Free Frozen by Lindsay Jayne Ashford

sidelong glance that made her feel uncomfortable. As he drove on through the dark streets, Megan thought about Tina. She’d gone out that night, looking forward to celebrating later and no doubt happy to be free of her vicious husband. And what had happened? She’d been stalked by someone even worse.
    And Natalie. It was bad enough that she went, like Donna Fieldhouse, from a children’s home to the streets; bad enough what her usual punters asked of her, without being used by some monster to stand in for all his hatred of the world.
    Stand in. Something flickered in her mind. He used them as a stand-in for the real object of his hatred. Who? A wife? Girlfriend? Mother? Boss?
    And he used the pimp – the O man – to hide behind too. O got Natalie for him. Perhaps O dumped her body as part of the deal. A murderer hiding behind another killer. She shivered. And they had no idea who either of them were.

Chapter 6
    Megan stood on a duckboard in Tina Jackson’s bedroom. For the past two days scenes-of-crime officers had been carrying out a painstaking search of the entire house. Anyone who entered was required to put on protective clothing and getting from one room to another meant walking on the raised wooden boards that criss-crossed the floors like stepping stones in a stream.
    The room now bore little resemblance to the crime scene photograph Megan held in her hand. The bed had been stripped, its duvet, sheets, pillows and mattress taken away for forensic examination. All that was left was the brass and cast iron frame. Megan could see how easy it would have been for the killer to handcuff Tina to its rails.
    The clothes and the shoe in the photograph had been removed, and there was a large dark stain on the carpet where Dudley Jackson’s body had been lying.
    With some difficulty Megan stepped onto another duck-board, the bulky overalls limiting her movement. She drew level with a dressing table and carefully opened the top drawer. Inside was an assortment of neatly folded underwear. Something hard and shiny stuck out from beneath the pile and Megan pulled back the clothes to see what it was.
    The smiling faces of Dudley and Tina Jackson looked up at her. It was a wedding photograph, hidden from view in the same way that Megan had hidden hers.
    Charlotte McGahy had been right about her sister. She was beautiful. She reminded Megan of Penelope Cruz. She had that same slightly vulnerable look about her.
    â€˜What have you found? Anything interesting?’ Leverton appeared round the doorway, stepping across the boards with apparent ease.
    â€˜No – just a wedding photo. Any news on the friend?’
    â€˜She was with her on the soup run. Says Tina drove herself home from the place they cook it.’
    â€˜Nothing suspicious?’
    â€˜Not that she remembers. Says it was a quiet night.’
    â€˜Where are they based?’
    â€˜It’s a house in Cheddar Road. Owned by the woman who set up the charity. It’s a women-only thing.’
    â€˜And this Gail didn’t have any other ideas? No boyfriend we don’t know about?’
    â€˜No.’ Leverton frowned. ‘We’re going to have to hold a press conference soon: someone’s leaked the pathologist’s report to the papers. Any chance of you coming up with something by, say, lunchtime tomorrow?’
    Megan paused before answering. A press conference? Was this Leverton’s idea? It couldn’t be. There was no way he would go public on his suspicions if there was any suggestion of police corruption. Either he was playing some game Megan couldn’t fathom or someone else had been responsible for the leak.
    â€˜I’ll see what I can do.’ She moved on. ‘Let’s go over what happened here step by step; once I’ve got all the crime scene evidence I can build up a more detailed description of this killer before I start working on a profile of the guy who murdered