Page 75 of Stolen Ones
Kim’s head lolled back as genuine laughter rolled out of her mouth.
‘Thanks, Alex. I really needed that. It’s been quite the day, but the drive was worth it.’
‘I’m serious.’
‘I know. You’re never anything else but – that’s what’s funny. Who the hell is going to let you out of here? You haven’t been rehabilitated. You haven’t changed. You can’t change and you don’t even want to. After getting the additional years slapped on you for trying to murder everyone that stood in the way of your appeal, I wouldn’t get your hopes up too high.’
Alex pushed down her irritation. It was the response she’d expected. Pleasantries were over and it was now down to business.
‘Oh, I do have high hopes, Kim. I am going to get out and, what’s more, you’re going to help me do it.’
Kim’s gaze was now alert and cold. ‘And why the hell would I want to do that?’
Forty-One
Kim felt the air cool between them, as though someone had flicked a switch on the aircon.
She was still kicking her own ass silently for turning up at all. Damn that curiosity when it came to Alexandra Thorne.
What she really wanted to do was haul Steven Harte back into interview room one and ask him if he’d chosen her specifically because she had started her life on Hollytree. Was he under some kind of illusion that gave him a pass or that she would feel an affinity with him that would prevent her doing her job?
‘Because I have two pieces of information that you want,’ Alex replied. ‘The first I’ll give you for free as a good-faith gesture, but the second has a price.’
‘What’s the first?’ Kim asked, willing to play along. For a while. The tension eased by the genuine laugh was creeping back into her neck.
‘Your mother is dying.’
‘Oh, Alex, for fuck’s sake.’
‘I thought you’d want to know.’
‘She’s my mother. I can ring up any time I want to find out about her health.’
‘But you don’t.’
‘Because I couldn’t give less of a shit if she dies or not.’
The staff at Grantley Care Facility, home for the criminally insane, were under strict instructions to contact her only when the woman died.
‘You really want to leave things like this between the two of you?’
‘What the fuck has it got to do with you?’
‘I care about your well-being, Kim.’
‘No, you don’t. You care about trying to get inside my head, and the fact I won’t let you anywhere near me with a lock-pick and a battering ram frustrates the life out of you. You said it yourself a moment ago: psychopaths like to play games and they like to win.’
‘This isn’t about me.’
‘Oh, Alex, everything in your world is about you. Your motive right now is for that information to have some kind of negative effect on me, for it to bring back the memories, but you fail to understand that my mother died the day she walked out of that flat and left me and my brother chained to the radiator.’
Kim paused and reined in her emotions. She would not be baited into talking about Mikey.
‘How the hell do you know this anyway?’ she asked, hiding her rage at this woman’s attempts to control her with information.
‘We’re still in touch.’
Kim was stunned and then wondered why she should be surprised. She’d thought this woman could surprise her no more, and yet she still managed to pull something unexpected out of the bag.
