Child's Play (D.I. Kim Stone #11)(20)

‘Yeah, I know what you mean,’ she answered, taking a good sip of her drink.

The vision had been with her since she’d walked back in the door.

‘And her sister. I mean there is some weird shit going on between the two of them.’

‘And yet Veronica won’t even talk to us about their childhood. I wonder if Stace…’ Her words trailed away as she raised an eyebrow at her colleague. ‘Very clever, Bryant, but we’re not talking about this any more. Pretty sure that counts as work and we’re off the clock.’

‘Bloody hell,’ he said at the end of a long sigh. ‘You know, at my age I have to make the most of my active brain cells cos there’ll come a day when…’

‘Either talk to me about the weather or piss off,’ Kim advised.

‘Jeez, Kim. You’re really following the rules?’

Yeah, even she was surprised. Her response to rule following was selective at best but not when it came to the welfare of her team.

‘So, that shower we had earlier…’

‘Not a chance,’ Bryant said, edging off the stool. ‘Not sitting here discussing weather. I am gone.’

Kim smiled at his retreating back.

‘Good, go home and get relaxed.’

‘I am fucking relaxed,’ he shouted at the top of his voice before he slammed the front door.

She had the sudden feeling it was going to be a very long week.





Twenty





‘Okay, guys, look lively eh?’ Kim said, glancing around the room at her team.

Penn was looking at something on his mobile phone, Stacey was staring over his head at something out the window and Bryant was wearing the same scowl that had been on his face the night before.

Oh yeah, her team was looking totally energised from their extra downtime.

And from her point of view she almost felt as though she hadn’t seen them for days.

She had followed the rules herself, to set an example, and hadn’t entered the building until 7.45 ready for the mandated 8 a.m. briefing. She wouldn’t mention the half hour she’d spent sitting in the car.

‘Penn, anything to offer before you get off to court?’

He put his phone aside. ‘Just checking if I need to go, boss. Not sure what’s happening.’

‘Thought the case was pretty straight forward?’

She’d been hoping to have him wrapped up and returned to her by the end of the week. Having to trust Inspector Plant and his team with the follow up interviews did not sit well with her.

‘Defence witness went AWOL yesterday. Uniforms went out looking but no update yet.’

‘Everything else, okay?’

He hesitated. ‘Fine boss, but I could easily have come back for a few hours last night.’

‘You read the memo,’ she reminded him.

‘We really still sticking to that?’ he asked, causing another two heads to raise in hope.

Jeez, Kim thought, it was like trying to force a kid to eat their greens. You knew it was good for them but they fought you at every mouthful.

‘Yeah, we’re sticking to it,’ she said, as Penn’s phone sounded receipt of a text message.

He read it. ‘Still no neighbour but the defence is calling their only other witness, which is his wife, so that should be fun seeing as she’s a hostile witness.’

Kim nodded as he pushed his chair away from the desk. This was what happened sometimes. Witnesses were rearranged to provide continuity and keep disruption for the jury to a minimum. Once a case had started no one wanted it interrupted, schedules had been cleared, meetings postponed, experts booked, family members primed for a result one way or the other. Every effort would be made to keep the trial going.

‘And then there were three,’ Kim mused as Penn disappeared out the door.

She headed over to the board.

‘Okey-dokey, good work on the phone calls between Belinda and her sister yesterday, Stace. Still got no explanation about the weird relationship between the two of them and I want you to keep digging on that. I want to know everything you can find out about these two ladies: their parents, childhood friends, neighbours, boyfriends, everything.’

In her peripheral vision she could see Bryant’s expression questioning the instruction.

‘Go on, spit it out,’ she said, without turning.

‘Veronica has an alibi and you can’t seriously think…’

‘And check out that alibi while you’re at it, Stace,’ Kim instructed. ‘Skyping with the editor at the Telegraph shouldn’t be too hard to prove, and then we can rule her out completely.’

‘Got it, boss,’ Stacey said, making notes. Kim was relieved to see the tension slipping from her face.

She turned towards her colleague. ‘And why should we rule her out without checking her alibi, grumpy boy?’

‘She hardly—’

‘Don’t you even dare say she doesn’t look the murdering kind. Tell me the last time we arrested someone that did. And you never hear of sororicide?’

‘Err… no,’ Bryant answered. ‘And if you’ve got it, is it contagious?’

‘The killing of one’s sister,’ Kim elaborated. ‘Primarily when sibling rivalry gets out of hand. Ronald DeFeo Jr. shot both his sisters in 1974. The murders became the inspiration for The Amityville Horror books and films. Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo raped then killed Karla’s sister Tammy in 1990, and Yuki Muto murdered his sister in—’