Page 52 of Silent Scream

‘But if I could just ask ...’

‘I said, we’re done.’ There was a growl in her voice. Bryant closed his notebook and stood.

Kim walked past William. ‘Thank you for your time, Mr Payne. We won’t keep you any longer.’

Kim passed by Lucy’s chair. She touched the girl’s left hand lightly. ‘Goodbye, Lucy. It was lovely to meet you.’

At the door Kim turned. ‘Mr Payne, if I could trouble you for a minute longer. What did you initially think we were here for?’

‘We had an attempted robbery the night before last. They didn't get away with anything but I called it in anyway.’

Kim smiled her thanks as he closed the door behind them.

Once outside the gate Bryant turned to her. ‘What was all that about? Didn’t you notice how he changed when we started to ask him about the girls? He couldn’t get us out of there quickly enough.’

‘It’s not what you think, Bryant.’

Kim walked across the road and turned, surveying the property. Of the seven houses, it was the only one with an alarm attached prominently to the front of the house. A passive infrared light and sensor was aimed directly at the gate. She had seen an identical sensor covering the rear of the property along with a six foot fence topped with cat spikes.

House breakers did not deliberately challenge themselves with the trickiest home available. And Kim did not believe in coincidences.

Bryant huffed. ‘You don’t know what I think because you didn’t give me chance to find out. He was nervous, Guv.’

Kim shook her head as she walked up the hill.

She passed Daniel Bate walking his dog back towards the car.

‘Hey, Detective, just can't keep away, eh?’

‘Yeah, Doc. I really can,’ she said, without breaking her stride.

‘Guv, what the hell is going on?’ Bryant asked her as they reached the car. ‘You don’t normally walk away from a challenge. That bloke was as nervous as hell and you just left it.’

‘Yes, I did.’

‘He all but physically removed us.’

‘Yes, Bryant, he did.’ She turned and glared at him over the roof of the car. ‘Because he needed to change the nappy on his fifteen-year-old daughter.’

Twenty-Seven

The care homewas an exercise in symmetry. Inside the foyer was a glass hatch on either side. To Kim's right was a small empty office and to her left was a room holding a couple of desks and a woman wearing a black T-shirt. The gatekeeper.

‘Can I help?’ Kim was guessing she’d asked through the glass barrier that separated them.

‘Could we speak to one of your patients?’

The female shrugged, not understanding. Kim pointed to the sliding doors but the female shook her head and mouthed ‘emergency only.’

For a moment Kim felt as though they were trapped in some kind of decontamination chamber. She pointed to the inner set of doors.

The woman nodded and pointed to an open book on a ledge to the right of the window. She made a squiggle motion with her right hand. Kim guessed that was the instruction to sign in.

‘Remind me of the progress we’ve made in communications,’ Kim muttered to Bryant.

They signed in and waited for the buzzer.

As they entered Kim could see immediately that there were two communities. To the left were the more able-bodied residents. One or two moved around the area on walkers, other residents leaned across their wing-backed chairs engaging in conversation. Philip Schofield droned on about money management. Residents had turned and were looking in their direction; new faces.