Page 92 of Guilty Mothers

She sighed. ‘Okay, on my way,’ she said before handing the phone back to Bryant.

‘Okay, kiddies, talk amongst yourselves for a bit, and if you want to solve this case in my absence, have at it.’

She headed for the door and took the stairs at speed. She was eager to get the day started by having a more honest chat with Kelvin Hobbs about his reasons for leaving the pageant circuit.

She unlocked the door into the reception to find a woman in a full-length rain mac, looking back out of the glass doors to the car park.

Kim coughed.

The woman turned, and Kim noted two things immediately.

There was something in her features that was vaguely familiar, and she had a port-wine-stain birthmark that covered a quarter of her face.

‘May I help you?’ Kim asked, stepping forward.

‘Are you investigating the murder of the woman from that newspaper article by someone named Frost?’

She was referring to the piece on Sheryl Hawne and her daughter, Katie.

‘I am.’

‘Then there’s something you need to know.’

‘Go on.’

‘I’m the real Katherine Hawne. Sheryl Hawne was my mother.’

SIXTY

Kim had all kinds of questions running through her head by the time she placed two coffees on the table in the interview room. She’d made a quick call upstairs to advise her team she’d be gone longer than she’d thought.

‘Sorry to just come out with it like that, but I wanted you to know I wasn’t here to waste your time.’

‘What makes you think that Sheryl Hawne is your mother?’

‘I don’t think it, Inspector; I know it for sure. I wouldn’t be wasting your time otherwise.’

Kim nodded for her to continue.

‘Sheryl gave birth to me twenty-five years ago in a small town just north of Huddersfield. I was the result of a one-night stand, born to a woman who had been spoiled and overindulged. She was an only child, and both my grandparents gave in to her every whim. Whatever she wanted to do, they supported her, and Sheryl was happy as long as she was in the limelight.’

‘Pageants?’ Kim asked.

Katherine nodded. ‘As well as singing competitions, dancing, gymnastics, modelling, acting, anything where she was getting attention. The only trouble was that she wanted to be the best, immediately, and if she wasn’t, she quickly moved on to the next thing.

‘By the time she hit twenty, she’d tried everything, and even though she was beautiful, she had no direction. She still wasn’t particularly good at anything except getting male attention.’

Katherine took a sip of her coffee, and Kim decided to just let her talk. She didn’t really need to pick holes in the woman’s story. A simple DNA test would give her the truth if she had any doubt.

‘When she found out she was having a girl, I became the focus of her world. Apparently we were going to do everything together, and I was going to be so beautiful. She spent nine months planning our future. We were going to be famous. I was going to be a child star. And then I was born, and she realised that was never going to happen.’

Katherine took a deep breath before continuing.

‘She rejected me on sight. She told the nurse she didn’t want to hold or touch me. Thinking it was some kind of postnatal depression, my gran stepped in immediately. She took us home, and she cared for me.

‘I was six weeks old when Sheryl left. There was no note, no explanation. Gran woke up one morning and she was gone with one suitcase and a bag of Gran’s good jewellery.’

‘Was she reported missing?’ Kim asked.