Page 39 of Killing Mind

Kim hesitated but followed. She needed to be on the other side of that shed.

Bryant walked in behind her, and Jake closed the gap. He surveyed the table and squeezed the girl’s shoulder.

‘Good work, Maisie, keep it up.’

Kim couldn’t help the frisson of discomfort that swept up her spine at the physical contact. Maisie was clearly over the age of eighteen, but there was something that didn’t sit right.

Maisie’s blush deepened and she squeezed her hands together as though she might explode. A suspicious person might think that was the exact response he’d intended. Good job Bryant was the suspicious person in their partnership.

She followed Jake Black out of the shed and saw the golf buggy in which he’d travelled. To her left were fields and to her right was a dirt track that disappeared around a wooded area.

‘Hop on and I’ll…’

‘Mr Black, I’d rather…’

‘I insist. I’d love for you to come and see the house.’

Kim hopped on beside him and Bryant sat behind. It wouldn’t hurt to put all this cult nonsense to bed and learn the whole truth about Sammy Brown.

‘So, is everything okay with Sammy? And please call me Jake.’

‘Thank you… Jake and no I’m afraid she isn’t okay.’ Had he not seen the news? she thought and then wondered if this vehicle could go any quicker. She had a meeting with Woody some time today.

‘I have to get me one of these,’ Bryant said.

Not surprising, she thought, given the speed he liked to drive.

‘We miss her,’ Jake said, and she detected genuine emotion in his voice.

‘As will her parents now because unfortunately Sammy Brown is dead.’

The golf cart came to a sudden halt just as a house came into view.

The property appeared to be an old farmhouse that had been extended in all directions.

‘Please tell me what happened,’ he said, turning towards her.

‘Sammy was murdered by someone she knew and allowed into her new flat.’

‘She had a flat?’ he asked, re-starting the golf cart. There was an edge to his voice that she tried to fathom.

‘Yes, she’d recently set up home on her own.’ Although home was a stretch for the cold, impersonal space where she’d lived.

Kim decided to keep the news of Tyler Short to herself for now, as she wanted to monitor his emotional reaction to the news of Sammy’s demise.

And right now, she thought, as she glanced at the tense jawline that shaped the handsome face, there was a lot of emotion indeed.

Thirty-Three

‘Really?’ Stacey said aloud as she stared at the hastily scrawled note from her last conversation with the boss. Only once you’ve exhausted Samantha’s and Tyler’s friends the boss had said. Well, that was a given. Other friends of Sammy’s had offered her no further information than what she’d learned from Cassie, and a few messages to Tyler’s Facebook friends had been met with responses of ‘Tyler who?’.

‘I suppose I’ve got you to thank for this,’ Stacey greeted Penn as he walked in the door.

‘Probably but I’m not gonna commit right away. What’s up?’ he asked, taking a plain blue bandana from his top drawer.

‘Big burly man in black in a white Range Rover, that’s what your neighbour guy said, wasn’t it?’ she snapped.

‘Yeah, but like I said, I don’t totally trust what…’