Chapter 41

Kim refreshed her phone as her team started to file into the squad room.

It was three minutes to seven and she wanted to see Frost's article about Katie Hawne the second it landed. The time she'd spent with Katie the night before had unnerved her and got her thinking about mother and daughter relationships far more than she was comfortable with. She'd removed her own experience from the analysis. Having a schizophrenic mother who was hellbent on killing both you and your twin brother was an exception and not the rule.

From what she knew of her team, Stacey had an incredibly close relationship with her mum and they talked about almost everything. Bryant had been raised by parents who had been hard-working but not overly demonstrative. Penn's mother had passed only a couple of years ago, but they too had been close.

Katie had wished her mother dead with such a deep passion that she had actually thought she was responsible for her murder when she'd found her body, yet despite that rage, she was eager to move back to the family home instead of forging ahead with the independent life she was starting to make for herself.

It just didn't make sense to her, but she had to let it go. Whatever her concerns about Katie's mental health, the woman was an adult and no longer in need of her attention.

She refreshed her phone once more before heading out to the squad room.

‘Morning, people, and don't think I was joking last night. I expect you all to present your talent before the end of play tomorrow and someone will be chosen to represent us. I don't even care how bad you are. Anything has to be better than Penn and his poetry.'

‘Actually, boss, I've been thinking,' Penn said, reaching into his bag. ‘I had a pretty cool skill when I was a kid. I was a record holder.'

Kim allowed her hopes to rise.

‘Look,' he said with a very proud smile.

‘A Rubik's cube?' she asked, folding her arms.

‘Yeah, here,' he said, passing it to her. ‘Mess it up. As much as you like. I won't look.'

She tossed it to Tiff when Penn turned his back. Her time was better spent getting a refill from the coffee machine.

There was an air of expectation by the time she had fresh coffee and Tiff handed the cube back to Penn. It looked pretty well messed up.

‘Want me to time you?' Stacey asked, taking out her phone.

‘Oh yes,' Penn said.

‘Okay, start,' she instructed.

He began twisting and turning the three rows of random colours. They watched, and watched, and watched.

‘Two minutes,' Stacey called.

‘That I'll never get back,' Kim said. ‘Give it up, Penn.'

‘I can do it, honest,' he said, still turning the colours. It looked no better than it had when Tiff had passed it back to him.

‘Yeah, but even if you do it, no one will be impressed. If you finish right now, most kids under ten could match you.'

‘Honest, boss, I used to hold the record,' he insisted.

‘What record – world record? National record? Regional?'

‘Well, no, just amongst my mates, but I was still the quickest.'

‘Put it away. Your audition is done and you ain't through to the next round.' She turned and cast a glance between Stacey and Bryant. ‘Next one better be an improvement on that.'

She paused to let that thought sink in.

‘Okay, day three and we still have more questions than answers. Theories?'

‘Jealousy?' Bryant offered.

‘Of what though?' Stacey asked. ‘It was the girls that were competing, not the moms.'

‘And why now?' Kim asked. ‘No one we've spoken to has competed in years. Both girls have been living totally different lives.'

‘Yeah, but Kelvin Hobbs raised an interesting idea – perhaps the best way to hurt the girls is through their moms.'

Kim nodded her acceptance of the point. ‘Still doesn't answer the question of why now.'

‘Revenge?' Bryant tried. ‘Could it be punishment for something either the girls did or the moms were part of?'

‘I think we're getting closer, but that still doesn't help narrow it down if we're looking at pageant participants or someone associated with the industry,' Kim said. ‘We still have no specific people to focus on. The families didn't associate with each other. The daughters weren't in touch. All we know is that Kelvin Hobbs is lying about his reason for leaving the circuit, claiming he'd suddenly decided he'd had enough even though he loved it. His words were believable but his body language was all over the place.'

‘Boss, what are your thoughts on the flipper and the eyelashes?' Stacey asked.

‘That our murderer is mightily pissed off about something to do with pageants, but that still doesn't help us much,' Kim said, turning to Penn. ‘You ever heard of anything similar?'

Asking him was quicker than searching the internet.

‘There was a case a few years back where a woman killed her daughter by forcing a wooden crucifix down her throat.'

‘Really?' Bryant asked.

‘Yeah, but I think it was cos she thought she was possessed and was trying to drive the devil out of her, or so her lawyer claimed. There was another case in Ireland, back in the?—'

‘Okay, Penn, thanks,' Kim said. There was nothing there to help them right now.

‘Perhaps the make-up artist I've found knows something,' Stacey offered. ‘She was present at the majority of the pageants over an eight-year period and would have known the girls, their mothers and the other tradespeople.'

Kim nodded her agreement.

‘Already texted the address,' Stacey said, nodding towards Bryant.

‘Okay, Stace, as well as interrogating your spreadsheet, I want you to get cracking on the origin of the stuff found in our victims' throats. Not sure what you might get from the eyelashes, but see what you can find out about the flipper.'

‘On it, boss.'

Kim turned to Penn. ‘You and Tink are off to see Keats, yes?'

‘We are, boss, but I've been thinking about something else. What are our chances of getting the dive team back out?'

‘You think there's something else to find down there?'

‘No, that's the whole point,' he answered. ‘I don't think there is.'

‘Hmm, let me think. You want to throw funding at a specialist dive team for a case that no one is claiming, to look for stuff you don't even think is down there?'

‘Pretty much,' Penn answered.

‘I'm so sure that Woody will authorise that, I'm gonna let you go ask him yourself.'

Penn looked doubtful.

‘His stuff was never found,' Tiff said. ‘If he fell in, either his rods and stuff went in with him or most likely his killer took it away to remove any trace of his presence.'

‘Or it was left, and somebody nicked it,' Kim answered. Not everyone needed to know the provenance of something, especially if it was just lying around free of charge.

‘We need to know,' Penn pushed.

‘Leave it with me. Go make nice with Keats and I'll see what I can do.'

‘Thanks, boss.'

Kim headed into the Bowl to grab her jacket. This case was beginning to feel like a ball of string, rolled so tightly it was impossible to find the end. But with two murders in two days, she just prayed that she could unravel it before anyone else lost their life.