Page 70 of Child's Play

She wore light jeans and a green tee shirt. Working clothes that she didn’t expect to get dirty.

She looked their way and scowled.

‘Been busy here, Miss Evans,’ Kim said, careful not to slip on shiny magazine covers as she moved to the middle of the room.

Kim had no clue how much she was paying these people but she could already see some wall space appearing from behind the piles.

‘I really think you’d have a better chance of finding my sister’s killer if you weren’t so fascinated with me.’

‘And perhaps if you’d been a bit more truthful…’

‘What the devil?…’ Veronica said, looking around them.

‘Birdcage,’ said the woman who had just pulled forward a pile of old bedding sheets.

‘Get rid of it, but not that box to the right. Put that on the “to be checked” pile.’

Clearly Veronica wanted the focus on one room at a time so it could be closely monitored.

Perhaps Kim had got the woman wrong and she wanted to make sure that she kept hold of Belinda’s personal items or keepsakes.

‘A small box of jewellery over here,’ said the smaller operative handing it to Veronica.

She opened it. ‘Belinda’s costume jewellery from the Eighties. She loved this rubbish.’

She closed the box and threw it into the nearest black bin bag.

Or maybe not, Kim thought, as her hackles began to rise.

She watched for a moment as the woman continued to direct and manage the workforce.

Despite her own shortcomings in the emotional connection department, Kim often felt a vague stirring of empathy for family members, the ones left behind, the people who now had victim-shaped holes in their lives. She felt for the people who had to rearrange their entire existence around an empty space. She empathised because she understood loss.

Yet this woman elicited no emotion from her at all. She had wondered if Veronica was burying her feelings so deeply to avoid facing them. After the involvement in each other’s lives Veronica’s days had to be emptier than most.

But this need to eradicate her sister’s existence so soon after her death left Kim standing cold. Belinda deserved better than that. Of the hundreds of cases she’d worked she’d never seen a relative act so coldly.

‘Not that one,’ Veronica cried out, suddenly, causing Kim to look closely.

It was a box of old papers, textbooks and exercise books.

Veronica grabbed it and pulled it closer to her.

‘Miss Evans, we know you’re busy but…’

‘You can talk while I watch, Inspector. I’m paying these people by the hour.’

The word unrelenting came to mind. This woman didn’t give an inch to anyone on anything.

‘Miss Evans, we would appreciate your full attention for just a minute or two, and if you’d prefer we could do this down the station.’

‘We absolutely could,’ she said without batting an eyelid. ‘I’ll see you some time at the end of the week. If you want my attention any sooner, I’d suggest you ask your questions, Inspector. I’m perfectly able to multitask.’

Kim glanced at Bryant to see if her inclination to put her hands around the woman’s throat was an overreaction. The twitching muscle in his cheek said not.

‘Miss Evans, we know where your sister was going for a couple of days and we’re pretty sure you knew too.’

Veronica began to shake her head.