Chapter 68

‘Feeling a bit like a bloody tennis ball at the minute,' Bryant said as they pulled up outside Horton's Funeral Home in Sedgley.

Kim could understand his point. They were being volleyed between the dressmaker and the stylist to get the truth that should have been available from the start. For all she knew, the killer had another victim in their crosshairs and they were chasing other people's tails.

After trying Jenna Bond's home first, they'd surmised her absence meant she was at work. Stacey's digging had unearthed a disturbing rumour that had been circulating right before Jenna had left the circuit for ‘family reasons'.

A bell above the door announced their arrival into a small foyer with a wall that bore the company name and framed photos of floral arrangements. With no reception desk, they had no choice but to wait to be discovered.

Kim shook her head as her colleague shuddered. The man could process the most horrific crime scenes, interrogate the most evil villains, but anything to do with the process after death disturbed him.

‘May I help you?' asked a slim woman who appeared from around the corner.

Kim guessed her to be early sixties. Her grey hair was short and stylish, and her expression was already filled with compassion.

‘May we speak to Jenna Bond? We assume she's at work today.'

The woman didn't hide her surprise as they both produced their IDs. ‘Is everything okay?'

‘It's fine. We just need to ask her a couple of questions.'

‘Of course. If you give me a minute, I'll go get?—'

‘That's okay. If you take us to her, we can get out of your way. We won't keep her for long.'

Kim heard Bryant curse under his breath as the woman led the way.

He would have preferred to question Jenna away from the dead, and she would have preferred him to have performed a better magic trick, but hey ho, such was life.

They followed the woman along a corridor with display rooms on either side: coffins, flower arrangements and cards. They passed a couple of small offices before reaching a set of stairs that led to the lower level. Kim could imagine the expletives running through Bryant's head.

The woman tapped lightly on a door before opening it. Kim could already smell the formalin from the embalming process.

Jenna Bond was standing to the right of a trolley, leaning over the body of a woman who looked to have been in her eighties. The grey hair had been washed, dried and brushed. Kim could see immediately that she had not been subject to a forensic post-mortem, so no effort would be needed to hide the incisions that would have stretched from the neck up to behind the ears. Incisions for a routine post-mortem were on the chest only and easily covered by clothing.

‘Sorry to visit you at work, Jenna, but we have a couple of follow-up questions.'

‘Shoot,' she said. ‘But I can't stop working. It's a busy day.'

‘We're not sure you were completely honest about your reasons for leaving the pageant circuit.'

Jenna's hand stilled above the aged face. Kim could see that she was applying theatrical style make-up as a first layer. She knew that the skin turned many shades during the early stages of decomposition and the thicker, waxier substance covered the blemishes better.

‘I haven't lied about anything,' she said.

Technically not, but her exit from the circuit had not been as drama free as she'd had them believe.

‘There were rumours that you actually struck one of the girls.'

‘Rumours,' she said with a level of conviction not befitting a false allegation, although the passion in that one word caused her to rub harder on the woman's lower jaw. The lips didn't move, indicating they had likely been stitched closed to avoid the mouth gaping open during viewing.

‘Gossip normally starts somewhere,' Kim said, pulling her eyes away, waiting to hear Jenna's account of the story.

‘It was nothing.'

‘It was clearly something, so we'd like to know about it.'

‘I was looking for something, and Lottie accused me of stealing. I was doing no such thing. I was the one always looking after other people's stuff. I would never have stolen from them. Lottie was screaming thief in my face, and I pushed her to shut her up. That's all.'

Lottie, the child of Sally-Ann, the latest woman to lose her life.

Kim took a minute to unpack what she'd just been told as Jenna reached for a tray of normal cosmetics to build the next coat of make-up. She pictured the scene: a hotel room, mothers taking their daughters to and from the stage. Leaving all their belongings in a safe place while they performed, ready to come back and change for the next category.

Knowing how much some of these moms spent on pageants, could she have been tempted by all those unattended handbags and purses while earning a pittance wrangling kids for hair and make-up all day?

Kim didn't want to brand her a thief, but the opportunity had been there.

‘So, what happened next?'

‘Oh, Lottie went off crying and brought back a whole army of mothers demanding to know about the red mark on her face.'

‘From a push?' Kim queried.

‘I might have accidentally caught her chin or something as I moved her out of the way. Trust me, that's nothing to how some of those moms push their kids around.'

Jenna's story was becoming less plausible by the second, and Kim questioned her own reticence at not branding her a thief.

‘And?'

‘I denied it of course. I was completely innocent. They checked their purses, and Andrea claimed she had a ten-pound note missing. Swore it was her emergency tenner and it had a small pen mark on it.'

‘And?'

‘They asked me to empty my purse and pockets to prove my innocence.'

‘And did you?'

‘Hell no. You really think I'm going to be bullied into that by a group of privileged, superficial woman? Not a chance. I knew they'd tell the others and no one would use me again. After being totally humiliated, I just packed up my things and left.'

Or you made good your escape before your guilt could be uncovered, Kim thought. Innocent people didn't need to run for the hills.

‘Why didn't you give us the whole story when we spoke last time?' Kim asked.

‘Because, Inspector, every one of your victims was in that room.'

‘And now you're here doing this,' Kim observed. Before, she had been part of the vibrant colour, light and excitement of the pageant world. Now she was in a windowless room face-painting a dead body.

‘And all the better I am for it.'

‘Really?' Kim asked.

Jenna put down the lipstick and faced her. ‘You still have no idea how toxic that environment is?'

‘Some kids enjoyed it,' Kim offered, feeling a need to defend at least one of the girls she'd spoken to this week.

‘Perhaps, but not many from the lot you're talking about.'

‘Toyah had a great time,' Kim said.

Jenna shrugged. ‘Yeah, and look at the cost of that.'

‘What cost?'

Jenna opened her mouth and closed it again. ‘No. It's not my story to tell. There's been enough tittle-tattling already. But if you think that their family came out of it unscathed, you can think again.' She looked pointedly at the woman on the trolley. ‘Now if you don't mind, this lady's family will be here any minute.'

Unable to keep her any longer, Kim thanked her for her time and opened the door to leave. The woman who had brought them downstairs materialised before them. An eerie gift given their location.

She guided them back to the front door, and Kim left with an uneasy feeling in her stomach.

‘Wouldn't do that job if my life depended on it,' Bryant said as they headed to the car.

Kim considered where Jenna had once been, where she was now and the events that had led her there. Despite what the woman claimed about being better off, Kim had to wonder if she was looking at a motive for murder.

Before she had the chance to consider what Jenna had been implying about Toyah, her phone rang.

‘Go ahead, Stace.'

‘Seriously, boss, I've got no idea what's going on over at that house,' Stacey said.

‘What house?'

‘Toyah's. Just been chewed up and spat out by her brother, Tony.'

Kim's stomach lurched. It was the second time the girl's name had been mentioned in as many minutes. ‘What happened?'

‘I was working on the alibis like you said. Lottie's whereabouts are all accounted for, independently verified, but so far I can't place Toyah anywhere for any of the murders. No CCTV footage of her when she allegedly left the pub on Tuesday night, so I tried to get clarification and that Tony guy really gave me the business. Gotta say, the bloke is a total wanker who refers to Andrea as Toyah's mother alone. He seems to have disassociated himself from the whole thing.'

‘Okay, Stace, go take a breather and leave it with us. We're on our way,' she said as the feeling of unease began to build.