‘Got it,’ Bryant said, taking out his phone. He seemed to know the location without his satnav as he turned the car around.
‘Come on – spit it out,’ Bryant said. ‘What are you thinking?’
‘Maybe we’ve been looking in the wrong direction. Perhaps we should have been looking closer to home. Why would Daniel Reynolds be so keen to head off with his daughter? It’s not even been two days.’
‘Perhaps he?—’
‘Normally folks are?—’
‘Ah, it’s that kind of conversation,’ Bryant said. ‘Give me a nudge when you want my input.’
‘Will do. My point is that relatives and loved ones usually want to remain close, eager for updates. They need time to adjust. They want to be around familiar places and people. It doesn’t make sense.’ She paused. Bryant said nothing. ‘Talk,’ she said grudgingly.
‘Not everyone reacts the same way, guv. Maybe being around everything familiar is too painful for him. Perhaps he genuinely feels it would be best for Ava if she was away from the house for a few days.’
‘A few days? There was enough stuff in that car for a month.’
‘Never packed for kids, eh?’ he asked. ‘Not everyone can exist on two pairs of trousers, three tee shirts, one leather jacket and a pair of biker boots. Kids’ stuff takes up a lot of space.’
‘Why? Their clothes are small,’ she countered.
‘Yeah but they need a lot of ’em. They spill a lot,’ he said then paused. ‘You really think he could have done it?’
‘Well, someone did, and who knows what goes on behind closed doors? Maybe they weren’t the happy couple everyone assumed they were. What if the child she was carrying wasn’t even his and he found out about an affair and?—?’
‘Guv, you been watching soap operas lately? There’s absolutely nothing to suggest there was anything untoward going on.’
‘But you can’t know that. You don’t live there.’
‘No, but Ava does, and I am capable of doing more than talking about Paddington Bear or Lilo and Stitch when you send me off on babysitting duty.’
‘Oh. Yeah, okay.’
‘Ava is a very sensible little girl who felt loved by both parents. Her favourite thing in the whole wide world is when the three of them snuggle under a blanket with a box of Maltesers and watch a film together like they did the night before her mummy went to heaven.’
‘Bryant, I don’t need?—’
‘The movie was Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, but Ava says her parents didn’t see much of the movie because they were too busy smooching.’
‘Look, you might be willing to accept this Disney version of their life, but ultimately Ashley is dead, and her husband is acting strangely. Forgive me for not being so easily convinced.’
Bryant sighed heavily. ‘Oh, that level of cynicism must be a heavy load to bear.’
Kim didn’t bother to answer as he pulled up outside a house in Dudley Wood.
She’d met many families who had seemed the perfect picture only to find a very different story inside the book. Daniel’s name stayed on her mental list until she could explain his strange behaviour.
‘Now this guy is another story,’ Bryant said as they approached the door.
It was answered on the second ring by a woman in her mid-thirties. Her red hair was tied up in a ponytail and a paint brush was in her hand.
‘Mrs Butler?’
She stepped aside before they’d even attempted to identify themselves.
‘Come in – we’ve been expecting you.’
As she said this, the man of the house came down the stairs, wiping his hands on his paint-spattered jeans.
