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The words ended but the frown remained. There was more.
‘Go on.’
‘It’s hard to explain, but he didn’t get up off me. There was no gradual easing of the weight on top of me. I can’t explain it. It was like he was there one second and gone the next.’
‘Like someone else kind of hauled him off you?’ Stacey asked.
Karen nodded slowly. ‘Yes, exactly like that, but that can’t be right, can it? Cos if someone had pulled him off me, they would surely have checked on me?’
Not if they wanted him more than they wanted to be seen by the police, Stacey thought.
‘And you got a good look at him, the man that attacked you?’
Karen allowed her hands out of the cocoon again long enough to wipe her eyes. ‘I did.’
‘But he wasn’t amongst the photos you were shown.’
She shook her head as a fresh wave of tears sprang from her eyes.
‘I wish to God he had been. Much as I didn’t want to see his face again, I now know that the odds of him being caught are slim to none. The sergeant hinted at that half an hour ago. But how do I ever feel safe again? How do I know he’s not gonna come for me a second time? If he tried it once, he could try it again. It happened just down the road for God’s sake. I can’t step outside on my own, and even if someone is with me, I’m looking everywhere for him while just wanting to throw up.’
The last sentence brought emotion to Stacey’s throat. It was a fear she could easily identify with.
‘Hey, give yourself time,’ she reassured Karen. ‘It’s barely been a couple of days.’
‘But when will it end? How will I ever feel safe again knowing he’s still out there?’
Stacey took out her phone as Karen lit another cigarette with trembling hands. She scrolled to the least horrific photo she’d received from Keats of the body of Paul Brooks.
‘Karen, is this the man that tried to rape you?’
The sharp intake of breath was the answer she’d been after.
FIFTY-SIX
‘Thanks for joining us,’ Kim said as Stacey entered the room.
‘Sorry, boss, just something I wanted to follow up,’ she answered, throwing her satchel under the desk.
‘And given recent events, it might have been appropriate to let someone know where you were going,’ Kim snapped.
She’d been less than thrilled to arrive back at the office to be told that Stacey had disappeared without telling anyone where she was. It had been that kind of stupidity that had caused the trouble in the first place.
Kim knew she wasn’t being fair and that Stacey had only been doing her job, but now wasn’t the time to test her patience.
‘I took a car,’ Stacey offered quietly.
Kim grunted in response.
She’d returned to the office expecting Stacey to request a private word. Didn’t she want to know why her boss had spoken to her wife? Was she not pissed off that they’d had quite the hostile conversation? Unless Devon hadn’t told her. That possibility prompted all kinds of questions in her mind.
‘Paul Brooks is the person who attacked Karen Boyd,’ Stacey said, pulling her chair into her desk.
Kim frowned. Karen Boyd wasn’t a name she recognised.
‘The attempted sexual assault the other night,’ Stacey clarified.
Kim recalled the activity in the station when she’d been interviewing Philip Drury and Ryan West.
