Chapter 63
Sixty-Three
‘Okay, folks, let’s get to it,’ Kim said with more enthusiasm than she was feeling. Judging by the look of her team, they’d had the same amount of sleep as she had.
It wasn’t the long hours and the short rest periods that got them down. It was when they had nothing to chase: no leads, no connections. Not one of her team looked weary through lack of sleep, only through lack of hope.
Like yesterday, Stacey was joining them via Zoom.
‘How’s Ava?’ Kim asked.
‘Had a bit of a cry first thing, but Dee has taken her to see the sunrise on Clent Hills.’
Kim felt a rush of gratitude to the immigration officer, who had gone out of her way to look after the little girl.
How quickly they had fallen into their roles.
Stacey seemed to be the caregiver and Devon the entertainer.
She would never have thought of using the dark December mornings to entertain the child, but the sunrise over Clent was worth seeing.
‘Boss, talking of which, how are we going to…?’
‘Get back on that genealogy thingy and find me another relative, Stace. If social services want so desperately to place Ava with a blood relative, let’s give ’em one. I don’t care if it’s a second cousin’s nephew’s half-sister. If they’re related to Ashley, then I want to know about it.’
‘Got it,’ Stacey answered.
‘Boss,’ Penn said, raising his hand. ‘Permission to search for Ava’s real dad properly. Surely it’s worth asking if he’ll surrender parental rights to Daniel?’
Kim nodded her agreement. ‘It’s worth a shot, but first I need to know every one of Karen Felton’s clients for yesterday.
Apparently she had a new customer, so we really need a name for them.
If you can get access to her social media, you can check for contact, but I suspect it’s going to be the same as with Ashley and the account will have been deleted. ’
‘Okey-dokey.’
‘Still with you, Penn. I want you on Mitch’s back about the blood on the crystal. It’s the only potential DNA we have, and we might get lucky.’
‘Really thought we’d got our guy,’ Bryant said.
‘Me too, but we gave him the best alibi money can buy.’
Joe Butler had had links to the first two victims. But his presence in a cell downstairs had ruled him out for the third, and he’d been released late last night without charge.
The man was going to get his just deserts from Lucinda. Kim suspected she wasn’t going to be offering forgiveness for his transgressions any time soon.
‘Worth a quick check on Robbie Steele,’ Kim said, looking at Stacey’s screen. ‘His link to Nadine is tenuous at best, but he is still linked to both women.’
Stacey nodded her understanding.
‘Anything on Gemma?’ Kim asked, clutching at the last straw.
‘Nothing yet, boss,’ Stacey answered. ‘No link I can find to Nadine or Karen.’
‘Since Nadine’s murder, we’ve been focussing on the homewrecker theory.
It looks like that’s now out the window.
There’s no reason to suggest that Karen broke up anyone’s relationship.
We’ve done a lot of travelling to arrive back at square one, and we have no real lead on what links these three victims.’
She turned back to the computer screen. ‘Stace, it’s a reach, but delve a bit deeper on Lucinda Butler. According to Joe’s first wife, Abby, the boys don’t like her very much, and I’d like to know why.’
‘But she’s only associated with any of the women through Joe,’ Stacey pointed out.
‘I know, but she wasn’t in a police cell yesterday afternoon. Just get some background.’
‘Will do,’ Stacey answered.
‘Why the urgency, boss?’ Penn asked. ‘Why three victims in under a week?’
She had wondered the same thing.
Penn continued. ‘I mean, there must be a reason why these women have been chosen, but it’s a bit of a rampage now. He’s taking more and more risks. Why?’
‘Some kind of time constraint?’ Stacey asked.
‘Something for us all to think about,’ Kim said before turning to Bryant. ‘Well, I think now is as good a time as any.’
‘For what?’ he asked, looking to the others for a clue.
They were as puzzled as he was.
‘Your apology. You doubted me all week about Martha Stout, and I reckon it’s time for you to admit you were wrong.’
‘Oh, come on, guv, we were all thinking it, weren’t we, guys?’
‘Nope, not me,’ Penn said, shaking his head.
‘Me either. I always thought it was a bit suss,’ Stacey added.
‘Bloody cowards,’ Bryant said, shaking his head. ‘Pretty sure that was the number nine bus that just rolled over me and then reversed.’ He shot daggers at his colleagues, who all appeared to be waiting just as Kim was.
He sighed. ‘Okay, guv, taking one for the team here. It is true that I doubted—’
‘Yeah, bored now,’ Kim said. ‘Seriously though, folks, I know this is a tough one. It feels like we’ve got nothing, but that’s when we come out swinging. There’s something there, and we’ve just got to find it. We don’t do this job for the plaudits. Suck it up, buttercups.’