Silent Scream

Forty-Five

Kim looked from Bryant to Stacey. ‘Okay, new day. Dawson will be going straight to the site and he’ll call when there’s more to report.

‘So, to recap. Of the six staff members identified, only two remain; Richard Croft and William Payne. Richard Croft doesn’t like me very much so I don’t think we’ll be getting much more from him. But he’s hiding something.’

‘Guv, two of the objections to the professor’s project were filed by the law firm Travis, Dunne and Cohen.’

‘Croft’s wife?’

Stacey nodded. ‘She works under her maiden name of Cohen.’

‘So, whatever he’s hiding, she knows about.’

‘Worth a visit to her office, Guv?’ Bryant asked.

Kim shook her head. ‘She’s already tried to remove me from the case and I’m not giving her any further ammunition.’ She shrugged. ‘We're not gonna get any help from her. Whatever Croft’s hiding, his wife is party to it and will block us at every turn.’

‘How far do yer think she'd go?’ Stacey asked.

‘Depends on the level of potential damage,’ Kim answered, recalling the gated house, the cars, not to mention the career.

Kim stood at the board that had been divided into two. The first half had been further quartered. The details of Teresa Wyatt and Tom Curtis occupied the top two segments. The bottom quarters were occupied by Mary Andrews and Arthur Connop.

‘Anything back from forensics on Arthur?’ Kim asked.

‘Broken glass from a passenger-side headlight and some particles of white paint embedded in his trouser leg. They’re trying to match it now.’

Kim stared hard at the left hand side of the board. Despite her inability to prove the murder of Mary Andrews and Arthur Connop, she knew their deaths were linked to something sinister that occurred ten years earlier.

What did you do? she silently asked all of them.

The opposite side of the board was currently divided into two, representing the buried victims so far removed. Kim knew the board would be divided again before the end of the day.

Three names were printed to the side.

Melanie Harris

Tracy Morgan

Louise Dunston

‘How's the identification going?’ Stacey asked, following Kim’s gaze.

Kim didn’t turn. ‘Apparently these three were a close little group. I’m hoping Doctor Bate can offer us more clues to identify which girl is which.’

‘Do yer think there's more than three, Guv?’ Stacey asked.

Kim shook her head. There was a reason why a particular group had been targeted.

‘Can you find out more about these three on Facebook without being detected?’

‘Oh yeah. When I asked if anyone remembered me, one girl asked if I was that shy little black girl with thick glasses and a stutter. And I said yes.’

Kim rolled her eyes. ‘What did you find out about the minister?’

‘The only minister I could find with any link to Crestwood was Victor Wilks, the guy who did some charity work. His name's come up in a few posts. The girls all refer to him fondly as “Father”. He used to visit the place once a month to give a short service for the girls.’

‘Background?’

‘Hard to know. So far, I’ve got him spending a few years in Bristol, a couple in Coventry and a year in Manchester. I've thrown out some emails to see if I can get a bite.’

‘Where is he now?’

‘Dudley.’

‘Since when?’

Stacey tapped the keyboard. ‘Two years ago.’

‘Got an address?’

Stacey passed Kim a piece of paper as Bryant replaced the receiver.

‘Guv, that was the front desk. You have a visitor.’

Kim frowned. She was too busy to drop everything for a walk-in.

‘Call them back and ...’

‘This one ain’t shifting, Guv. Your visitor is Bethany Adamson and she is mighty pissed off.’