Cold Killers (42 page)

‘Is it a hundred per cent?’

‘Yes. Apparently, he’s got his doubts about the deal happening unless he comes across. Are the diamonds ready for the exchange?’

‘Carter’s dealing with it. They’re in a safe place, ready. Ross, are you okay? Where are you?’

The line went dead.

Willis called Carter again but his phone went straight to voicemail. She went down the corridor to Robbo’s office. He was just switching on the kettle and starting up his computers. It was
seven thirty.

‘Robbo, is there a landline at the apartment where Della is?’

‘Not as far as I know. What’s the matter?’

‘I need to get hold of Carter. His phone’s dead. Ross is back in touch. The shipment is about to leave Valencia and Tony Butcher’s coming over. He could, potentially already be
here.’

Robbo clapped his hands together and looked skywards. ‘For what we are about to receive may the Lord make us truly thankful.’

‘We need to finalise arrangements. Carter had the diamonds moved yesterday. Where are they? Did he tell you?’ asked Willis.

Robbo shook his head. ‘He chose one of the self-storage places around the M25, but I don’t know which one.’

‘I’m going to go and find him,’ said Willis. ‘He needs to know this right away.’

Willis left Robbo and went down to use the detectives’ pool car. She drove down Holloway Road, turned off onto a side road and parked up. She rang the entry button for
the flat and waited. She rang it several times, then she rang Robbo.

‘There’s no answer at the flat,’ she said.

‘I’ll text Della. We have code names. It should be safe.’

While she was waiting, someone came out of the block. She slipped inside and walked up the stairs. As she reached the flat door she saw bloodspots leading away towards the back stairs to the car
park. She tried the door handle of the flat and it turned; the door opened.

Willis did a quick sweep of the flat and then took out her phone.

‘Robbo? I’m inside. The flat door was unlocked. There’s blood, and there’s signs of a fight. There’s no sign of Carter or Della. The beds are stone cold. No one
slept here last night.’ She bent down to examine the bloodspots. ‘The blood’s dried but there’s a steady amount of it, large drips from sites close together. It’s
fallen from high up, possible head wound. I’m following it down the back stairs to the car park as we speak.’ Willis walked down the back stairs and opened the heavy fire door leading
to the underground car park.

‘The blood pools. I would say the wounded person got into a car.’

‘I’ve just got a text back from Della,’ said Robbo. ‘It was sent from the Shoreditch apartment. It says, “Yes, I saw Danielle yesterday. At home
now.”
 
’

‘Carter’s BMW’s here. Do we know what Della was driving?’

‘A white Volkswagen Up,’ answered Robbo.

‘It’s not here. I’m going to drive to Carter’s flat.’ Willis heard the ting of a message received and she saw a light come on in Carter’s car. She walked over
to it and saw the glow of a phone screen. ‘Carter’s phone is here in his car.’

An hour later Willis phoned Robbo again from outside Carter’s flat. She’d been trying to get in for the last ten minutes.

‘No, he’s not here, either. This is feeling very wrong, Robbo. We have to know if that was really Della answering from the Shoreditch flat or if someone has got hold of her
phone.’

‘I’ve just talked to the surveillance officers. They said that they saw Laurence driving her car. Only Harold is in the flat right now. No sign of Della.’

‘Okay. I’m coming back. I need to talk to Chief Inspector Bowie.’

Bowie was waiting for her when Willis got back to Fletcher House.

‘Have you exhausted every possibility?’ he asked. ‘If we go in to the Shoreditch flat looking for Carter we blow this whole operation and we may still not find him.’

‘He’s not in the Shoreditch apartment; neither is Della. Chances are they are together, sir,’ said Willis.

‘With Tony Butcher here, David Ross back in touch, we are so close now to our objective, Sergeant. Both Della and Carter will want us to stick to our objective until we have proof
otherwise. They know what they’re doing. Keep looking for Carter but don’t make it too obvious. Don’t panic until we have good reason to.’

‘Yes, sir. We think we know where the shipment will be coming in. Ross said he’d be in touch again when he had details.’

‘That’s good. That’s all we can ask for. See if Robbo has come up with possible locations for the self-storage. Carter might still have his phone. We need to hack into
it.’

‘I left it in his car, sir. The car’s being brought back to the station. We’ll access it then.’

‘Meanwhile, we act like we’re not missing Carter, like we don’t know he’s gone missing. We hang tight, yes?’

‘Yes, sir.’

