Page 74 of First Blood

She waited for her phone to ding receipt of the text message giving her Mia’s foster parents’ address.

She read it out to Bryant before scrolling through her contact list.

He picked up on the second ring.

‘Dawson, what you got?’

‘Boss, I’m just looking into this thing about the location of Lester Jackson’s body. About the nails used at the first crime scene. They…’

‘Were old nails, made of wrought iron and most likely came from a place like Redland Hall?’

Silence.

She continued. ‘Said the report that came through from the lab about an hour ago.’

She let that sink in for a minute.

‘Let other people do their jobs and stop trying to get the gold star. I don’t give ’em out. You found any more links between Luke Fenton and the other victims?’

‘Nothing yet, boss, but I’m still on it.’

Kim wondered how hard he was working on the job that she’d tasked him with versus the lead he had found on his own.

‘Drop everything and get to the morgue for four. It’s Hayley’s post-mortem and we’re not going to make it.’

She hung up the phone before he had chance to argue.

‘You sure you want to do this?’ Bryant asked. ‘I’m not sure DCI Woodward would… Jeez, that’s hard to say.’

‘Yeah, in my head he’s now Woody. I’m pretty sure I’ve got a bollocking coming at six anyway and I’m all for a buy one get one free.’

Silence fell between them.

‘Guv, was that a joke?’

She thought about his earlier attempt at humour.

‘You know, Bryant, if we’re going to spend much more time in this car together we are gonna have to learn each other’s humour. And to answer your question, yes, it is a good idea to try and speak to Mia because we could learn an awful lot by talking to that nine-year-old girl.’

‘And her foster parent will allow it, do you think?’

Kim was genuinely surprised. ‘To help us catch a murderer, I’d think so.’

‘Hmm… you don’t have children, do you, guv?’

‘I’m not sure what that…’

‘Never mind,’ he said, pulling off the main road onto the Caledonia housing estate in Brierley Hill. He followed the road around until he came to a small cul-de-sac of semi-detached houses.

‘It’s the one with the dormer,’ he said, pulling up in front of the drive.

A Ford Fiesta was parked to the far left of the tarmac showing that another car shared the drive.

Kim thought about the address they’d just come from and what they’d learned about Hayley so far. The last thing Mia had experienced in her life was stability and routine. And now her mother was dead. For this poor kid, the hits just kept on coming.

The door opened before they’d even knocked.

A small, unobtrusive camera was fitted to the corner of the house. A recent addition by the looks of a small pile of plaster on the ground.