Page 107 of Child's Play

Seventy-Six

‘How many are you down to?’ Stacey asked, across the hotel dining table. She had already identified the years that their first two victims had been present, and all ten years had fallen within the timeline that Freddie Compton had been organising it. Tiff had been trying to cross-reference kids that had come into contact with all three of them.

‘There’re ninety-six,’ Tiff answered. ‘At least.’

‘Jesus,’ Stacey said.

‘Problem is, there’s no record for the children that Belinda might have spoken to because she wasn’t at the event in any professional capacity and could have had contact with the whole lot of them. Incidentally, over the ten years all three of them were present we’re talking more than three hundred kids.’

‘We need a team of ten to get through this lot,’ Stacey noted.

‘And Freddie Compton doesn’t help us because as the organiser he would have come into contact with every single one of them. So, the only record we can use to narrow them down is Barry Nixon’s record of children he counselled while he was here.’

‘But that doesn’t mean he didn’t come into contact with other kids that were here,’ Stacey said, seeing Tiff’s logic but realistically every single kid who had attended during that ten-year period was a suspect. ‘We’re gonna have to try and work through them all.’

‘Tell me about it,’ Tiff said. ‘I was hopeful about one guy who made no secret about hating this event but now works over in Akademgorodok.’

‘Come again?’

‘City of the gifted in Russia. It’s where thousands of scientists and gifted students live and work. My guy teaches at a special boarding school for maths and physics.’

‘Never heard of it,’ Stacey said.

‘Neither had I but the thought of the place just makes me shudder.’

‘Why?’ Stacey asked, smiling as the girl scrunched up her face and raised her shoulders.

‘Dunno, just thinking about all these pushy parents trying to mould kids into academic superstars.’

‘You don’t think parents should encourage their child to fulfil their potential?’

‘Wow, Stacey, that sounds awfully normal and understated and I’m not sure encourage is the correct term for some of the stories I’ve been reading about so far. I mean, we’re talking hardcore focus to the exclusion of all else and I just think it’s plain wrong.’

Oh, the black and white world of your early twenties, Stacey thought, remembering it well. The grey areas of life came a few years later.

‘I understand that,’ Stacey agreed, determined to make her point. ‘But when you get a new smartphone what’s the first thing you do?’

‘Load social media and emails.’

‘Next.’

‘Choose a ringtone.’

‘Next.’

‘Check out the camera.’

‘Next.’

‘Fill it with apps.’

‘So, you test it? See what it can do? Explore its capabilities?’

‘Well, yeah but that’s natural, isn’t it?’

‘It’s absolutely natural to want to get the best out of it.’

‘But where does it end?’ Tiff asked. ‘For people who want a gifted child and don’t get one. Do they turn to eugenics?’