Page 128 of Stolen Ones

He held up his hand to silence his solicitor.

‘I saw her at the wildlife park. It had been a year since Lexi had gone. I’d swore I wouldn’t do it again, but there she was. She looked so lonely, a shining, beautiful star glowing brighter than anything around her. I fought it but it was no use. I had to take her.’

Kim worked hard to control the rage she felt at his nonchalance at simply plucking people from their lives, as though everything was there for the taking. For him, for his benefit, for his entertainment, his enjoyment.

‘And Clent?’ she asked, although no remains had been found there yet.

‘Helen Blunt,’ he said as Swift sighed deeply. Kim was pretty sure she’d got more than she’d bargained for when she’d agreed to represent him.

‘It was that slap from her mother. I can still see it now. She bravely fought back the tears as her mother just walked away after hitting her. She was lost, alone, ignored and then left on her own. That mother didn’t deserve her.’

Kim ignored his justification. At times, it sounded as though he was the victim.

‘But you won’t find her exactly where you think you will.’

‘At the site of the old coffee shop where Butler was digging before the company was thrown off site?’ Kim clarified.

He shook his head. ‘About twenty metres east of that spot along the treeline was another hole. A rubbish hole.’

‘A what?’ she asked, feeling her heckles rise. ‘A bloody rubbish hole?’ Kim worked hard to push her rage back down, but the pictures going through her mind were tapping directly into the forced calm that she needed to conduct the interview.

‘A hole for rubbish. It can be hard to get a skip to some areas, so some builders dig a hole ready for crap that’s coming out of the main excavation like stone and tree roots. The soil can always be dispersed easier.’

‘You put her in that?’

He nodded and had the grace to look ashamed.

She waited.

He shook his head. ‘Helen was the last.’

‘What about Melody Jones?’

‘Have you found her?’ he asked.

‘Not yet.’

‘Then I have nothing to say.’

She put down her pen, safe in the knowledge that her team had heard his admission about the Clent Hills, and that the information was being passed on to the search and excavation team.

‘You appear to have grown fond of all the girls you’ve mentioned,’ she said. Kim desperately wanted to ask about Grace, but Alison had advised her to keep him in the past until she had all the information. Now she needed to know how they’d died.

‘So why did you kill them?’

Harte shifted uncomfortably.

‘What happened with Lexi?’

He took a deep breath.

‘She saw me. One night while I was delivering the food she woke up. She was watching me for a while. I knew she’d be able to identify me. I knew then that I could never let her go.’

‘Did you have to kill her?’ Kim asked.

‘Of course. She knew what I looked like.’

‘How did you kill her?’