Page 5 of Killing Mind

‘Mr Brown, Mrs Brown, I’m afraid I have some terrible news about your daughter.’

Myles reached over and clutched his wife’s hand.

‘I’m sorry to have to tell you that Samantha committed suicide last night.’

Neither expression changed as the words she’d spoken hovered in the air above their acceptance.

Kim said nothing. She waited.

Kate Brown slowly began to shake her head. She held out her phone. ‘No, I just left her a message. She’ll call back. You’ve got it wrong. Look, I’ll try her again,’ the woman said desperately as the phone slipped from her trembling hands.

Myles bent to retrieve it and when he rose Kim saw the tears forming in his eyes. He had already accepted the truth.

‘I’m sorry, Mrs Brown, but she’s not going to call you back. We’ve just come from her flat.’

Kate Brown pushed herself to a standing position.

‘I don’t believe you. Take me there right now. I’ll show you.’ She turned and faced her husband. ‘Myles, get the car and…’ She stopped speaking when she saw the raw emotion in his eyes. She frowned and again shook her head.

‘You don’t believe them, Myles?’

He nodded as the tears spilled out of his eyes, and he pulled her close.

‘My baby, my baby,’ she began to wail. Myles pulled her closer. She pulled back once more, checking his face for a final time.

He nodded. ‘She’s gone, love.’

‘But you said she was ready to be left…’

‘Shush, love,’ he said, pulling her into his chest.

The tears continued to roll over his cheeks as he rested his jaw against the top of his wife’s head.

His haunted gaze met Kim’s across the room.

‘How… I mean…’

Kim held up her hand. ‘Someone will be along to talk more with you later, but for now just take care of yourself and your wife.’

The details would come soon enough. As would the need to identify the body.

Kim stood and Bryant followed.

‘We’ll let ourselves out, and please accept our deepest condolences for your loss.’

They were standard words but she meant them.

‘Just one thing, officer,’ Myles said, as they reached the door. ‘There’s one thing I have to know. Did… did she suffer?’

Kim thought about those few minutes after she’d made the cut; moments where the life blood was literally draining out of her. Long, fear-filled moments before she lapsed into unconsciousness.

Kim composed her features, before answering.

‘No, Mr Brown, Samantha didn’t suffer at all.’

Four

Kim downed the last of her coffee and drummed her fingers on her desk. Bryant had finally left and the events of the morning were playing over and over in her mind.