‘I’m sorry, he’s not up yet,’ Gavin said as he opened the door to their small apartment.
Kim stepped inside, aware that she was constantly at war with her own opinion about Zachary Daynes.
Bryant waited until Gavin had moved towards the living-room door before he entered the space and closed the front door behind him.
‘He’s not got out of bed since we came back yesterday.’
‘It’s quite a shock he had,’ Kim said, more to herself. It was almost nine and Kim had to remind herself that he had lost pretty much every family member he had in the last seventy-two hours. And yet there was something about him that disappointed her; a lack of backbone, courage, conviction. She wondered if that was how his parents had felt. Again, she chided herself. She didn’t know the man well enough to make a judgement on his whole character.
‘I’m sorry, Gavin, but we’re going to need to speak to him,’ she said firmly.
‘Okay, I’ll get him,’ he said, pointing towards the lounge.
Kim headed into the small space, which now appeared even smaller. The tiny coffee table had been pushed to the side and three packing boxes were half filled in the middle of the room. Thank goodness Leanne had stayed in the car.
She scooted around the boxes to take the single chair by the window.
‘He’ll be right out,’ Gavin said from the doorway.
‘Having a sort-out?’ Bryant asked, nodding towards the boxes.
‘Zach wants to go and live back at the house,’ he said, shrugging. ‘Asked me to start getting our things together.’
Kim was shocked at the speed of such a decision. Especially since most of his family had been slaughtered there.
‘And you?’ Kim asked, wondering if Gavin always did what Zach asked.
‘He’s been through a lot.’
‘I asked about you. Do you want to live in that house?’
He hesitated and shook his head.
‘It’s too big, and given recent events, well, let’s just say there are a lot of ghosts.’
Kim could feel his discomfort at showing disloyalty to his husband, but she wasn’t quite finished with him yet.
‘How are you processing your feelings about Rachel?’
‘Mine are unimportant, Inspector,’ he said, shifting uncomfortably. ‘I lost a sister-in-law. I didn’t grow up with Rachel; nor was she my wife.’
‘But the two of you were close once,’ Kim said, feeling that they still were. Something had remained between the two of them.
‘Right now I need to be strong for Zach.’
‘Do you always do that – minimise your own feelings to make way for someone else’s pain?’
‘Let me just go and see where he is.’
He left the room, and Bryant raised an eyebrow at her.
‘Not in any great rush to talk to us,’ her colleague noted.
‘He’s coming,’ Gavin said, stepping back into the room.
‘We’ll wait,’ Kim said. ‘Please tell us how you met Rachel.’
‘I actually met her at that coffee shop,’ he said, wincing in pain.