Page 60 of Deadly Cry

‘Yeah, murder victims got no respect for EPT meetings,’ she said, pulling a face. ‘But great to have met you, Superintendent Wiley,’ she offered, before she turned and walked away.

‘I said five minutes, Bryant, not an hour and a half.’

‘It was five minutes, guv,’ he answered with a smile.

‘Well, it seemed longer,’ she said, heading back to the car and her real job.

She’d done what she’d been asked or instructed to do. She’d attended, she’d played nice and she’d produce a briefing sheet for Woody to disseminate to whomever it would concern.

And finally, that was the end of that.

Forty-Seven

‘Bloody hell, Stace,’ Kim said once the constable had finished speaking. Part of her had wished that Stacey was overreacting to whatever she’d found out, that her emotions had overtaken her and she’d got caught up in one man’s emotional protestations of innocence.

But her presentation of the facts, following interviews with all three people concerned, had been objective and without emotion.

‘I mean, bloody hell,’ she repeated.

God only knew how she was going to break this to Woody. His scheme had worked quite well up until now, and each station had put aside their collective pride if another team managed to progress or solve an open case. To her knowledge, no team had reopened a closed one; but Kim had to agree that her colleague was on to something. She didn’t know if Sean Fellows was guilty or not, but she did know he should never have been convicted.

‘Sorry, boss,’ Stacey said.

‘Don’t be sorry for doing your job, Stace.’ She stopped herself from sayinghowever unpopular it makes you, and it would once the team at Brierley Hill got wind. Someone would be in the cross hairs.

‘But we need to park it for now. I need you on this. We’ve got two victims and a missing child. Mr Fellows is just gonna have to give us a minute.’

‘Got it, boss,’ Stacey said, opening the door of the Bowl and heading back into the squad room.

And I need to consider how best to proceed, Kim thought to herself, following Stacey out.

‘Good job, Bryant,’ she said, glancing at the fresh pot of coffee that had miraculously appeared during her meeting with Stacey.

‘Anything to make your life easier, guv,’ he quipped.

‘Your resignation,’ she said, holding out her hand.

‘You wish,’ he said as she perched beside the printer at the top of the office.

‘Anything new from the search site?’ she asked Penn.

‘Most of the volunteers were gone due to the rain, but nothing found by the time I left.’

Damn it, they were almost twenty-four hours into Archie’s disappearance. The houses closest to the edge of the park had been visited, but as yet no one had seen a thing. By the end of the day they would all be visited again to double-check on family members not present during the first visit.

‘Stace, I know you’ve been busy but anything yet on Ella Nock?’

‘Nothing so far that would cause concern. She has no police record, not even a parking fine or speeding ticket. Like her brother, she works in sales, but she makes around double his salary selling luxury items like Jacuzzis and hot tubs. Andrew sells inkjet printers to trade clients. He does okay, works a lot more hours but makes nothing like his sister. Two speeding tickets for Andrew but no criminal record. From what I can see both went to university and excelled. At school, both were keen on sports and performed at national level. She at long jump and he at triathlon.’

‘Parents?’ Kim asked, feeling the disappointment land in the pit of her stomach.

‘Both doctors and both dead. Mother was a gynaecologist who died seven years ago of an aneurysm, and the father a heart surgeon who, ironically, died of a massive heart attack four years later.’

Which explained the closeness, Kim thought. Their similarities so far may be a little strange, but there was certainly nothing there to indicate the capability or motivation for murder. And yet there was something gnawing in her gut. Something was missing.

‘Keep looking, Stace.’

‘Okay, boss, but…’