She and Bryant exchanged a glance which Gavin caught and frowned at. He placed his arm around Zach’s shoulders. Kim only wished the gesture offered some kind of protection against the words she was about to say.
‘Zach, the fire never reached your family. It was extinguished before it got anywhere near the upper level of the house.’
Both men’s eyes widened, and it was the most alert she’d seen Zach.
He waited.
‘There was a shooting. All four of the victims – sorry, your family members – suffered fatal gunshot wounds.’
Zach began to shake his head. As if that wasn’t bad enough, there was worse to come, and she had to get the words on the other side of her lips.
‘It was your mother who was found holding the gun.’
Now Gavin’s head shook in disbelief too. ‘Helen, with a gun?’
‘Are you saying my mother shot people, her own family?’ Zach asked incredulously.
‘The gun was found in your mother’s hand.’
Zach looked to Gavin as though he was going to make everything right. Seeing the disbelief on his husband’s face, he turned back towards her.
‘You can’t be serious. You can’t really think she could have done such a thing?’
Kim remained silent for a moment, allowing the enormity of what she’d said to find its place in his mind.
She’d expected denial. It was difficult for family members to accept suicide in general, but add the taking of three other lives as well and it became near impossible to digest.
‘My mother, a murderer?’ he said, before laughing. ‘You really can’t begin to understand how ridiculous that is.’
Kim was surprised he’d attached that label to her quite so quickly, but of course it would be a title that would be attached to her forever more. Helen Daynes, mother and murderer. The word would be in every news report, every online article and the Wikipedia page that was sure to appear. It would follow her everywhere.
‘Zach, I completely get that this is difficult to digest, but we understand that your mother was depressed and—’
‘Who told you that?’
‘Your parents’ neighbours said—’
‘You’ve spoken to the weirdos before speaking to me?’
‘They raised the alarm,’ Kim explained. ‘We had to get a timeline.’
Clearly, he didn’t like the neighbours much, and yes, she had to admit they were a bit strange.
‘Were they lying about your mum’s depression?’ she asked gently. She needed Zach to reconnect to what she was saying.
He shook his head. ‘She’s always suffered with depression, but that doesn’t make her a bloody murderer.’ He snorted. ‘She’s had issues since I was a child so why now? Why would she do such a thing now?’
‘We were hoping you could help us with that, Zach.’
He opened his hands expressively. ‘I’ve got nothing. She loved Rozzie and Lewis. She would never hurt them.’
‘Were things good with your father?’
‘They weren’t all over each other, but they seemed content enough.’
‘Any financial problems?’
Zach shook his head. ‘My parents never discussed money in front of us.’