Page 27 of Guilty Mothers

She moved to push her chair back.

‘Not yet,’ he said, reaching for his drink. ‘I haven’t finished telling you.’

Olivia felt shame warm her cheeks. The soggy lettuce was stuck firmly to her chin.

She raised her hand.

‘Leave it. Next time you’ll eat the meal I bring you. You’re going to be very hungry later. Anyway, Tiffany was lovely out of uniform. She is a babe. I invited her for coffee, but I think she had something else on. I’ll get a date with her. You just watch. You always told me I was irresistible.’

When she didn’t smile in response, his face darkened.

‘Okay, you’re boring me now. You can go to bed.’

He stood and pulled out her chair. ‘Come on – up you go,’ he said, walking her to the stairs.

He followed closely behind and all but pushed her into the room.

‘Night, night, and I’ll see you in the morning.’

He presented his cheek for his goodnight kiss, which she knew better than to refuse.

The door closed and locked behind her.

She dutifully reached beneath her pillow for her nightdress.

It wasn’t even seveno’clock.

TWENTY

It was 7.15p.m. when Kim entered the squad room.

Bryant followed her in and headed for the coffee machine. Kim shook her head. She didn’t intend to hang around long enough to drink it. The day had grown long, and she planned on dispatching her team imminently.

‘Anything from the shrink?’ she asked. Katie had been at Bushey Fields for a few hours.

Stacey shook her head. ‘After my third call he refused to speak to me.’

Some hope of getting done by suppertime. If Katie hadn’t been assessed by now, they weren’t getting an answer on whether they could even question her until the morning.

‘Okay, I’ll draw up a battle plan for tomorrow but tonight—Hey, Tink,’ she said, seeing the familiar face in the doorway.

‘Hey, boss, got a minute?’

‘Of course,’ she said, pointing towards the Bowl. ‘You need me…?’

‘No, no,’ she said, closing the door behind her. ‘I don’t mind you telling me I’m overreacting in front of everyone.’

‘Oookay,’ Kim said as Tink took a seat at the spare desk.

‘I was there today,’ she said, twisting her fingers together. ‘At Donkey Pool when they brought the body out of the water.’

‘Okay,’ Kim said, still unsure what was going on. She’d heard there had been developments, but Keats had got to her first and saddled her with an open and shut case. ‘Your first dead body?’ Was she traumatised? Did she need to talk? Did she need comfort, and if so what the hell was she doing here?

Tiff shook her head.

‘We were waiting for the call,’ Penn said.

‘I wish you’d got it.’

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