‘Everyone?’
He rose from the desk and placed a hand on her shoulder. ‘I’m sorry. Sit down.’
‘I don’t want—’
‘Sit.’
He pushed her gently into one of the seats and then lowered himself into the other and leaned forward, his elbows on his knees.
‘I’m guessing from your reaction that it’s true?’
She nodded, unable to speak, her thoughts tumbling over as she tried not to panic.
‘Should you be here?’
‘What?’
‘Should you be at work? You know, if you’re—’
‘It happened ten months ago, guv.’
He straightened, confusion spreading across his features. ‘But that’s when—’
‘Larch threw the Professional Standards investigation at me. Yeah, I know. The doctors think the stress of that caused my miscarriage.’
He ran a hand over his mouth, hurt in his eyes. ‘You should’ve told me, Kay.’
She snorted. ‘Why? You had enough to deal with, trying not to believe one of your officers was corrupt.’
‘That’s not fair, Kay. I stood by you. The least you could do is trust me.’
She blinked, and rose from her seat, trying to ignore the stinging sensation at the corners of her eyes.
Beyond the closed confines of the office, the incident room remained silent as if everyone was holding their breath, waiting.
‘It was none of your business,’ she said, her back to him. ‘I was already suspended from duty. Nobody had to find out.’
‘Still, Kay. How long have I known you? And Adam? Have you told anyone at all?’
She shook her head. ‘Adam’s parents live in Canada, and I’m not close to my family. We decided it was better to keep it to ourselves.’
Except, she thought, there was only one other person who knew, who had found out by accident, and had been sworn to secrecy.
Someone who she thought she could trust.
‘I’m sorry it got out like this,’ said Sharp. ‘You know how I feel about office gossip.’
She nodded and bit her lip before glancing over her shoulder at the door.
‘Guess I’d better get back out there, huh? Can’t stay hiding in here forever, can I?’
‘Are you going to be all right?’ He rose, and placed his hand on the doorknob, his eyes not leaving hers.
‘This is probably going to be the shittiest day I’ve had for a while, but I’ll live.’
He sighed and opened the door for her. ‘Next time, try talking to me, okay?’
She didn’t reply and instead concentrated on leaving his office with her head held high and made her way across the room to where she’d left her bag on the desk.
Flinging the strap over her shoulder, she checked her security pass was clipped to the waistband of her trousers and stalked out of the room, ignoring the embarrassed glances from her colleagues.
‘Kay, wait!’
She paused halfway along the corridor and stared at the faded blue carpet while footsteps approached, before turning around at the last moment.
Carys held up her hands and lowered her voice, her face stricken. ‘It wasn’t me, Kay. You have to believe me. Whoever started this rumour – it wasn’t me.’
Kay pursed her lips. ‘No-one else knew, Carys. No-one.’
She spun on her heel and hurried down the stairwell, ignoring the strangled cry her colleague emitted in her wake.
Twenty-Two
Kay turned down the radio and indicated left into the car park behind the three-storey building that housed the county’s forensic science services.
She’d spent most of the journey swearing under her breath, cursing Carys and everyone else who had gossiped about her miscarriage.
Her initial horror about her private life being laid open had led to embarrassment, and then anger. She’d kept her foot pressed to the accelerator along the motorway, weaving in between traffic and cursing slower drivers that hogged the overtaking lane.
She exhaled as she steered the car into one of the few remaining parking spaces and dropped her hands from the wheel.
It wouldn’t do to walk into Harriet’s office in the mood she was in. She needed to calm down, to be objective if she was to understand why Sophie had been murdered, and getting emotional wasn’t going to help anyone.
She’d deal with her colleague’s treachery when she returned to the incident room.
She climbed from the car and slammed the door before making her way through the door to the building and taking the stairs to the floor where Harriet was based.
By the time she reached the woman’s office, her mind was refocused and she managed a smile as she greeted the crime scene investigator.
‘Good to see you, Kay. Have a seat.’
Kay dropped her bag to the floor next to one of the visitor chairs opposite Harriet’s desk and sank into it. ‘How are things progressing?’
‘Slowly.’ Harriet shuffled paperwork into a folder at her elbow before sliding it out of the way and selecting another from a tray on the corner of her desk. She opened it, and then spun it round so Kay could see the contents.
‘Lucas Anderson conducted the post mortem late yesterday and emailed it to Sharp and me, so I’m guessing you haven’t heard Sophie Whittaker was pregnant when she was murdered.’
Kay didn’t tell the crime scene investigator that she hadn’t hung around for the morning briefing. Instead, she cleared her throat. ‘So, her friend Eva was telling the truth.’
‘Right. Lucas gave me some samples, which we’ve expedited this morning, given the circumstances. The paternity results came back inconclusive. I’ve asked them to run them again.’
‘Is that normal?’
‘It can happen. Nothing to worry about. We’ll have an answer for you as soon as possible.’
‘But we can’t say for sure at the moment that Peter Evans is the father?’
‘Not yet. Not definitely, no.’
Kay flipped open her notebook and wrote a reminder for herself before continuing. ‘What about other findings at the scene – anything to tie Sophie’s murder to Evans?’
Harriet flipped the documents over until she found the one she sought. ‘We’ve been struggling, to be honest. By the time the first responders were called, several people had traipsed all over the crime scene – we’ve got traces from both of Sophie’s parents, two of the men from the same church congregation, and her friend of course.’
Kay
