‘Nope, and neither are you. You know Jenny’s rules,’ she said, throwing it into the paper bag.
She took the lid off her coffee and scrolled to the contact number for Della Porter.
The woman answered on the second ring.
‘Is Reece there, Della?’ she asked.
‘He was, but I think he’s gone out again. Why? You’re not still—’
‘I just want to ask him something. It’s just about what he might or might not have seen.’
‘Oh, okay. He’s gone next door. He made a call and said something about meeting someone to tie up something. Not sure exactly what he said because the kettle was boiling next to me.’
‘Did he say who he was meeting?’ Kim asked as a feeling of unease began to steal over her.
‘No, he was gone before I could ask.’
‘Thanks, Della,’ Kim said and ended the call.
Who could he be meeting over at the house? It could only be a family member. She quickly scrolled down to Zach’s number. She called but it went straight to voicemail. She called Gavin. His phone rang for twenty seconds before voicemail kicked in. Finally, she rang Daryl Hewitt. Like Zach’s phone, it went straight to voicemail.
Why was no one answering their phones, and who was Reece meeting at the Dayneses’ house?
She gave Bryant urgent instructions to head towards the house.
Something was about to happen there, and she had a feeling it wasn’t going to be anything good.
SIXTY-EIGHT
Symes allowed a car into the car park to maintain his safe distance of one car between him and them.
He knew they wouldn’t be looking for the Kia Sportage he was driving now. The owner would not yet have reported it stolen. He was bound, gagged and folded in the back. Though it was a hatchback, a large picnic blanket and the parcel shelf was covering him nicely.
It wasn’t a bad ride, and he hoped not to have the car owner on board much longer. Once he had the person he wanted, the guy would be chucked overboard into the nearest body of water.
He approached the machine. He didn’t want anything and was tempted to shout ‘fuck all’ in response to the machine’s questions, but he didn’t want to draw attention to himself. Not at this stage.
‘Nuggets,’ he called at the speaker and continued along.
The car between them must have ordered something big. It waited at the window ahead long after Stone and her posse had pulled away.
He paid for his nuggets and collected them at the next window. He realised that he couldn’t stay in the car park. The mid-afternoon lull preceded the after-school rush and there were too many spaces.
Luckily, they had pulled into a parking space bonnet first so were staring at a fence when he sailed past. He took a left off the car park and pulled into the entrance to the Halesowen Harriers football club. From here he could see if they turned right and headed back towards Halesowen. Anywhere else and they were likely to go straight past him and he could pick them up again.
There was an excitement building inside him, the flames of which were being fanned by playing this cat-and-mouse game of shadowing her every move. He was feeling the intimacy of being this close to her: knowing everything she was doing, everywhere she was going and the knowledge that she had no idea he was even here.
So far, they had been either lucky or clever. Either it hadn’t been the right time, or she’d been in the company of either her lapdog or her guard dog. He smiled at his own intelligence as he saw her colleague pull out of the fast-food car park. The car turned left. They were coming his way.
He lowered his head and turned away from the window. By the time he was back on the road, a handful of cars had come between them. That was okay. He’d soon make up the space.
Whatever it took, he wasn’t letting that car out of his sight until he had what he wanted, and he had just one more gift to give.
SIXTY-NINE
‘Two cars?’ Kim asked as they pulled onto the drive.
‘That’s Daryl Hewitt’s car,’ Bryant noted, pulling up behind it.