Child's Play (D.I. Kim Stone #11)(8)

Their empire had been founded on identifying small businesses with limited or no CCTV and carrying out violent armed robberies, but despite diversifying into prostitution, drugs, racketeering and snack vans, armed robbery remained a mainstay of their business model.

The challenge to identify vulnerable businesses had become harder for the brothers over the years as small businesses had learned the benefits of a security system, but there were still struggling traders who thought a dummy camera would suffice and others who had broken systems they never bothered to get repaired.

Two years earlier West Mercia had introduced an initiative of visiting vulnerable premises and offering advice on basic safety measures proprietors could implement inexpensively. Sometimes they’d listened and sometimes not.

Mr Kapoor senior had largely listened but due to finances had not acted and had lost his twenty-three-year-old son as a consequence.

Penn shuddered at the memory of what he’d found when he’d attended the scene.

Of course, DI Travis had been the officer in charge of the case, but as the first responder Penn had always felt it was his case. Not least because young Devlin Kapoor had occupied his dreams for weeks.

He hoped the trial would finally allow him to put this case to bed. It was one that still kept him up at night as he waited for his mind to release it completely, for his brain to accept that it was over, the way a funeral offered closure to the relatives. This case was like a sentence written and erased but the indent of the letters remained.

He followed his colleagues into one of the sixteen courtrooms as an uneasy sensation stole over him.

And for the life of him he couldn’t think why.





Seven





Kim waited as Veronica took the spare key from her bag and opened the door to the run-down property next door.

When she’d asked the woman why Belinda had owned the second property she had offered a secret smile, almost childlike and said, ‘You’ll see.’

The woman pushed open the door but didn’t attempt to step inside.

‘Welcome to my sister’s real home,’ she said, waiting for a reaction.

Kim’s eyes widened as she looked into the space before her. What had once been a hallway that mirrored the clear one next door was now a narrow walkway with columns of books and newspapers on either side. The walkway was a good few inches above floor height with more of the same trampled down.

She turned to Veronica. ‘She got in and out of here?’

Veronica nodded and stepped inside. Kim followed, tracing the woman’s footsteps and holding out her arms for balance. Two strides in and Kim was hit with the smell of the place that reminded her of Barney after he’d run through a muddy puddle.

‘Any pets?’ Kim asked.

‘None,’ Veronica answered without turning.

Kim dreaded to think where that smell was coming from or what might be found beneath the piles of rubbish.

As she travelled forward Kim could see that every room was the same. A raised walkway which was filled from floor to ceiling with all kinds of objects including empty boxes, bike parts, tapestries led into each room. A single wing-backed chair remained untouched in the middle of the lounge.

Kim was unsure if the walls matched the magnolia colour next door as no wall space was available to view.

Kim couldn’t compute the woman they’d seen last night, so tidy, so well turned out, living like this.

‘I don’t get it,’ Kim said, entering the kitchen. There was not an inch of work surface to be seen. An electric kettle was just visible on the drainer unit of the sink. Bryant sneezed twice behind her, and Kim could feel the dust settling on her lips the way it had attached itself to the cobwebs straddling the corners of the ceilings and the light fittings.

‘It started when our parents died, thirty-four years ago,’ Veronica explained. ‘This bungalow was theirs. She moved in and wouldn’t throw a thing away that belonged to them and then began collecting things she felt were of value. Every time I came round it seemed that another part of the house had become unusable, another corner filled with junk. She insists that she needs every item here.’

Still talking as though her sister was alive, Kim noted.

‘And the house next door?’ Bryant asked.

‘Came up for sale around the time I was threatening to have her committed if she didn’t do something about it. She bought the bungalow next door dirt cheap and promised she’d sort all this stuff out while living next door and then we’d sell it and split the proceeds.’

‘But?…’

‘I think she snuck back in and slept here every night,’ Veronica admitted.

‘But how did she hold down a responsible job until just a few months ago?’ Bryant asked.

‘Why wouldn’t she?’ Veronica snapped. ‘She wasn’t crazy or stupid. She was just trying to hang on to something that didn’t exist. She functioned perfectly fine and I find your comment a little bit insulting.’

Jeez, Kim thought. Bryant had pissed someone off more than she had. Now that might earn him the plant, after all.

Unusually it was time for her to don the United Nations Peacekeeper cap. ‘I think we’re just surprised given the way she looked and the cleanliness of the car that…’

‘She was good at keeping up appearances, officer. We both are.’