‘What are you typing, seeing as you don’t know his name?’
‘You know my feelings about Google. Just tell it what you know and allow it to fill in the blanks.’
Stacey chuckled. ‘So you’re asking it about an adopted child sent back to Russia by an American mum.’
‘Pretty much word for word there, Stace.’ He laughed. ‘Absolutely nothing I can find on the child,’ he said, scrolling through the articles. ‘Everything is about the mother and the court case. His name was Artoyem or Artem or sometimes Artyem. His name was changed by—’
‘Hang on,’ Stacey said, sitting bolt upright. ‘Artyem?’
Penn nodded.
‘Jesus, Penn, could that be an anagram of Martey?’
Penn began to nod slowly.
Surely not. She was reaching. But what if she wasn’t? What if Martey was a nickname, a jab? What if the person terrorising Rozzie was the child Helen gave away?
SIXTY-SEVEN
‘You know what I’ve been thinking about?’ Kim asked as Bryant parked the car close to the Golden Arch sign. It had only been as they’d left the grounds of the hospital that she’d realised it was almost three and none of them had eaten a thing. She’d instructed Bryant to pull in. They’d ordered burgers and coffees.
‘What, guv?’ Bryant asked, unwrapping a Big Mac. Strict instructions from Jenny prohibited him from having fast food more than once a week. As he liked to bend the rules a bit, he made sure his one burger was a big one.
Kim unwrapped her plain cheeseburger, took a bite and then put it aside.
She pulled out her phone and glanced sideways to see a look of pure ecstasy on her colleague’s face.
‘Jesus, Bryant, get a room.’
‘You have no idea how good this tastes.’
‘You having the same type of experience back there with your Filet-O-Fish, Leanne?’
‘You know, I just don’t get it,’ Leanne said, giving her burger a puzzled look. ‘What’s the fascination? I haven’t had one for years and I probably won’t again.’
‘Doesn’t compare to your number nine from Jade Palace, eh?’
‘Nothing compares to that,’ she said, wiping her hands.
‘Keep talking to each other and leave a simple man in peace,’ Bryant said, taking another bite.
‘Yeah, right,’ Kim said, scrolling through the photos on her phone. ‘Take a look at this, Bryant.’
‘On my lunchbreak, guv.’
‘Be serious and take a look.’
He leaned across the handbrake. ‘It’s a photo of the Dayneses’ house.’
‘You know, surprisingly, that wasn’t the question. You see that guttering along the wall there. Is that above Rozzie’s room and the family bathroom?’
Lewis’s room was at the gable end of the house.
‘Think so.’
‘Remember what Della said. Something about Reece being in a bad mood a few months ago after working on the guttering. Maybe he saw something in Rozzie’s room. Maybe he can tell us who the father of Rozzie’s baby is.’
‘Worth a shot,’ he said, swallowing the last of his Big Mac. ‘You gonna finish that?’ he asked, eyeing up her cheeseburger.