Page 27 of Killing Mind

Penn brushed back an imaginary curl from his forehead. Something he tended to do when he was dissatisfied, she’d noticed.

‘Little from me, I’m afraid. Two neighbours barely knew anyone had moved into Samantha’s flat and thought it was still empty, and the one who did know, saw the family visiting a lot and what he thought was a bailiff, because he was burly and dressed in black, but seeing as this guy sent me outside to bring in shopping from a car he no longer has, I’m not going to stake my house on everything he says.’

Penn opened his hands expressively, saying that’s all folks, and Kim could understand his irritation. Not much for a morning’s work and maybe the neighbour’s observations weren’t completely believable but they still needed to be checked.

‘Penn, make some calls about Samantha’s finances. Check with her landlord about her rent payments. If this guy was a bailiff we need to rule him out.’

‘On it, boss.’

‘Stace?’ Kim asked, hopefully.

‘Not much from Samantha’s friend. A lot of what we already know about her being outgoing and confident. Apparently, that changed when a boyfriend dropped her. But there is one weird thing,’ Stacey offered.

Kim straightened. She liked weird.

‘Sammy’s best friend had no knowledge of her running away. She said Sammy’s withdrawal was more gradual than that. She just stopped going out, returning calls to all the friends that reminded her of Callum; but Carrie seemed to think she’d met some new people and she simply faded away from the circle. She also said she’d seen Sammy’s parents, who when asked, said their daughter was fine.’

Hmm… that wasn’t the only weird thing, Kim thought. If Carrie was one of Sammy’s best friends why was she not the first call from the parents when Sammy disappeared?

‘Any…’

‘No missing person’s report filed any time in the last three years,’ Stacey confirmed.

‘Okay, neither of you have found a smoking gun but, on balance, someone give the plant to Stacey.’

Betty was the communal plant who got to grace the desk of the most productive member of the team.

‘Err… boss, Betty died,’ Stacey said, gravely.

‘What?’

‘Yeah, someone left her too close to the radiator,’ Penn said, resting accusing eyes on Bryant, the one member of the team who had never won her fairly. ‘She dried up and died.’

A smile tugged at Bryant’s lips. ‘I didn’t do it, honest. I would not knowingly harm or injure another living thing. Especially one with a name.’

Kim smiled at his defence as her phone pinged a message.

She read it and turned to Penn.

‘Post-mortem of Tyler Short is at three.’

‘On it, boss.’

She turned to Stacey. ‘Get me everything you can find on Tyler Short. Two young people turning up dead with the same manner of death is a bit too coincidental for my liking. Start with his next of kin.’ She paused. ‘And do a bit of checking on Sophie Brown. Apparently the sisters weren’t close, and the girl is on her way back from Thailand.’

Something about Myles Brown’s dismissal of the sibling relationship between the two had bothered her.

Stacey pushed aside the half-eaten cracker and set to work. Kim noted she hadn’t touched any of the sandwiches that Bryant had bought.

‘You okay, Stace?’

‘Yeah, boss,’ Stacey answered, without looking up.

Kim took her word for it and met Bryant’s questioning glance. The jobs had been apportioned all except for them and Bryant had already guessed what they were going to do.

She nodded in response to his silent question.

Yes, as normal, they were going to the last known address of the victim to tell whichever family member was there that Tyler Short was dead.