Page 51 of Stolen Ones

‘Yes, that was the extent of my—’

‘How about your connection to Butler—’

‘Oh, wait a minute. How could I have forgotten? I also instructed the builders in some excavation work.’

Damn it. She’d been about to call him on a lie, but his sketchy memory had saved him at the last minute.

‘That’s Butler’s builders?’

‘Oh yes. There’s no one better locally for digging…stuff up.’

Again, she felt the pressure of Bryant’s foot against her own. Even he knew that Harte was trying to bait her.

‘Well, he certainly dug up something interesting today.’

‘Really, what?’ he asked, leaning forward.

Oh, how she wanted to lean forward, grab him by the throat and squeeze until he told her where Grace Lennard was.

‘Bones, Steven, and they appear to be human. Is there anything you’d like to share with us?’

‘There are human remains in Hawne Park?’ he asked, bringing his hand to his chin in horror.

His evasiveness and surprise were an act that he wasn’t even trying to conceal.

‘Do you know anything about them?’ she asked.

Repetition, repetition, repetition, Derek Foggarty had said.

‘It doesn’t matter how many times you ask me the same question, Inspector, the answer is going to remain the same.’

‘I don’t recall you actually giving me an answer, Steven.’

‘I’d mind that tone if I was you, Inspector, or else your colleague there might kick you beneath the table for the third time.’

‘Okay, I’m not doing this,’ Kim said, pushing back her chair. ‘I am not going to treat you like a helpful witness when I know full well that you’ve been responsible for the abduction and murder of young girls. Consider this my exit from the game you’re trying to make me play.’

She placed her hands on the table and leaned into him. ‘Leave, don’t leave but know that the next time we meet we’ll be playing by my rules.’

He pushed back his chair. ‘Inspector, you’re going to regret—’

‘Probably,’ she said from the door. ‘But I’ll live with it because right now you’re just wasting my time.’

As she stormed out of the door, Kim could picture Alison shaking her head with despair, but she could bear the man’s silent triumph no longer. Every time he spoke he confirmed his involvement but not in any way she could use.

‘I know, I know,’ she said to Bryant as she leaned against the corridor wall.

‘Surprised you kept your temper that long to be honest.’

‘Yeah but now I’ve completely fucked our chances of—’

Kim stopped speaking as her phone rang.

She watched miserably as Steven Harte exited the building and headed for his car. If Woody had been watching, she knew he would be her next caller.

‘Give me something good, Doctor A.’

‘I give you all that I have, Inspector. The bones have all been recovered and they are of a small person.’