‘All I hear when I go to sleep is the sound of your laughter.’
Another handful of dirt entered her mouth. She could feel it travelling down and clogging her airway. A scream was building in her throat, but it couldn’t find a way out.
‘I will never hear your laughter again.’
Another handful was forced in and then a palm clamped over her face. Her cheeks bulged as the dirt tried to rearrange itself to make room. The only exit it had was to try to escape down her throat.
She could feel the breath leaving her body.
She tried to writhe away from the hand covering her mouth. In her mind the movement was strong and forceful. It emerged as a pathetic wriggle.
‘And then you held me down, didn’t you, Jemima?’
Is this what it had felt like? she wondered, as her body fought for breath.
She could feel the life draining out of her and into the ground. Her mind screamed the protest that her body could not.
For a second the hand moved and Jemima had a fleeting hope that it was over.
Something hit her in the middle of her face. She heard the sound of cracking bone a second before the pain exploded around her head. Blood spurted from her nose and cascaded over her lips.
The agony travelled to her mouth, causing her to cry out even though she could make no sound. The action sent more dirt travelling down her throat.
Her gag reflex tried to eject it, and she began to choke. She tried to swallow the arid ground, but it was sticking to the sides of her throat like freshly poured tar.
Tears forced themselves from her eyes as she tried to find a breath somewhere in her body.
A second blow landed on her cheek.
Her mind screamed out with the agony.
She writhed against the ground. Her cries of terror were held in the dirt.
A third blow landed on her mouth. Teeth burst away from her gums.
Every inch of her had succumbed to the pain as the calm voice reached her once more.
‘I will no longer see your face in my dreams.’
She had one last thought before the darkness claimed her.
Please, just let me die.
Three
Kim knocked once before entering the domain of her boss, Detective Chief Inspector Woodward, who resided in a corner office on the third floor of Halesowen Police Station.
The landline was at his ear. Mild annoyance shaped his features before he ended the call abruptly.
‘Didn’t feel like waiting for the word “enter”?’ he growled.
‘Er… you asked to see me, sir,’ she said. It’s not like he didn’t know she was coming.
He checked his watch. ‘Almost an hour ago.’
‘Really, that long?’
She stood behind the chair that faced him.
He sat back and offered her an expression that her best guess said was a smile. But she wouldn’t bet her house on it.
‘Congratulations on a positive result yesterday with the Ashraf Nadir case. Had you not been so insistent that there were more people involved in that prostitution ring we would never have found the second property.’
Kim accepted the compliment. Woody had managed to condense her dogged effort into one single sentence. If she recalled correctly it had taken four separate requests to investigate Ashraf Nadir after she’d spotted him talking with a male suspected of involvement in the publicised Birmingham case. She hadn’t exactly camped outside his office but she’d been close to buying a tent.
She took a step back to leave.
‘Not quite yet, Stone. I have a couple of questions.’
Oh, if only she’d been called to his office just for a pat on the back. Too late she realised the completed statements from her team on the Nadir raid were neatly piled on his desk.
He popped the reading glasses onto his nose and lifted the first page of the top statement, which he really did not need to do. Kim knew that any questions he wanted to ask her were already in his head.
‘I’d like you to clarify the time difference between receipt of the warrant and entry to the Nadir property.’
‘Marginal, sir,’ she answered honestly.
‘Minutes or seconds?’ he asked.
‘Seconds.’
‘Double figures or single?’ he asked, removing his glasses and staring at her, hard.
‘Single.’
He placed the glasses on the desk. ‘Stone, was the warrant in place before you entered the property?’
She didn’t hesitate. ‘Yes, it was.’ She didn’t add the word ‘just’. She also decided it was best not to add that she’d been about to go in anyway. She tended to get in enough trouble for her impetuous acts of judgement. Adding in near misses was a whole new story.
He eyed her suspiciously for a few seconds before tapping the statements with his fingers.
‘Other than that, watertight,’ he said.
She nodded her understanding and again took a step backwards towards the door.
‘So much so, I think you and your team have earned yourselves a little treat.’
She narrowed her gaze and opened her ears. Now she was suspicious.
‘Do you remember being briefed about that facility in Wall Heath?’ he asked.
She nodded. ‘The one carrying out forensic research? Of course.’
Everyone down as far as detective-inspector level had been briefed when the place had originally started work. It was called Westerley and focussed on studying the human body after death.
Kim wondered if the mid-July heat was getting to her boss. Outwardly the twenty-three-degree heat had only prompted him to loosen his shirt cuffs but maybe he was melting on the inside.
Completing cases was not like bowling. Solving one didn’t knock the other ones down. There were many more cases spread across the desks of her team, and Woody knew it.
‘Sir, any chance of a rain check?’ she asked. ‘My team has six new cases that have landed over the weekend.’
Again, that almost-smile appeared on his face.
‘No, Stone. I’ve been waiting for an opportunity for the last few weeks but delayed it while the Nadir case was live. But you will take the trip today.’
She had learned to accept when her boss would not be moved, and she now chose her battles more wisely. Still she had to give it one last try.
‘Is there any particular reason why now is…?’
‘West Mercia have solved two cold cases in the last month based on the research being carried out at Westerley,’ he said, with a look that left her in no doubt that the discussion was over.
They were going.
Four
Her team piled into her ten-year-old Golf, which was only with her today after dropping Barney at the groomers. Normally her Kawasaki Ninja provided all the space she needed.
Bryant folded his six-foot height into the front while Stacey and Dawson shuffled in the back.
‘Buckle up, kiddies,’ Bryant said over his shoulder.
‘Bloody hell, Kev. Move over a bit, will yer?’
‘Christ, Stace, you’ve got loads of room.’
Kim drove the car out of the car park as Dawson and Stacey continued to bicker in the back.
‘Hey, you two…’ Bryant said. Thankfully he was going to restore some order before she had to. ‘Hope you both went to the toilet before you got in the car.’
Dawson groaned and Stacey stifled a chuckle.
‘Hey, Bryant,’ Dawson said, leaning forwards. ‘Did you bring us all a packed—’
‘One more bloody word,’ Kim snapped, ‘and you’ll all be walking. This isn’t a school trip to the zoo.’
At least in the office she could retreat to The Bowl, a term used for her tiny office in the corner of the CID squad room. In her small car there was really nowhere to go.
Silence descended like a curtain.
Eventually Bryant broke the peace.
‘Guv?’
‘What?’
‘Are we there yet?’
‘Bryant, I swear—’
‘Sorry, what I meant to ask is where exactly are we going?’
‘Just on the outskirts of Wall Heath.’
The facility was right on the border where the West Midlands met the Staffordshire police force.