ She breathed through the pain.

  ‘You’re police, aren’t you?’ He slapped her again.

  She raised her head and looked him in the eyes.

  ‘No.’

  He kicked her feet away from the wall. She fell backwards and banged her back as she bounced off it and landed on her side on the floor. She sat up quickly and flinched as he pulled out her legs and rested a heavy boot on her kneecap as he rocked it with his weight.

  ‘You’re police – I’m going to break your leg just to start with. Tell us and I’ll spare you the pain.’ He ground his boot into her thigh as she squirmed to get away. The other officer came forward and breathed into her face. His voice was soft.

  ‘Give us one good reason why we shouldn’t kill you here and now?’

  ‘Because I have a small child. A boy – Archie.’

  ‘What’s his date of birth? Which hospital was he born in?’ The shorter officer took over again.

  ‘Uh . . .’ Ebony couldn’t think. She knew this – she must remember. ‘Uhh . . . Queen Mary’s, Trenchtown.’

  ‘Wrong. You’re police, aren’t you? Do you think we’re stupid?’

  ‘No.’

  Ebony was hauled over to the tank and her legs were tied and she was lowered inside the pitch black. The lid was placed on the tank and she could see nothing, feel nothing, no sound except blood pumping. Ebony closed her eyes and breathed deeply.

  I can do this. She closed her eyes just to rest them. She tried to imagine herself on a beach. She was with her friend Micky. Camber Sands: a beach that stretched forever within warm sun and clouds that filled the sky. Lying on their backs they stared up at the sky, the hot sand beneath them and the salty breeze skimming their skin; they looked for shapes in the clouds.

  ‘There’s a croc.’ Micky had been right There was his tail, his eye. ‘Or maybe an alligator,’ Micky laughed. ‘How many people know the difference, do you think, Ebb?

  She didn’t answer. She sighed and smiled. This was the happiest place in the world.

  ‘If the world ended now, Micky, we could just float up to heaven from this beach.’

  ‘Yeah, maybe a tidal wave as big as a mountain would just pick us up. We’d drown, and every single day for the rest of our lives would be like this.’

  ‘Not for the rest of our lives – we’d be dead.’

  ‘You know what I mean. For the rest of whatever it is afterwards.’

  ‘We’d be together,’ said Ebony, watching the world turn above her. ‘But do you think we’d fall out?’

  ‘We would, a bit. But then we could go to the other ends of the beach for a few hours and when we met again we’d be so happy to see each other.’

  Two months after they visited Camber Sands Ebony was returned to her mother and she never saw Micky again.

  Now in the tank she felt like she was drowning inside the tidal wave and all she could hear beneath the water was the sound of her own blood pumping around her body. Something held her in the darkness. She called out for her mother and heard her laugh and Ebony’s face was pressed against a wall and someone was touching her in the darkness. Someone was hurting her, trying to get her clothes off, and she was fighting so hard.

  She gasped and opened her eyes at the sound of the tank being opened above her head, squinting as light and pain flashed across her eyes and skull. A voice breathed in her ear. She recognized it as that of the officer who had interrogated her. She couldn’t see him. He stood behind her with the lid still half on the tank.

  ‘You’ve been in here for five hours. Did it seem like longer?’ Ebony didn’t answer. It felt like days. ‘Want to talk to us before we go home to our families for a few days and forget all about you here? I want to explain something to you. Officially we were never here and neither were you. Eventually someone might find you – follow the stink. How does it feel to be dying in here?’ Ebony tried to answer but she couldn’t. The panic which had built up in the last five hours had left her speechless.

  ‘You ready to tell us who you really are?’

  ‘No.’ Ebony’s voice was barely audible.

  ‘Do you want to stay in this tank?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘You want us to take you home?’ He started to replace the lid of the tank.

  Ebony found herself starting to scream. ‘Yes! Yes!’

  ‘Answer me truthfully and you can go – what’s your name?’

  She paused. ‘Ebony Wilson.’

