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‘What about Eric and Paul? Did they want to do better?’
‘Hell no. Those two were a pair of little shits.’
‘You say they were part of a larger group?’ Kim asked as a rock started to form in her stomach.
He scratched his head. ‘Yeah, there was Eric, Paul, Leyton, Nathan, Dean and an older lad named Ian. I don’t remember their last names, but that was the group I think.’
Kim had counted the names on her fingers. ‘You’re sure that’s all of them?’
He studied her for a second then nodded.
Kim thought about the numbering on the tweets. It had nothing to do with the number or order of the messages. One of six. Two of six.
Their killer was giving them a progress report.
THIRTY-THREE
It was almost six when Kim escorted Ryan West to the front of the building.
He’d left her with his address and phone number and an offer to help further. She’d thanked him for his time, knowing that it was a link they would have found eventually, but now it was a line of enquiry they could pursue straight away.
Right now, she could think of nothing better than getting home, taking a red-hot shower and spending the night with her boy. Regular texts to and from Charlie throughout the day had reassured her that Barney hadn’t suffered one bit in her absence. Just a quick briefing with her team and she’d call it a night.
She headed for the stairs, feeling lighter than when she’d come down them. Her ankles had been pulling the weight of getting Stacey’s name away from Terence Birch. And somehow that had happened. She wasn’t going to think about the shrine wall in his house too much. Ultimately, Vik and his team had entered the property of their victim and found nothing. She didn’t know for sure how that had happened and she didn’t want to. She suspected the photos had been creatively hidden, but the question would never leave her mouth. But now they had their man and Stacey was in the clear. The day was turning out better than she’d imagined.
‘Hey, Vik,’ she said, seeing the traffic officer at the bottom of the stairs. ‘Hope you liked your present.’ She was trying not to let her relief shine through. Her colleague was out of the crosshairs.
‘Absolutely,’ he said, smiling. ‘And if you want to carry on and solve the whole thing for us, I’ll book me and the missus a nice long weekend away.’
‘What’s left to do?’ she asked, feeling the weights creep back towards her ankles.
‘I told you there were conflicting witness reports, but there was one thing they all agreed on. That a car was speeding towards Terence Birch on the other side of the road, causing him to run forward into the path of Mr Drury’s van.’
‘Okay, and what was the conflict in the reports?’
‘Whether the speeding car was light blue or silver, but Mr Drury has settled that for us.’
‘And?’
‘It was something small like a Clio or Focus, and it was definitely light blue.’
‘Okay, Vik, thanks,’ Kim said, holding on to the banister as she climbed the stairs.
She knew someone who drove a light-blue Ford Focus.
Stacey was right back at the centre of the crosshairs.
THIRTY-FOUR
‘Okay, neither visitor was a timewaster and I stand corrected,’ Kim said, entering the squad room. ‘And before anyone consults the history books to see the last time I was wrong, it was sometime back in the nineties.’
She took the cup that Bryant had brought her and refilled it. ‘For anyone who’s interested, the first person I spoke to admitted that he was the man who killed Terence Birch. He has no known link to Birch, and it doesn’t appear to have been intentional. Vik has spoken to him, but it appears another car was involved and may have been responsible for forcing Birch into the path of the oncoming van. More on that as it comes.’
From the corner of her eye, Kim saw Stacey’s relieved expression turn pensive, and even though Kim still couldn’t look at Stacey directly without the temperature of her blood rising, she wasn’t prepared to offer the details of the car. Not until she’d done some digging herself.
‘Second guy gave us a link between the two victims. Both spent time at Welton Hall.’
Kim readied herself for the surprised expressions and excitement they got from making such a discovery. Neither came.
