Page 107 of First Blood

‘I left the bastard and went to the shelter.’

‘Oh,’ Kim said. That wasn’t the timeline Marianne had given her. She had indicated that the drug-taking accusation had been in response to the sexual abuse allegation.

‘They found you a place?’ she asked. ‘Most shelters are for the assistance of women or children abused in some way by their husbands or a family member.’

‘Well… yes… I was coming to that. Lily told me about her father and then he accused me of taking tablets and…’ she frowned as her words trailed away as though her muddled brain couldn’t quite follow the script.

Kim took a good look into the dark brown eyes with dilated pupils. She knew there were many drugs that worked on the brain’s neurotransmitters causing the iris to expand including antidepressants, amphetamines, LSD, ecstasy and cocaine.

Kim’s left arm twitched violently and Diana’s handbag fell to the floor. Before Diana had even realised what had happened Kim was bending to pick up the bag and the contents that had spilled out.

As she raised herself back to a seated position her right hand held the bag and her left hand held pills. Three bottles of pills.

‘A couple of painkillers?’ she asked, waving the bottles in the woman’s face.

Diana grabbed for them, finally understanding what had happened, but Kim kept them out of her clumsy grasp.

‘Mrs Lambert, did you lie about your daughter being sexually abused by your husband to deflect from your addiction?’

Despite the shake of the head the truth was in the colour that filled her cheeks.

Kim jumped up from the table and rushed towards the exit.

‘Slow down, guv,’ Bryant said, reaching her outside.

‘We don’t have a minute to lose right now, Bryant. Our murderer is about to kill an innocent man.’

Chapter Ninety-Eight

‘Okay, pass me to Dawson,’ Kim said, once she’d finished speaking to Stacey, who had informed her of the killer’s proximity to the various shelters whenever the phone was switched on.

That was no surprise to her now. Both Carl and Curt carried out the maintenance tasks for all of the sites.

‘Right, Dawson, I need you to get digging on nursery rhymes. We need to try and think ahead of the killer. I have to know where this murder is going to take place. I don’t care how outlandish your theories might be. We have to do something. And pretty much all I can say is our guy is a doctor.’

‘Okay, boss. I’ll get right on it.’

She could hear the fatigue in his voice but no one else was going to lose their life if she could help it.

‘Thanks, Dawson,’ she managed to say.

‘No probs, boss, and Stacey wants you back.’

Kim had to hand it to the detective constable, who already had an address.

Chapter Ninety-Nine

‘Not bad,’ Bryant said, as they pulled up outside 27 Redlake Lane.

Located on a new estate in Hagley, the house was detached with faux stone pillars either side of a racing green front door.

A BMW5 Series car sat in the drive.

She knocked on the door, hard.

She waited a few seconds before looking through the darkened windows.

She could make out only vague shapes of furniture and yet one of those shapes could be a dead body.