  Ebony was dropped off at her home along with her shopping bags. She limped inside the house feeling like she was about to vomit. Her muscles ached from the confinement and cramp. Her stomach hurt. She stood in the hallway and listened. The house was quiet, everyone was at work. She left her food in the kitchen and then walked quickly up the stairs to her bedroom on the top floor. She threw the H&M bags down and drew the curtains and went back to lock the door. Then she got undressed quickly and got into bed, pulling the duvet over her head.

  Robbo received the phone call from the undercover training team.

  ‘The two main attributes needed to make a good UC are acting ability and arrogance. I don’t see either of those in your candidate but . . . Willis passed, just, but there were several issues that, if we had more time, we would have worked on. This part of the course is normally three days. We had eight hours altogether.’

  ‘Is there one aspect we need to be particularly worried about? asked Robbo.

  ‘Yes. She can cope with physical and verbal abuse. She can handle pain. What she can’t handle is abandonment and there are some issues buried – she experienced something nasty in the isolation tank. Whatever she’s been through in her life it’s not finished with her yet. I can tell you, if we’d had longer, she would have cracked, definitely. And the biggest problem I can see is that she cannot read people’s personalities, can’t read the signs. She didn’t try and talk her way out of it. She stood there and took it. She waited for it to be over.’

  Robbo called Carter.

  ‘She’s not ready.’

  ‘In what way?’

  ‘She stood there and took it without trying to talk her way out of it.’

  ‘If she were too slick, it wouldn’t work.’

  ‘We’re not talking about slick. She is not good at judging character, the team report says.’

  ‘As if we needed to be told that,’ scoffed Carter. ‘You know as well as I do that she has a lot to learn as a detective.’

  ‘Yes but she is likely to make fundamental misjudgement of character under stress.’ Robbo paused to see if Carter wanted to interrupt again but he didn’t. He continued: ‘She handled some things better than expected: pain, isolation. But we knew she would. Ebony has no trouble spending time on her own. She has a high pain threshold. She’s used to being hurt mentally and emotionally.’ He paused again. ‘You listening, Carter? I don’t want her put at risk like this. She was brought up to know only the barest affection from strangers, to know how to manage the mind of a madwoman like her mother.’

  ‘Yeah. I hear you. But when and if the time comes, when she meets Hawk, she won’t be with someone normal or balanced. She will be facing someone like her mother and she will be just the right person to be doing that.’

  Carter gave Ebony a call.

  ‘You did well.’ She was coming around from her sleep. She took the phone from the side table and took it under the duvet with her. She smiled to herself. She knew he would lie.

  ‘I didn’t realize how hard it would be. I could have easily blown it. I forgot some key facts they asked me. My mind went blank when they asked me all about my grandparents, all about my Jamaican home, where Archie was born.’

  ‘Bound to, Ebb. You’re on a crash course here. You
did fine. The boys on the undercover team said you nailed it.’ Ebony rolled her eyes, smiled. She was tempted to say ‘bullshit’ but resisted. ‘It starts tomorrow, then, Ebb. You won’t be able to come back into Fletcher house until it’s over. Everyone thinks you’ve gone off on a course to become a FLO.’

  Ebony pushed the duvet away and lay on her back looking at the stained ceiling rose. She thought for a few seconds.

  ‘Ebb? I think you can do this.’

  ‘I hope so, Guv.’

  ‘You can still back out, Ebb.’

  Ebony breathed in loudly through her nose, shut her eyes and rested the phone on her cheek.

  ‘No. I’m not backing out, Guv.’

  When the phone rang that night Tracy heard it in her sleep. She had put it just outside the bedroom door. She leapt out of bed and ran for it, breathless, stumbling in the darkness. She saw it glow as it vibrated on the floor.

  ‘Hello?’ Tracy could not stop herself from shaking violently. She stood in the darkness of the lounge, listening. ‘Hello?’ she repeated.

  ‘TRACEEEEEE.’ She gasped as his voice boomed in her ear. ‘This is all your fault. You betrayed me today, Tracy . . . I thought we had a deal . . . an understanding.’ His voice, liquid and deep, was distorted by his breathing. He was breathing hard. She had to listen hard to understand what he was saying. ‘Danielle’s told me how you abandoned her.’

