Dead of Winter Tr (35 page)

‘He’s coming.’

After five minutes Michael came downstairs. He had changed into T-shirt and tracksuit trousers.

‘My wife says you want to talk to me?’ He went into the lounge where Carter was looking at the bookshelves.

‘Is she alright?’ Carter turned back from the bookcase and nodded in the direction of the kitchen.

‘She is finding this a great strain, as we both are. It’s not easy for any of us at the moment. What do you need to know?’

‘I need a DNA test from you.’ Carter took one out of his pocket, cleaned his hands with a wipe and tore off the top then handed it to Tapp. ‘Swab it around the inside of your
cheeks for a minute. Make sure it’s good and coated, turn it as you press; we need the cheek cells not saliva.’ Tapp handed it back when he had finished. ‘You been a Gunner all
your life?’ Carter picked up the picture of Michael Tapp standing with David Seaman outside the old Arsenal stadium.

Michael nodded. ‘Since I was a boy and used to live near the Arsenal. My dad had a season ticket.’

‘I support Spurs.’

Michael Tapp grinned and groaned. ‘Someone’s got to.’

‘Yeah, I know . . . wish I could go more often; I’m always working and you know how expensive tickets are these days, don’t you?’ Michael Tapp’s face registered
that he knew when he was being led. His smile disappeared; he began tidying up Alfie’s toys. ‘You must have paid a lot for three tickets.’ Carter got out his phone and checked a
memo. ‘Upper tier, block 102, Row 11. Three seats – 310, 311, 312 . . . very nice.’ He looked up at Tapp. ‘You bought yourself a ticket but you didn’t go to the match
with the boys?’

‘That’s right.’ He stacked Alfie’s toys into a corner.

‘But you intended to?’ Tapp started shaking his head. ‘You bought three tickets.’

Tapp stopped what he was doing for a moment then renewed his tidying at double the speed. ‘That’s right. I bought three tickets but I changed my mind.’

‘Why was that?’

He shrugged. ‘I intended to go at one point, bought them way in advance, but things changed. Alex asked me not to go with them. I thought about it, and decided the boys were old enough to
go on their own. I was going to suggest another friend have my ticket instead of me but Alex didn’t want that.’

‘Aaron’s mother said she thought you would be going with them. She had no idea.’

‘Really? I thought Alex and Aaron had agreed to it between them.’ He made an unconvincing attempt to look surprised. His face turned red.

‘What did you do while they were at the match?’

‘I don’t know . . . had a coffee somewhere, did a bit of window-shopping . . . what is this . . . do I need to account for my every move? Why don’t you put the energy into
finding Alex instead of harassing us . . . you can see the state my wife is in . . . she’s very brittle at the moment.’

‘Did you change your mind and go in after all?’

‘No.’

Michael Tapp looked towards the door of the lounge. ‘Where’s your colleague?’

‘I expect she’s chatting with Mrs Tapp. How do you think she’s coping with all this?’

‘The same way we both are. We’re devastated, what do you expect?’ He looked at Carter accusingly. ‘Someone’s walked away with our son in broad daylight.’

‘Not just someone . . .’

Tapp gave a small intake of breath but kept his eyes glued on Carter.

‘What do you mean?’

‘Well, she wasn’t just someone, was she?’

‘Sorry?’

‘She was the person who had the spare ticket.’

Tapp tilted his head to one side, but his face became darker. His eyes narrowed onto Carter’s face as if trying to read every expression.

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’

‘Can you show me the ticket?’

‘I looked for it before; I must have thrown it away.’

‘That’s the only way she got near enough to Alex to take him. She gained access to the ground that way. She met him on the way to the toilet, but then he knew her, or he trusted her
implicitly. She arranged to meet him at half-time. Why was that?’

Michael Tapp shook his head. ‘I remember now.’ He looked relieved. ‘In the end I gave the ticket away to one of the people at Alex’s school, one of the dads.’

‘Did he pay you? It’s what fifty pounds? It’s a lot of money to right off.’’

‘I don’t remember. I owed him maybe. I just don’t remember.’

In the kitchen Ebony was watching Helen with concern.

‘Are you okay?’ she asked, seeing her shoulders bow and begin to tremble. ‘You and your husband . . . everything alright, Helen?’

