Frozen Grave (23 page)

‘One night, one woman,’ said Carter. ‘A woman in every town. It must save on the bed-and-breakfast bills.’

‘And it seems it creates income for his schemes,’ added Willis.

‘It’s not signed.’ Willis turned the pages over in her hand. ‘But Olivia Grantham’s name is here,’ said Willis as she handed Carter back the letter.

‘You know, I got back in touch with him,’ Harding said as she offered Willis a seat. ‘I was contemplating meeting up with him.’

‘Did he ask you to?’

‘Yes. He was keen to come and see me but it seemed like it had to be right then and I couldn’t. He was on the road. He lives a very strange life, travelling all week, literally on
the road – coming home just at weekends. Did you interview him yet?’

‘Yes.’

‘What did you think?’

‘I thought he looked like he drank too much,’ said Willis. ‘He was puffy and red-faced. He was sweating buckets.’ Carter nodded his agreement. ‘His clothes were
immaculate: expensive shirts, shoes; he didn’t have a hair out of place but, behind the façade, he looked frazzled.’

‘Really? When I met him, he was very slick, very ice-cool and in control. He was great in bed. Just needy outside it, I thought. Of course, if I’d known what I know now about him, I
might have enjoyed stringing him along for a bit longer. Just to see how far he would go to con me out of money for his Spanish home.’

‘Money gained by fraudulent means,’ said Carter. ‘We need some concrete evidence of that.’

Willis was looking at the names on the letter again.

‘I can’t believe that these women will part with money that easily.’

‘I can,’ said Harding. ‘You fall in love with a man who seems like Prince Charming and you lose your grip on reality. That’s the reality, Ebony: if he seems too good, he
probably is.’ Harding laughed.

‘He’s been lying about everything,’ said Carter. ‘His life hangs on a lie – he told you he had a son, didn’t he?’

‘Yes. He even spoke about his son going to university.’

‘Five years ago, he was killed in a car crash,’ Willis said, looking at the letter. ‘Our files show it was a car crash. Ellerman was driving the car he was killed
in.’

‘Strange. Why would he bullshit about that? Especially to someone like me, who’s not interested?’

‘He has created a world for himself,’ said Willis. ‘He has to keep control of it. He has to be sure to always tell the same lie to everyone, otherwise it’s too hard to
remember.’

‘So does someone hate him enough to want to set him up? Is it about the money or the other women?’ Carter asked.

‘What about his wife, Doctor?’ asked Willis. ‘Did he give anything away about his wife?’

‘No, but if she was anything like me, she wouldn’t have stayed with him. She can’t possibly stay after this.’ She tapped the letter with her forefinger. Harding had the
remnants of burgundy nail polish on her nails.

‘Unless she already knows and she doesn’t care,’ said Willis.

‘I think we need to go to his house and have a chat with her,’ Carter said.

‘I’d love to be a fly on the wall.’ Harding laughed. ‘Strangely enough, his discomfort is doing something for me. I can still meet him if you like.’

‘I think it would serve no purpose, Doctor . . . but thank you,’ Willis said – she could see that Harding would love to push it. ‘It will smell of entrapment if we
aren’t careful.’

‘Okay.’ She smiled. ‘Spoilsport. But what if one of these women rings me?’

‘Find out as much as you can but tell her that you only met him the once,’ answered Carter. ‘Don’t give anything away.’

‘Can I take a copy of this now?’ He held up the letter.

‘Be my guest.’

Carter copied it on the photocopier in his office.

‘It did make me laugh.’ Harding took back the original letter from Carter. ‘It’s a hell of a list. Even for Ellerman – he’d have to be superhuman to get round
all these women. God bless the great God, Viagra.’

‘Who are the women on his list and what kind of women are they, Pam?’ Harding had returned to the Whittington, and Carter and Willis were now in Robbo’s
office.

‘Here’s one of his ladies: Lisa Tompkins, she runs a gym in Brighton,’ Pam answered Carter. ‘Here’s another: Emily Porter,’ Pam read from her notes. Willis
and Carter came round to her desk, to look at her screen. ‘She’s a schoolteacher in a private school in Taunton.’ Pam brought up the cover photo from the school’s brochure
and pointed to a photo of a tall, slim, smiling woman in a tracksuit, standing erect, hands at her sides; she was flanked either side by a class of teenage girls with archery bows.
‘That’s her.’

‘Have you managed to get hold of her?’ asked Robbo.

‘I’ve left a message on her phone for her to call me but I’ll try again this evening.’

‘We mustn’t panic these women. Keep it casual in your questions when you ring.’