  ‘What? I didn’t. I had to give her up. I didn’t want to. Please let her go. She has her little boy Jackson.’

  ‘You make sure I don’t regret leaving him alive, Tracy. You make sure he forgets his mum fast. Now you tried to make a fool of me; you’re as guilty as I am for the killings. I want to play a game with you, Tracy. It’s called tighten the noose. How tight is up to you.’

  Tracy shook her head; she clutched the phone tight. She wanted to throw it down but she couldn’t.

  ‘You abandoned your child and then you married Steve. How did that work out for you, Tracy? I’ve stood outside your house. I know where you work.’

  Tracy gasped. Her heart raced. She thought she would pass out. She leant on the wall for support.

  ‘You fascinate me. You epitomize everything I hate. You plaster yourself in make-up and spend all your time talking nonsense about this and that product. It’s all lies. You wear a mask to trap men. You’re just a blow-up doll, Tracy – worthless. The one job you had in life – motherhood – you ran away from. The one thing nature made you for you turned your back on; not even the vilest of nature’s creatures do that. You abandoned your child and created a false life for yourself. You’re ugly inside. You’re festering under your skin. You should strip it off, all of it, get down to the muscle and bone and see what lies inside you. Skin and bone and bare flesh. Just liars, all of you.’

  Tracy could hear him wheezing. She could hear him masturbating. She wanted to put the phone down but she had to keep him talking. She had to play along with him and give the team a chance to trace him.

  In the background she thought she heard the sound of squealing.

  ‘Ahhh. There she goes. She’s turning blue now. It’s all your fault. Shall I describe her to you? Her eyes are starting to bulge. Her face is swelling. Her tongue is protruding. I think she’s ready for me.’ Tracy looked at the clock on the kitchen wall. Twenty more seconds to three minutes. ‘Are you ready, Tracy?’

  The line went dead.

  Robbo shuddered as he watched the line go dead on his screen. He had listened to the call. It came from a mile radius of the Angel Islington. A mile was a lot of ground in the middle of London. Now he knew that the press conference hadn’t worked and that Ebony was their only hope.

  Chapter 31

  When Jeanie arrived the next morning Tracy looked like she was desperate for her to get there. Jackson hadn’t been washed or dressed.

  ‘He phoned again – did they trace it?’ she asked, hanging on to her emotions by a thread.

  Jeanie shook her head.

  ‘Nearly, Tracy. You did a great job.’ She had listened to the recording that morning before coming to the house. Jackson was pleased to see Jeanie. She gave him a cuddle. When she could Tracy took Jeanie aside in the kitchen.

  ‘No I didn’t. I can’t do it.’

  ‘You can get through this, Tracy.’

  Tracy shook her head slowly as she picked up a tea towel and began wrapping it around her hands. ‘He’s not ever going to let her live. He’s going to kill her slowly and make me listen to it.’ She stared wide-eyed at Jeanie. ‘I can’t do it. I can’t bear to hear Danielle in pain. I can’t pick up the phone again. He’s torturing her for my benefit. Maybe if I didn’t answer it he wouldn’t hurt her?’ She turned away from Jeanie and looked out of the back door. The ice had stayed on the patio for weeks now. ‘He’s punishing her for something that I’ve done. I’m killing my own daughter.’

  Jeanie stepped forward and gently stopped Tracy twisting the tea towel.

  ‘Don’t think it, Tracy. He doesn’t want to take responsibility for what he’s doing. He wants to shift the blame on to others and you’re one of them, but it’s all down to him.’

  ‘He knows things about me. He knows I gave Danielle up for adoption. How does he know that? He says he’s been here, been watching me at work.’

  ‘He might have followed Danielle in the days or weeks before he abducted her. He may well have seen you both together. Danielle could be under pressure to tell him things, Tracy.’

  ‘Tortured, you mean?’ Tracy stared at the back yard. The ice gave it a look as if all life was suspended and they were in a dream. Stuck in a cloud.

