Page 70 of First Blood
You had given up. You had no fight.
I understand that your life had been hard, that you had been a victim. Maybe you had suffered like me as you’d bounced around the care system. But you did something unforgiveable. You went back to the bastard who was abusing your child. You were her mother. And you had to die.
And now I know why your death did not satisfy me. You did nothing to fight me back. There was no effort at self-preservation. You had no fear. You no longer cared for your life and were not fearful of losing it. Your gaze was devoid of all emotion as you stared up at me. You welcomed the end.
‘Do it and make it quick,’ you said.
I told you I would linger and make you suffer. You shrugged your shoulders. Even that didn’t bring forth a response. You wanted death too much to be scared. You knew that however long I took your end was in your sight.
I put my hands around your throat and pressed hard. Still no fear. Your eyes begged me to do it. You welcomed it.
I slapped you. I screamed in your face and still you lay there defeated.
‘I’ll get your daughter,’ I threatened. ‘Fight for your life or I’ll find her and kill her.’
A sad smile spread over your face. ‘You won’t find her,’ you said. ‘And you won’t hurt her.’
How did you know that? I was about to take your life and somehow you knew that.
But now I’m angry. You robbed me, my Queen. I wanted your fear. I wanted to see the terror in your eyes so you would feel as Mia had.
I promise myself that from the next one I will get the fear.
Chapter Sixty-Three
With Hayley’s full name Stacey felt as though she was being spoilt.
Within minutes of the boss’s call she’d managed to cobble together a brief history of the woman’s life. Nothing yet that would help track down nine-year-old Mia, which was the information the boss wanted. Pronto.
Hayley Smart was born in 1987 and placed into the care system at two months old by her sixteen-year-old mother. Stacey had seen no evidence to suggest that the relationship had ever been rekindled.
There followed a succession of foster homes and children’s homes until she left the system at the same age her own mother had left her there.
Stacey couldn’t help the sadness that engulfed her as she learned more about the woman.
Having grown up as an only child with both parents and part of the wider Nigerian community in and around Dudley, she had felt nothing but love and security. Even at school when her colour had brought her first brushes with cruelty and isolation she had known she would return to the loving, reassuring embrace of her family.
As she read about Hayley Smart she found herself wishing for the happy ending. In films and TV dramas, no matter what the hardship, most folks got their happy ending. She kept hoping that each foster home would be the last, that the girl had finally found somewhere to feel safe and loved.
But now she’d met her end and there’d been nothing happy about it at all.
Hayley had first come to the attention of the police at the age of seventeen for shoplifting. The charges hadn’t stopped there and for the next few years she’d been brought in a total of seven times on crimes ranging from petty assault to burglary, resulting in some decent stretches of prison time.
Stacey kicked herself for not searching their own system with nothing more than a first name and the birthmark, though she wasn’t sure how effective the search would have been or if the boss would have felt it a good use of her time. This week was turning into the biggest learning curve of her life, she thought, as she continued to read.
For a couple of years Hayley had disappeared from the radar and a simple calculation told Stacey it was when she first had her daughter. And the crimes were back down to petty theft.
Personally, Stacey had never been a believer in victimless crime. Someone, somewhere always suffered or felt the repercussions whether it be through violence, fear, loss or a stock-take that didn’t add up at the end of the day. Someone lost something.
But she did believe in survivor crime. Desperate people carrying out criminal acts to get by. They weren’t trying to hurt anyone or take more than they needed, they were simply trying to survive.
And that’s what Hayley appeared to have been trying to do.
Once she had a child only three short prison sentences had occurred, the last one being less than a year ago.
Stacey noted that on each of those three occasions her address given was completely different. Had this woman never had a proper home?
The boss had told her the priority was finding where the woman had lived. Little Mia could be there all alone. They had to find her. Was she safe? Had she been with Hayley at the time of the murder? Did the murderer still have her? And the worst question of all. Was she still alive?
