‘And how many girls do you have?’ Kim asked.
‘Three including Mia,’ she said, taking a seat on the single wicker chair.
Both Kim and Bryant sat on the two-seater opposite looking out onto a garden that although not huge managed to accommodate a small patio area, a square of lawn, a slide, trampoline and cosy summer house right at the end.
Kim already liked the way the woman had included Mia in her list of children.
‘I’m afraid I have some bad news which I must ask you to keep to yourself.’
‘Okay,’ she said, sitting forward.
‘Hayley Smart is dead.’
The woman’s hand rose straight to her open mouth which mirrored the roundness of her eyes.
‘Oh my God, how, where? I mean. Are you sure?’
Kim nodded. ‘I’m afraid so. I can’t divulge much detail but she was murdered some time last night.’
The woman started to shake her head, and Kim noticed a slight tremble to her hand as she pushed an errant curl behind her ear.
‘We’d really like an opportunity to speak to Mia if—’
‘Absolutely not,’ the woman said, straightening. ‘That child has been through enough. I’ll explain about her mother but I’m not letting you anywhere near her.’
Kim hadn’t considered this. Whereas Bryant clearly had when he’d made that crack about not having kids. For a foster parent Mrs Roberts seemed very protective of her charge.
Kim couldn’t help remembering some of her own foster families, who had taken in kids for many different reasons, very few of them altruistic and would have let her speak to anyone. Except for Keith and Erica who would have protected her with their lives.
‘I understand that you want to safeguard your charge,’ Kim said, offering a gentle reminder.
‘Please don’t call her that,’ she said with distaste. ‘This is the third time Mia has been with us. The previous two times were due to her mother serving prison time. She was with us for four months when she was seven years old. She didn’t speak for the first three of those months and we didn’t try to force her. She was behind in all her school subjects and was placed into a lower year at school. Just when we thought we were making progress her mother was released and Mia was returned to her. I won’t lie, Inspector. It all but broke my heart.’
‘And the second time?’ Kim asked.
‘About a year later and Mia had regressed even further. Wetting the bed, silent, totally withdrawn and at times hostile. On that occasion, we never heard her speak once.’
‘And you took her a third time?’ Kim asked.
‘Of course,’ she said, as though it was a no-brainer. ‘She’s a child. A sad, damaged, confused child. None of this is her fault. Whatever’s happened to her is not…’
‘And do you know what’s happened to her?’ Kim asked, remembering the photos on Fenton’s computer.
‘We have a good idea and there are many reasons to hate her mother except one.’
‘Many reasons?’
‘Not taking proper care of her, allowing her to fall behind, moving her from one unstable situation to another. I’m sorry she’s dead but I can’t forgive her for what she’s done to this child.’
Kim heard the emotion gathering in her throat.
Regardless, Kim felt she had to give it another shot.
‘But, Mrs Roberts, Mia might be able to help—’
‘Last night, Inspector, out of nowhere Mia walked over to me, silently, and got onto my lap. She said nothing and stayed only for a few minutes, but if that child is beginning to put even an ounce of trust in me to protect her, there is not one thing you can say to convince me to let you anywhere near her. You are not what she needs right now and that is my one and only priority.’
Kim knew this battle was lost. The woman could not have been more protective if Mia had been her own child. Another pang shot through her. She had known this kind of love, for a short time, but she had known it.
Kim knew there was nothing she could say that would convince her to change her mind.
But she suddenly remembered something Mrs Roberts had said earlier.
‘You said there were many reasons to hate Hayley Smart except for one. What did you mean?’
‘That the woman had finally had the good grace to do the right thing.’
‘Which was?’
‘This time she had given Mia up for good.’
Chapter Sixty-Eight
Stacey had made a mental list for interrogating the phone of Hayley Smart. First, she would tackle the call register, then the text messages and then look for any deleted data.
But first she took a moment to absorb her current surroundings and situation. She could almost feel guilty for calling what she was doing work, when she was feeling for the first time in her life that she’d found her purpose.
Not that she’d hand back her pay at the end of the month. She had bills to pay like everyone else, but right now she was contributing towards the efforts to find a serial killer and she couldn’t help feeling she was finally where she was meant to be.
Yeah, it got a bit quiet and lonely in the office sometimes but she was beginning to realise this was where her skill-set lay.
She felt immensely proud that the boss had seen fit to trust her with Hayley’s phone instead of sending it to the lab and they were only on day three.
She rolled her eyes and decided it was time to stop congratulating herself, but oh, if those girls that had called her names and bullied her throughout her school years could see her now.
Enough, she told herself as she began to scroll through the actual contact list, which was painfully short.
Stacey had few friends but her contact list at least held a few friends and family.
There was a contact for ‘school’, ‘Pro Officer’ and ‘Taxi’.
She moved straight on to the call register and was surprised to see that pretty much every call Hayley had received in the last few weeks had been missed and very few people had been called.
