Page 12 of Dying Truth
‘Mr and Mrs Winters?’ she asked, standing before them.
They both looked up, startled.
She introduced herself and Bryant, who was now standing beside her.
Mr Winters made to stand but Kim shook her head.
‘Please, stay seated. I’m sure what you’ve just seen has been quite a shock for you.’
This time yesterday they’d had two daughters and now they had one. On the face of it their youngest had chosen to end her own life. Their questions would never end. Their guilt would never end.
‘She looked so peaceful,’ Mrs Winters said, as the tears filled her reddened eyes. She turned back into the embrace of her husband, who pulled her tightly to him.
Both were dressed in casual but well-cut jeans. He wore a sweatshirt beneath a sports jacket, and she wore a chunky cable-knit cardigan over a pastel shirt.
‘We are so sorry for your loss,’ Bryant offered.
Mr Winters nodded and blinked his green eyes furiously to ward off his own threatening tears.
‘Thank you,’ he said, looking towards the door. ‘I can’t stomach the thought of her in there amongst…’
His words trailed away leaving Kim to wonder exactly what it was he feared. That she was amongst other dead bodies? No harm could come to her now.
‘We were first on the scene, yesterday,’ Kim said.
Mrs Winters’s head snapped around.
‘Did you see her? Was she alive? Did you speak to her?’
Kim shook her head. ‘My understanding is that it all happened very quickly,’ she said gently.
Mrs Winters nodded and cast her eyes down. ‘That’s what Principal Thorpe told us.’
Kim took a step away and then reconsidered. ‘May I ask you a couple of questions?’ She understood that they’d just identified Sadie’s body, but they looked as though they could bear a question or two.
Mr Winters hesitated before nodding, and Kim understood that she needed to go easy.
‘Had Sadie been having any problems you know of?’ she asked.
There was no hesitation before Mr Winters nodded.
‘Sadie has been troubled for a while now,’ he admitted. ‘She’s been withdrawn, hostile at times. We’ve been struggling to reach her. We assumed it was a phase, but she must have been unhappier than we thought,’ he said, looking away.
Kim wished she had some comfort to offer but she suspected it was considerably harder to monitor your child’s psychological state closely when they were away at boarding school.
‘We just want to make arrangements to take her home,’ he said, quietly. ‘Sorry, you know what I mean.’
Kim did know what he meant, and she would want the same thing.
He continued: ‘That man in there, the pathologist, explained that he was waiting on the attendance of a detective.’
Thanks Keats, she thought, for throwing the responsibility and landing it firmly at her feet.
‘So, you’ll release her to us?’
‘As soon as we can,’ Kim said, making it clear that she could not answer him right now. ‘We’ll inform you as soon as we can but there are just a few formalities first.’
‘But surely—’
