Chapter 22

The house in Bromsgrove was a semi-detached property in a small cul-de-sac about a mile away from the motorway island.

Ten pairs of houses looked onto a small green that was also used as a turning circle, and right now it was a meeting point for most of the residents watching the flashing blue lights illuminating the sky.

‘Don't go anywhere,' she said to Barney as she lowered her window just an inch.

She pushed through the crowd and ducked under the cordon as Mitch's van pulled up.

Keats was already waiting.

‘Andrea Shaw, aged forty-seven, stabbed multiple times, found by her daughter, Toyah, twenty-two, who lives at home and had returned after a night out.'

Kim was already donning protective equipment while Keats talked.

‘The body is in the living room, and the daughter is hysterical in the kitchen.'

Kim entered the home and immediately saw evidence of a struggle. Cushions had been thrown from the sofa, a small bookcase had been pulled over and ornaments littered the floor.

The woman on the ground lay amid a pool of blood. Her nightgown was stained red from the breastbone down to the lower stomach.

‘Woken from her sleep for this,' Keats said from behind.

‘She wouldn't have been properly sleeping. Not if her daughter was still out. Likely why she answered the door in her nightie, thinking the kid had forgotten her key.'

‘You're the expert?' he mocked.

‘Keats, I can't go to sleep if I don't know exactly where my dog is, so it's a pretty safe bet I'm right.'

‘Ah yes, that brave, fearless dog who will get all the honours when he?—'

‘How long since the murder?' she snapped. It wasn't something she gave thought to. Unlike any other dog, Barney was going to live forever.

‘No more than an hour.'

‘Jesus, her daughter probably just missed the killer.'

‘Wouldn't have been long,' Keats confirmed.

‘Anything on her clothes?' Kim asked.

‘Not a drop. Still got her clubbing clothes on, and they're as clean as a whistle.'

Kim walked to the top of the body, taking care to avoid the blood. From this angle of the room, she could picture clearly what had happened.

Andrea Shaw had come down the stairs sometime around ten thirty to let in who she thought was her daughter having forgotten her key. The door had been forced open. Andrea had backed into the lounge, pulling down the bookcase to block the intruder, but in effect had trapped herself.

The killer had crossed the room and started stabbing. Kim counted more than a dozen defensive wounds on the hands and arms.

She stood above the victim and looked down into a face that would have been attractive just a few hours ago. Her hazel eyes were framed by shapely brows, and her full lips bore the imprint of recently removed make-up.

She looked closer at the mouth and then at Keats.

‘Anything in there?'

‘I think so, but I'm going to wait until I have her back at the?—'

‘Why aren't you trying to save her?' screamed a voice from the hallway.

A constable grabbed the girl from behind before she entered, looking apologetically in Kim's direction.

Kim made it to the other side of the room and removed the protective clothing before following the constable and the girl.

She found them sitting at the kitchen table. The girl was bent forward, sobbing uncontrollably into a circle made by her arms.

Kim took a seat and nodded for the constable to remove his hand from the girl's shoulder.

‘Toyah, isn't it?' Kim asked, leaning forward.

Toyah nodded as she raised her head. Her face was a reddened mess of tears, mascara and mucus.

Kim held out her hand for a roll of kitchen towel. She ripped off two squares and passed them to the girl, who was heavily made-up, with a shock of short green hair. Unlike her mum, her eyes were a deep blue beneath the panda smudges. She appeared much younger than Katie, even though there was only a couple of years' difference.

‘Why aren't you trying to save her?' she asked again.

‘She's gone, Toyah,' Kim said gently. ‘And you knew that when you found her, which is why you didn't touch her.'

‘I didn't want to hurt her,' she said as the tears fell from her eyes. ‘But I should have tried. If I'd have known what to do, I could have saved her.'

Kim shook her head, ‘She was gone and there was nothing you could have done.'

‘I shouldn't have been out. This wouldn't have happened if I'd been here.'

Kim wondered how many different ways the girl was going to blame herself.

‘You don't know that. You could have been a victim too,' Kim reasoned.

Toyah's phone sounded and lit up on the table. The name Tony flashed on the screen.

Toyah answered it. ‘Where are you?'

‘Outside. They won't let me in,' Kim heard.

‘He's my brother; I called him,' she wailed. ‘I need him.'

Kim nodded to the constable, who keyed his radio with the instruction to allow the man to enter.

‘Does he know what's happened?' Kim asked, assuming that Andrea was Tony's mum too.

‘I told him. He lives in Romsley, just a few miles?—'

‘Toyah, Toyah,' a male voice called from the hallway.

‘In here,' the girl croaked.

