Page 31 of Child's Play

Stacey chuckled as Bryant opened his mouth to respond.

Kim held up her hand to stop him as her mobile began to ring.

‘Keats,’ she answered.

‘I need you here.’

‘And good morning to you too.’

‘I have something to show you. I found the answer.’

The line went dead in her hand.

She didn’t even know there had been a question.

Twenty-One

Penn arrived at court with a few more minutes to spare than the day before.

He entered the building and clocked Lynne and Doug holding up the coffee bar at the far left of the space. He hesitated when he spotted Mr Kapoor dead ahead at the end of the line waiting for access to the public gallery.

He headed towards Mr Kapoor. The man was not a witness, so communication between them was not an issue.

‘How are you holding up?’ Penn asked, offering his hand.

‘Truthfully, sir, I want it to be over. I want to remember my son for other things.’

Penn understood. The man had lived twenty-three years of Christmases, birthdays, school, college, graduation and all Mr Kapoor could think about were the events of the last few minutes of his son’s life. And until the bastard that had done it was punished that would be all he could think about. Penn wanted nothing more than this man to have some kind of peace.

‘How is Mrs Kapoor?’

He looked down at his feet. ‘She still blames me and I understand. I was stupid. I should have listened to you,’ he said, raising his head and nodding towards the others at the café. ‘I should have installed CCTV. We were an easy mark for anyone but I couldn’t afford it. We were losing money week after week but I should have found it.’

Penn felt for the man. The opening of a mini market along the road had hit him hard. His few bits and pieces of grocery couldn’t compete with the light, bright and shiny premises along the street, and if the rumours he’d heard about a Tesco superstore a mile and a half away were true the man would barely be able to give his petrol away either.

Penn could feel the man’s regret: had he known what he was going to lose he would have begged, borrowed or stolen to get more security, but he hadn’t, his son was dead. Penn wanted the murderer to pay so this man could begin to rebuild his life.

‘Is all okay with the case, sir?’

Despite his urging the man refused to call him anything else.

‘I noticed some sort of upset yesterday. Is all well?’

Penn realised he must mean the discovery that one of the witnesses had gone missing.

‘Nothing on our side, Mr Kapoor,’ he reassured the man, touching him on the arm. ‘If there’s anything you need to know, I’ll find you,’ he said, before turning away.

‘Any more news?’ he asked Lynne and Doug as he approached.

Lynne shook her head, and Doug shrugged in a ‘Who Cares’ expression.

‘The defence is calling Gregor’s wife, to give the uniforms more time to track McCann down,’ Lynne said.

‘Well, this should be fun,’ Doug said, rubbing his hands together, as they began to file into the courtroom.

Penn was sure they were expecting a hostile witness but they had yet to meet Irina Nuryef.

He’d met the woman twice and neither occasion would he have described as fun.