Killing Mind: An addictive and nail-biting crime thriller (Detective Kim Stone Crime Thriller Book 12)

by Angela Marsons

  ‘Hear that?’ Bryant asked, winding down his window as he drove slowly.

  ‘I can’t hear a thing.’

  ‘Exactly,’ he said.

  As they moved further away from the road the silence deepened. Something that always put Kim on edge. She liked the noise, the activity, the impatience and misery of people rushing from one place to another. Tranquillity unnerved her.

  Bryant pulled to a halt on a gravel patch in front of a shack with a hand-painted sign that said ‘Farm Shop’.

  ‘Aspirational, eh, guv?’ Bryant asked, switching off the engine.

  Kim had to agree. The farm shop was a garden shed with a table out front. A bowl of eggs sat between a few clutches of carrots and a pile of misshaped potatoes.

  The girl behind the table stood, her face alight with the prospect of making a sale. Not surprising as she was hardly on the high street.

  ‘Buy some carrots, Bryant,’ Kim whispered as they approached.

  ‘You call them c…’

  ‘Just do it,’ she growled, fixing a smile to her face as Bryant picked up the best of a bad limp bunch.

  ‘Two pounds,’ the girl said, holding out her hand.

  She heard Bryant’s sharp intake of breath, but he fished in his pocket anyway.

  Now was not the time to arrest her for extortion.

  ‘Hi,’ Kim said, holding up her ID. ‘May we speak to the person in charge?’

  The girl’s delight quickly turned to alarm.

  ‘There’s nothing to worry about,’ Kim reassured her. ‘We’re here about a girl named Samantha Brown, did you know her?’

  Colour seeped into her cheeks as she stepped back into the shed mumbling something about waiting a minute.

  Kim stepped to the side and watched as she retrieved a mobile phone and turned her back.

  Kim took a quick look around and realised that going through the shed on foot to the other side was the only way to access the property. The farm shop itself was stationed between metal fencing that travelled off in either direction further than she could see.

  Farm shop or gate keeper? Kim thought idly, wondering where vehicle access to the site was located.

  She was about to ask when the girl finished on the phone.

  ‘Jake is on his way,’ she said, wringing her hands and looking around.

  Kim detected both excitement and trepidation.

  ‘If you just show us where we can drive through, we can…’

  ‘He’ll be just a minute,’ she said, definitely.

  Kim got the impression that without throwing her to the ground and overpowering her they were not getting through that shed.

  ‘So, did you know Samantha?’ Kim asked again.

  She nodded slowly. ‘But she’s gone.’

  Kim was unsure if she meant gone or dead. Either way she was biting her bottom lip.

  ‘Did she have any trouble with…’

  ‘Oh, that’s Jake now,’ she said, turning away as some kind of engine sounded behind the shed. A man in his mid-fifties appeared behind her. His hair was completely white but thick and cut well. His shoulders were broad beneath an open-neck pale blue shirt. His skin was smooth with enough colour to radiate good health. His eyes were the purest blue she had ever seen. Once your gaze met those the rest of his face was forgotten.

  ‘DI Stone,’ Kim said, showing her ID. ‘We’d like to talk to you about Samantha Brown.’

  The man moved closer to the girl and offered his hand in Kim’s direction.

  ‘Jake Black and is Sammy okay?’

  Oh great. They didn’t even know she was dead.

  ‘Mr Black, we really need to go somewhere and talk.’

  He moved towards the table. ‘Of course, come through.’

  ‘If you just show us where to bring the car through…’

  ‘It’s no bother. Please, this way,’ he said pointing to the gap he’d made.

  Kim hesitated but followed. She needed to be on the other side of that shed.

  Bryant walked in behind her, and Jake closed the gap. He surveyed the table and squeezed the girl’s shoulder.

  ‘Good work, Maisie, keep it up.’

  Kim couldn’t help the frisson of discomfort that swept up her spine at the physical contact. Maisie was clearly over the age of eighteen, but there was something that didn’t sit right.

