‘Okay, time starts now.’
‘Oh, no, Kim. If only it was that easy,’ Alex said. ‘I mean in the flesh. I’d like you to visit so we can talk face to—’
‘Not happening. You’ve had two attempts at me and both times you’ve failed. What could possibly make you think I’d go again?’
‘Because you know I don’t lie.’
Kim’s genuine laughter met her ears. It was a sound she enjoyed regardless of the reason.
‘Alex, you’re a sociopath. You have to be a pathological liar to keep your membership.’
Good point, Alex conceded to herself. ‘But I never actually lie to you.’
Silence.
‘You know that the information I hold is truly significant and really does have the power to change your life. Knowing that will be a brick in your shoe until you know what it is.’
‘I’m not playing—’
‘Come any day. I’ll clear my schedule, and I look forward to our mutually beneficial chat.’
Alex ended the call before Kim had chance to respond.
She felt confident that she had laid the bait.
Her old adversary would come.
Sixteen
‘You didn’t leave, did you?’ Kim asked when she entered the squad room at 7 a.m.
Stacey shook her head. ‘I’m fine, boss, honest. Got my head down in the canteen, took a quick shower and I’m ready to roll.’
Kim understood the detective constable’s guilt at not being able to take part in the informal surveillance of Steven Harte, but Kim hadn’t given it a thought. There were many things Stacey could do that none of them could. And it wasn’t as if she hadn’t made use of the canteen as a bedroom herself once or twice.
Kim was willing to bet Stacey had still caught more shut-eye than she had after the annoying call from Alexandra bloody Thorne. Despite her efforts to ignore the calls, the damned woman had managed to get her, and Kim didn’t even want to know how she’d obtained a mobile phone.
It was only after the third time of wondering about the information Alex had that Kim realised the insufferable woman was right. She did want to know.
She pushed the thoughts away and glanced at the whiteboards.
‘You’ve been busy,’ she said as Penn entered the room.
She’d told him to take an extra hour, but he’d ignored her instruction, and she couldn’t blame him. Whatever they did, wherever they went, Grace’s face would be in their minds until they returned her safely to her mother.
‘Okay, the family liaison officer assigned to the Lennards is Bernadette.’
‘Good one,’ Stacey said, nodding her approval.
‘Stace, keep in touch with her and be sure to let her know that if she needs us for anything at all, we’ll be there.’
‘Will do, boss,’ Stacey answered.
‘The ground search will resume in about fifteen minutes. The grid has been extended by a square mile, and we’re waiting on information about wind speeds before we get confirmation of the helicopter deployment. Inspector Plant is the man on the ground coordinating the efforts so…’
‘I’ll check in with him, boss,’ Penn offered.
She nodded her thanks.
Kim turned her full attention to some of Stacey’s efforts during the night. One of the wipe boards held a twenty-five-year-old photo of Melody Jones along with dates, times and names of family members.
The second board held a photo of Grace Lennard, taken just a few days ago. Again, Stacey had included all relevant information.
‘Anything from Wrigley?’ Stacey asked.
‘Who?’ Penn asked.
Kim forgot that Penn had already gone when they’d talked about the detective the night before.
Stacey took a moment to fill him in before she took over.
‘Yes, he is as grouchy as the rumours purport, and yes, he felt there was something off with the family. He didn’t care much for the older brother and felt the whole family were too eager to profit from the situation.’
She turned to Penn. ‘I want you checking background on anything to do with Grace Lennard. We have to make sure there’s no one in her family involved, and when you’ve got a minute, I want to know how much money the Joneses have made out of Melody’s disappearance.’
‘On it, boss.’
‘Stace, I want you to get me all you can on Steven Harte. I know his adult history, but I want his life before. I want to know how he did at school, any trouble he got into, what his relationship was like with his parents, his type of friends. Anything.’
If nothing else she wanted his vulnerabilities – something, anything she might be able to use when questioning him.
‘Already started, boss,’ Stacey said, pressing a few keys.
Kim poured a coffee from the pot Stacey had made.
‘Steven Harte was born in 1967 on Hollytree Estate.’
‘What?’
‘Yep, I was surprised too. Kinda comes across as someone who has always had money, doesn’t he?’
Kim nodded her agreement although she should have known better than to judge. She too had spent the first six years of her life on Hollytree.
‘His father is unknown, and his mother was mentally ill.’
Kim frowned at the similarities.
‘Apparently, his mother, Nita Harte, developed severe agoraphobia after giving birth. She didn’t leave the high-rise flat for just over eight years. And neither did he.’
‘School?’
Stacey shook her head. ‘She signed him out when the authorities came knocking. A neighbour shopped for them once a week and a cousin took care of paying the bills, but other than that it was just the two of them stuck in that small flat for years.’
‘Until?’
‘It don’t get any rosier, boss. A week after Steven’s eighth birthday she hung herself in the bathroom.’
‘Jesus.’
‘Obviously Steven was taken into care. At first, he was terrified of the outside world. He didn’t understand a lot of it. He ran away from the group home twice and tried to get back in the flat. The new tenants weren’t thrilled, and no family ever came forward to foster or adopt him.’
Kim felt sadness begin to steal over her. She pushed it away forcefully. If this man had harmed any little girl, she would not offer him one ounce of her sympathy.
‘He’d never been to a park, a beach, a forest – which I’m guessing explains his philanthropy now. At school, he was a loner. He had no social skills, and he was late into the school system. His intelligence helped him catch up on the academic side, but he never learned how to get along with other people. And he didn’t really need to. By the time he was fifteen he outshone every pupil in his class and had already set his sights on college.’
‘You didn’t go home last night, did you, Stace?’ Penn asked, raising an eyebrow at all the information she’d gathered.
Kim took a moment to digest it all. Normally she had a grudging respect for anyone who was able to pull themselves up from humble beginnings. On top of that he’d faced a childhood with a mentally ill parent. He’d faced his own mother’s death years before he should have and had been abandoned to the care system. On a normal day, she would have gone into that room and shook his hand.