The Half Sister(96)

‘Back in 1996, a woman was attacked in her own home, sustained serious head injuries and died shortly after,’ says DS Connolly.

‘And you think Jess is her baby?’ Lauren asks, instinctively.

She knows, even before the two detectives look at each other with raised eyebrows, what she’s done.

‘Her baby?’ asks Stephens through narrowed eyes,

‘The woman’s baby,’ she says, feeling an oppressive heat bearing down on her. ‘Didn’t you say she had a baby?’ Kate’s eyes are burning into her.

‘Her baby was found abandoned shortly after the murder,’ says Stephens. ‘May I ask how you knew that the victim had a baby?’

Lauren’s eyes flicker from the detective to Kate and back again. ‘I . . . we . . . Jess and I went up there . . . earlier this week.’

‘What for?’ asks DS Connolly.

‘We just thought it might be a good idea to go back and knock on a few doors to see if anyone remembered my dad or Jess. We just wanted to see if we could find something that might lead us to Jess’s mum.’

‘And did you?’

‘We spoke with someone who told us about the Woods family,’ offers Lauren. ‘They said he’d killed his wife and disappeared.’

DS Connolly raises her eyebrows. ‘That was one theory, but there are other lines of inquiry we need to pursue.’

‘Why?’ says Lauren. ‘It seems everyone knew that he was violent – he had previous, and then he disappeared immediately after his wife’s murder. It couldn’t be any more clear-cut, could it?’

‘Mr Woods has since been cleared of any involvement,’ says Connolly, and Lauren feels like she’s suddenly teetering on a precipice. She tries to stop the internal swaying that’s threatening to knock her off balance.

‘Since when?’ she manages, her tongue feeling as if it’s too big for her mouth.

‘Since he returned to the UK two years after the murder and provided DNA and an alibi,’ says Connolly.

‘So why wait until now to trawl it all up again?’ asks Lauren.

‘Well, we’d always believed the abandoned baby to be that of Mr Woods, but if it comes to pass that it isn’t, then we’ve got a whole new motive on our hands.’

Lauren catches Kate closing her eyes.

‘So, what are you going to do now?’ asks Lauren.

‘We need to talk to Miss Linley to see if she would be willing to have her DNA analysed against that of Julia Woods,’ says Stephens. ‘And then we’ll confirm the match between Miss Linley and your father, just to be sure.’

‘And if it’s proven that Jess is their daughter?’ asks Matt.

‘Then it looks like we might not only have a new motive, but a new suspect,’ says Connolly.





47


Kate


‘Kate! Kate! Can you hear me?’ says Matt.

It sounds like he’s calling her from miles away, yet she can see the outline of his face, the colour of his eyes as he draws in close to her.

‘Do you need to go to the hospital?’ asks a woman’s voice. It doesn’t sound like Lauren’s, but Kate so desperately wants it to be. Otherwise it will mean that she didn’t dream what just happened.

‘Do you want me to call an ambulance?’ asks the same voice, and her heart falls into her stomach. It’s not Lauren. It’s DS Connolly, and any notion of her having imagined their conversation is thwarted.

‘N-no, I’m fine,’ Kate manages. ‘I’m honestly fine.’

‘Okay, maybe we can wrap this up now,’ says Matt, but Kate doesn’t know who he’s saying it to. She just looks around aimlessly at all the faces peering into the bubble that she’s created around herself.

‘Of course,’ says DS Connolly. ‘We’ll be on our way, just as long as Mrs Walker is okay.’

‘She’ll be fine,’ says Matt.

Kate’s head is thumping as she’s helped up from the floor and sat back in the chair she can’t even remember falling out of. Lauren takes hold of her hand as they sit huddled on the sofa, watching the officers retreat.

‘What the hell’s going on?’ asks Lauren breathlessly. ‘What are they trying to imply? That Dad’s got something to do with it?’ She laughs nervously. ‘As if. Surely all fingers have got to point to the woman’s husband. He’d been violent before – their neighbour told me that the police were called several times.’

The more Lauren’s talking, the more claustrophobic Kate feels.

‘We need to find Jess,’ croaks Kate, almost to herself. ‘We need to get to her before the police do.’ She turns to Matt. ‘Where is she?’

‘I don’t know,’ he says. ‘She called in sick this morning.’

‘Call her, Lauren,’ says Kate authoritatively, standing up and striding unsteadily towards the revolving doors. ‘Find out where she is.’

Lauren rings her number as they rush across Cabot Square. Engaged. She tries again. Engaged.

‘Shit!’ says Kate, as they reach the station. ‘What’s the quickest route to Hackney?’

‘DLR to Stratford,’ says Matt.

‘She doesn’t deserve this,’ says Lauren as they scramble down the escalator of Canary Wharf station. ‘She feels alone and lost enough as it is, but if the police tell her what they’ve just told us . . .’