Page 101 of First Blood

And yet she already knew that this twin spoke more to the residents than his brother. Especially the attractive ones.

‘But surely you had conversations with Hayley. She was here for six months.’

He shrugged. ‘Now and again. I’d ask her how the little one was. The kid didn’t talk too much.’

Kim nodded as he again changed his seating position. It was clear she was now talking to the fidgety twin.

‘Are there no residents you’ve struck up particular friendships with? I saw you just earlier, while you were changing a plug talking to a woman.’

‘Well we can’t very well ignore them,’ he said. ‘We just keep it pleasant and professional.’

If she remembered correctly he’d kept it pleasant and professional for more than twenty minutes.

‘Didn’t you react on Hayley’s behalf when Luke Fenton tracked her down and came here making a nuisance of himself?’

He shrugged. ‘He was gone by the time I got out there. Never saw the bloke.’

There was something tapping away at her subconscious. An alarm bell that all was not as it should be.

She ploughed on.

‘Do you remember a woman called Wendy Lockwood?’

He looked up and to the left as his legs fell open. There was no obvious recognition of the friendship they’d built according to Wendy.

‘I think so. Two little girls, married to that reporter bloke?’

Kim nodded, watching him more closely as a nagging suspicion popped into her head.

‘Well, that reporter bloke was found murdered just a couple of hours ago.’

Genuine surprise shaped his features. That’s what she’d wanted to test. He appeared to be sincerely shocked at the news.

And if the suspicion and anger growing alongside each other in her stomach were to be believed he would be surprised by the news of his death.

‘So, you didn’t really talk to Wendy Lockwood much?’

He shrugged and shook his head.

‘Like I said, we’re not…’

‘Yeah, you did say. But that girl earlier, with the fresh perm, what’s her story?’

His face looked blank.

‘I don’t really know much…’

‘What about her name. You know that at least, don’t you?’

Bryant’s head turned at the change in her tone. But she wasn’t a fool and she didn’t appreciate being treated like one.

She sat back and connected the dots, as she glanced down at his shoulders.

Tiny flecks of blonde hair. The fidgeting and body movement. The fact he didn’t know who he’d been talking to earlier. But the clincher was his total detachment from the mention of Wendy Lockwood. A woman he’d been known to at least have had a friendship with.

She folded her arms.

‘Nice to talk to you for the second time in one day, Curt, but I asked to speak to Carl; now where the hell is your brother?’