Willis went back down the corridor to Robbo. He was working with Pam to try to locate where Carter had moved the diamonds.

‘What’s your brief?’ asked Robbo when Willis walked in.

‘The chief inspector is calling this one; I have to go about my business as if Carter isn’t missing,’ said Willis, obviously troubled. ‘We can’t afford to raise
suspicions,’ she said. Robbo nodded.

‘Carter will be okay.’ Robbo laid a comforting hand on her shoulder.

‘I know but he’s hurt already.’

‘We don’t know that it’s his blood, not for sure,’ said Pam.

Willis nodded, but she didn’t look comforted.

‘I think the chief inspector’s right, Eb,’ said Robbo.

‘And if they kill him?’ said Willis. She sat down at the spare desk and logged on. ‘We have to try and find him. If Della is with him he will be under so much pressure to
protect her. He will sacrifice himself.’

‘What if Della managed to get a message out to someone?’ asked Pam. ‘Who would it be, do you think? Who might she have called?’

‘She’d call her parents. Fredo’s Ristorante in Ramsgate,’ answered Willis.

‘Here’s the number,’ said Pam, looking on the Internet. ‘Do you want to ring?’

Willis took out her phone. Pam read off the number. Connie answered.

‘Connie, it’s Dan Carter’s colleague, Ebony. I was wondering if you’ve heard from Della in the last few days.’

‘No, I haven’t heard from her at all. Is she okay?’

‘Yes, I’m sure she is. It’s just I can’t locate her or Carter at the moment. If she calls you can you ring me on this number straight away?’

‘Of course. I was so sad about Billy Manson. Was it suicide?’

‘Yes, we’re treating it as suicide.’

‘He only came to see me recently. He brought a box of things from the office. He said they were papers to give to Della. They were Eddie’s things.’

‘Thanks. Please stay there. I’ll come and collect the box from you now.’

She came off the phone. ‘I’m driving down to Ramsgate, Robbo. Billy Manson left a box there just when the fireplaces were moved a week ago. Della’s mother Connie doesn’t
know what’s in it. Billy told her there were things that belonged to Eddie but there could be something else he was hiding.’

‘Okay, well get back as fast as you can. We need to be on standby.’

Willis arrived an hour later and parked as near as she could get to Fredo’s. She rounded the corner and was buffeted by the gusting wind straight off the harbour.

‘Ebony, come in out of the cold. Have a coffee. We are just getting set up for lunch. What’s this all about? Where is Dan? Is he with Della?’

‘I think Dan is with her, yes. I can’t stop, sorry.’

‘Should we be worried? I don’t know why Della has not been in touch. What’s she doing over here?’

‘I can’t tell you anything, I’m afraid. I’m sure Della will tell you when you see her.’ Willis was desperate to go.

‘Okay, well I will wait to hear then.’ Connie hugged her. ‘Here.’ Connie handed over the box to Willis.

‘I can see you are worried. You keep in touch, please, Ebony.’

Willis nodded. She carried the box back to the car and opened it up as she sat in the driver’s seat. She phoned Robbo.

‘It looks interesting. There are mentions of his other companies. I’ll be back within the hour.’

As she was about to set off she got a text from Ross: ‘We lost shipment.’

Carter looked up at the sound of voices. Jo jumped to his feet from his seat on the barrels; Della stirred. As they opened the door to the pub upstairs, daylight seeped inside
the cellar.

Tony Butcher stood looking at Carter and shaking his head.

Tony was feeling the cold. He had borrowed a coat from Harold. The coat was too small and short on the arms. He had sandals on his feet, bare toes. He had found a red fleece blanket in the
Transit van they’d hired, and wrapped it around himself and over his head, like an old Indian.

‘You better start talking, son. I can see you’re in a lot of pain.’ Tony signalled for Jo to remove Carter’s gag.

Carter tried to speak, his mouth was chalky dry. Tony gave him a drink of water.

‘Let Della go,’ said Carter. ‘She doesn’t know where the diamonds are, she told you. I took them off her, I hid them. I’ll tell you, if you let her go.’

‘You’ll tell us anyway, won’t he, Marco?’

Marco stepped forward with his cigarette and stubbed it out on Carter’s cheek. The sound and smell of his own flesh burning hit his nose with the pain. He flinched.

‘Marco knows how to get the best out of people,’ said Tony. ‘I admire your balls. What were you thinking? Get the girl, get the diamonds? You almost had it all. You were almost
halfway to paradise.’ Tony laughed. ‘Eh, son? Eh? Eh?’