‘Where the hell were you, Hayley?’ she said out loud. ‘And why day yer want to speak?’
Stacey knew that the only way to find anything out was to start calling these numbers and try to find out who they were. She hoped the boss wasn’t expecting a quick result on this one.
She decided to start with the number that had called Hayley the most, but as she reached for the phone her eyes caught one of the numbers further down the list. It was a number she had seen before.
She remembered that the number had ended with three ones, which had made her think of the NHS phone helpline.
Stacey immediately ruled out Luke Fenton. It wasn’t a number she had studied or called. It was a number that she’d seen in passing, but she couldn’t remember where.
She put the phone to the side for a minute and began searching through the paperwork on her desk.
Her gut had reacted immediately because it proved one thing.
Hayley Smart had been in contact with someone else involved in the investigation.
And she had to find out who.
Chapter Sixty-Nine
Dawson couldn’t help wondering if the boss was doing this to him on purpose. Had he somehow communicated to her just how much he hated the morgue or had she just guessed? There was no other explanation for him visiting the place twice in two days.
‘You again?’ Keats asked.
‘Yeah, I’m as thrilled as you are.’
‘Ooh, someone appears to have adopted their boss’s sour mood already.’
He grunted in response wishing the pathologist would just get on with it.
‘Well, you’ll be pleased to know that I’ve already carried out the post-mortem, so I won’t have to keep you long.’
Dawson felt himself cheer right up, as a message dinged to his phone.
He was sorely tempted to take it out and read it, hoping it was a response to his queries. He was desperate to take the attention from his younger, lower-rankin
g colleague.
‘So obviously all weights and measurements will be listed on my official report as will the following: this young lady was severely under-nourished and around seven pounds lighter than the lowest weight recommended for her height. However, her last meal, consumed only an hour or two before her death, was a burger and fries. And had she been eating meals like that on a regular basis her weight would more likely have been within the recommended parameters. Neither her nails nor her hair were particularly clean and attention to personal hygiene had been somewhat lacking.’
Dawson wondered why he was having to stand and listen to the details when the report would follow later.
‘I would place the time of death somewhere between seven and twelve last night as already noted to your inspector.’
What he really wanted to do was take out his phone and see who had sent him a message. For all he knew, the smoking gun to blow the case wide open was now sitting in an email in his pocket.
‘I can confirm that in my opinion the same knife was used on both victims; however the severing of the head from the body appears to have been more coarsely done than the first.’
‘But, wouldn’t Luke Fenton’s neck have been harder to cut?’ he asked. ‘More flesh, thicker neck?’
‘Aah, finally a question that shows you are present. Yes, it should have been much harder to behead the male.’
‘So…’ Dawson asked, awaiting a better explanation.
‘That’s for you to answer, Sergeant. I can tell you that it was and you have to find out why.’
Dawson worked hard to control his expression.
‘Anything else?’ he asked.
‘Of course. I can confirm that there was no blunt force trauma to the back of the head, unlike the first victim, which is also a question for you…’
‘To answer,’ Dawson finished for him. Yeah, he got it.
‘So, in the face of your boredom is there anything you’d like to ask me ahead of the full report that will be sent later today?’
Dawson thought about the message that had dinged to his phone.
‘Nope, nothing,’ he said, heading for the exit. This had gone so much better than he’d thought.
‘Of course, you should know that was the wrong answer,’ Keats offered as he reached the door.
‘There is one question you should always ask before leaving…’
Dawson thought for a moment; one more question. Something that would cover everything.
He got it.
‘Is there anything else I need to know?’
‘Correct and yes,’ he said, walking over to the desk in the corner.
He held up an evidence bag.
‘This was found in the waistband of her jeans.’
Dawson took a few steps towards it.
‘What is it?’ he said.
The item was red in colour and an inch wide.
‘No idea.’
Dawson took a closer look at the plastic object.
‘Some kind of knob or top from something?’
‘My thoughts too.’
Dawson took out his phone and photographed it from every angle.
When he’d finished he turned once again to the pathologist. He rarely needed to be told anything twice.
‘Is there anything else I need to know?’
Keats smiled. ‘No, that’ll do for now.’
Chapter Seventy
‘You know those dreams where your brain is running but your feet won’t keep up and you can’t escape a certain area?’ Kim asked, as they got out of the lift.
‘I know the ones, guv.’
‘Well, that’s me and this place right about now.’
‘I get you,’ he said, knocking on the door.
This resident already knew they were coming.
Lisa Bywater opened the door minus the green uniform.
‘Come in but be quick.’
Kim wondered why the woman’s past was such a secret from her husband, but she supposed it was her choice and that wasn’t the question she wanted answering.
‘You know why we’re here?’
Lisa shook her head and Kim knew she was lying.
‘You made a call to Hayley Smart, the ex-girlfriend of your paedophile brother, which lasted for three seconds, and I think you need to explain it to us.’
