Page 26 of First Blood

The post simply said ‘Gotcha’ followed by a big yellow smiley face.

Chapter Nineteen

Kim’s brain was working overtime as they pulled away from Luke Fenton’s address. There was something about the man that was not sitting comfortably in her stomach. They had found no further evidence of a child in the property: not a toy, no clothing, no bedding. Just the bed and the hoody. All they had gathered from the home was that he rode a push bike and was looking for a car. She hoped Stacey was having better luck back at the station.

‘Stop the car,’ she called out, suddenly.

Bryant halted the car in the middle of the road, much to the annoyance of the driver behind.

‘What, where?…’

‘Jeez, I meant pull over, man,’ she said.

‘Bloody hell, guv, I thought I was about to hit a small child. What got your attention?’ he said, pulling in.

‘That place there,’ she said, pointing to a brightly lit window.

He followed the direction of her finger. ‘You want Chinese food?’

‘Not right now,’ she said, as he turned off the engine. ‘And you’d best stay in the car cos you just pulled on to double yellows.’

She got out of the car and headed into the restaurant-cum-takeaway that occupied two shop frontages.

The combined smell of ginger and garlic hit her as she opened the door reminding her that she’d barely eaten a thing all day.

She accepted that her relationship with food was estranged. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to eat or that she didn’t enjoy certain foods, it was just that she tended to forget that it was a necessary part of her day.

She approached the counter of the empty takeaway and glanced into the restaurant. One couple sat in the furthest corner but she was guessing that fiveish wasn’t their busiest time. Probably around seven for teatime meals and then half ten after the pubs shut.

A slim Chinese woman appeared from the space next door.

She smiled. ‘Eat in or?…’

‘Neither, thank you. I need to ask if you know a man called Luke Fenton.’

She shrugged, looking puzzled. But the common sense in her said that Luke would favour a Chinese restaurant close to home, being without a car, and this was the first one they’d passed. His last known meal had been Chinese food.

‘About my height, slim, blonde hair, late twenties, here last night?’

She shrugged, ‘Sunday, busy night.’

Kim took out her phone. She scrolled through the pictures searching for one where the man looked less dead.

She turned the phone. ‘This man.’

The woman appeared to recognise him immediately, so Kim turned the phone away to prevent her from looking too hard.

‘Oh, him, he not nice man. He stiffened us once and now we make him pay before he eat here.’

‘And did he eat here last night?’ Kim asked.

She nodded.

‘Was he alone?’

‘Yes, always alone. Unless he order for takeaway and then he order more.’

Kim filed that away for later.