‘And you say I come out with random shit.’
‘With a knee brace on to disprove suicide.’
Stacey smiled to herself. It had taken the boss less than a couple of hours to act on something about which they’d all been concerned; but only the boss would have decided to carry out an experiment like that.
You didn’t find a seemingly healthy nineteen-year-old boy hanging in a tree and not take the time to ask some questions. She was relieved to see his name back on the board. It should never have been wiped off, and they should have been investigating his death for the last few days.
Time to find out who Jamie Mills really was.
From the boss’s chat with Jamie’s mum, Stacey had the feeling that might not be so easy. If he was given to introspection and possibly bouts of depression, there was a chance he was a boy who had chosen to live his life quietly.
She put a search into Facebook as Penn ended his call to Keats to check timings. ‘Oh,’ she said out loud, immediately surprised at the results of her search.
She clicked and scrolled. ‘Oh,’ she said again.
‘Gonna need more than that, Stace,’ Penn said, reaching for his polka-dot bandana.
‘I’m not sure how well his mother knew him but I may already have found the motive.’
NINETEEN
‘That was quite the show in there,’ Bryant said as they headed towards the village of Fairfield. ‘If you’d have let me know ahead of time, I could have sold tickets.’
‘Not one of my finer moments,’ she said, aware of the lack of professionalism she’d demonstrated in front of her team.
‘We’ll agree to differ on that, but are you really ready to resume?’
‘Bit late to ask me that now after needling me into it. You pretty much told me that my team was falling apart.’
‘Hmm…I like the sound of “my” team, and I was just giving you the heads-up.’
‘Was he really that bad?’
‘Absolutely,’ Bryant said without hesitation. ‘And for Stacey it was a whole lot worse. I feel sorry for any women he works with in the future.’
Realistically, she had no idea if she was ready to head up a major investigation. It took full concentration and the ability to watch all the balls that were in the air. But she did know that given the fact Jamie’s body had been found over seventy-two hours ago, they had some serious catching up to do.
‘Next left,’ she said as they passed the parish church. ‘Behind the Toyota, the silver one,’ she said, realising there were two other Toyotas in the street.
As she got out of the car, Kim had no idea of the emotional reaction of the parents to the news that their son had been murdered. In fact, Diana Mills’s reaction to her son’s death was still troubling her.
‘One sec,’ Kim said as her phone tinged receipt of a message.
She opened the link Stacey had sent and hid her surprise as the door opened before they’d even knocked.
Both Mr and Mrs Mills stood in the doorway, dressed in head-to-toe black.
Mrs Mills frowned. ‘I’m sorry, Inspector, but I haven’t thought of anything else and we’re on our way out.’
She looked pointedly at Bryant.
‘This is my colleague,’ Kim explained. ‘And if we could just take a few minutes of your time.’
She shook her head. ‘I’m afraid not. We’re just going to the funeral directors to make arrangements.’
‘In which case we really do need a few minutes of your time.’
The woman looked as though she was going to stand her ground.