around the temples. A tidy moustache and light beard gave his face a gentle, friendly appearance. His eyes were filled with pain.
‘We understand how difficult this must be for you, Mr Southall, and obviously we want to catch the person responsible as quickly as possible,’ she reassured as her eyes wandered the room and landed on a photo of three children in between two miniature model Vespa scooters. The children in the photo appeared to vary in age from early to late teens.
‘Your children?’ Kim asked.
‘Mine from a previous marriage,’ he said. ‘Nicola and I don’t have children together. We knew each other years ago but lost touch.’ He smiled sadly. ‘We met again in a friend’s pub around eleven years ago. I had no idea she was now famous. She liked that, I think,’ he said, wiping a tear from his eye. ‘That first night we didn’t even talk about it. We chatted about mutual friends and she wanted to know about my job as a sign maker. Despite the fame, she hadn’t changed a bit. She still loved to read a good book, was passionate about cats, liked to go to the theatre and took a long walk every day.’
For a moment, it had seemed as though he had forgotten what he’d been told as he relived happier memories, but the mention of the walk brought him right back to Uffmoor and the fact that she was now dead.
He shook his head once again. ‘Who?… I mean… I just don’t understand…’
‘Did your wife have any enemies?’ Kim asked, seizing the opportunity to insert a question into his grief. ‘Had she been threatened at all?’
The fact that her phone had been taken could mean that it contained a link to the killer. The first two phones had not been taken.
‘Not any more,’ he answered, shaking his head. ‘All that was behind us.’
‘All what?’ Kim asked.
He sighed heavily. ‘When Nicola got that part in the soap everything changed. At first, it was amazing to see her get the recognition she deserved. She was earning ridiculous money compared to the living on which she’d scraped by. For a while, we enjoyed a bit of high life until the writers came up with that storyline. Her character got pregnant and lost the baby, sending her into a spiral of grief. She was excited to play the storyline, welcomed the challenge. And she played it well, too well.’
Kim sat forward. ‘Go on.’
‘Her character was popular and had all the public sympathy and support until she kidnapped the newborn child of an even more popular character. Overnight, the public hated her. She was getting abused in the street. She couldn’t leave the house alone. She tried to weather it for a while, but it was too much for her. She came off social media and begged the producers to write her out of the soap.’
Kim recalled examples of public perception when it came to soap characters, none more so than when Deirdre Barlow was imprisoned in Coronation Street and even the prime minister commented on it.
‘What happened?’
‘They agreed. Nicola kept a low profile, and once she was gone from the screen everything quietened down and went back to normal. But that was almost ten years ago. You don’t think it’s related to?—’
‘We don’t know at this point, but we can’t rule it out. Were there any direct threats that you know of?’ Kim asked.
He shook his head. ‘Everything was dealt with by her agent. She took care of everything.’
‘Nicola had an agent?’ Kim asked, feeling her interest rise. It was a question she had never thought to ask.
‘Yes, her name was Sewell. Kate Sewell.’
Fifty-Five
‘I’ve met her,’ Kim said once they were back in the car. ‘I met Nicola’s ex-agent, on Monday at the INEPT meeting. She’s also the agent of the visiting celeb.’
‘You’re kidding?’ Bryant asked and then thought for a minute. ‘Although that probably shouldn’t be a huge surprise. Not sure we have too many talent agencies around here, so probably not much of a coincidence.’
‘Still like to have a chat with her, though,’ Kim said, taking out her phone.
‘You don’t think this is our guy?’ he queried.
‘Could be someone copy-catting,’ Kim answered, scrolling to Stacey’s name. ‘The manner of death has been in every news report. The agent should know if there was any direct threat years ago that might still be valid now. If it’s not connected to the part she played, we need to rule it out.
‘Stace,’ she said when