Helen Tapp turned and looked at her: her face was flushed; she wiped her eyes with the heel of her hand.

‘Bound to be difficult. He doesn’t like showing his feelings. He’s in denial.’

‘Is he home a bit more to help you?’

‘The last few days he hasn’t been.’

‘Helen, I’m sorry to ask you, but do you have a strong marriage? Have you been having problems?’

Helen Tapp nodded wearily. ‘He has had affairs.’

‘Has?’

She nodded again. ‘I thought about leaving, but with Alfie so small – and I don’t have a job. I don’t have my own money. I wouldn’t even know where to go or how to
look after the kids on my own.’ She clasped her hand over her mouth to suffocate the scream about to explode. Ebony went over to her and put her arms round her but she stopped, backed away,
swung her head back and forth. ‘No . . . please . . . he mustn’t hear me cry.’

‘We’re going to do our utmost for Alex, Helen. I believe he is still alive. I believe we will find him. When we do . . . you and I will talk again and I will put you in touch with
women who can help you in whatever you decide to do.’

Helen grabbed more tissues from the box on the side and buried her face in them and sobbed silently as she nodded. She looked up at Ebony, her eyes swimming with gratitude.

‘Now stay strong, stay optimistic, because we have a team out there working twenty-four seven just to find Alex and we are going to do it. You have to do your side of things and be ready
for him when he comes home.’ She nodded. ‘Any woman in your husband’s life right now?’

Helen nodded. ‘This one’s special. I think it’s been going on for a while.’

‘Have you seen her?’

She shook her head. ‘I’ve smelt her on him.’

Carter and Ebony left the Tapps’ house and walked back across to the detective’s pool car. The smell of cold takeaway greeted her as Ebony opened the passenger
door.

‘Have you finished with that?’ They’d picked up something for lunch from a drive-through on the way. A half-eaten burger was on the top of the dashboard.

‘Be my guest . . .’ Carter watched her, amused. He pressed another square of nicotine gum out of the packet and substituted it for the old one.

Ebony started on the cold chips.

‘Nobody feed you at home?’ Carter shook his head in disbelief as he watched Ebony foraging for lost chips at the bottom of the bag.

‘Got to eat when you can, Sarge.’ Ebony wiped the ketchup from her hands with the napkin provided and brushed the crumbs from her trousers. ‘Tina feeds me sometimes. She likes
experimenting. She likes doing Jamie’s Thirty Minute Meals but we never have all the ingredients so it ends up as Tina’s Two Minute Mash-ups.’ She made a mental note to herself to
find Tina when she got back to Fletcher House. She took out her pocket notebook and pen. ‘So he didn’t sleep there last night.’ She talked and scribbled. ‘He came in at half
eleven in the morning the next day. He works all the way out in Hertfordshire. There’s no way he’s just popped back. Wherever he’d been he didn’t want to talk about it . . .
but it’s not the first time he hasn’t come home. You can tell when a woman has given up bothering to argue back or to stand up for herself. That’s where Helen Tapp is. She’s
a bullied wife who is trapped. She said he’s having an affair at the moment . . . with someone special, she said.’

‘We’ll get surveillance on him. He didn’t have an answer about the third ticket. What if that was his girlfriend on the CCTV of Alex?’

They got back to Fletcher House and went up to their floor. Jeanie rolled her eyes sympathetically towards them and then towards Davidson’s office as they walked into the
ETO.

‘Davidson wants to see you both.’

Davidson was fuming: pale and shaking with rage. ‘He’s complained. Michael Tapp’s complained.’

‘He’s a slippery fuck, sir. We thought it was worth a shot.’

‘What . . . to intimidate one of the parents of a missing child?’

Davidson drummed the top of his pen on his desktop.

‘He’s a liar, sir,’ said Carter. ‘He’s hiding something, not least that he’s having an affair.’

‘Plus . . . the other mothers from Alex’s school think he’s a creep and screws around,’ said Ebony.

‘Being a serial shagger isn’t illegal. Harassing someone for it is. You two stay away from them unless you clear it with me first. Leave it to the Family Liaison Officer. Leave it to
Jeanie, for Christ’s sake.’

‘Yes, sir . . .’ They turned to leave.

‘Ebony . . . you went to see Carmichael – what did you find out from him? What were your impressions of the way he was?’

