Page 47 of Child's Play

‘Yeah, but how does our killer know all that, eh?’

‘Good question,’ Bryant said, as a squad car pulled up outside the front entrance.

‘He’s here and it looks like he’s in a hurry,’ Kim observed as he entered the double doors. Kim raised her hand, surprised to see him in a high-vis jacket.

His tight expression as he weaved through the tables towards them told her he didn’t want to borrow a cup of sugar or tap her up for a bit of intel.

His jacket rustled as he took a seat beside Bryant.

‘What you drinking?’ her colleague asked.

‘Nothing for me, thanks… gotta be quick and get…’

‘Hey, you promised lunch,’ Kim said, trying to lighten the tension in his face.

‘I’ll leave you the money but I’ve got a meeting with the Commissioner at two o’clock.’

‘Bloody hell, Tom, what’s going on?’

In all the years she’d known him, through the years she’d liked him and the years she’d hated him, she’d never seen him looking like this.

Tom Travis did a lot of things well, ran a team, solved crimes, toed the line, kissed arse but he didn’t do stress. Now she was intrigued.

‘This case in court this week; the armed robbery.’

‘What about it?’ she asked coolly. This was no longer about Tom Travis. It involved Penn. One of hers.

‘It’s a shit storm. Whatever Penn’s told you…’

‘Not a lot,’ she said, honestly.

He hesitated, took a breath. ‘The case is falling apart to be honest. Our only witness fucked up on the stand. The wife of the accused helped nothing when she testified. Even gave the impression she only changed her statement to get him back for cheating on her.’

‘Did she change her statement?’

Travis nodded. ‘Retracted her alibi.’

Kim balked.

‘She said he was home and then said he wasn’t?’

Bryant offered a low whistle. ‘Jesus. And she hinted on the witness stand that she did so out of jealousy?’

‘Not in so many words but the inference was there.’

‘And did she? Change her statement out of jealousy?’

‘I bloody hope not or we’re in even more shit than I thought.’

‘There’s more?’

‘Oh yeah, much more. Witness for the defence, neighbour of the accused who swears he saw and heard our guy at home the night of the murder disappeared yesterday lunchtime.’

‘Yeah, Penn did mention that,’ she remembered.

‘And turned up dead on the railway tracks this morning.’

‘Suicide?’