Winter Frost

'They're here already,' snapped Frost, flashing his warrant card. He went to the door and shouted to the others down the stairs: 'She's not in here. Look everywhere.'

The man grabbed a dressing-gown from a chair and slipped it on. 'Police? What the devil do you want with me?'

'I think you know what we want,' said Frost grimly. He turned to the woman. 'Are you all right, love?'

'I was all right until you bastards came charging in.' She blazed angry eyes at Taffy and pulled a sheet over her naked body. 'Seen enough?' Morgan pretended he had been looking past her at something on the wall and frowned as if he didn't understand what she was getting at.

'Pardon?' he asked.

'Dirty bastard!' she snarled.

Crashes and thuds from below as Hanlon's team joined in the search. The man barged past Frost and glared angrily down the stairs. 'You've smashed the front door in. Someone's going to pay for this!'

Ignoring him, Frost pulled Morgan to one side and nodded towards the angry woman on the bed. 'Is she the one who was driving the cab?'

Morgan shook his head. 'Don't think so, guv — wrong colour hair.'

'Could have been wearing a wig,' muttered Frost.

The man thrust himself between the two detectives. 'Would you mind telling me what this is all about or is it a state secret?'

'You are Mr Gerald Vernon?'

'Yes.'

'And this lady is your wife?'

A slight pause. 'Yes.'

'One of our female officers was abducted tonight. We have reason to believe she is in this house.'

Vernon's stunned surprise looked genuine. 'I don't believe what I'm hearing! Have you gone stark staring mad?'

'Have you been out tonight?' asked Frost.

'Yes.'

'Near the Fenton Road area?'

'Nowhere near the Fenton Road area. If you must know, we've been to the Coconut Grove nightclub.'

'What time did you get there, sir?'

'About ten o'clock.'

'And what time did you leave?'

Vernon consulted his wrist-watch. 'A little after three.'

Frost turned to the woman on the bed. 'Is that correct, Mrs Vernon?' She shot a quick glance at the man before nodding.

'Yes.'

The sound of something falling and smashing made Vernon turn to Frost in fury. 'I hope the police are well insured, Inspector, because whatever damage your ham-fisted, loutish oafs have caused will be added to the extensive claim for damages I intend to make against you.'

Burton came into the bedroom, brushing dust and cobwebs from his coat. 'We've been through all this floor and the loft — nothing!'

He was followed by Sergeant Hanlon whose men had been searching the downstairs and the grounds. 'Nothing down there, Jack.'

Frost's confidence was fast ebbing away. This was their only lead and if it led nowhere, they were left with absolutely nothing, and with time ticking away, they wouldn't have a snowball's chance in hell of finding Liz alive.

'Inspector!' Collier burst into the bedroom. 'I found this behind the hat-stand.' He held aloft Liz Maud's handbag. Frost's spirits sky-rocketed. He opened it and took out the mobile phone.

With a bellow of rage, Burton hurled himself at Vernon, smashing him against the wall. 'Where is she, you bastard? What have you done with her?'

With difficulty Frost and Collier managed to drag him off, but not before Burton had managed to bloody Vernon's nose. 'Go and check the two cars downstairs,' ordered Frost.

Burton scowled sullenly. 'I've checked them.'

'Then check them again — now!' As Burton slouched out, Frost turned to Vernon who was trying to stem the flow of blood from his nose with a handkerchief. 'I apologize for my colleague's over-enthusiasm, sir.

Like us, he's anxious to know where she is.'

'I don't know where she is,' hissed Vernon, each word making him wince with pain, 'and I don't particularly care. But you are going to pay for this. My God, how you are going to pay…'

Frost waved the handbag. 'When our colleague went missing she was carrying this. So where is she?'

'Why don't you ask him how the handbag came to be here, you bloody bullies?' The woman was shouting at them from the bed.

'All right,' said Frost sweetly. 'How did the handbag come to be in your house, Mr Vernon?'

Vernon folded the blooded handkerchief and stuffed it into his dressing-gown pocket. 'We found it in the road as we were driving home from the Coconut Grove.'

'What time was this?'

'I've already told you — three o'clockish.'

Frost sent Morgan to check this with the night-club, then signalled for Vernon to continue.

'As we turned from Bath Road into the side road, there was this car ahead of us.'

'What sort of car?'

'I only saw the back of it. Darkish, could have been black, nothing special.'

'It was black,' chipped in the woman from the bed. 'Black, one person driving, two in the back.'

Vernon glared at her. 'Do you want to tell this bloody story, or shall I?'

She pouted and stuck her tongue out at him.

'We're driving behind it when she sees something in the road and yells for me to stop. So, being a good citizen, completely unaware that I would be beaten up by the police for my trouble, I stopped and retrieved it.' He jerked a thumb. 'It was that handbag.'

Frost turned to the woman on the bed. 'You spotted it?'

She nodded. 'Yes. I think it came from the car in front of us.'

'You think'? Didn't you see?'

'I wasn't actually looking, but I got the impression it had been chucked out. I wanted Gerry to go after the other car and give it back. He drove ever so fast, but there was no sign of it.'

'I was going to drop it in at the police station in the morning,' said Vernon. He winced and ran his tongue along his mouth. 'I think he's broken one of my teeth.'

'I'm sure he hasn't,' said Frost dismissively, hoping and praying he was right. They were in enough trouble. If Vernon's story checked out and he didn't leave the Coconut Grove until after three, there was no way he could have swapped cars and picked Liz up. Frost looked up hopefully as Morgan returned.

'I've contacted the club, guv. They confirm Mr Vernon didn't leave until just after three.'

'Shit!' said Frost.

'Yes,' said Vernon, smiling malevolently, 'and that is exactly what you've dropped yourself in, Inspector. I'm suing you, and that thug and the Denton police force for malicious damage and criminal assault.'

Where have I heard that before, thought Frost mournfully as he sent the rest of the team back to their cars. He put on his contrite look. 'I appreciate your feelings, sir, but it would be a nice gesture if you could overlook this error of judgement on our part. We were concerned for our colleague.'

Vernon shook his head. 'I don't make nice gestures, officer.'

Frost sighed. 'Fair enough, sir. If you and your lady wife would come down to the station with proofs of identity, we'll get the wheels rolling.'

Vernon frowned. 'Proof of identity?'

'It's just that your good lady wife, flashing her dugs over there, is a dead ringer for one of the high class ladies of the night from the Coconut Grove. I'm sure I'm mistaken, but if she isn't your wife and your real wife finds out…'

Vernon's eyes blazed. 'You bastard!'

'Not such a bastard, sir,' smiled Frost. 'We'll accept your claim for damage to property — we're insured for that — and if it would spare you any embarrassment, I won't query it if you say you were alone in the house when it happened. But I want the assault accusation dropped.'

'You bastard!' repeated Vernon.

Frost beamed. 'All agreed then, sir? Don't bother to come to the door, I'll find my own way out.'

As he closed the front door behind him, the gloom returned, not helped by the weather. The black clouds had opened and rain was bucketing down. Liz Maud was out there somewhere, at the mercy of the serial killer, and he didn't know what the hell to do next.