‘He’s entitled,’ Kim said. ‘I hate an inflated sense of entitlement. Everything is someone else’s fault. Ashley lost him his kids; Nadine was a whore trying to trap him. I despise him for not admitting his own?—’
She stopped speaking as her phone rang. She knew who it was, and she couldn’t put it off any longer.
‘Stone,’ she answered.
‘Inspector, it’s Gloria. You promised to have Ava back with me this morning. I’m sure you’re aware it’s no longer morning.’
‘I’m sorry – we got caught up on a murder case we’re working.’
Kim didn’t really expect the excuse to do her any good. That was not Gloria’s priority.
‘My point exactly, Inspector. You’ve clearly got enough on your plate, and we need to get the child settled. I think it might be best if we collect Ava now. Just give me the address.’
‘Just a couple of hours, Gloria, and I swear I’ll drop her off,’ Kim said, ending the call before she could protest.
‘Fuck,’ she cursed before telling Bryant to head to Hollytree.
Although Lucinda Butler was at the forefront of her mind, an image of Ashley Reynolds swam before her eyes. A generous, hard-working woman. Their first victim. Ashley would want them chasing down her killer, but her priority would be her child. Before anything else, she would want to make sure that Ava was safe. And it was the least they could do for her.
She needed to see the Chances for herself.
Sixty-Eight
Penn parked the car outside Holloway Butcher’s in Stourbridge, happy to be finally out of the office. Without Stacey beavering away in the corner, the squad room was a different place, and he had no idea how she spent so many hours alone. He had found it lonely and depressing and had welcomed the opportunity to hotfoot it out of there.
Locating Ava’s natural father had not been quite as easy as he’d hoped. Thankfully, he had been listed on the birth certificate, but Thomas Smith was a pretty common name.
A general search of the area had produced over seventy results within a ten-mile radius. He’d written off continuing that search when he’d realised that the man might not even live within the immediate area.
He’d contemplated speaking to Ashley’s colleagues or friends to narrow down his search, but he suspected that they wouldn’t be able to cast any light on a man who had been out of Ashley’s life for seven years. Likely, they’d only know his name, and he already had that. While examining Ashley’s financial records, Stacey hadn’t turned up any incoming payments for child support, so he was guessing she’d never pursued him for support. Another dead end.
Then he’d had an idea. Housekeeping of social media. He knew that most people, in the event of a relationship breakdown, cleaned house. They removed photographs, deleted posts and erased the person from their lives. But not everyone.
Many people did it as a statement to both the world and themselves. Others did it to remove reminders of a painful time. And others never did it at all.
Ashley and Thomas had been serious enough to have a baby, and by all accounts Thomas had been with her until the birth.
It had taken Penn almost an hour to scroll back to Ava’s birth on Ashley’s Facebook page. After it, there was no mention of Thomas Smith, but before it, he was alive and well and tagged in the majority of her posts.
Penn didn’t mind admitting that he’d high-fived himself when he’d pulled up the man’s profile and discovered that not only did he still live in the area, but he also worked just a few miles away.
He glanced in the shop window before entering, recognising Ava’s dad from Ashley’s Facebook immediately.
He was interacting with a customer in a friendly, jovial manner as he added her steak to a plastic bag and carried it to the door.
She thanked him as she left, and Penn took his opportunity to go in.
‘What can I get ya, fella?’ Thomas Smith asked, sliding back behind the counter.
Penn held up his ID, and the man didn’t seem surprised.
‘It’s really true then?’ he asked, moving to the side of the counter so there was no barrier between them.
‘I’m afraid so,’ Penn answered.
‘Shit, she was a good person. She didn’t deserve that. How’s the kid doing?’
‘Ava’s bearing up quite well, considering. Have you got time for a couple of questions?’
