Page 30 of Child's Play

‘Okey-dokey, good work on the phone calls between Belinda and her sister yesterday, Stace. Still got no explanation about the weird relationship between the two of them and I want you to keep digging on that. I want to know everything you can find out about these two ladies: their parents, childhood friends, neighbours, boyfriends, everything.’

In her peripheral vision she could see Bryant’s expression questioning the instruction.

‘Go on, spit it out,’ she said, without turning.

‘Veronica has an alibi and you can’t seriously think…’

‘And check out that alibi while you’re at it, Stace,’ Kim instructed. ‘Skyping with the editor at theTelegraphshouldn’t be too hard to prove, and then we can rule her out completely.’

‘Got it, boss,’ Stacey said, making notes. Kim was relieved to see the tension slipping from her face.

She turned towards her colleague. ‘And why should we rule her out without checking her alibi, grumpy boy?’

‘She hardly—’

‘Don’t you even dare say she doesn’t look the murdering kind. Tell me the last time we arrested someone that did. And you never hear of sororicide?’

‘Err… no,’ Bryant answered. ‘And if you’ve got it, is it contagious?’

‘The killing of one’s sister,’ Kim elaborated. ‘Primarily when sibling rivalry gets out of hand. Ronald DeFeo Jr. shot both his sisters in 1974. The murders became the inspiration forThe Amityville Horrorbooks and films. Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo raped then killed Karla’s sister Tammy in 1990, and Yuki Muto murdered his sister in—’

‘Someone appears to have spent their downtime doing some research last night,’ Bryant observed, tapping his fingers on the desk.

‘Yeah, just fell on this article that happened to be open on the laptop,’ she lied.

Twenty minutes after he’d left she’d been unable to resist just taking a look.

‘Aah, I get it,’ Stacey said. ‘If we happen to open our computers and there’s something there to…’

‘I’ve told you. It was an accident.’

‘Yeah, she tripped and fell into Wikipedia,’ Bryant said around her as she walked between them.

‘Boss, there’s still some phone numbers on the call register to work through so?…’

God damn it, right now she could have done without Penn in court. Stacey’s workload was going to get pretty heavy.

‘Finish that off first and then start on the other stuff.’

Stacey nodded her understanding.

The detective constable was going to have a busy day and yet Kim had the feeling that she wouldn’t mind.

‘Bryant and I will be focussing on her last place of work, the man she was seeing and trying to find out where she was going.’

‘She had condoms in the case?’ Stacey asked with wide eyes.

‘She was being responsible,’ Kim replied.

‘But I mean…’

Bryant folded his arms. ‘Stace, if you’re talking about her age, folks still have normal desires beyond retirement, you know. And being in your sixties doesn’t prevent you catching sexually transmitted diseases.’

‘Yeah, I get it, but it’s just…’

‘Stacey Wood,’ he blustered. ‘How can you write someone off just because they’ve reached…’

‘Ignore him, Stace. He’s just getting worked up cos he’s approaching that stage of life himself.’