  Maisie’s blush deepened and she squeezed her hands together as though she might explode. A suspicious person might think that was the exact response he’d intended. Good job Bryant was the suspicious person in their partnership.

  She followed Jake Black out of the shed and saw the golf buggy in which he’d travelled. To her left were fields and to her right was a dirt track that disappeared around a wooded area.

  ‘Hop on and I’ll…’

  ‘Mr Black, I’d rather…’

  ‘I insist. I’d love for you to come and see the house.’

  Kim hopped on beside him and Bryant sat behind. It wouldn’t hurt to put all this cult nonsense to bed and learn the whole truth about Sammy Brown.

  ‘So, is everything okay with Sammy? And please call me Jake.’

  ‘Thank you… Jake and no I’m afraid she isn’t okay.’ Had he not seen the news? she thought and then wondered if this vehicle could go any quicker. She had a meeting with Woody some time today.

  ‘I have to get me one of these,’ Bryant said.

  Not surprising, she thought, given the speed he liked to drive.

  ‘We miss her,’ Jake said, and she detected genuine emotion in his voice.

  ‘As will her parents now because unfortunately Sammy Brown is dead.’

  The golf cart came to a sudden halt just as a house came into view.

  The property appeared to be an old farmhouse that had been extended in all directions.

  ‘Please tell me what happened,’ he said, turning towards her.

  ‘Sammy was murdered by someone she knew and allowed into her new flat.’

  ‘She had a flat?’ he asked, re-starting the golf cart. There was an edge to his voice that she tried to fathom.

  ‘Yes, she’d recently set up home on her own.’ Although home was a stretch for the cold, impersonal space where she’d lived.

  Kim decided to keep the news of Tyler Short to herself for now, as she wanted to monitor his emotional reaction to the news of Sammy’s demise.

  And right now, she thought, as she glanced at the tense jawline that shaped the handsome face, there was a lot of emotion indeed.

  Thirty-Three

  ‘Really?’ Stacey said aloud as she stared at the hastily scrawled note from her last conversation with the boss. Only once you’ve exhausted Samantha’s and Tyler’s friends the boss had said. Well, that was a given. Other friends of Sammy’s had offered her no further information than what she’d learned from Cassie, and a few messages to Tyler’s Facebook friends had been met with responses of ‘Tyler who?’.

  ‘I suppose I’ve got you to thank for this,’ Stacey greeted Penn as he walked in the door.

  ‘Probably but I’m not gonna commit right away. What’s up?’ he asked, taking a plain blue bandana from his top drawer.

  ‘Big burly man in black in a white Range Rover, that’s what your neighbour guy said, wasn’t it?’ she snapped.

  ‘Yeah, but like I said, I don’t totally trust what…’

  ‘Well, guess who’s gotta try and track him down,’ she said, ending with a big sigh.

  ‘You okay?’ he asked, logging into his workstation.

  ‘Peachy,’ she answered. ‘How the hell am I gonna find out who this guy is?’

  ‘Search the internet,’ he said, shrugging.

  ‘Penn, are you taking the piss out of me?’

  ‘Jeez, Stace, eat something, already. You’re pretty hangry right now.’

  She took a breath before speaking. ‘It’s got nothing to do with that. I had a banana an hour ago. I’m pissed off because this is an impossible task.’

  ‘No it’s not.’ />
  Stacey pushed herself back in her chair and stared up at the ceiling. And damn him, her stomach was making all kinds of noises at her, but she’d got through the majority of the day and she wasn’t going to weaken now. She had a chicken salad to look forward to when she got home.

  ‘Trust in Google,’ he said, removing the Tupperware container from the middle of their desks.

  She sat forward. ‘What?’

  ‘Put in a ridiculous search. I do it all the time. Say I’m looking for an easy to follow recipe for Jasper. He gets overwhelmed by too many lines of text. I’ll put in a search for “easy to follow recipe for making Tiramisu with less than ten instructions”. I tell Google exactly what I want. It likes the challenge.’

  Stacey couldn’t help but smile at the picture of him downloading simplified instructions for his brother to do his favourite thing.

