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

by Angela Marsons

  ‘Eventually, she started staying over at Britney’s and that’s when we noticed the subtle changes. It started with small criticisms of our lifestyle: the waste, the greed, our lack of concern for the bigger picture. She began meditating and spent hours in her room in silence. Then my wife started to notice money going missing from her purse. She didn’t take it too seriously at first but she started keeping track and the amounts were getting higher. At first five pounds, ten pounds, twenty until it was everything that was in there.’ He paused. ‘And then we got the statement.’

  ‘What statement?’

  ‘Credit card. She’d opened a new card in my name and accrued a bill of almost ten thousand pounds, in one month.’

  Kim couldn’t help her surprise at the way the girl appeared to have changed.

  ‘We confronted her about it and there was a huge row. There was no remorse. She’d found a deserving cause to which she could distribute our obscene wealth as she called it.’

  The view seemed extreme to Kim. They had a nice house and nice cars and it looked like they’d worked for it, but they certainly weren’t ostentatious or obscene.

  ‘And that was the last night Sammy spent under our roof. She moved to Unity Farm and came back to the house one more time.’

  ‘For what?’ Kim asked.

  ‘Her stuff. I was away, at a meeting in Glasgow. She turned up with two guys and a van. She told her mother she was here to take all her things. Kate called me in tears not knowing what to do. I told her to let them. It was her stuff after all. And take it they did. Her furniture, clothes, jewellery, everything that wasn’t nailed to the wall. But that wasn’t the worst thing. When I got back hours later, Kate was still crying hysterically. Sammy had been cool and distant, as though they were strangers. She barely spoke until she handed back her door key and told her mother that one day she’d realise just how much of a zombie she was.’

  ‘Zombie?’ Stacey asked.

  He nodded took a sip of his drink and pushed it away.

  ‘It’s their term for the unenlightened. We’re not alive, you see, we’re just existing.’

  ‘Carry on,’ she urged. So far, this was only half of the story.

  ‘Obviously I tried to call her, but her phone was off. As far as I know it was never switched back on again. We called the police but…’

  ‘She was an adult who could make her own decisions.’

  He nodded. ‘So, I began researching the whole thing; learned everything I could about cults and sects. Reading books, articles, websites, joining chat rooms. I was beside myself. I felt powerless. I tried to visit and couldn’t get in the place. I was at my wit’s end when I suddenly received a call from a man named Kane Devlin.’

  ‘Big man, dresses in black?’ Kim asked, hazarding a guess. The man had not been a bailiff after all.

  Myles nodded as Kim frowned.

  ‘He made contact with you?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘How did he know you needed help?’

  ‘I don’t know and I don’t care. I think he might lurk in some of these chat rooms to see who needs help and approaches them. He’s very secretive about what he does. He doesn’t get his business via a website.’

  ‘And what exactly is his business?’ Kim asked, wishing for Myles to spell it out.

  ‘He helped us perform the intervention. His team watched the compound for weeks, got to know Sammy’s movements and took her back.’

  ‘By force?’

  He looked shocked. ‘Of course, it was the only way.’

  Kim thought about his actions in forcing the girl into the shower. He clearly felt the ends justified the means.

  ‘We knew that if we could just get her away from the group we’d be able to change her mind back. Get her to see what they were. Kane and his team run a programme. The first week was hell while she was being unfrozen. We weren’t allowed to see…’

  ‘Sorry?’ Kim asked. ‘Unfreezing?’

  He sighed as though realising just how clueless she was.

  ‘There are three steps to gaining control of the mind: unfreezing, changing, refreezing. It’s the same for getting someone in to and out of a cult. The first stage is to strip away the current belief system. It involves sleep deprivation, disorientation, privacy deprivation and being told that your values and relationships are all wrong.

  ‘Next comes the changing. Given new beliefs, new ideals, repetitively, encouraged to accept without question and then refreezing.’

  ‘Which is?’

  ‘Being built back up, paired with older members of the group to enforce new ideals. Kane explained it was like taking a shower. You get undressed, wash yourself clean and then dress in different clothes.’

  Kim appreciated the simplistic analogy but this was not about getting clean. This was the human mind.

  ‘So, you’re saying this Kane guy kind of deprogrammed her?’

  ‘He started the process and we continued it once we got her home.’

  ‘And, how was she?’

  ‘Unresponsive at first. Other than swearing and calling us names she barely spoke to us. She hated us for what we’d done, but she started to come around as she settled back into the real world. Eventually she said she needed her own space and we trusted that she wasn’t going to slip backwards.

  ‘We found her that flat where we could keep a close eye on her, and Kane checked on her too.’ He shook his head. ‘I still can’t believe that someone would kill her.’

  ‘And you think someone at Unity Farm is responsible?’

  ‘I don’t know who else it could be. She had no enemies.’

  ‘But why when she’s been gone for months. Why wait so long?’

  He shrugged. ‘Maybe they’re angry because she left. Maybe she knew something about someone. I just don’t know,’ he said, as his grief caught up with him. While he’d been talking about the mechanics of the group his mind had been occupied but now his loss was back at the forefront of his mind.

