Dead Memories (D.I. Kim Stone #10)(17)

‘Give—’

Kim closed her mouth. Stacey was already passing the address to Bryant.

Her watch told her it was almost six and the day had been full-on.

‘Okay, guys, that’s enough. Let’s call it a day.’

‘So soon, Inspector, but I only just got here,’ said a voice from the doorway.

Kim turned, groaned and dropped her head to the desk.





Twenty-Three





Kim stayed in that position for a good ten seconds.

She was sure that if she waited long enough it wouldn’t be Dr Alison Lowe who was standing there.

‘May I come in?’ she asked, confirming to Kim that her shrewd denial plan hadn’t worked.

She lifted her head as Penn turned and shook her hand, introducing himself.

Kim dragged herself to her feet and nodded towards the spare desk. ‘Nice to see you again,’ she said, moving to the top of the squad room.

‘Completely insincere but appreciate the effort,’ Alison said without breaking a smile.

Kim noted that she hadn’t changed a bit. Still wearing the tight black power suits with the stiletto heels as though she’d travelled back to the Eighties to watch films like Working Girl on a loop.

Her straw-coloured hair had obeyed her instruction to stay neat and tidy for the whole day.

‘Penn, this is Alison Lowe who assisted us on the kidnapping of two little girls a couple of years ago as a profiler and behaviourist. She gave us some great insights into the mind frame of the perpetrators.’

But she hadn’t identified that the person behind it all had been right under their noses the whole time. The more reasonable part of her added that none of them had worked that out but she chose to ignore that fact.

Alison placed her briefcase on the desk.

‘So, I hear you had a crime scene that bears simi—’

‘Time to go, guys,’ Kim cut in, offering Alison a withering glance.

Penn got to his feet, took off the bandana, grabbed his man-bag, bid them good night and left the office. Stacey appeared to be taking her time.

‘Good work today, Stace, on the background of the two kids.’

‘Cheers, boss,’ Stacey said but there was no smile in her eyes. Just suspicion.

She nodded her goodbyes around the room and left.

Kim waited a good couple of minutes before turning on Alison. ‘Well, that was bloody tactful,’ she snapped.

Alison appeared unapologetic. ‘You have a problem with someone stating the obvious?’

‘In front of my whole team, yes.’

Alison’s left eyebrow lifted. ‘Wait a minute, you’ve got half of your team blindly working a double murder case that bears some resemblance to a traumatic event in your own childhood which may or may not be linked directly to you.’

‘We think not,’ Kim said.

‘Your boss is choosing to think not so he can keep you on the case, but you’re keeping your team in the dark and asking them to work this case to the best of their ability with both their hands and feet tied behind their backs?’

‘I don’t want them to know,’ she said, stubbornly.

‘And I will say, for the first of many times I’m sure, that you are making a terrible mistake.’





Twenty-Four





‘How very fucking dare she?’ Kim blustered as they got into the car.

She offered a filthy look up to the squad room window for good measure.

‘You’re angry with her for telling the truth?’

‘Bryant,’ she protested. He was supposed to be on her side.

‘Sorry, guv, but I’m not going to pretend to disagree for your sake when she’s right. The guys need to know what they might be dealing with. They’re both bloody good officers who have the ability to think outside the box and to join the dots but they’re pretty stuck if you’re only giving them half the picture. And that’s before we even get to the trust issue. Both of them, but especially Stacey, will be hurt that you’ve not trusted her enough to give her the whole story.’

She shook her head. ‘Not happening.’

‘I know what’s stopping you,’ he said quietly.

‘Leave it, Bryant.’

‘You can’t stand the thought of being weakened in their eyes. You think they’ll view you differently, lose respect and—’

‘Oh, Bryant, you have it so wrong,’ she said, looking out of the window.

‘You’re gonna live to regret it,’ he warned.

And wasn’t that just the story of her life.





Twenty-Five





‘You know when I was a kid anyone who lived on Lakeside was posh,’ Bryant observed as he slowed down to negotiate the speed bumps on the main spine road of the estate.

The Lakeside housing development of approximately two thousand homes built in the 1980s and 90s and often called Withymoor Village after the opencast colliery upon which it was built.

Kim’s understanding was that the average property sold for around ￡350k, so the area wasn’t exactly chopped liver now.

‘Ah, down here,’ Bryant said taking a left past three successive driveways containing camper vehicles.