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Having never dealt with any of her own childhood traumas, Kim was the last person qualified to offer judgement. And knowing that she was probably one wrong question away from the woman refusing to speak without a lawyer, there was no point asking any investigation-related questions without doing her homework.
‘Okay, Ms Kirk, we won’t trouble you any further. If you think of anything that might help, please give us a call,’ she said, before standing and heading for the door.
‘Two of them…’ Kirk said as she was about to leave.
Kim turned and waited.
‘Two of them didn’t want to do it. They were telling the others to stop.’
‘Which two?’ Kim asked gently.
‘Dean Newton and Leyton Parks.’
‘Thank you,’ she said before closing the door behind them.
She stayed in her own thoughts as they were taken back to the entrance.
Was it coincidence that the ones who’d tried to stop the attack were two of the three still alive?
But more unnerving for her was the knowledge that balled up inside Josephine Kirk was a whole concoction of volatile emotions that reminded her of a chemistry experiment.
The woman was pushing her feelings so far down that they were going to find a way to break free sometime. It was going to happen whether she wanted it to or not.
EIGHTY-THREE
‘Poof,’ Stacey said.
‘Not terribly politically correct,’ Penn responded, taking a bite from his sandwich.
He’d surfaced from the meeting room to grab a spot of lunch.
‘Poof as in magic, gone, disappeared,’ she clarified. ‘That is literally what’s happened to Leyton Parks. He’s on no social-media platforms, no business forums, no dating sites and he didn’t re-offend after he was released.’
‘Last known address?’
‘Was a permanent travellers’ site that was disbanded and sold for housing ten years ago.’
‘He lived on the site with his parents?’ Alison asked.
Stacey nodded.
‘What happened to the other travellers?’ Penn asked.
‘Moved to other sites around the county. No record of who went where.’
‘Christ, Stace, if he’s from the travelling community you’ve got no chance,’ Alison said. ‘You’re not going to find him registered anywhere.’
‘How the hell am I supposed to locate him then?’
Alison shrugged and went back to her laptop.
Stacey turned her attention to Penn, who was throwing the last piece of sandwich into his mouth.
‘Did you say you’d sorted everything to do with the boys into their own pile?’
‘Yep.’
‘Can I have Leyton’s pile? There might be something in there to give me a clue.’
