Page 24 of First Blood

‘My missus would throw a hissy fit,’ Bryant remarked from the doorway.

Kim stepped out of the room and back on to the landing as she heard Roy below ending a call.

‘Hey, Inspector,’ he called up. ‘You give your boy the instruction to be a pain up our arse?’

Kim looked at Bryant who shrugged.

‘Didn’t hear you, Roy,’ she said, playing for time.

‘Your sergeant, Dawson. You tell him to turn up at the lab hassling for the chemical compound of those nails?’

Kim didn’t hesitate. ‘Yeah, I know he’s keen but we need the info. He ain’t leaving until he’s got it.’

‘Yep, that’s what he said too.’

Kim turned away, hiding her brief smile.

The fact that she hadn’t instructed him to do so would be dealt with at another time, but if his presence at the lab got the results any quicker she was happy to leave him to it.

She opened the second door and almost walked into the end of a king-size bed that was too big for the modest bedroom space leaving room for only one bedside table and lamp.

‘I’ll check the other room,’ Bryant offered.

Kim suspected he would find it empty.

She inched crab-like past a heavy oak wardrobe, her leg tripping on the overhanging quilt cover from the unmade bed.

She opened the drawer of the bedside cabinet to find underwear, some stray screws and a pair of glasses. The second drawer of the unit was empty.

‘Bloody hell,’ she said, wondering if anyone had known this man.

She was about to turn away when something caught her eye from beneath the stack of pillows.

She pinched her nails together and tugged at it gently. It was the ribbing of a sleeve cuff, pink. She frowned and continued to pull. An arm, a front, back and hood. She slowly and deliberately exposed the whole garment.

A small pink hoody with the word ‘Princess’ sequinned on the back.

‘Hey, guv,’ Bryant called from across the hall.

She lifted her head and could see straight into the smaller bedroom and to what Bryant was pointing at.

It was unmistakeably a child’s bed.

She looked again at the small pink hoody that their victim had kept close to him at night.

Now she had even more questions about Luke Fenton, but the one that was flashing brightest in her mind was where the hell was the kid?

Chapter Eighteen

Stacey replaced the receiver after her call from the boss. She’d been nervous that the boss would ask after her colleague and she would be placed in a difficult position.

Her relief turned to puzzlement. Why hadn’t she asked? Did the boss know something she didn’t or had she given up on him already?

Maybe he’d been transferred off the team and they were to get a replacement tomorrow.

She could hope.

But in the meantime, the boss had found an old telephone bill and she now had a direct route back to the service provider. She fired off an email.