Page 9 of Deadly Fate

‘Will, please; I’m not at school.’

Seeing her confusion, he continued, ‘I’m a teacher.’

‘Got it,’ she said. The man had kids calling his surname all day. ‘Okay, Will, I’m really sorry that we have to intrude on your grief to ask you some questions but…’

‘It’s fine, go ahead,’ he offered as the tension filled his face. ‘The sooner you ask, the quicker you can catch the bastard who did this.’

‘Okay, firstly, can I—’

‘Just looking for a collar to take Pickles for a—Oh, sorry,’ said a voice from the doorway.

‘Detectives, Nic,’ Will said.

Kim gave a reassuring smile to the teenage girl holding a dog lead. The girl put it on the table and sat on the arm of the chair beside her father.

She reached for his hand. ‘Everything okay, Dad?’

‘Just need to answer some questions,’ he said. ‘Sorry, this is my daughter, Nicola.’

Side by side, Kim could see the striking resemblance between the two of them. Will Deakin had given his black hair, green eyes and strong chin to his daughter. She was unsure what the girl had got from her mother.

‘We’re so sorry for the loss of your—’

‘She wasn’t,’ Nicola said.

Kim waited.

‘Sorry, that sounded rude,’ Nicola added, when her father stiffened. ‘I meant to say that Sandy wasn’t my mother.’

‘I see,’ Kim said, now clear why the girl wasn’t in a distraught, snivelling pile in a corner.

‘Take the dog, love,’ Will said, patting and then releasing her hand.

She hesitated then stood, before leaving the room.

‘His old collar is in the utility room,’ Will called after her. ‘Forensic people had to keep his new one. There were some spots of…’ His words trailed away.

‘It’s okay, Will,’ Kim said as Nicola closed the front door behind her.

Kim wasn’t sure how much had been shared with the family. The savagery of the assault was not going to help matters at this point, and the detail of the slashed mouth would be revealed to no one.

‘Will, we have reason to believe this was a personal attack. That’s to say that we suspect Sandra was the intended victim.’

He frowned. ‘The officer last night said she’d been stabbed. I thought mugging or’ – he swallowed – ‘rape,’ he whispered, struggling to get his mouth around the word.

Talk about giving with one hand and taking away with the other. She was able to assure him that no sexual assault had taken place, but she had to replace it with the fact that someone had most definitely wanted his wife dead.

‘Sandra wasn’t mugged and there’s no evidence that she was sexually assaulted,’ Kim said.

Inspector Plant had done the right thing. He hadn’t lied but he hadn’t told the whole truth either. It was her job to join the dots and add detail to the outline.

‘Your wife was stabbed, and what I say next is going to be hard for you to hear. I’m afraid she was stabbed repeatedly.’

‘How many times?’ he asked, as though the number made a difference.

‘Eleven.’

‘Jesus Christ. Why? I mean did she suffer?’

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