On Laughton Moor Read Online Free

keep making excuses when she replied and asked to come around. I don’t know anyone round here to ask them for help, my friends are all at home.’
    Knight gently asked if Pollard was violent, but she said no, never, not to her or the children. He didn’t bother with them much at all really, she said, though he had come home with a football and a teddy one day around Christmas. She didn’t know what Pollard did with the money. She’d met Craig around three years earlier, becoming pregnant soon after. She’d lived with her mum for a couple of years after the birth of the twins with Craig just as an occasional visitor, until he’d persuaded her that they should live together as a family. He’d brought her to this house in a borrowed van. Smiling sadly, she said it had a full kitchen then. Seemingly, Pollard had sold the kitchen units and anything else he could, including the downstairs interior doors and the shed that had been in the back garden. She couldn’t tell them much about Pollard’s friends or family, as she’d never met any of them; Pollard’s brother had come to the door a few times, but he’d not been inside the house. Craig had taken the children to meet his parents a couple of times; again, they’d never visited.
    ‘It’s like he was ashamed of this place,’ she said. ‘Not surprising really, I’m not proud of it myself. Not really what I planned when I stayed on to do my A levels.’
    Knight took out his own mobile.
      ‘Do you know your mum’s number?’ he asked. When Whitcham nodded, he handed her the phone and left the room as she pressed the keys, thanking him. Lawrence raised her eyebrows, but said nothing. They went back into the living room, where the children were still watching cartoons. The girl stood and walked over to them.
    ‘What’s your name?’ she asked Knight, looking up at him, hands on hips.
    ‘My name’s Jonathan.’  he replied. ‘What’s yours?’
    ‘Jessica. His name’s Connor. We’re three. Do you know my daddy?’
    Knight shook his head.
    ‘My mum says he can’t come to see us again. He never played with us anyway.’ Jessica continued. ‘My mum plays shops and I spy. And we play outside, when Daddy lets us.’
    Whitcham came through from the kitchen.
    ‘Mum’s on her way round,’ she said, wiping her face with her hands. ‘We’ll be going back with her – lucky there’s not much to pack I suppose.’
    Knight smiled awkwardly. Whitcham had to be at least considered as a suspect, but he couldn’t believe she was responsible for Pollard’s death. They took her mother’s name and address and left the house. Outside, the boys were still playing with the football in the road.
     
     
      Kendrick shook his head.
    ‘Was she just going to stay there forever then? So he left them with no furniture, no clothes, no . . . did they even have beds?’
    ‘I didn’t go upstairs. The mattress in the living room was probably the bed as well.’
    ‘Sounds as if she was looking after the children as best she could though?’ Bishop put in.
    Knight nodded. He knew they’d have to see Kelly Whitcham again, and social services could step in if necessary. It seemed to him that all Whitcham needed was control over her own life. Kendrick strode back to the front of the room. ‘Right. We won’t have full forensic reports for a while. The weapon used to kill Pollard hasn’t been found, despite a thorough search of the area surrounding the crime scene by SOC and by our own dashing boys and girls in blue.’ He waved a hand towards his audience. ‘We’ve asked for Pollard’s mobile phone records; the phone wasn’t found on his body, so his killer probably has it. That might mean they were worried about being incriminated by something on the phone, or it might mean nothing. Same goes for his wallet. I think that’s about it for tonight. I’ll see you all in the morning.’
    Kendrick turned on his heel and clumped out of the room. The noise level rose sharply