Marco stepped forward, made a flat hand and jabbed his fingers hard into Carter’s lower abdominals. Carter instinctively raised his knees as the pain hit, his shoulders jolted and he
yelled in agony. He saw Della react out of the corner of his eyes. He saw her shoulders move as if she were crying. Marco jabbed again, repeatedly, as Carter’s shoulder joints began to strain
at their sockets. Carter vomited bile. Marco went across to get his blowtorch.

Above the sound of Carter retching a phone rang.

Marco answered it.

‘The shipment is here. I’m not fucking around any more with this guy.’ Marco lit the blowtorch and walked across to Della. ‘We’ll make him talk.’

‘He doesn’t care if she isn’t left with a face. You better talk, Inspector,’ said Tony. ‘Tell me.’

‘The keys – they belong to a self-storage unit off junction twenty-six,’ said Carter. ‘You’ll see the signs then for Cotters self-storage units. The code you need
to get in the gate is 1066. The storage unit is number thirty-nine.’

‘Untie her,’ said Laurence. ‘We’ll take her with us as insurance.’

‘No. They’re no use to us any more.’ Marco looked at Laurence and then at Tony.

‘You’re wrong, Marco. You are much too hasty. You rush head long in with that big fat head of yours and you don’t stop to think of the consequences. Cut him down,’ said
Tony. ‘This one . . .’ He looked at Carter as he landed on the floor with a yell of pain as he was released from strappado. ‘This one is a fantastic bargaining tool for
us.’

‘Exactly,’ Harold joined in. ‘You could be looking at your ticket out of here. Gag him again and leave him tied as he is. We’ll come back for him if we need him.
I’m not taking him with us. He’ll be trouble.’

‘What about her?’ asked Marco.

‘She comes with us. I haven’t done with her,’ said Laurence. Tony looked at him curiously and grinned.

‘Now we pick up the diamond expert, Roland de Soir,’ said Marco as he took out his phone.

Maxi had been about to get showered and leave the hotel to go to his shop when the phone beside the bed rang.

‘We pick you up in twenty minutes from the outside of the hotel.’

‘Where will we be going?’

‘Don’t worry. You’ll be taken care of.’

‘I need to know where it is.’

‘Twenty minutes. Be outside.’ The phone went dead.

Maxi tried ringing Carter but couldn’t get through. He phoned Bowie.

‘What do you want me to do?’

‘Go with them and we’ll follow you.’

‘But—’

‘Maxi, Carter is missing. A lot depends on this.’

‘I’ll do my best. He’d do the same for me.’

‘Do you know what you have to do?’

‘I know what Carter told me. It’s a Colombian drug cartel called the Zapata family. I’m working for them to make sure that the diamonds add up to more than a hundred million
pounds.’

Maxi showered and got ready to leave.

Bowie called Willis.

‘Marco phoned. They’re picking Maxi up to examine the diamonds. It means the shipment has arrived. We need them followed. We must not lose them.’

‘Carter’s told them where the diamonds are,’ said Willis. ‘He waited for the shipment to arrive. He must have.’

Willis felt a glimmer of hope.

Undercover officers sat in their cars across from the hotel, waiting for Maxi’s pick-up.

Maxi came out looking anxious. His phone rang and he stopped to answer it. Just as he did so, a motorbike drove past the front of the hotel and slowed, and the driver handed Maxi a helmet. In a
second Maxi was gone, and the bike was weaving through the London traffic. His phone was thrown beneath tyres as they sped away.

‘Who do you keep texting?’ Tony asked Marco. Harold was driving. Maxi was sitting in the second row of seats. Laurence and Della were travelling separately in
Della’s car. The motorbike was in the back of the van. They were driving on the back roads towards Kent.

‘I’m telling them where to deliver the shipment.’

‘Ring instead, for fuck’s sake.’

‘Who knows about the laboratory, Marco?’ asked Harold.

‘Just me and Manson and the cooks we kept here. They stay for six months and then new come. We have it working sweetly.’

‘Will the cooks work for the new cartel?’ asked Harold.

‘Sure. They work for us.’

‘Why didn’t Manson want to carry on?’ asked Harold. ‘He must have been making good money from it?’

‘He didn’t want to expand, go global. He was thinking too small. He was a small man,’ answered Marco.

‘And Eddie?’

‘He was too scared.’