She wore only a delicate chain around her neck and a Fitbit watch on her wrist. Ear pods were visible, and a phone rested on the pillow beside her head.
The bed wasn’t scuffed and there was no evidence of a struggle. Rosalind Daynes appeared to have been shot at close range while she slept. Kim guessed her death had been instant and that she’d been spared seeing her mother’s face looking down at her. But how had her mother looked down at her resting child and pulled the trigger?
She tore her eyes away from the body that could have been a normal sleeping teenager, if only the quilt was pulled up a little higher. Along with the sadness, she couldn’t help feeling relief that the girl hadn’t known who had done this to her.
The room itself was unremarkably normal. The wallpaper was a little dated but covered with posters of what appeared to be rap stars with lots of gold jewellery and single names. Small piles of clothes littered the floor around the wardrobe and a tall chest of drawers.
Kim wandered over to the desk, which looked as though it was used for just about anything other than studying. A high-tech computer and video camera were surrounded by piles of cosmetics and hair clips, combs and slides. Everything left haphazardly with every intention to return.
Kim felt a stab of sadness that the teenager had never made it out of this room. At seventeen she’d been on the cusp of adulthood, but she would never experience life out there on her own.
‘It’s not going to get any better, I’m afraid,’ Keats said gravely as she headed for the door.
She crossed the hallway and entered a slightly smaller bedroom that was just a little bit messier than the one before.
‘Bloody hell,’ she whispered at the sight of the teenage boy, lying face down, dressed in blue Fortnite pyjamas, limbs akimbo, with a similar bloodstain on his back.
‘Lewis Daynes, turned fifteen a week ago,’ Keats offered from the door.
Unlike his sister, Lewis appeared to be a messy sleeper. The quilt was entangled in his lower limbs, and his arms were flung either side of him. A game controller rested by his right hand. She could imagine he’d fallen asleep, his mind still racing through the games he’d been playing with his friends online. Had there been any clue that he wouldn’t wake up and play those same games again? There were no headphones like his sister and Kim wondered if Lewis had been the first to die.
‘What the hell was going through her mind?’ Bryant asked beside her.
She didn’t have an answer. There was nothing she could conjure that made any sense.
The sadness of the scene she was witnessing was weighing heavily upon Kim as she moved towards the master bedroom.
This scene was more chaotic than the previous two. No area of the other rooms even hinted at a struggle, but in here, her gaze took in the fallen items from the bedside cabinet. The body of a male was at the corner of the bed dressed only in boxer shorts. From the discarded quilt, it appeared that he’d got out of bed and was heading towards the door.
The woman appeared to have shot him from the doorway before placing the gun underneath her chin and blowing a hole in the side of her head. The gun lay by her side with her finger still on the trigger. Her three-quarter-length nightgown fell just below her knees.
‘Mr and Mrs Daynes, I presume.’
‘It is indeed,’ Keats answered.
‘May we?’ Mitch asked from the doorway. The photographer stood behind him.
Kim took one last look before heading back into the hallway.
‘Any signs of an intruder?’ she asked the techie.
He shook his head. ‘All doors and windows locked or closed, and the fire crew broke the deadbolt on the kitchen door to gain access.’
Kim nodded her understanding.
Forensic evidence gathering was going to be a nightmare for Mitch and his team. Three separate crime scenes to comb.
‘How long until you can remove them all?’ Kim asked.
‘At least the early hours of the morning,’ Keats answered.
Kim understood the delay. There was a lot to process first.
‘We’ll start background tomorrow to try and—’
‘Boss, could you come down please,’ called Penn from the bottom of the stairs.
She heard shouting from outside.