Page 68 of Little Children

‘All good?’ he asked, heading out of the room.

She nodded. She was certainly beginning to hope so.

Forty-Three

‘What a memory,’ Bryant said as Roy parked the car on double yellow lines in front of Jasmine’s boyfriend’s house.

‘Wasn’t so long ago we were here having a chat with him. Jasmine thought he might have had something to do with the robbery I told you about.’

Bryant had to keep reminding himself that as far as Roy was concerned he’d never met Jasmine.

‘Why’s that?’ he asked.

‘One of the items taken was an Alexa or something that she’d refused to give back when they split up.’

‘And was he responsible for the burglary?’ Bryant asked, getting out of the car.

‘Dunno. We never found the culprits. He’s a bit of a loser to be honest.’

Bryant followed him to the front door of a slim mid-terrace, a couple of miles out of the town centre.

The door was opened by a man who instantly reminded him of Penn, with curly blonde hair almost to the shoulder. His open expression clouded slightly when he saw Roy.

‘I’ve told you already, it wasn’t me.’

‘It’s all right, Justin, we’re here about something else. Can we come in?’

Justin appeared surprised by Roy’s gentle tone, but not as surprised as Bryant was. He wouldn’t have thought that the sergeant had an ounce of empathy in him, for anyone.

The minute Bryant stepped into the small house, he could see why it hadn’t worked out between this man and the woman he’d met the previous day.

Jasmine Swift had her shit together as the Americans liked to say. She had a nice home, a good job and an attractive, personable demeanour. He had to mentally shake himself to remember that she was the same woman he’d seen dead less than an hour ago; a confident, accomplished woman reduced to an object – debased, humiliated, exposed.

He clenched his fists and fought the images away.

He wondered again what they were doing here. There was no way this guy had murdered anyone. It looked like he barely had the gumption to haul himself out of bed.

‘Justin, can you sit down a minute?’ Roy said gently.

He did so without moving the pile of clothes on the arm of the chair.

‘I’ve got some bad news for you, mate. Jasmine is dead.’

The man just stared at Roy as the sergeant took a seat beside him.

‘D… dead?’ he spluttered.

‘Afraid so. What I’m going to tell you is going to be hard to hear. She was raped and murdered sometime last night.’

Bryant was unsure why Roy had delivered so much information so soon into the conversation. The guy looked like he was going to vomit.

‘I’ll get you some water,’ Bryant said, heading for the kitchen positioned directly off the front room.

‘It’s all right, mate. I understand,’ Roy said. ‘It’s a shock. You’re going to need some time to process it.’

‘I c… can’t— I mean, are you sure it’s her?’

Roy patted his arm as Bryant came back into the room. ‘We’re sure, mate.’