Kim guessed Tony to be a little older, maybe mid-twenties, but the likeness was unmistakeable. Kim felt sure they were full siblings.

‘Where is she?' Tony asked, looking Kim's way while still holding his sobbing sister.

‘She's in the lounge, but you can't go in there,' Kim advised.

He looked as though he wanted to argue.

‘Don't do it, Tony,' Toyah snuffled against his chest. ‘Don't put that picture in your head. It's awful.'

‘But what's happened?' he asked, setting his sister slightly away so he could see her face.

‘Mom was murdered, stabbed. She's dead, Tony. She's gone.'

Tony pulled his sister to him again as she cried tears that seemed like they were never going to stop.

‘I called Dad; he's on his way back from Glasgow. You're coming home with me.'

Tony looked at Kim over the top of his sister's head. He appeared calm and in control, and there was no evidence of tears.

‘Can I pack her a bag and get her out of here?'

There were questions that Kim wanted to ask, but as the sound of Toyah's sobbing increased, she knew the girl was in no fit state to answer right now.

She nodded. ‘We'll speak to you tomorrow.'

Toyah had walked in on a scene so horrific it would haunt her dreams for years. Right now, she needed to leave and be comforted by family.

Kim went ahead and stood close to the lounge door to block the view. Tony bundled past her and up the stairs. All credit to him, he didn't even try to look. His sole focus was on his sister.

‘You still here?' Keats asked, joining her in the doorway.

‘Where else would I be at almost two in the morning?'

‘That's our theory up in smoke,' he said, watching Mitch closely.

‘Yep. I'm pretty sure Katie is still safely confined at Bushey Fields, so we ain't pinning this one on her.'

‘We're about to start the process of moving the body.'

‘Five minutes, Keats. Let's just let her kids get out of here first.'

‘Understood,' he said, moving back towards the forensic techie.

Within minutes, Tony and Toyah reappeared with an overnight bag.

‘Try and get some rest and we'll talk later,' Kim said as Tony guided his sister out the door.

Once they were out of sight, Kim gave Keats the thumbs up for removal before heading upstairs.

The first door on the left was clearly the master bedroom. A quick glance around confirmed it to be the room of the deceased.

There was a small television as well as a large bookcase and a reading nook in the corner. The single bedside cabinet held a lamp, a couple of books, reading glasses and a phone.

The covers were thrown back and the pillows piled on one side, indicating that Andrea had most likely been sitting up, reading and waiting for Toyah to come home.

A small en-suite bathroom was tidy and functional.

The next room was filled with a desk and shelves holding boxes of crafting materials. On the worktop were stickers, a guillotine, crafting wire and paints. There were models and card-making projects at every stage of the journey scattered around. Although crowded, it looked organised and well used.

The next room was clearly Toyah's.

Perfume bottles and make-up cases cluttered the dressing table, and stuff had been slid, hid and wedged into every available spot, giving the impression of a clutter-free zone unless you looked too closely.

It was a room being outgrown, Kim thought. Toyah was in her early twenties and she had accumulated a lot of stuff in that time that she didn't seem eager to part with.

Kim closed the door behind her and smiled at the sign.

Entry by Appointment Only Unless You Bring Food.

So far it looked like a perfectly normal household. A mother who had her own interests and hobbies, a daughter who was on the cusp of grasping her own independence.

She opened the last door. The junk room. The space filled with boxes and bags of things that were no longer needed but hadn't yet made it to the tip either because of time, motivation or emotional attachment.

Such boxes revealed the whole history of a family.

Kim started opening the lids of boxes that hadn't been disturbed in years. The ones at the back held wedding memorabilia and photos, packed away when the marriage had ended presumably, baby clothes, books, toys, shawls, blankets, stuffed toys. It was a history lesson of their past, an era represented in each area of the room.

Kim had the sudden thought of Andrea's boxes coming to join them. Hours ago, she had been a vital, busy woman, living and enjoying life, and now in the not too distant future she would be consigned to a box, a selection of worldly possessions chosen as a representation of her life.

Kim shook away the maudlin thoughts, knowing they had gathered because this death was untimely. Andrea shouldn't have been joining the family history for decades.

Just a couple of boxes remained, nestled between board games, old school uniforms and certificates.

Kim opened them, wondering what on earth was left.

‘Aww…shit,' she said as she flipped back the lids.

The crowns and sashes were just stuffed inside. This was nothing like the shrine at Katie's old house.

This was a memory box of a time that had come and gone. It wasn't worshipped or relived or even remembered, as Kim had seen no clue anywhere else around the house.

Kim closed the box and left the room.

With a second murder linked to the world of pageantry, this case had just got a hell of a lot bigger than she'd first thought.