‘And so you should.’ Marie gave him her best schoolmarm glare. ‘So, where are we now with Leah?’
‘I’ve had a quiet word with a friend in uniform. He’s got a couple of bodies keeping a general eye on her college. The university has been informed,’ he looked at his watch, ‘and right now she’s being bored to death in a two-hour tutorial. She has a special cell phone that is linked directly to Control and her auntie. Personally I don’t think we are going to get too much from what has already happened. The best we can do is to keep watching her, and hope he shows himself again.’
A young civilian stood by the desk, holding out a large printed black-and-white photograph.
‘Sarge? Orac sent this for you. She said it’s crap and don’t blame her for the state of our street cameras.’
Marie grinned. The head of IT was always acerbic.
Carter took the photo and stared at it. ‘Bloody hell! Is this the best you can do?’
The man looked downcast. ‘Sorry, but the film quality is rubbish. Orac reckons the cameras on that estate were last used to keep tabs on Jack the Ripper. They belong in a museum.’
Carter nodded. ‘Well, thank Orac for trying.’ He stared long and hard at the grainy, indistinct picture.
‘Hand it over,’ Marie demanded.
‘It’s seriously pants. Look.’
She took it and swore softly. ‘You’re right. I’m not even sure if it’s a male.’ It was the stalker, she was sure, but to get identification from it was impossible. It could have been any of a hundred local yobs.
‘Oh, I think it is,’ said Carter, ‘And I think it’s probably Leah’s admirer, but we’ll have to find a better shot. This is just about useless.’
Marie put down the picture. ‘Any joy from the street cameras around Superintendent Crooke’s house last night?
‘Nothing. It’s as if he dropped out of the sky directly into the super’s herbaceous border.’ Carter shrugged.
Marie pursed her lips. ‘Then it looks as if our surveillance boys aren’t going to faze him any. He’s really determined to get to Leah, isn’t he?’
‘Oh yeah, he’s persistent alright,’ said Carter.
‘So what now?’
‘I guess we wait to see what he does next.’ He smiled grimly. ‘Ten to one he won’t keep us waiting very long.’
‘You reckon?’
‘I reckon.’ Carter sank back into a chair and stared up at her. ‘I’m going back to the boat tonight. Want to come?’
‘Can’t this time. Sorry.’ Marie bit her lip, but remembered Laura’s words. She badly needed some downtime. ‘Gary’s cooking dinner tonight. It would have been his sister’s birthday today, and he said he wanted to do what he always did and cook something special.’
‘Ah, I see. That’s nice.’
‘So? What’s the plan then? Dismantle the Eva May, plank by plank?’
‘Dunno, but that doesn’t seem like a bad idea.’
‘Silas Breeze.’ Marie surprised herself. The thought had literally just come to her.
‘Silas? What about him?’
‘Go talk to him before you turn your precious Eva May into matchwood. You say he got on with Ray. Well, if you spend your time waiting for some elusive bird that’s only seen once every forty years, surely you chat to pass the time, don’t you?’
Elation and relief spread across Carter’s handsome face.
‘There are times when I could kiss you, Detective Sergeant Evans!’
‘Don’t even think about it!’ said Marie in mock horror. ‘I’ll accept the accolade graciously, but let’s skip the slushy bit, shall we?’
‘Silas! Of course! Why on earth didn’t I think of him?’
‘Because it’s too personal. Try looking at it like a case and do it with your copper’s hat on. It’s easier that way, I promise.’
‘You’re right, as always. I’ll go see Silas tonight, and now, back to work.’
Marie watched him stride away. This was more like the old Carter. When he had the bit between his teeth, there was no stopping him. If he could use that determination to pay back his friends, then maybe they could all find some peace.
Ten minutes later he re-emerged from his office. ‘Guess what? Matey-boy just couldn’t help himself. He’s had another stab at getting Leah’s attention. This time with luxury chocolates placed inside her car. Her locked car.’
‘Shit! How the hell did he do that? And right under our noses!’
‘Mmm. He’s either very lucky or very clever.’
As far as she knew, there was only one place in town where you could buy really posh chocolates. Surely they’d be able to ID the purchaser? Or did he send someone else? And how the hell did he manage to bypass the university security and get into a locked vehicle? Her mind swam with suppositions.
Carter perched on the edge of her desk. ‘I’ve decided he’s clever, not lucky. Uniform have paid a visit to the shop, and guess what? It was a cash sale, and they have no security cameras. Not considered necessary.’
‘What about the CCTV in the street?’
‘That end of Lytton Alley doesn’t have any.’ He twisted a pen around and around in his fingers. ‘Clever. Oh, and the car hadn’t been forced. He used a key. How do you suppose he got hold of that?’
‘Obviously from Leah, without her knowledge. A party maybe? Someone nicks her keyring and either gets a copy made or finds where she keeps the spare and “borrows” it.’
‘This makes him a contemporary of hers. Maybe even a college mate? Maybe I was right. It’s some infatuated prat who hasn’t got the balls to confess he has the hots for her.’
Marie spoke quietly. ‘Attraction. Obsession. Destruction.’
‘The three stages of stalking,’ added Carter. ‘I wonder if the super is thinking about that right now. If she is, she must be hurting.’
‘I’m sure she’s thinking about nothing else.’ Marie felt a chill creep through her. ‘She must be beside herself with worry.’
She hated stalkers. There was something unhinged about them, so out of control and unwholesome. She’d told Carter it had never happened to her, but it had. It left her looking over her shoulder for months. She knew just what Leah was going through. Right now, she would give a month’s wages to get her cuffs around the stalker’s dirty little wrists.
CHAPTER SIX
Somewhere a skylark soared on the evening air. Carter heard its song across the marsh, all the way to Silas Breeze’s cottage. He often saw Silas at a distance, a dark silhouette against the twilight sky. Silas flitted about the marshes like a shadow, impossible to touch.
Like its owner, Silas’s ramshackle cottage was part of the landscape. It blended into the reeds and shrubby trees like a part of the earth. It had stood there for decades before Carter was born, even withstanding the great flood of 1953.