‘Nadine and work backwards.’
‘Okay, Nadine is the daughter of Jenna and Lance Cowley, who are the children of…’
‘Okay, too long,’ Kim said. ‘Any female relative called Smith or Davies?’
‘How did you…?’
‘Yes or no?’
‘Nadine’s great-great-grandmother was Eliza Smith.’
‘Okay, now Karen,’ Kim said. ‘Any female relative with the last name Davies?’
‘Her great-grandmother was Alice Davies. I don’t understand. How could you know that?’
Kim looked to Bryant to see if it had dawned on him yet. She could see that he was wondering where they’d heard the names before.
‘Any other female descendants left in either of those families?’ she asked.
Stacey consulted each page before shaking her head. ‘They’re the last, but I don’t get it,’ she said.
‘There are three ways to lift a curse, Stace.’
‘Shiit,’ Bryant said as he realised why the names were familiar.
‘You can use benevolent protection magic – which hasn’t worked. You can force the cursers to retract the spell – except they’re all dead; or you can destroy the witch by physical attack. Again, they’re all dead.’
Penn leaned forward. ‘So, how…?’
‘Witchcraft is meant to be handed down through the generations on the female side. If you end the female line, that’s gone, and the curse is lifted.’
‘Now they’re all gone,’ Stacey said, consulting her pages.
‘Except one,’ Kim said.
‘Ava,’ they all said together.
Seventy-Seven
‘We don’t even know where in Scotland his sister lives,’ Bryant said as they headed to the car.
Kim chose not to reveal that Daniel had tried to tell her and she had refused to hear it so she didn’t have to lie to her boss. How the hell was she supposed to know that the case was going to link back to the little girl?
All she knew right now was that Lucinda Butler could be tied to all three victims and could not be found. Before leaving, she’d left Stacey with strict instructions to find any link that connected Lucinda to any one of those original families.
‘I know we need to go north, so that’ll do for now. Why the hell did he listen to me?’ she complained. When she’d retreated to the Bowl, she’d made numerous attempts to call Daniel, but his phone was switched off, just as she’d instructed.
If he’d heeded the rest of her advice and left around four, he already had a two-hour head start.
Bryant stayed quiet until he joined the M5 motorway and then started asking the questions she was expecting. ‘How are we supposed to find one man and a child?’
‘Logic,’ she said with more confidence than she truly felt. ‘We know he’s heading to Scotland, and he’s going to take the fastest route which is the motorway.’
‘Correct.’
‘We know we’re looking for a red Peugeot 306 with a 2019 plate and an Arbury Peugeot Stourbridge sticker in the bottom-left corner of the rear window.’
‘Well, I didn’t know all of that, but it’s not exactly going to stand out.’
