‘And?’ she snapped.
‘On that day, Karen was visited by someone we know very well.’
Sixty-Seven
Kim was reasonably sure that neither occupant of this property was going to be overjoyed to see her again. Their previous visits had hardly been positive.
‘You have to be fucking kidding me?’ Joe Butler said upon opening the door.
He was dishevelled and unshaven, wearing a dressing gown, black socks and flip-flops. This in itself was an arrestable offence as far as Kim was concerned… but that wasn’t why she was here.
‘May we speak with Lucinda?’
‘Fuck off – don’t you think you’ve done enough?’
Since Penn’s phone call, Kim had been replaying every interaction they’d had with the Butlers. During that very first meeting, the woman had seemed to be more enraged with Ashley Reynolds than Joe was.
Lucinda’s constant reference to the children as ‘our boys’ had been irritating, and Kim had wanted to correct her, but it had registered no more than that. Lucinda would have been acquainted with Ashley, and she could have been behind the Facebook account that had made contact about the netball group. She could have known exactly where to find Ashley.
Similarly, given her suspicions about her husband’s fidelity, Lucinda might have gained access to Joe’s phone and seen the text messages between him and Nadine. She would also have seen the time and place of their meeting. Although she set up the sting, she may have been overcome with jealousy upon seeing the texts.
Most jarring was the fact that Lucinda had been in the home of their third victim, making her firmly their number one suspect.
‘Mr Butler, we really need a quick word with your wife.’
‘Well, she’s not here, so you can just piss off.’
A frisson of alarm shot through her. ‘Where’s she gone?’
He shrugged. ‘I don’t know. She’d left by the time I got home last night.’
‘No note?’ she asked.
‘Yeah, a full-blown love letter with kisses and hearts. Of course there was no note.’
Kim considered trying to ask Joe about his wife’s movements over the last few days, but it wasn’t worth her breath or her time. The man would not lift one finger to help them. But one question wouldn’t go away.
‘Why didn’t the boys like her?’ she asked.
‘They did. They loved her. I don’t know what?—’
‘Stop lying. They didn’t like her, and they told the judge that. That’s the reason you lost them. That and the fact that Abby has completely turned her life around. So I’m curious why they didn’t like her and why you blame Ashley and not Lucinda.’
‘She treated them like they were her own,’ he protested.
When you were around, said a small voice inside Kim’s head. But kids were smart, and they could pick up when someone wasn’t being genuine with them. She knew that either Joe hadn’t seen it or he wasn’t prepared to admit it.
She turned to walk away, but he wasn’t finished with them yet.
‘You people should really get your facts together before you go ruining people’s lives. Lucinda hates me and never wants to see me again. If you hadn’t?—’
‘Oh, for fuck’s sake, Joe. It’s all about you all the time, isn’t it?’ Kim asked, unable to stomach his bellyaching any longer. ‘Never mind the hurt you cause other people. You slapped your ex-wife, threatened your social worker, groped and physically intimidated a woman you were trying to have sex with, and tried to cheat on your wife… but this is all our fault. Maybe if you could control some of your urges, you might not be standing here looking like you need a tin cup and a sleeping bag. Seriously, man, take some accountability and get yourself a shower.’
‘Are you done?’ he asked.
‘Not as done as you, buddy,’ she said, heading back to the car.
‘He really riles you up, doesn’t he?’ Bryant asked as they fixed their seat belts.
