‘No!’ Charlie shouts, and Isobel screams something indecipherable, and there’s a crash as the Kobo hits the wall.

Chapter 25

25

22/1/2015

‘It was DC Sellers here who said the magic words that allowed me to put the whole picture together,’ said Simon. He was sitting across from Isobel in the booth now. The atmosphere had changed since the smashing of Charlie’s Kobo. Something dark and heavy hung in the air, but it wasn’t prickly and unpredictable like before.

‘Sellers went to Josh Norbury’s house. He spoke to Josh’s sister, Lisa. She mentioned some presents Angela McCabe had given Josh that he’d never really wanted, but had kept because they were from her. One was an Oliver Halliday cookery book. Another was an e-reader – a Kindle. Sellers assumed it was the recipe book that was significant, but it wasn’t, despite its author being the husband of Sondra Halliday. No, it was the Kindle that mattered. When Sellers told me that was in the bag along with the cookbook, I could see it all. Everything came together.’

‘Great,’ said Charlie. ‘We’re all thrilled for you, Simon. Any chance you might tell the rest of us what “everything” is? Because I’m still completely in the dark here.’

‘It’s pretty simple,’ he said. ‘Josh had been given a Kindle he didn’t want by Angela. Soon as Sellers told me that, I had a vague memory of Kim also being given an e-reader she didn’t want – by Marion. I’d seen that in some of our interview notes for Kim – and when I checked, I found I was right. So … it seemed a huge coincidence. I’d probably have discounted it, except for the fact that books are everywhere in this case: Billy deposited them near his victims before killing them, and he sent two novels to Sondra Halliday. So I wondered … was it possible, crazy though it undoubtedly seemed, that what our six victims had in common – I’m including you, Kim, though Isobel changed her mind about killing you … Was it possible that what the six had in common was the giving and receiving of unwanted e-readers?’

‘Oh my fucking God.’ Charlie turned away from him.