Page 106 of First Blood

The other three women grabbed at handbags and jackets hanging from the back of their chairs.

‘Gotta go anyway, Di,’ said one.

‘Yeah, time to get back,’ said another.

‘No, girls, stay, we need to paaaaarrrrtttaaaayyyyy,’ she cried, punching the air. ‘It’s my victory night.’

The three women smiled tolerantly and headed for the exit.

Kim took a seat and nudged Diana’s handbag and a few glasses along the table to make room for her forearms.

‘Diana, I need to talk to you about Carl Wickes and your conversation earlier today.’

‘You like my hair?’ she asked, shaking it like a shampoo advert. ‘New style. Carl said he liked it.’

‘Did he?’ Kim asked, although she wasn’t sure it had taken him twenty minutes to comment on her hair.

She nodded coyly.

‘You talk to Carl a lot?’ Kim asked.

‘If I can find him,’ she said, with a lazy smile.

He hadn’t appeared to be trying too hard to hide, she thought, remembering the camera view.

‘You talk to him about your husband, your daughter, the abuse?’

Her eyes narrowed. The woman might have had a few drinks but she wasn’t completely wasted.

‘Everyone knows what that bastard did. There are no secrets at the shelter and I have nothing to hide.’

‘So what exactly did you tell him?’ Kim asked.

‘Told him that Steve tried to get my little girl all to himself. Tried to get me out the picture so he could do whatever he wanted without interruption.’

‘Sorry?’

‘Bastard tried to cover himself by saying I was endangering the life of our child. But I had him good and proper.’

The expression on her face Kim could only read as triumph.

A feeling started to churn her stomach. There was something not right here.

She glanced at Bryant who also looked puzzled. She remembered what Marianne had told her.

‘There was some kind of accident?’ she prompted. ‘A car accident involving your daughter?’

Diana waved her hand in the air. ‘It was nothing. A scrape when I picked up Lily from school one day. She had a bang on the head and Steve said I should have taken her to hospital.’ She blew a raspberry and then laughed out loud. ‘She didn’t need no doctor to put a plaster on her brow,’ she said, rolling her eyes.

Kim knew little of the man beside her but she was pretty sure he would have taken his daughter to hospital following any type of road accident. As would most mothers.

But hospitals ask questions, said a small voice in her head.

Kim stayed quiet for a few seconds. The woman had been drinking and her tongue was loose.

‘Had a bloody massive row. Bastard accused me of being a drug addict just cos I took a few painkillers. Dickhead threatened to call the police on me but I had him.’

‘What did you do?’ Kim asked, but she already had a suspicion.