Pam brought up a photo on her PC of a hair salon from an article in a newspaper about the owner and her staff.

‘I traced a number to this salon, True Colours, and the hairdresser, called Paula Seymour. I think that’s her, third from the left. She met him on the site Sugar Daddies. The
photo’s from the local paper from when they opened True Colours three years ago.’

‘Pretty-looking woman,’ said Robbo, looking at Pam’s screen.

‘She wasn’t in today,’ said Pam, ‘and I tried her home number. I didn’t leave a message. I’ll keep trying her. I did get through to a woman in the West
Country. She’s quite a well-known artist who lives on Dartmoor. Her name is Megan Penarth. She paints atmospheric landscapes.’ Pam read from her notes: ‘It says on the letter that
she met him through a wine-lovers’ dating site.’

‘You know . . .’ Carter spoke his thoughts out loud. ‘That’s one thing you can’t accuse Ellerman of – being lazy in this. He hunts women. I wonder what his
end goal is? Is it just financial?’

‘Must be. If he is actually looking for a relationship with women, why does he stay in his marriage at all? answered Pam as she typed in the name of the company the next woman on the list,
Gillian Forth, worked for: Dreamcars.

‘Maybe he doesn’t leave his wife because he thinks she’ll take what he has left,’ said Willis.

‘Does the wife have money?’ asked Robbo.

‘I’ve looked into her,’ Pam replied. ‘She was a hairdresser when they married. It looks like she worked the first few years but then she gave up when Ellerman started to
make big money.’

‘How’s Toffee doing?’ asked Robbo suddenly, as they stood around Pam’s screen, waiting for the information to load.

‘Zoe is keeping us up to date,’ replied Willis. ‘She said that Simon Smith has been around a lot. She’s talking to him, trying to get him to tell us more about
Toffee’s friends. We’re still looking for Mahmet Balik, who seems to have gone to ground.’

Pam brought up a photo from the Dreamcars website.

‘This was taken when the London Olympics were on,’ she said as she zoomed in on the image.

‘Nice car,’ said Robbo. A woman was posing with two men in front of a red Ferrari.

Pam read the details: ‘It’s a photo of clients with the sales manager Gillian Forth. I’ll see what else I can find on her.’

Pam Googled the name Gillian Forth and read out from the screen: ‘Gillian Forth was named as the woman who died in an arson attack on her home in Exeter last week.’

Megan looked across the table at the three women opposite. They were sitting in a café close to Paula’s salon in Reading. They had chosen the most convenient
location for Paula because she had Fifi and Esme to pick up from school later.

Paula, Lisa and Emily had all arrived within a ten-minute period of one another. They sipped their drinks nervously, watching one another. Megan took charge.

‘Okay, well if it’s all right with everyone then I’ll chair this meeting.’

‘Go ahead,’ Lisa said. She was the last to arrive and she had taken a seat at the end of the table. ‘Although I’m not really sure what we can hope to achieve.’

‘We can at least find out what’s what,’ said Emily. She’d managed to get cover for her lessons today. She’d set all her pupils mock exam papers and someone just had
to make sure no one cheated.

‘Yeah.’ Paula had made a special effort with her make-up today. She looked like a young Priscilla Presley. Her black hair back-combed; her eyeliner thick black and her lips pale
pink. ‘We need to know the truth.’

‘The truth is that he’s a bastard . . .’ Lisa was shaking with anger. ‘And an ungrateful twat.’

The rest fell silent. Paula bowed her head as she skimmed the chocolate off her cappuccino.

‘Okay . . .’ Emily got out a pad of paper and double-clicked the top of her ballpoint pen. ‘I’ll take the minutes.’

Megan smiled at her.

‘Let’s talk facts then,’ Megan started. ‘Is anyone here going to admit to writing this letter?’ She held it up.

‘Wasn’t me . . .’ went around the table as each of the women shook her head.

‘Okay, well, if it was me, I’d own up and be proud. This is a lot of work. And it looks like it’s long overdue,’ Megan said, putting it in the centre of the table.

‘Won’t the person who wrote this get in a lot of trouble with the police?’ asked Paula. ‘What about spying? What about all this information about other people –
isn’t that illegal?’

‘What would the police charge you with?’ said Lisa. ‘Slander isn’t going to stick. These are plain facts, most of them.’

‘Oh, God . . .’ said Paula, shaking her head. ‘It’s such a mess.’ She stared wide-eyed at the other women. ‘We are never going to get our money
back.’

Megan held up her hand for silence.

‘Who, around this table, has put money into his scheme and how much?’ Megan glanced towards Emily to be ready to record the amounts.