  Kim pushed back her chair. ‘Okay, Myles, that’ll be all for now. If we need anything…’

  ‘So, what are you going to do, about the cult, I mean?’

  His hands were clasped together on the table before him. The pose seemed relaxed, but she could see the whites of his knuckles.

  A shiver crept up her spine. The tension still surging through his body, despite his admissions, troubled her. Even now he was not being completely truthful.

  ‘Myles, I swear to God I am considering charging you with every obstruction…’

  She stopped speaking as her phone rang. It was Jack at the front desk.

  ‘Stone,’ she answered.

  ‘Got a woman here who is insisting on speaking to you straight away,’ he said.

  ‘Bit busy at the minute,’ she said, glancing at Myles who was rubbing the back of his neck. ‘Get someone else to…’

  ‘Yeah, she says her husband is here and that he’s not telling the truth, whatever that means.’

  Kim glanced again at the troubled man before her who for whatever reason was still not being completely honest about his daughter’s murder.

  ‘Bring her through, Jack,’ she said, ending the call.

  Both Stacey and Myles glanced at her questioningly as she remained silent and took a sip of her drink. It was stone cold and she pushed it away as a knock sounded at the door.

  ‘Come in,’ she called, watching Myles’s reaction as the door opened and his wife stood behind the constable.

  His expression turned to one of tenderness mixed with fear. ‘Kate, what the…’

  ‘I’m sorry, Myles, but I can’t do this any more,’ she said, pushing past the constable and entering the room.

  ‘Please take a seat,’ Kim invited.

  ‘Kate, we agreed that—’

  ‘No Myles,’ she shot back. ‘You decided and I went along with it but I don’t think we’re doing the right thing. I think she needs to know.’

  Kim leaned forward. ‘Mrs Brown, what the hell
is going on here?’

  Kate glanced at her husband. ‘Has he told you all about Kane and what he did for us?’

  Kim nodded.

  Kate glanced at her husband, appearing to soften as she saw the anguish in his face.

  ‘Please understand that he was only doing what he thought was best. He didn’t mean to deceive you or impede the investigation by not sharing everything. We’re frightened,’ she said, reaching for her husband’s hand.

  He held on to her tightly as a tear rolled over his cheek.

  Kim looked from one to the other wondering what the hell they had left to lose.

  Kate took a breath. ‘You see, we still need Kane’s help.’

  The pieces began to fall into place. Their secrecy, their continued tension about Unity Farm, the closeness of Sammy and Sophie, the absence of their younger daughter.

  ‘Oh no,’ Kim said, as the couple held on to each other tightly.

  Kate nodded and when she spoke her words were no more than a whisper.

  ‘Yes, our youngest daughter, Sophie, is still in there.’

  Forty

  Penn slid back into his seat at 10.15 p.m.

  He had been dismissed as the boss and Stacey had headed down to question Myles Brown, but something the boss had said earlier, following her meeting with Woody, had stayed with him. The idea had stuck in his mind while he and Jasper had visited their mother in the hospice and since.

  Part of him was glad that his brother was having his first overnight stay at Billy’s house. It had been a difficult visit and hard for them all. The knowledge that the lung cancer finally had the upper hand was evident. She had barely spoken but the silence had been filled by Jasper recounting every detail of his day, causing their mother’s lips to lift in a brief smile on a couple of occasions.

  Penn had wondered sometimes if Jasper truly understood the gravity of her illness and that she would not be coming home again.

  He swallowed the emotion in his throat and remembered how his brother’s motor mouth had shut down once they were back in the car. He’d spoken the odd word but had been keen to get out of the car and into Billy’s house.

  He understood.

  Penn turned on his computer and took out his phone. He scrolled and hit his brother’s name.

  ‘Hey, bud, you okay?’ he asked, when Jasper answered.

  A pause.

  ‘Yeah, me and Billy’re playing Xbox. It’s the decider.’

  ‘Okay, mate, not too late, eh?’

  ‘Allllll righty,’ he said.

  ‘You sure you’re okay, bud?’ he asked again.

  ‘Err… yeah. Waiting to kick Billy’s a… bum again.’

  Penn couldn’t help the smile that turned up his lips. Down’s syndrome or not, the kid was still a teenager.

  ‘Okay, love you bud.’

  ‘Yeah, oooooookay,’ Jasper said, refusing to return the sentiment in front of his buddy. Yep, definitely a teenager.

  ‘Goodnight,’ Penn said, ending the call.

  He logged into the network as his phone dinged a message.

  He opened it and laughed out loud. The text message was from his brother and read simply

  Love you 2 Ozzy

  Followed by a tongue out emoji.

  But he was a good teenager, Penn marvelled, putting away his phone.

  He took some scrap paper from his drawer and wrote down the only information he had.

  The shoe found at the side of the lake was a women’s leather shoe made by Bergen.

  Woody had said to the boss that they had no idea or suspicion of who that shoe belonged to.

  Well, he’d had an idea that might just help them narrow that down a bit.

  He logged into Amazon and typed in the manufacturer’s name. A shoe matching the description and the photo was called a ‘ballet flat’, and judging by the number of reviews it was a popular choice. He had a quick look at the reviews but that wasn’t the information he was after. He didn’t care if the heel was slightly smaller than it appeared on the photo. He didn’t care that the stitching rubbed an area of one woman’s little toe.