‘I thought he looked quite rough, sir. He looks like he has gone beyond sleeping.’

‘So he’s working undercover?’

‘Yes. And his name is Hart. He’s been identified by the surveillance team looking at Digger’s club.’

‘That team is being shut down now. The objective was to find Sonny and it’s been accomplished. What information could he give you?’

‘He knew about Justin de Lange’s past history. He says he doesn’t know where de Lange is. I made it clear to him that we have a possible DNA link to Justin that we can’t
prove without finding him. I said that solving his wife and child’s murder depends on solving this case and that there is the life of a fourteen-year-old boy at stake now.’

‘How did he respond?’

‘He seemed not to want to think about that, sir. He says he will do things on his own and his own way.’

‘Then we’ll bring him in . . . he can’t be allowed to run around on a vendetta.’

‘Sir,’ said Ebony, ‘he’s working undercover. He could still prove a valuable link to Digger.’

‘I agree,’ said Carter. ‘But I think we should put more men on to watch Digger and Martingale. We need to make them all nervous. Even if Martingale has nothing to do with it,
he may be a target somehow. Carmichael may try and get to them. We should keep them under surveillance. Carmichael has to be contained until we find the killers and the boy, sir. We need to use him
wisely but we can’t afford not to watch him . . .’

Davidson pressed his hands against the edge of the desk.

‘Ebony? You’re the one closest to him . . . what’s your opinion?’

‘I think Carmichael is in the middle of something and if we pull him out now we may never find Alex Tapp.’

Robbo had the details of Alex and Shannon’s hospital visits in front of him. He called Ebony in to see him as she left Davidson’s office.

‘Staff lists for the two hospitals show a cross-over of some agency staff. Three nurses have worked in both hospitals around the time when Shannon and Alex were in having treatment. I
suggest you head over to the King’s College Hospital where Shannon was treated. The sister there on the ward remembers her and could be helpful.’

Ebony took the stairs up to Alice ward on the second floor in King’s College Hospital. She showed her warrant card at the door and again at the desk. ‘Sister Phillips?’ Ebony
read the name on her badge.

‘Ah yes . . . Detective Willis. I have been looking out the information you wanted. Please come into my office. Please . . . sit yourself down now while I make sure I have what you
need.’ Ebony followed the sister behind the desk and into her office. ‘The nurses who were working at the time Shannon Mannings came in to have her arm operation? November eighth
2009?’

‘Yes. That’s right.’

Sister Phillips handed Ebony the staff register open at that week.

Ebony studied the page then turned to see the rest of the staff rota for the preceding and following month. ‘And . . . apart from the core staff there are an extra three staff who appear
sometimes on this register? I’d like to ask you about: Josie Quirino, Mandy Spray and Linda Peters.’

‘They’ll be the agency staff.’

‘Do you know these women personally?

‘I have worked with all of them. There are some we will always choose to use if we can. Josie is a Filipina working here; she’s married to one of the ambulance men. Mandy is an old
friend who I have known all my working career and Staff Nurse Linda Peters is a very welcome new addition to the great agency staff we can call on. Now she is someone I would love to have working
here full-time. She’s very popular, and highly qualified. She loves the kids. She has a great rapport with the parents.’

Ebony took out the clearest of the photos taken of Alex with the woman as they prepared to get into the van.

‘Do you recognise this woman?’

Nurse Phillips took it from Ebony and looked closely.

‘It looks like Nurse Peters, Linda. But Linda’s hair is blonde not dark.’

‘Here Ebony showed her another photo of the woman’s back view.’

‘Yes. It could be her. It’s definitely none of the other two.’

‘Do you keep in touch with her? Have you got her home phone number? Address perhaps?’ Sister Phillips shook her head. ‘Not even from the checks that were run on her when she
started working here?’ asked Ebony.

‘No sorry . . . I just ring the agency when we need someone. If she’s free she comes.’

‘How long have you had Nurse Peters work here?’

‘I would say . . . about a year . . . on and off.’

‘Which agency does she come from?’

‘Here . . .’ She pulled out a list from the front of the staff file. ‘Top one . . . here’s where I look when I need staff to cover. You can take that list; I have a spare
one. I always start at the top.’

She handed it to Ebony.

‘Do you have a better photo of her?’

‘I’ll ask the nurses that have worked with her. They may have one of her on their phone.’