Page 3 of Little Children (Detective Kim Stone #22)

Two

It was almost eleven by the time Kim placed her overnight bag in the back of Bryant’s car.

Since her meeting with Woody, she’d given her team the briefest of briefings before sending them on their way to sort out their lives for a couple of nights away.

Bryant had dropped her off at home, where she had spent more time packing Barney’s overnight bag than her own.

With lots of hugs and kisses, she had dropped him off with his favourite dog sitter, Charlie, who was more than happy for the company and the reason to leave the house for a walk.

Penn had been good enough to collect Stacey. Although they could all have fitted in Bryant’s Astra Estate, she didn’t want them stranded over a hundred miles away with only one car.

‘Going somewhere nice?’ she heard from behind.

Kim froze.

It was a voice she recognised but hadn’t heard in a couple of weeks.

She turned to face Steve Ashworth, Sunrise News reporter, and someone who had become a nuisance during their last major case. She shook her head at Bryant, who was already getting out of the car. She wasn’t going to give the man the attention he craved.

‘Not bored yet?’ she asked, folding her arms.

‘Not even close. You’re quite the character.’

Kim’s heart sank. It wasn’t that she hadn’t taken his threat seriously; she’d just hoped his absence over the last couple of weeks meant that he’d found someone else to harass.

For some reason, he had become fascinated with her while covering the Jester case and had decided to make his next big story about her.

‘Must be a slow news month,’ she said, heading to the passenger-side door. ‘But hey ho, happy digging,’ she finished, maintaining her show of bravado.

‘You’re almost convincing, Inspector Stone,’ he said, moving away but not far enough. ‘But I’m very good at what I do.’

‘Splendid,’ she said, opening the car door.

‘Remember the name Amber Rose?’

Kim slammed the door shut, but not before she saw the smirk plastered across his face.

‘Run him over and make it look like an accident,’ she said as Bryant fixed his seat belt.

Her colleague wasn’t so easily fooled by the forced joviality in her tone.

‘You okay?’ he asked, pulling away from the kerb.

‘I’m fine. He’s a dick,’ she said, taking out her phone.

The best way of distracting her colleague was to show him she was busy doing something else.

He took the hint and focussed on driving them towards the motorway.

She stared at her phone without really seeing it while she composed herself. The damn reporter had just thrown a name at her that she’d hoped never to hear again. She just hoped he was going to break his shovel while digging for that one.

Her gaze focussed as her screen lit up with a text message. She couldn’t stop the groan that was in her head from coming out of her mouth as she read it.

Wanna grab a coffee after work?

‘What?’ Bryant asked.

‘Nothing,’ she answered, clicking out of the message.

Bryant glanced her way as he took the slip road onto the motorway. ‘More mysterious text messages you’re not gonna tell me about?’

‘Correct,’ she said, putting away her phone.

‘And Amber Rose?’

‘Never heard of her,’ she said before turning away.