Child's Play (D.I. Kim Stone #11)(38)

She had been able to smell the desperation as they’d realised just how damaged she was. Quick-fire questions, different types of questions designed to flummox and confuse her. Dolls, books, games, tricks, tests, anything to try to fool her into opening up.

Ted had been different. He had let her watch his fish swim in the small pond. He had given her lollipops and allowed her to sit in silence. She had never opened up fully to anyone, but if she’d had to choose someone it would have been him.

‘So, there are parents that resent the opinion of your husband?’ Kim asked. Defence of one’s child had led to many a murder.

‘Oh yes,’ she answered, animatedly, experiencing a period of denial of current events. ‘Even if they’re paying for it they don’t always like the truth.’

Kim was tempted to argue that it was opinion not truth, but now was not the time.

‘Was there anyone in particular who had taken offence to your husband’s… findings?’

Beth shook her head. ‘No one recently. He’d been cutting back a bit on clients and spending a bit more time at home.’

Her ears heard the words as her brain translated it to business was drying up.

‘If we could somehow get a list of your husband’s recent clients.’

‘Of course. I’ll ask Lenora. She takes care of his appointments and his admin.’

‘Mrs Nixon, does the name Belinda Evans mean anything to you?’

She considered and shook her head. ‘No, should it?’

She’d hoped so based on their shared interest of broken and damaged children. Surely there had to be a link. Outside of that she could see no connection between them.

Kim felt the frustration rest heavy on her shoulders.

The clock was ticking steadily towards the end of another working day. They had clocked up another dead body but very little to help them find the person responsible.

‘Okay, Mrs Nixon, thank you for your help and…’

‘He really is gone, isn’t he?’ she whispered, staring towards the fireplace.

‘I’m afraid so,’ Kim said, wishing she had something to offer that would ease the pain.

‘So hard to believe, and he was so looking forward to his trip tomorrow.’





Thirty-Seven





‘I’m gonna win,’ Bryant said, smugly as they headed back to the car. ‘Our Lenora was a mine of information.’

‘Go on, let’s trade.’

‘Our victim is a child counsellor,’ he said, getting into the car.

‘Yeah, got that,’ she said, closing the passenger door.

‘And Lenora does his books and appointments for him.’

‘Got that too,’ she said.

‘First wife died of cancer three years ago.’

‘Didn’t get that,’ she admitted.

‘Ah, you missed something.’

‘No, just didn’t think it prudent to ask the second wife too many questions about the first but you go ahead and take your glory where you can, my friend.’

‘Lenora loves the bones of Beth who has made her brother very happy after the long illness of his first wife.’

‘Didn’t need that.’

‘I’m building the tension,’ he explained.

‘No, you’re really not and if you intend on recounting—’

‘You’re just no fun any more.’

‘First, I was never any fun to start with and second, I found out that our guy was also going on a trip and I’m betting it was to the same place as Belinda Evans. So, come on, what you got?’

‘Impressive,’ he admitted. ‘But did you know that Beth used to be one of her husband’s patients.’

‘Eww…’ she said at the thought of that.

‘Yeah, hooked up again on Facebook of all bloody places. Met for coffee to catch up and love blossomed, apparently.’

Yes, they were both grown adults but Kim couldn’t help the acidy distaste that had landed on her tongue. Whether legal or not, there was surely an ethical or moral code against such things.

‘Oh, Bryant,’ she said, looking at her watch. ‘We so need to be able to work longer—’

She stopped speaking as her phone began to ring.

‘Sir?’ she said, recognising the number of DCI Woodward, her boss.

She listened as he gave her an instruction to come to the station immediately.

‘Absolutely, sir, on my way, cos I’d really like to speak to you too.’





Thirty-Eight





Penn jumped off the bus two stops early. He knew he could have got a squad car to drop him off at the train station to pick up his car, but it felt like a piss-take to him when he had perfectly good legs and money in his pocket.

It was hard to believe he’d only parked up that morning to get the train into court. It was one of those days where three appeared to be rolling into one.

And it wasn’t over yet, he thought, but didn’t actually mind. Being forced to work shorter shifts for the last couple of weeks seemed to have siphoned the energy out of him. Travis wanted this thing sorted as soon as possible and hadn’t read the same memo as his boss.

Luckily, they all felt the same way and neither Doug nor Lynne had wanted to clock off until they’d made some progress.