‘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.’
Willis stared at the screen. Scott’s face loomed into the camera as she pressed the end call button and logged out. She could see he was still logged on to Skype after he’d ended the call with her. She wondered if he’d be doing the rounds of friends now. He was lonely, just out of a relationship, he said. He hadn’t really had anything to say to her. He’d just wanted some contact with the outside world. Willis didn’t really get that. Everything she wanted was inside the room. She didn’t want contact outside it.
Harding put the bag of takeaway containers into the bin and opened another bottle of wine as she settled down to surf the sites. She sat at her kitchen table but didn’t open her laptop. She knew there was something she had to do, something she’d put off. She phoned Carter. He’d just got into bed beside Cabrina when his phone rattled on the bedside cabinet. He slipped out of bed to take it.
‘Dr Harding?’
‘Sorry – I know it’s late but there is something else I need to tell you about Lorraine Chance. Are you having any luck with tracing the lorry drivers?’
‘No, not so far.’ Carter slipped out of the bedroom, wearing just his boxers. Cabrina sighed as she watched him go. He walked quickly down the stairs so as not to wake Archie. Once inside the kitchen, he closed the door.
‘What’s on your mind?’
‘My car.’
‘The damage, you mean?’
‘Yes. It happened the same night as she was killed.’
‘Okay. That’s unfortunate. But is it connected?’ Carter was beginning to think that Harding was drinking and dialling.’
‘It happened in the adjacent car park to the lorry park. I was going to meet someone there. He didn’t show up, or I’ll never know if he did or not – the minute I circled the car park I saw a light come on in a lorry’s cab and I thought that perhaps my date had made some other arrangement… I thought – as we were meeting for a dogging liaison – it was just possible that the lorry driver was going to watch. But, I was just about to make my way towards the lorries when the car was surrounded by youths in hoodies. They just started attacking it – well, you saw the damage.’
‘Substantial. You should have told me sooner. They tried to get in the car by the look of it.’
‘Yes, sorry, that was their intention. I don’t know what they would have done then but I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t have gone my way.’
‘Who was the person you were meeting?’
‘He sent me a text message. He said he’d contacted me before. He had my number so I thought he must have, even though I didn’t have any previous messages from him. But he seemed to know what I wanted so I thought, “okay…”’
‘You have no idea where you met him before?’
‘None. It could have been in a bar – it could have been on a dating site.’
‘Have you messaged him at all since that evening?’
‘No. I was debating what to do.’
‘He didn’t give you a name?’