Page 66 of Killing Mind

A slight pause before the DI answered.

‘Yeah, Bryant. It’s the same.’

Fifty-Three

Kim headed for a table by the window and laid down her tray. She hadn’t even looked at the plastic triangle she’d selected for herself, but had chosen a prawn triple for her colleague back in the office.

Penn had opted for a plate of chips and gravy, and Stacey was the proud owner of an egg salad bowl. She had valiantly refused the muffin that had been produced from behind the counter, although Kim had thought she was going to burst into tears.

‘Okay, Penn, continue,’ she said. He had started to talk about Josie Finch in the canteen queue.

‘So, according to Josie, whoever Sheila was with took her for everything. She withdrew every penny she’d saved and then sold the house as well. Mortgage was clear so it was £150k that went somewhere.’

‘Okay, try and find the estate agent and solicitor who handled the sale and see where the money went.’

‘You think she was at Unity Farm?’ Penn asked, wiping a blob of gravy from his chin.

Kim shrugged. It was a leap from finding a shoe that might or might not belong to the missing woman, but it had to have been more than a fleeting affair with some kind of con man for the woman to have completely exited her daughter’s life.

Kim turned to Stacey who appeared to be trying to eat the salad while avoiding the lettuce. Penn caught her eye and shook his head. Kim silently agreed. For a woman about to marry the love of her life she’d never been so miserable.

‘Stace, you find out anything?’

She put down her fork for a minute. ‘So far I can find no mention of anyone named Kane Devlin. I’ve got a few more places to check, but I did see a few mentions on Facebook about Unity Farm but it’s from a closed group. I’ve tried to join and was refused immediately, so I was about to set up a fake profile and try again.’

‘Ooh, devious, Stace, you have been spending way too much time with me.’

‘And I spoke to the mother of a girl named Helen Deere who threw herself out of a window after spending time at Unity Farm. There was no one else involved, so there’s no direct link but the mother blames that place for brainwashing her.’

‘Damn, Stace, great work. Did she say anything else?’

‘Just that we’re never going to find out exactly what goes on in there.’

Yes, that’s what Kim was starting to fear herself.

‘How was the meeting with Kane?’ Stacey asked, pushing away her bowl completely. Only the egg had been eaten.

‘Informative about cult culture in general but not so much about Unity Farm. It’s bloody frustrating. With no clear links from our victims to the place we can’t get a search warrant and we can’t get in to have a damn good look.’

Yes, Sammy had lived there but that had been months ago. No judge would sign a warrant giving them full access on that. Right now, they couldn’t even prove that Tyler had lived there and they didn’t know for sure if Sheila Thorpe was even dead.

‘Aaaargh,’ Kim groaned, dropping her head into her hands. Stacey was tapping her fingers on the table while Penn finished off his lunch.

‘What we need…’ Stacey began.

‘Is someone on the inside,’ Kim finished.

‘Innocent looking…’

‘But intelligent,’ Kim said.

Their eyes met as Penn speared his last chip and mopped up the remaining gravy.

‘You thinking what I’m thinking?’ Kim asked the constable.

Stacey smiled. ‘Yeah, pretty sure I am, boss.’

Fifty-Four