Page 56 of Killing Mind

He stepped into a comfortable lounge just as Holly and Phil were coming onto the screen.

‘Is she dead?’ Josie asked, as though preparing herself for the worst.

‘Why would you ask that?’ Penn hedged, taking a seat.

‘Because you lot didn’t want to know before.’

Penn got the impression that the words were not filled with as much anger as she’d have liked them to be, almost as though she understood that they’d been unable to do more but she was pissed off anyway.

‘Mrs Finch, I’m new to my current team and I’ve been looking through our current list of missing persons. I’ve been tasked with refreshing the file, note any new developments.’

Not too far from the truth, he consoled himself. He didn’t do outright lying very easily. Not least because if their suspicions about the lake at Himley were correct this woman was shortly going to receive some very unwelcome news.

‘As I’m new to this case, could you take me through it from the very beginning?’

From experience, he knew that details could be overlooked or omitted from statements, especially by an overworked detective who already knew there was little he could do to help.

‘Three years ago, my father died unexpectedly. A massive heart attack while driving to work. He was fifty-six years old. It left my mum totally devastated. My dad had always worked long hours and Mum had often joked about not being able to wait until he retired so they could spend more time together. Well, they never did get that time. She didn’t have many friends and they were one of those couples that seemed to exist in a bubble. They didn’t need anyone else and sometimes I felt that even meant me. I didn’t mind because they were happy as long as they had each other.

‘When Dad died my mum went completely into herself. She didn’t eat or drink properly, she didn’t cook, clean or wash herself.’

Penn thought briefly of his own mother, unable to do any of those things but for completely different reasons. He pushed the thoughts away.

‘I had no idea what to do to help her. Her sole purpose for years had been to take care of my dad. She cooked for him, cleaned and never let him lift a finger. About two months after he died I came round and she was out. She told me she’d bumped into an old friend who had also been recently widowed. I was relieved. She seemed brighter, happier and I could stop worrying, or so I thought. Until it went to the other extreme. She was never in. She had excuse after excuse until I realised I hadn’t seen her for almost three months. I called and we arranged to meet for coffee. She never turned up and her phone was switched off after that.’

‘What did you do?’ Penn asked, thinking it sounded very much like the gradual withdrawal of Sammy Brown from her family.

‘I went round to the house and let myself in. Everything seemed fine. There were things I probably should have noticed but my only concern was for her. I checked with the neighbours who had barely seen her for months. I reported her missing that day, which was the day after that last phone call where she didn’t answer.’

‘The statements say the team made no contact with her at all.’

Josie shook her head. ‘They did little more than I did myself. Tried her phone, spoke to a couple of neighbours just like I did.

‘There was nothing until two weeks later when the police told me they had CCTV footage of her clearing out her bank account. I was relieved that she’d finally showed up somewhere. I thought it was the start of the trail to getting her back. I thought the police would be able to use CCTV to see who she was with, where she went.’

Penn could understand her disappointment but the CCTV footage would only have served to convince the team that she was alive and well and functioning. They would not have committed hours of manpower to gathering and viewing CCTV to trail her from the bank. She was a woman in her fifties with no history of mental illness appearing to make her own decisions.

‘Part of me wants her back so I can give her a piece of my mind, tell her I never want to see her again. I know how that…’

‘I get it. You’re…’

‘You can’t get it, not unless your own mother abandoned you.’

He said nothing. His own mother was about to leave him but by a totally different route.

‘I mean, how can she not be missing me as much as I’m missing her? But she has the power to come back. She knows where I am. A miscarriage and a failed marriage while she’s been gone and I’m not sure I can ever forgive her for that.’ She wiped a tear from her eye. ‘I needed her.’

Only yesterday Penn had been hoping that the shoe belonged to Sheila Thorpe. Now he was praying it didn’t. If she was alive and well somewhere there was hope for this relationship to be saved.

From his memory of the report it was up to date and there was nothing new for him to note.

He pushed himself to his feet. ‘Thank you for your…’

‘That’s not the only reason I’m angry with her,’ Josie said, as her jaw set into a hard line.

‘Sorry?’ he said, pausing.

‘It’s all gone, everything.’