Page 65 of First Blood

‘You mean Hayley?’

From the corner of her eye she saw a smile tug at her colleague’s features.

‘You know her?’

The woman shook her head. ‘I wouldn’t say I knew her. I struck up a conversation with her once, got a name out of her but she wasn’t one for conversation. She’d stand over by the bench just watching her little girl play. Lovely little thing named Mia, polite but quiet.’

‘Any idea how long she’d been coming here?’

‘It’s been a while, I’d think. A couple of years. I just never bothered to strike up a conversation with her again.’

So, she’d been coming to this little park before she moved in with their victim. If she didn’t drive then she must have lived close by.

‘Is there anything else you can tell us?’ Kim asked. Open-ended questions could sometimes yield priceless results.

‘Nothing much except that I really felt sorry for her. Not because of the birthmark but she just always seemed so sad and lonely. Staring off into space and not really speaking to anyone both before and after she got with the guy from the council. Didn’t seem to make her any happier.’

‘Guy from the council?’ Kim asked as her phone began to ring.

She ignored it, and waited for an answer.

The woman continued. ‘Yeah, I felt pleased that she’d found someone.’

‘And how do you know he was from the council?’

‘Always coming around to check on the playground equipment. Safety and stuff for the kids.’

Kim felt the nausea rise in her stomach, remembering all the photos. That had been no maintenance guy for the council. This was where Fenton had found Hayley and her child.

‘Okay, thank you for your time,’ Kim said, moving away and heading back towards the gate.

Bryant seethed behind her. ‘Bastard was here posing as a…’

His words trailed away as her phone rang again.

‘Stone,’ she answered.

‘It’s Keats. Are you busy? Actually, scrub that. Don’t care. I need you to get to the Wren’s Nest estate right now.’

Chapter Fifty-Eight

Stacey had been through the phone records three times and had thought she’d found Hayley’s number; not hard to find as it was listed under her name in his contacts list. She had paused before ringing the boss, because something had not felt right. The last contact between the two phones was too long ago. It was before the six-month absence of the photos.

Of the numbers he’d called or had called him in the three months prior to his death, she had accounted for them all except two.

She’d already fired off an email to the provider requesting content information for all of the numbers, but for these two first. If she’d had the phone itself she felt sure she could have got in and found any text messages.

She got two pieces of paper and wrote down the details for each phone. She wasn’t prepared to call the boss unless she was absolutely sure she knew what she was talking about. Her colleague across the desk was doing enough of that for both of them.

And now he was wittering on about something to do with priest holes, or something.

No, she had to be sure she’d got something the boss could use.

Right now, she suspected that one of the numbers belonged to Hayley. And the other one had called him the night of the murder. Could just be some kind of coincidence but she dared wonder if the other one belonged to their killer. Both went straight to voicemail. But the killer had to have got in touch somehow. Luke Fenton had left his Chinese meal to meet someone.

She grabbed a pen and began to make a list.

Chapter Fifty-Nine