  ‘Penn, you’re an idiot but I’ll give it a whirl,’ she said, typing in exactly what the boss had said.

  Big burly man dressed in black driving a white Range Rover.

  There were no results containing all her words but she scrolled down anyway taking note of the words Google had put a line through to say ‘not contained’.

  Three hits from the bottom of the page she came to an item that had omitted the words ‘big’ and ‘burly’ but contained the rest. It was a news article from the Dudley Star dated three weeks earlier.

  ‘Penn, you’re a genius.’

  He shrugged. ‘Idiot, genius. All the same to me.’

  She read through the piece written by none other than Tracy Frost. Her eyes scanned to the area that had been highlighted as being a match for her criteria.

  …Police are appealing for the help of a man dressed in black driving a white Range Rover who was seen just metres away from the site of the burglary that took place in Cavendish Road last night…

  ‘Looks like your unreliable witness was reliable after all,’ Stacey said, typing a search into Google Earth.

  Cavendish Road was one street away from where Samantha Brown had lived.

  Thirty-Four

  Jake pulled the cart to a stop at the west side of the house. As she looked forward from the front of the property Kim could see a collection of converted barns all set around a paved courtyard holding picnic tables, benches, colourful plant pots and hanging baskets. Some of the tables were occupied by groups of men and women soaking up the weak early September sunshine. Everyone she met the gaze of waved and smiled in their direction.

  Kim followed Jake along the hallway passing rooms as they went. The farmhouse appeared to have been renovated and as many walls as possible removed. To her left was a dining room ready for at least fifty people. To her right was a vast open space filled with sofas and easy chairs, footstools, woollen throws, bookcases and a huge fireplace.

  They passed notice boards that listed activities like Meditation, Crystal Therapy, Massage, Reiki and a couple of things she couldn’t pronounce.

  And yet there was a stillness to the place that intrigued her. As they passed people in the hallway greetings consisted of a smile and a nod. No words were exchanged. She heard no televisions or radios or raucous laughter. Everything was calm and sedate. She made more noise at home with her dog.

  ‘Please, come in,’ he said, opening a heavy oak door marked ‘Private’.

  This room wasn’t huge. Probably the size of her kitchen and lounge combined but it was immaculately designed. Floor-to-ceiling bookcases filled most of the wall space with a library ladder that slid along in front. An antique oak desk sat in front of the window. A plush sofa with a tartan throw occupied one side of the room facing two high-backed leather chairs with an antique chess board on a coffee table between. Another easy chair and footstool were positioned before a well-stocked fireplace. Occasional tables and reading lamps completed the look.

  ‘Nice,’ Bryant murmured, and she could understand what he meant.

  ‘We like to think of it as home,’ Jake said, closing the door behind them.

  The only thing missing was a computer of any kind, Kim realised, lowering herself on to the sofa.

  Jake sat opposite.

  ‘So, you own all of this property?’ Kim asked, making no apology for her directness.

  ‘We do,’ he answered. ‘The house, the barns and the surrounding seventeen acres.’

  She whistled. ‘Very nice. Who is we?’

  ‘There are twelve of us that put capital in at the beginning and…’

  ‘Equal amounts?’ Kim asked.

  ‘…we shared a vision,’ he continued as though she hadn’t spoken. ‘We’ve been very lucky that murder helped us to achieve…’

  ‘Excuse me,’ Kim said, narrowing her eyes.

  Amusement pulled at his lips. ‘My apologies for my poor phraseology there, Inspector. The house and land was being sold way under market value due to the family slaying here in the early nineties. A nephew murdered his aunt and uncle and their two daughters and tried to make it look like a burglary gone wrong. No one wanted to buy the place after that.’

  Clearly Jake Black was never one to look the misfortune gift horse in the mouth, Kim surmised.

  ‘And how many people are here now?’

  ‘One hundred and one,’ he answered promptly.

  ‘And they’ve all put capital into the Farm?’ Kim probed.

  ‘Every single person here contributes in some way, Inspector,’ he said without missing a beat. ‘We have to survive.’