  ‘Danielle needs all your strength now and so does Jackson. Even if she hadn’t found you he would have come for her anyway. Somehow you have become part of the process for him, Tracy. If he stops calling then I think we will lose her. We need to sit this out. We need to wait. I think we should insist on Steve coming home now. You have too much to cope with. Let him bear some of the burden.’

  She shook her head. ‘I have to weather this storm on my own. It’s me and Jackson and Danielle against this man, whoever he is. You get a sense of perspective, don’t you?’ She turned to look at Jeanie.

  ‘This is a tough time for everyone, Tracy. How people react in a crisis like this doesn’t always bring out the best in them. I’ve seen couples really struggle to stay close when something this big hits.’

  ‘Not sure how close we were before it happened. I feel like I’ve got a bigger baby than Jackson to look after. At least with Jackson you get a cuddle now and again.’

  Jeanie smiled. ‘Why didn’t you have any more kids, Tracy?’

  ‘I don’t know. We just never reached a time when we thought it was a good idea. We’ve become stuck in a rut now, me and Steve; sometimes I wonder what’s left for us. We don’t even own our own home; this place is rented.’

  ‘Steve must earn good money as a manager?’

  ‘Not bad but we have a lot of debts; we struggle to pay them.’

  ‘Debts? From what?’

  ‘Credit cards mainly – a few loans. Steve got in trouble with them. We owe sixty thousand pounds still. It cost us our house. I thought Steve was paying the mortgage but he wasn’t. I don’t even know what he was doing with all the money. He says he can’t remember, that the debts just mounted and he used one card to pay off another. I had a beauty salon until it all happened. I had the garage converted into a treatment room. It was so beautiful: candles, potted palms, lovely and relaxing. I had hoped to expand – get a proper premises. I lost my studio and my clients when it all blew up and we had to sell the house and move in here. So now I work in Simmons full-time.’

  ‘I’m sorry, Tracy. Life sucks sometimes.’

  ‘It’s not too bad. I’m grateful for the job and you never know what’s around the corner, do you?’ As she said the words Tracy realized how ridiculous they sounded. She turned away, turned on the tap and began washing the sink.

  ‘You’re right, and sometimes t
hings just force you into decisions. Life could turn around for you. You could still have a baby. You’re young enough,’ said Jeanie.’

  ‘Maybe we’ll think about having a child in a few years if the money situation improves. I have big regrets. I wish I’d kept Danielle. I was just a kid and I thought the Fosters were lovely: I thought they were much better than me; they’d do a better job than I could. What did I know about babies? I was just fifteen. But it sounds like she had a horrible childhood. I could have given her better than that. I realize that now.’

  ‘Tracy, when Danielle talked to you about Gerald Foster, do you remember her making any actual allegations against him?’

  ‘She said she and him didn’t get on. She said he kicked her out when she got pregnant. She continued to see Marion Foster. I’m not sure if Gerald knew that or approved.’

  ‘Nothing improper though?’

  She looked at Jeanie. ‘Improper? You think he assaulted her?’

  ‘We don’t know anything at the moment, Tracy. We have to look at this from as many angles as we can.’ Jeanie went across to the table in the lounge and picked up the bag containing the puppets. ‘I think that it’s best to keep Jackson here for now.’

  Chapter 32

  Carter walked down the corridor to Bowie’s office. Bowie looked ready to leave.

  Carter popped his head inside the door.

  ‘You off?’

  ‘Yeah, but not for ten minutes. Come in, Dan.’ Carter closed the door behind him. ‘Sit down and tell me how it’s going with the undercover operation.’

  ‘It was test day today, so she’s had a lot to cope with, getting her legend right, juggling a lot of balls in the air at once but she’ll be okay. She’s home now so I’m off the hook for the evening. I need to go home and get some rest.’

  ‘Fancy a drink?’

  Carter shook his head and laughed. ‘I’m too tired.’

  ‘Yeah, we both know that’s a lie. You’re under the thumb.’

  ‘Maybe. But I have to give my relationship with Cabrina my best shot. What I don’t need is complications.’

  ‘If you change your mind text me.’