Chapter 60

Kim had all kinds of questions running through her head by the time she placed two coffees on the table in the interview room. She'd made a quick call upstairs to advise her team she'd be gone longer than she'd thought.

‘Sorry to just come out with it like that, but I wanted you to know I wasn't here to waste your time.'

‘What makes you think that Sheryl Hawne is your mother?'

‘I don't think it, Inspector; I know it for sure. I wouldn't be wasting your time otherwise.'

Kim nodded for her to continue.

‘Sheryl gave birth to me twenty-five years ago in a small town just north of Huddersfield. I was the result of a one-night stand, born to a woman who had been spoiled and overindulged. She was an only child, and both my grandparents gave in to her every whim. Whatever she wanted to do, they supported her, and Sheryl was happy as long as she was in the limelight.'

‘Pageants?' Kim asked.

Katherine nodded. ‘As well as singing competitions, dancing, gymnastics, modelling, acting, anything where she was getting attention. The only trouble was that she wanted to be the best, immediately, and if she wasn't, she quickly moved on to the next thing.

‘By the time she hit twenty, she'd tried everything, and even though she was beautiful, she had no direction. She still wasn't particularly good at anything except getting male attention.'

Katherine took a sip of her coffee, and Kim decided to just let her talk. She didn't really need to pick holes in the woman's story. A simple DNA test would give her the truth if she had any doubt.

‘When she found out she was having a girl, I became the focus of her world. Apparently we were going to do everything together, and I was going to be so beautiful. She spent nine months planning our future. We were going to be famous. I was going to be a child star. And then I was born, and she realised that was never going to happen.'

Katherine took a deep breath before continuing.

‘She rejected me on sight. She told the nurse she didn't want to hold or touch me. Thinking it was some kind of postnatal depression, my gran stepped in immediately. She took us home, and she cared for me.

‘I was six weeks old when Sheryl left. There was no note, no explanation. Gran woke up one morning and she was gone with one suitcase and a bag of Gran's good jewellery.'

‘Was she reported missing?' Kim asked.

‘Yes, but the police were honest enough to say there was little they could do. She was a grown adult, not vulnerable in any way, and able to make her own decisions. So, my gran did what any good gran would do: she raised me. I only learned the truth when I was twelve and Gran thought I could handle some of the facts. The rest I've teased out of her over the years.'

‘And your childhood?' Kim asked.

‘Was amazing. It's like my gran got a second chance to be a great mom, and I've never felt anything but love and support from both her and my gramps. Life hasn't always been easy,' she said, touching the birthmark on her face, ‘but they taught me to be strong and to never hide. It was that strength that enabled me to want to meet Sheryl. I grew up in her childhood home. I wasn't abandoned to strangers or put in care. I had the love and support of my family. I've seen her past, her clothes, her schoolwork, her certificates, her recitals, videos, photos. I don't hate her, and I wanted her to know that. I put a Google alert on for her name, and I finally got a result from that article published yesterday.'

Kim sat back in her chair. ‘You'll excuse me for not warming to this immediately.'

‘Of course, and I'm happy to submit DNA to prove my identity,' she said, reaching for her bag. She took out a piece of paper and slid it across the table. ‘My birth certificate.'

Kim took a look and saw nothing suspicious, just one added detail of which she'd been unaware.

Sheryl had a middle name, and it was an unusual one.

‘Octavia?'

‘After my great-grandmother apparently. I never knew her.'

‘And what is it that you want?' Kim asked, thinking of the house Katie was planning on returning to.

‘To take Sheryl home. I know that's not possible yet, but when she's ready, I'd like to make the necessary arrangements. It would help my grandparents grieve.'

Kim nodded her understanding but felt there was more.

‘And?'

‘The other Katie. I want to meet her. I want to understand what she is to me. Obviously, I have no other siblings.'

Kim shook her head. ‘I don't know. There's a lot to unpack here.'

‘I understand, but I'm not going anywhere.' She pushed a card across the table, which offered her contact details below a logo for her own website design business.

‘I'm staying at the Village Hotel in Dudley. I'm happy to wait here while you arrange for a DNA sample to be taken, and then I'll return to my hotel and await your call.'

Kim thanked her and left the room. She'd get a sample. At this point, she really had nothing to lose.

It was an outlandish story she'd just heard, but it wasn't impossible. To give it credence she would have to believe, after what she'd learned, that Sheryl Hawne had been capable of walking out on her own six-week-old child without a backwards glance.

Damn it. It wasn't that much of a stretch.

But what about the other Katie, the pageant queen and the one left holding the knife? Had Sheryl become pregnant very quickly and named her second daughter Katie too, or were they looking at something a little more sinister?