Working as detectives in the serious crimes unit really did mean that Dee and Ryo got to see it all, every way people could come up with to harm each other, all the worst aspects of human nature. And yet, despite having seen so much, there were still cases that surprised as well as shocked them, further proof of the ingenuity and ruthlessness that lurked in unexpected places.

The victim was an old lady in her eighties, living in a retirement home. She was apparently very popular among the other residents and staff. She’d been stabbed through the neck with one of her own knitting needles while sitting outside in the rose arbour.

“Who could possibly want to harm such a sweet old lady?” asked the carer who’d discovered the body. She was quite shaken up, because while it wasn’t unusual for residents to die suddenly, the deaths were usually from natural causes, not violent and bloody murder.

If the manner of the victim’s death came as a shock to everyone else who lived at the home, the identity of the murderer came as an even bigger shock. The frail little old lady, a new resident at the home, couldn’t have looked more harmless, and yet when confronted by the two detectives, she seemed almost proud of what she’d done.

“She deserved it! I always said if I ever saw her face again, I’d kill her! Well, now I have, and good riddance!”

“Why’d you do it?” Dee stared at her across the table in the two-seven’s interview room; she’d been read her rights, but had declined representation, stating that at her age, she’d most likely be dead before the case came to trial.

“Revenge! Sixty years ago, that bitch stole my grandmother’s cookie recipe! Swore I’d make her pay!”


The End