She’d been considering it, but the warning note in his voice convinced her otherwise.
‘Bloody hell, Bryant, what kind of monster do you think I am?’
He glanced sideways. ‘You were going to, weren’t you?’
She huffed in response as she got out the car. Sometimes he just knew her far too well.
It was almost six thirty, and the sun was setting on what had been a grey and humourless day. In the time since they’d left the squad room, Andrew Nock had called the station, identified his daughter and collected her. Jack, the desk sergeant, had overseen the collection, checked the man’s identification and, more importantly, witnessed the response of the little girl upon seeing her father. Without knowing the full details, Jack had informed the man that an officer would be along to speak with him later.
The man had left the station with no clue as to what had happened to his wife and was opening the front door before they’d reached it.
‘Have you found her?’ he asked hopefully.
Kim offered no answer to his question as she asked if they could come inside.
‘Please, come into the kitchen,’ he said quietly.
As she followed, she caught a glimpse of the little girl curled up asleep on the sofa, still clutching the teddy bear from the store.
‘Mia’s exhausted,’ he explained, pulling the door closed.
‘Oh, hello,’ Kim said to the woman, who was using kitchen towel to wipe down the work surface.
‘Ella, my sister,’ he explained. ‘I called to ask if she’d seen Kat, and she came straight over.’
Kim would not have needed the explanation of their relationship had the woman turned to face her a few seconds earlier.
The siblings had the same straw-blonde hair and square jaw. She guessed Ella to be maybe ten years older than her brother’s twenty-nine years.
‘Is Kat okay?’ Ella asked, but Kim could see in her clear blue eyes that she already knew she was not, whereas her brother’s expression was full of nervous hope.
‘Mr Nock, please, sit down,’ Kim said. All four of them standing in the cramped kitchen was overpowering.
‘Just tell me—’
‘Mr Nock, if you’ll just—’
‘Sit down, Andy,’ his sister said as though she knew what was coming.
He sat and Kim did the same. Bryant moved to the doorway to offer a little more space.
Ella dried her hands on a tartan tea towel.
‘Mr Nock, I’m sorry to have to tell you that your wife is not okay. She’s—’
‘I knew I should have said no,’ he claimed, running his hand through his hair. ‘I could tell by her mood that she wasn’t quite with it, but we did the usual checks and—’
‘What checks?’ Kim asked. She’d been about to tell him his wife was dead, and she knew that anything she could learn at this point may not be accessible after he received the news.
‘My wife has problems, officer. She suffers from anxiety and depression. She refuses to take medication and normally she’s fine and handles it well, but this morning I watched her take dirty plates out of the dishwasher for breakfast.’
‘And the checks?’ Kim asked, not sure she hadn’t accidentally done the same thing herself on occasion. It didn’t mean that she was depressed or anxious. More likely distracted by some problem she was having with her current motorcycle restoration project or a case she was working.
‘She tells me exactly where she’s going, and I call her every couple of hours.’
As though knowing her next question, Bryant took out his pocket notebook.
‘And where exactly was your wife going today?’
‘She had a doctor’s appointment at ten, and then she was going to Brierley Hill to pick up some things from Asda and Shop N Save. Then she was taking Mia to the Ball Factory play centre.’
‘And you called her?’
‘Probably three times during the morning, and then I couldn’t get her after lunch. I called Ella and then I went out looking for her, just in and out of shops, and couldn’t see her anywhere, so made some calls – the hospital and then the station – to see if there had been any accidents.’
‘Is she in trouble, officer?’ Andrew asked, linking his hands together. ‘Has she done something wrong?’
In a minute, you’re going to wish she had, Kim thought, taking a deep breath.
‘Mr Nock, I am so sorry to tell you that your wife is dead.’
No matter what words she used to lead up to it, that last word still had to come out of her mouth and there was no way of softening it up.
The only movement in the room was the tartan tea towel falling from Ella’s hands to the ground.
Andrew Nock simply stared at her and began to shake his head involuntarily. His gaze moved to the door across the hallway where his daughter lay sleeping.
She watched as a range of emotions crossed his face.
The truth of the news registered with his sister first.
‘How?… I mean…’
Kim guessed Ella was thinking that Katrina had harmed herself in some way. Kim hated the fact that it was all going to get worse when she delivered the rest of the news. She’d seen many methods of suicide but breaking one’s own neck wasn’t one of them.
‘I’m afraid I have to inform you that Katrina was murdered.’
‘No… no… no…’ Andrew cried out.
Kim understood his pain. The first bombshell had barely landed before she’d ripped the pin out of a second grenade.
Disbelief shaped his features as he continued to shake his head. As yet there were no tears. She knew they would come with acceptance.
‘This is some kind of mistake. I’m in a nightmare. There’s something wrong. It makes no sense. Why would anyone want to kill Kat?’
He looked to her as though she had the answer when, in fact, she was hoping to learn that from him.
‘That’s exactly what we intend to find out,’ she said, looking from one to the other. ‘Is there anyone you can think of who had any kind of grudge against Katrina, or anything strange that might have happened to her recently?’
Both shook their heads as though they were humouring her until she told them the truth.
A light cough from Bryant told her what she was already thinking: they both needed space and time for the news to sink in.
‘We’re going to leave you alone for now, but a family liaison officer is on the way. They’ll answer any questions you have, and we’ll be back to talk again.’
Kim stood.
Andrew Nock continued to stare forward as though she hadn’t spoken. Kim wished she had words of comfort to ease his suffering, but there was nothing. As the hours grew, he would understand that the nightmare was real. There would be tears and heartache and more tears as he considered how to tell his little girl that her mummy wasn’t coming home.
‘I’ll see you out,’ Ella said.
Kim passed the door to the lounge where the little girl slept. Kim’s heart ached. When she woke, Mia’s life would never be the same again.
‘Does the body need to be identified, officer?’ Ella asked, taking a deep breath.
Kim could sense that the woman before her was a coper: one of those people that came into their own in the face of tragedy. The sort of person one needed in times like this.