Without speaking, Leanne headed through the kitchen door into the garage.
Kim followed, realising that the woman barely noted the contents of the property while she looked only for vulnerabilities. She probably could have had a couple of sex slaves in there and Leanne would only have noticed if the chains weren’t secure.
‘Did I pass?’ Kim asked as Leanne brushed past her back into the kitchen.
‘I don’t suppose it’s any coincidence that the most secure part of your house is where you keep your motorbike?’
‘Probably not,’ Kim admitted.
The Kawasaki Ninja was her second love, coming only after Barney.
Kim pushed an empty mug towards her. ‘Help yourself to coffee; milk and sweeteners on the side.’
Leanne took the mug to the machine as though in a self-service restaurant.
‘And to answer your question, you failed miserably. Your door locks are as old as the house foundations. Your deadbolt chain is broken. The windows upstairs barely lock. You have no motion sensors, no CCTV, no door camera, no external lighting, no door contacts or—’
‘Kitchen drawer,’ Kim said suddenly.
‘What?’ Leanne asked, sipping her coffee.
‘Window keys,’ she said, opening the junk drawer. Sure enough, a key ring full of the little blighters stared back at her.
‘I’m very reassured,’ Leanne said, taking out her phone.
‘What are you doing?’
‘I’ve spent half the day watching you do your job, Inspector, and now it’s time for me to do mine.’
She scrolled down her contacts and hit a number before moving away from the breakfast bar.
It sounded as though the call was answered immediately. Leanne launched into a list of letters and numbers that Kim didn’t understand.
‘And make sure you include a number nine,’ she heard Leanne say before she went out of earshot.
Kim considered following to hear more, but her own phone ringing prevented her.
‘No fucking way,’ she said, seeing the contact name.
Grantley Care Home was not in the top 500 of who she wanted to speak to right now.
Only a couple of weeks ago she’d learned from her arch nemesis, Alexandra Thorne, that her mother was terminally ill.
The phone stopped ringing.
The home for the criminally insane was under strict instructions only to contact her if her mother passed away.
She understood how heartless she appeared, but her mother was solely responsible for the death of her twin brother, Mikey, who had died of starvation in her arms while they’d both been handcuffed to a radiator in a flat on the Hollytree Estate. Her mother’s intention had been to kill them both.
The phone started to ring again.
Same number.
Perhaps it was the call she’d been expecting. Was she ready to take that call?
She grabbed her phone after spotting Leanne talking animatedly while walking round her back garden.
‘Hello,’ she answered shortly. The blood was pounding in her ears.