Page 145 of Stolen Ones

‘Kate was found with her hands around Grace’s throat. She hasn’t changed a bit. She was perfectly happy to try to kill another girl just so she could remain your number one.’

Kim paused to allow him to form the vision of Kate Swift’s adult body towering over Grace’s small frame.

‘It’s time to come clean properly, Mr Harte.’

His head fell into his hands. The palms rubbed hard at his forehead. She was unsure what part of the things she’d said he was trying to rub away.

He sighed heavily before raising his head to reveal reddened, haunted eyes.

‘May I trouble you for a cup of tea?’

‘One sugar?’ she asked with a raised eyebrow.

‘Yes please. And then I’ll tell you the truth.’

Eighty-Seven

Kim parked the car outside The Dog in Tipton and took a breath.

It looked quieter than when she’d visited earlier in the week. And boy had it been some kind of week.

The office was still in chaos.

After her conversation with Steven Harte, Kim had left her team hard at it while she took half an hour to try and give a man his life back. It was important to her that Gum didn’t hear the news from anyone else.

It wasn’t hard to spot the ex-police officer who had tortured himself for a quarter of a century. He was warming his usual spot in the corner and looking dolefully at the empty glasses on the table.

She knew better than to go empty-handed so got him a pint on her way.

‘What the…?’ he asked, looking at the colour of the liquid and then at her.

‘Hey, Gum,’ she said, taking a seat.

His eyes moved back to the offending glass that she’d put on the table.

‘You need to know something before it hits the news at ten and the internet in about five minutes.’

‘Whatever you’ve got to say, I don’t want…’

‘She didn’t die, Gum. Melody Jones wasn’t killed.’

‘Wh…What?’ he asked, putting down his glass before it slipped out of his hand.

One revelation at a time.

‘She was abducted by a man who liked to watch little girls. He let the first two go after a year, but he kept Melody. She had a great life. All these years you’ve punished yourself for not bringing her home, and she didn’t even want to return.’

He rubbed at his forehead as though trying to make the information stick.

How much had this man lost through this one case? Kim wondered. His marriage. His friends. A career that had stagnated because he couldn’t get beyond his own failure or guilt.

‘You didn’t let anyone down, Gum. I’ve seen the files. You worked that case as hard as you possibly could have. Her abductor didn’t show up on your radar, and there’s no reason why he would have. It wasn’t your fault.’

He shook his head, and Kim understood his mind’s refusal to accept her words. It was like having a wart that bothered you every single day for twenty-five years and then suddenly having it removed.

‘Sh-She’s still alive?’ he asked, blinking away the emotion. She could hear the thickening in his throat.

‘Those pictures that were in your head all this time weren’t real. She didn’t suffer. She wasn’t raped; she wasn’t beaten.’