  He scrolled down to the ‘also bought’ section which detailed other purchases made by people who had bought this item.

  He started to make a list of similar items that appeared more than once.

  Five minutes later he surveyed his list.

  High-waisted pants

  Night cream

  Spanx

  Shape wear

  Socks

  Concealer

  Body tape

  Okay, he thought, if he was building a profile of this particular shoe buyer he’d guess the woman was beyond her prime years but was sensible and still liked to look good. He’d wager between the ages of forty-five and sixty.

  And that right there gave him somewhere to start.

  He logged into COMPACT, the missing persons’ database.

  He entered the sparse information he had but hesitated over the date and age parameters.

  He settled on females who had been reported missing over the last three years aged between forty and sixty-five. He waited for just a couple of seconds before the search engine returned fourteen results. Of these fourteen he could see that seven had been closed within forty-eight hours, four more had been closed up to one month following the official report.

  That left three open cases of his target profile female missing in the last three years.

  He clicked into the first. It was a homeless woman from Dudley reported missing by a concerned shelter worker who hadn’t seen her for a while. Penn disregarded this. There was every chance that Lola Bedola, clearly her stage name, had moved on to pastures new.

  The second he read with more interest until he reached the narrative at the bottom stating that Jeanie Riches had done this a dozen times before and would come back when she was good and ready.

  The third report seeped under his skin immediately.

  Fifty-five-year-old Sheila Thorpe had disappeared from her home eighteen months earlier, as reported by her married twenty-nine-year-old daughter, Josie Finch, who claimed her mother had never done anything like this before and was still grieving the sudden and unexpected death of her husband.

  The narrative further explained that officers had been made aware that Sheila’s bank account had been emptied. Enquires had revealed that Sheila herself had withdrawn the money proving she was alive and well and that she was a grown adult able to make her own decisions. Little else could be done, but that had been twelve months earlier and she hadn’t been seen since.

  He opened a tab for social media, and spoke to an empty room.

  ‘Okay, Josie Finch, let’s see what we can learn from you.’

  Forty-One

  It was almost midnight when Kim took the lead from Barney’s collar after their late-night walk.

  Although his social skills had improved significantly since she’d rescued him, he still didn’t respond well to total strangers and especially other dogs when they were out of the house. He’d formed relationships with Charley from down the road, who collected him for a walk and a bit of pampering back at his house when Kim was working, and he responded well to Dawn, his groomer, and most people who visited the house providing they bore gifts.

  As ever he positioned himself in the kitchen, his tail whooshing to and fro across the floor, his big brown eyes staring up at her expectantly.

  ‘Yeah, but I know your tricks now, don’t I, boy?’ she said, reaching for his post-walk treat. He took his carrot and headed back to the rug in the lounge, his favourite chewing spot.

  She remembered what the vet had told her when Barney had had his last injections. Scientists had discovered that dogs appeared to have developed an extra muscle above their eyes that served no purpose to their physicality except to offer their owners a puppy-dog-look when they wanted something.

  So, she no longer felt as guilty for giving in to the majority of his requests.

  Science was science.


  She poured a coffee from the pot she’d left brewing before the walk that she’d hoped would help clear her head. It hadn’t and she didn’t see restful sleep anywhere in her near future.

  Myles and Kate Brown were still on her mind. Her emotions had been mixed as she’d watched them leave the interview room, clutching each other for support. Part of her had been angry at them for holding the information to themselves and the other half understood their need to try and protect the only child they had left.

  Myles’s explanation that an intervention was planned this week to remove Sophie from Unity Farm had clarified why Kate had been busy preparing the bedroom for her arrival.

  Kim couldn’t help wondering if Sammy would still be alive if they’d left her alone. She had been an adult and the choices were hers to make. Who had she been hurting exactly? And the same question could be asked of Sophie. The girl had followed her sister to Unity Farm but had not followed her out. Didn’t that mean she was happy where she was? As a grown adult Kim was powerless to forcibly remove Sophie from the Farm if she didn’t want to leave and yet they’d instructed Kane to snatch her in the same manner he had taken Sammy. But what if she doesn’t want to leave? a quiet voice said in her head. Surely she wasn’t being held there by force and could leave any time she chose. Kim suddenly remembered Myles mentioning a girl who had recruited Sammy into the group. Maybe she knew Sophie and could vouch for her state of mind and happiness. She made a mental note to track the girl down and find out more. Were Kane’s services really needed again?

  Given that this Kane guy had been spotted at Sammy’s flat by both a neighbour and a news report, Kim had demanded that Myles arrange a meeting when he had flatly refused to hand over Kane’s number. He had promised he would speak to Kane Devlin and contact her the following day.

  Right now, Tyler’s death was a complete mystery to her. It appeared that the boy had followed Sammy to Unity Farm, where he had continued to not matter to anyone. Jake Black had barely recognised the name. There was a deep sadness that struck her when she thought of the boy. He had mattered greatly to his grandmother and he would matter to them. And they would find the person responsible for his murder.