‘Wh-What?’ he spluttered into the grass.
‘Your accountant. What have you done with him?’
‘Why would we hurt Gabriel? He’s not gay.’
Denial until the end, she thought. They’d both be asked again under caution. She was sure she heard the beginning of muffled sobbing beneath her.
Kim glanced at Stephanie. They were no more than ten feet apart, each sitting exactly the same on the back of a prisoner.
‘You okay?’
Stephanie nodded as they both looked to the top of the hill where green-and-black uniforms were heading down towards them.
Kim was relieved to see that the person leading the charge was her good friend Bryant.
SEVENTY-NINE
‘You sure you’re okay?’ Kim asked her colleague. The bleeding had stopped from the cut to the back of his head but a sizeable lump was already forming.
‘I’m fine. Are you?’
She nodded as Jessica and Eric were placed into separate squad cars. ‘I am now.’
The support that had arrived first had been their own, and the prisoners were being transported back to Halesowen.
‘And don’t rush,’ she called out to one of the officers getting into the driver’s seat. She didn’t want them informing Celia before they got to do it. They were only a couple of minutes away from the clinic.
‘What a pair, eh?’ Bryant said as the first car pulled away.
‘What a dangerous pair you mean?’ Kim responded, because who knew when they were ever going to stop their murder spree? The files were full of ex-patients for them to contact and tempt, test, whatever you wanted to call it.
Kim headed towards Stephanie, who was huddled beside the lady from the gift shop, who appeared to be named Brenda.
‘You okay?’ she asked.
‘I th…think so,’ Stephanie said as her body gave a slight tremble.
The lady put a comforting arm around her shoulders. The adrenaline-fuelled bravado had passed and her body was now allowing her to accept the gravity of what she’d just been through.
‘I j…just feel so s…stupid,’ she said, shaking her head and looking to the ground.
‘For what?’ Kim asked.
‘Being suckered in. They just played with me and I fell for it. I was an idiot.’
‘You weren’t an idiot, and you weren’t the only person to fall for it. They didn’t just message you randomly. They knew you already and then they mirrored you.’
Stephanie raised her head and shook it, not understanding.
‘It’s a powerful technique for putting someone at ease. I’ll bet they pretended to be just like you. Hesitant, unsure, nervous?’
Stephanie nodded.
‘It makes you feel safe, like the person can be trusted because they’re just like you. Except they’re now on their way to a life sentence in prison and you’re not dead, so they’re not quite as good as they thought they were.’
Stephanie chuckled and then shivered again.
‘I know you’re still feeling the shock, but I’m gonna need you to go to Halesowen to make a statement. That last car over there will—’