‘Mighta done,’ he said with satisfaction.
‘And is she the kind of woman that needs a slap now and again?’
‘You’ve been talking to her, haven’t you? That bitch is still trying to get to me even though she’s off the case.’
‘I didn’t hear you deny it,’ Kim said.
‘It was a false allegation, and she had no witnesses.’
His words convinced Kim that he was guilty of the accusations Ashley had levelled at him. He’d used far too many words when a simple ‘no’ would have sufficed.
‘Did it happen once or more than once?’ she asked, now on a mission to aggravate him.
‘I don’t have to?—’
‘Where were you between the hours of nine and ten last night, Robbie?’
‘I was here with Gran, why?’
‘Any witnesses?’ she asked sarcastically.
He shook his head, but colour was seeping into his face.
‘Only that’s the time when a woman you were very angry with was murdered just a couple of miles from here.’
‘Wh… what?’
‘Ashley Reynolds was stabbed in the heart, and we’re struggling to find many folks who loathed her more than you did.’
‘You can leave,’ he said, standing.
‘Why don’t you want to talk to us any more, Robbie?’ Kim asked, following him into the hallway.
He opened the front door, and Bryant stepped out. Kim grabbed it and slammed it, leaving her colleague outside.
In one movement, she had the boy against the wall with her arm across his throat.
‘Now listen here, you little bastard. I’m not convinced you’re as despicable as you’re making yourself out to be, but I do believe you’ve been a thieving little shit and put your hands on your grandmother. I’m telling you now that I’m gonna be keeping an eye on you. But my eye won’t be like Ashley’s. I’m gonna find the eat and bleat club, and I will persuade your gran to testify against you if you so much as look at her the wrong way. She saved you from a very different kind of life, you ungrateful little twat.
‘This is your only warning. You’ve got the time to get your head straight, but if you don’t, you and me are gonna be seeing a lot more of each other. Do you understand?’ she asked, pushing her arm into his throat.
He spluttered and nodded.
She let go. ‘And feel free to report me… but you’re gonna have one big problem.’
She paused as he rubbed at his neck.
‘You ain’t got no witnesses.’
She opened the front door and let herself out.
Bryant was waiting for her at the end of the path. ‘Dare I ask what that was all about?’
‘Nothing you need to know,’ she said, approaching the car. ‘And get ready for a miracle to occur because for once in your life, I’m about to prove you right.’
Nineteen
Penn found Harriet Wilkins behind the counter of the Heart Action charity shop in Stourbridge. After making his introduction, she had taken him out back to the kitchen and break room. She hadn’t needed an explanation of his visit. Ashley’s name had been released in the time it had taken him to get there.