  ‘Sammy’s death has been all over the news,’ Kim said, broaching the subject that had brought her here and still unable to believe he hadn’t known.

  He smiled, revealing even white teeth. ‘We don’t much care for the news here. It’s rarely good.’

  ‘And what exactly is here, Jake, and why was Sammy here for two and a half years before she left?’

  ‘We’re a retreat, a spiritual safe place if you like. People join us for a number of reasons.’

  ‘Like what?’ Kim asked, bluntly.

  ‘As I said, there are many reasons,’ he answered, unfazed. ‘But I suppose many have become disillusioned with the world and often their place within it.’

  ‘So, they’re running away?’

  ‘Or choosing a different path,’ he countered. ‘People come here searching for many things but mainly they come to search from themselves, and no I’m not offended by the nature of your questions, Inspector,’ he said with a mischievous smile.

  ‘Good, and did Tyler Short come looking for himself?’ she asked, thinking of the sad and lonely young man. The sudden insertion of Tyler’s name was intentional. She wanted to gauge his initial response to the name.

  ‘No, Tyler came searching for love,’ he answered, easily, as though he’d been sent her list of questions in advance.

  ‘Sorry?’ Kim asked, not wanting to divulge too much about her knowledge of Tyler and his feelings for Sammy.

  ‘Tyler joined us to get closer to Samantha. It’s not a way of life that suits everyone; if you’re not committed to living a cleaner, freer kind of life you won’t last. He wasn’t interested in our philosophies and especially one in particular.’

  ‘Which was?’

  ‘No personal relationships between family members.’

  ‘Family?’

  He nodded. ‘Of course. That’s what we are and physical relationships bring too many negative emotions and complications into the mix.’

  ‘But surely you can’t control that,’ Kim said. Put a group of people together and sexual tension would appear somewhere.

  ‘It’s not about control. The people who are here want to follow our way of life. Many have been hurt beyond repair by abusive relationships.’

  ‘Including Samantha?’ Kim asked, still not convinced that feelings could be governed and controlled quite so easily as making them into a rule to be followed.

  ‘It is my understanding that Samantha had been recently hurt by someone before joining us.’

  ‘And that convince
d her to give up her complete way of life?’ Kim queried. ‘One bad relationship?’

  ‘Inspector, some people don’t even realise what’s missing in their lives until they find it. Sammy came here broken. She had no hope. She was depressed and had been abandoned by all her friends. Even her parents didn’t understand the depth of pain she was feeling. With our help she blossomed into a warm, kind, enthusiastic…’

  ‘But however well you put her back together and mended her broken heart you were asking her to give up the chance of finding love by keeping her here,’ Kim stated.

  ‘Now hang on,’ he said, holding up his hands and leaning back in his seat. ‘First of all, no one who joins us is forced to stay any longer than they want to. Unity Farm is not a prison and everyone is free to leave any time they want. Samantha found something here that was right for her right now. That’s not to say she wouldn’t have changed her mind eventually when she felt…’

  ‘But she did,’ Kim said, confused. ‘She did change her mind and left this place a few months ago.’

  Jake regarded her for a moment. ‘Let me explain something, Inspector. Samantha had become a different person to the one who had arrived. Living a simpler life without some of the pressures of outside life enabled her to open up and discover the person she really was. Over time she became involved in many parts of Farm life. She enjoyed time in the garden, in the kitchen and had just signed up other members to form an art class. She wanted to teach. But more importantly her best friend here was due into hospital for minor surgery the day after Sammy disappeared and Sammy was due to go with her.’

  ‘So, what are you saying?’ Kim asked, to be clear.

  ‘That Samantha had no wish to leave us. She was, without a doubt, taken by force.’

  Thirty-Five

  ‘And that’s all he’d say?’ Woody asked as Kim relayed the conversation she’d had with Jake Black.

  Kim nodded. ‘Wouldn’t say by whom or what made him so sure, just that Sammy wouldn’t have left of her own accord. To be honest, he kind of dried up a little bit after that and offered to return us to our car.’