Lisa’s body seemed to wither before her eyes as she folded into the nearest kitchen chair.
‘I knew you’d find it. She’s dead, isn’t she? She’s the body on the news?’
Kim knew the news of another murder had broken; however until they established there were no next of kin, her identity would be withheld.
‘Is Mia okay?’ Lisa asked.
‘How do you know them?’ Kim asked, unwilling to offer the woman anything until she got answers. She’d had no contact with her brother and appeared to actively hide from him and yet she had the phone number of the woman they’d been trying to find.
She took a deep breath, and Kim took a seat.
‘I saw them, together. At my bloody supermarket of all places. I hadn’t seen Luke in years. Last I heard he’d moved north, Yorkshire, I was told. So when I saw him I was scared to death. I ran into the back and feigned illness until I was sure they’d gone. It was only later, once I was safely back here, that I remembered there had been a child holding the woman’s hand.’
‘So, what did you do?’
‘Nothing at first. You have to understand how hard it’s been to get him out of my head. That one sighting brought it all back. I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t sleep and suddenly I was seeing him everywhere. The nightmares returned and then they changed. I was no longer seeing Luke’s face but the face of that child.’
‘So?’
‘I tracked him down, found his address and waited for her to come out alone.’
‘And?’
‘I tried to tell her what he was like, that he was into kids, but she wouldn’t listen. Said he loved her child like his own. I talked until I was blue in the face, hoping that something I was saying was going in, but she just stormed away. I saw her again when I was at work and I tried once more, insisting she take my phone number in case she ever needed anything. I left it there at that time as there was nothing I could do except hope she started looking for signs or talk directly to Mia.’
Kim couldn’t help a growing respect for this young woman who had voluntarily involved herself in a situation that brought her closer to a man who frightened her to death.
‘And did you hear from her?’
She nodded. ‘About a month later when she called me to say that she had suspicions and that she was leaving him.’
‘But she went back?’ Kim asked, trying not to judge but still wondering how a mother could do that.
‘He found her and she had nowhere else to go. I don’t think her life has been easy but I still tried to talk her out of going back. She told me that it was just until she got sorted and she would make sure nothing happened to Mia.’
‘And was that the last you heard from her?’ Kim asked, wondering about the recent call.
She shook her head. ‘She texted me from a new number and told me she’d left and he wouldn’t find either of them again.’
‘Did you offer her a place to stay?’ Kim asked, unable to help herself. Knowing what she knew about her brother, Kim would have thought this woman would have been the first to step forward and offer assistance.
Lisa looked at her as though she’d lost her mind. ‘Firstly, officer, my husband knows nothing of my past and it’s something I’ve chosen not to share with him. I’m entitled to make that call.’
Kim nodded her acceptance of the fact. There was much of her own past that she chose to share with no one.
There were other ways. Lisa wouldn’t have needed to divulge Hayley’s true identity to give her a bed for a night or two. ‘But surely you could have—’
‘You don’t get it, do you?’ she said, licking her lower lip nervously. ‘Even talking about hi
m puts my nerves on edge and I know the bastard is dead. It doesn’t matter, I’m still scared of his power. Having Hayley in my home would only have been one step removed from inviting Luke back into my life, when I’ve done everything I can to escape him. If you don’t understand the fear I can’t explain it. I had a full-blown panic attack when I received a text message from her giving me her new number.’
‘Was this about a month ago?’ Kim asked, leaving the subject alone. She didn’t blame Lisa for Hayley’s death, but she would remain convinced that Lisa could have done more.
‘Yes.’
When Haley put Mia into the custody of the state and had clearly gone into hiding herself, Kim realised.
‘So, when you knew your brother was dead…’
‘I just wanted to let her know it was safe to come out. I just wish Mia…’
‘Mia is safe with a foster family who loves her very much,’ Kim said, thankful that Hayley had finally done the right thing by her child.
‘Oh, thank God,’ she said.
‘And do you have any idea at all where she was hiding?’ Kim asked. Because as soon as she’d lost that safety she had also lost her life: clearly there had been more than one man looking for her.
‘Not this time, no. She didn’t want anyone to know.’
‘But the last time?’ Kim asked.
She had eluded him for six months previously so maybe she’d used the same hidey hole twice.
‘Oh yeah, I know where she was the first time, when she was gone for six months.’
‘And you didn’t think to share this information?’ Kim asked.
Lisa shrugged. ‘You never asked.’
‘Go on,’ Kim urged, biting her tongue.
‘She was staying at some shelter in Dudley.’
Chapter Seventy-One
Kim stepped back into the squad room to three expectant faces, following her meeting with Woody.
She considered debriefing the team right now and continuing with the leads they’d found, but it was already after seven at the end of another twelve-hour day.
First Blood: A completely gripping mystery thriller (A Detective Kim Stone Novel) Page 16