They looked at one another, reluctant to answer.

‘Okay, I’ll kick off,’ said Lisa. ‘I’m down twenty thousand.’

‘It’s fifteen thousand for me,’ said Emily.

‘And you, Paula?’ asked Megan.

‘Twelve. It’s all my savings. I really thought we were going to have somewhere together in Spain. The girls,
my
girls, they’re very fond of him. It’s so hard
– so sad.’

‘I know.’ Megan reached out and put her hand over Paula’s.

‘Will the police take our money if they find out it all comes down to fraud? Will we lose it?’ Paula looked for an answer around the table.

‘I don’t know, but in my heart I think the answer’s yes,’ replied Megan. ‘Yes, you will lose everything if they throw Ellerman in prison. So we’d better be
careful what we say to the police if they ask.’ Megan lowered her voice for the last part.

‘I agree,’ said Lisa. ‘Just until we get him to sign an agreement. I don’t want to lose my investment. Christ – look at us! How can we all have been so stupid?
We’re none of us dumb . . . but we certainly fell for it.’

‘I know what you’re saying,’ said Paula. ‘I have had such a struggle to build up my business and look after my girls but I fell for his schemes. I can’t believe I
wasted all this time believing in him.’

‘That’s because he’s a liar and a scammer,’ said Lisa. ‘We shouldn’t blame ourselves for trusting.’

‘How much do you think his wife knows about JJ’s life?’ asked Paula, looking at them one at a time.

Megan shrugged, Lisa shook her head. Emily looked back blankly.

‘Then I think that’s something we should find out.’ Megan went on. ‘We need to know what and who we’re up against.’

‘As far as I’m concerned, she needs to understand that she’s been conned just like us,’ said Lisa. ‘She is at the heart of all this. She seems to be the one person
he really cares about.’

‘I don’t believe that,’ Paula said, averting her eyes as the anger around the table turned to sadness. ‘But I do think she must have a lot more in common with us,’
she said as she played with her coffee spoon.

‘We also need her if we are going to get the money back,’ said Megan in a voice that showed she wasn’t going to allow the group to descend into self-pity. ‘It will be
easier if she’s on our side. I’ll talk to her.’

‘How do you know JJ won’t be there?’ asked Paula.

‘Because we must carry on as normally as we can. If we’re not careful and clever, he’ll run if we let him. He’ll move on to greener, fresher pastures. There’s still
a lot of the UK for him to cover. What we do is – we pretend we don’t believe it or we
do
believe it but we forgive him. Whatever we choose it has to be believable.’

Lisa was shaking her head. ‘I’ll try and act like I can carry on with the relationship but I can’t guarantee anything.’

‘Well, that’s okay. Whatever works for you. It would seem odd to him if none of us reacted to the letter. You do what you think’s best.’

‘I can do it,’ said Paula. ‘I can pretend like I’m hurt but I’m willing to see both sides.’

‘Um . . . so can I,’ Emily said.

Lisa swung her head back and forth in disbelief.

‘Don’t tell me, deep down, you’re all okay with what he’s done?’ She gestured towards the letter. ‘Don’t tell me you’re just going to bend over
and take it?’

‘No. Of course not. I wouldn’t be here otherwise, would I?’ said Paula.

‘I don’t know. You could be here to check us all out. You could have written the letter and maybe there is a place in Spain and you’re the one who’s going to be living in
it.’

‘Please.’ Megan called for calm. ‘I know we are all upset about this but we need to keep to the facts. Paula is fond of JJ; we all are,
were
. I understand this is
going to be very difficult for a lot of women. But we are here to teach him a lesson, not to upset one another. And we are here to come out of this with some justice. It’s a good thing that
Paula is still talking to Ellerman, we can use it. What about you, Emily?’

‘I haven’t contacted him since the letter arrived. I just want my money back. I thought he loved me. I feel so stupid. I feel humiliated for all of us.’

‘You mustn’t beat yourselves up about falling for it.’ Megan reached out her hands across the table to the other three. ‘I may not have parted with any money
yet
– but I can see how it happened to all of you. Maybe I would have before long, who knows? I know he was beginning to try and push me in that direction. I am hurting like the rest of you, I
thought I had a future with JJ. I will do everything to help you get your money back. I’ve been pretending to him that I don’t know about any letter. I am going to keep that a secret
from him. I would be grateful if you all remember that if he phones you. Don’t mention my name. I think the best thing is to lure him down to Dartmoor and we can all confront him there. We
can make him sign a contract about the money and investments. We can hand over power to the investors, you. We will all witness it. We’ll be in this together. How does that sound?’