Page 2 of Guilty Mothers

Kim held up her hand to end the torture after a couple of lines.

‘Okay, it’s a fact. We’re well and truly fu?—’

Her ringing phone cut off her words.

‘It’s Keats. We’re up,’ she said before pressing the answer button.

‘Go ahead.’

‘Blimey, Stone, it’s like you were expecting my call.’

‘I was.’

‘Weird, but okay. I am formally requesting your presence at?—’

‘Hey, Keats, you sure this one’s dead?’ she interrupted.

She’d been waiting two months to ask him that question, following his premature pronouncement on their last case.

The silence that met her question told her that he hadn’t yet reached the point of looking back on the memory with fond recollection and humour.

‘Too soon?’

‘Yes,’ he answered tersely.

‘Okay, I’m on my way.’

‘To where?’

‘Fishing pools at Dudley. That’s why you’re calling, isn’t it?’

‘Sorry, not a clue what’s going on there. I’ve been tied up here at thirty-one Loudner Road, Stourbridge. Female victim, late forties.’

‘Okay, Keats, on our way,’ she said.

Sounded like a major case that warranted their attention. Just not the one she’d been expecting.

‘And for what it’s worth,’ he said, lowering his voice, ‘my opinion is that you won’t have to look far for the culprit.’

TWO

Loudon Road was in an area of Stourbridge that bordered Stourton, part of the last clutch of roads before the A458 continued into countryside.

‘How about we just carry on driving, grab us a coffee and admire the river at Bridgnorth,’ Bryant suggested as he neared the left turn.

‘I’m good, thanks,’ Kim said. Bridgnorth was one of the many local places under a flood warning, following what experts were calling the wettest September on record.

As if on cue, the wipers kicked in as spots began to appear on the windscreen.

Not that sitting beside a river appealed to her at any time of the year, she thought as they approached the crime-scene tape. Being in the countryside didn’t suit her natural disposition for being amongst noise, activity, the chaos of urban life. She saw plenty of countryside when she took her Kawasaki Ninja for a burn to blow the cobwebs away.

Seeing that there was no space beyond the cordon, Bryant pulled into a spot just feet away from the gathering crowd.

Kim groaned when she saw who was at the front of the watching audience. Of course her arch nemesis from theDudley Starwas already there.

‘Care to comment, Inspector?’ Frost asked.

‘You’re an idiot.’

---