Kim had a thought. ‘Did you let her know?’
‘Of course.’
‘What time did you call?’
He took out his phone.
‘One minute past three.’
The time that she should have been treating him.
‘Did she answer?’
‘No, I left her a message.’
‘Okay, thanks,’ Kim said, heading out the shop.
Once outside, she called the number of the two o’clock appointment once more. It went straight to voicemail again.
‘I think we’re on to something here,’ Kim said, ringing another number.
‘Hey, Donnie, it’s Inspector Stone. I need to ask you something about Miss Felton’s booking system.’
‘Okay, sure.’
‘Did she have any way of checking new customers, to make sure they weren’t messing her about?’
‘I don’t think she took any payment until they’d had their first session.’
Damn.
‘Hang on though. I think she used to call them to make sure they were genuine.’
‘So, however they made contact, she’d get a phone number and speak with an actual person before booking a session?’
‘Yeah, I think so.’
‘And you’re sure she had a new client yesterday afternoon?’
‘It’s what she said.’
‘Okay, Donnie, thanks,’ she said, ending the call.
‘We have his number,’ Kim said as Bryant started the engine. ‘It’s a false name, but we have a phone number, and that’s a start.’ She felt the excitement grow in her stomach. ‘If we can identify the provider, we?—’
She stopped speaking as her phone rang.
‘Go ahead, Penn,’ she answered, surprised to see his number. He’d told her he was going to start looking for Ava’s biological dad. She hadn’t expected to hear from him again. He rarely called for no good reason.
‘Boss, I dropped the diary.’
She glanced at Bryant and waited.
‘Well, I didn’t so much drop it as knock it off the edge of my desk when I went to fill the?—’
‘Penn?’ she interrupted.
‘Sorry, I digress. Karen’s diary ended up on the floor. It fell open on a date ten days ago.’
