Page 112 of Child's Play

‘Straight to voicemail every time,’ he answered, heading past her. He’d given Jasper a mobile phone for emergencies a few years ago and he always answered when Penn called.

‘Billy,’ he shouted out, and the boy’s dark head popped up at the back of the coach.

‘Hey mate,’ he said, trying to keep his voice calm. ‘What happened to Jasper this morning?’

He shrugged as fear filled his eyes. Penn realised he was towering over the kid and his manner was frantic.

He sat down on the seat opposite and smiled, trying to force a calming smile on to his face. ‘It’s okay, Billy. You’ve not done anything wrong. I just need to find him. Did he meet you at the end of the road?’

Billy nodded, and Penn felt a huge surge of relief. He’d made it to the meeting point, so Billy had to know where he’d gone.

‘He give you your toast?’

A slight smile and a nod.

‘So, where’d he go, mate? Why didn’t he come into school with you?’

‘I was only looking on Lucy’s phone for a minute. She’d got a video of a dog water skiing. It was funny and—’

‘Where was Jasper, Billy?’ Penn pushed, trying to keep the urgency out of his voice.

‘Dunno. There was a car and…’

‘Jasper got into a car?’ Penn asked, hearing how his voice had risen.

‘Y… yeah,’ he answered, as his eyes widened and his lower lip started to quiver.

‘It’s okay, mate. You’ve not done anything wrong,’ he said, heading to the front of the bus.

Penn tried to think. His confusion was clouding his brain but he knew Jasper was a sensible kid.

Jasper understood that he mustn’t go anywhere with strangers, which caused Penn’s heart to beat loudly in his chest because it could only mean one thing.

His brother had got into a car with someone he already knew.

Eighty-Two

‘Damien Crouch,’ Kim said to Bryant, ending the call that had come from Stacey while she’d been briefing her colleague on her conversation with Veronica. ‘He’s twenty-seven years of age, ex-chess champion here with his young daughter. Stace is looking for an up-to-date photo now.’ She looked around. ‘And then we gotta go looking for him,’ she said, striding over to the reception desk.

This was a good, solid lead that Tink and Stacey had uncovered and was exactly the type of person she was looking for. History with the event and right here, right now.

She held up her ID to the male receptionist, glancing at his name badge.

‘Raymond, we need to speak to one of your guests immediately. His name is Damien Crouch and his car has just been hit out there on the car park.’

Concern immediately registered on his features.

‘It’s okay, no one was hurt but my colleague witnessed the whole thing,’ she said, as he began to tap away on the computer.

‘Does your impatience have no limits?’ Bryant asked, turning his back on Raymond.

‘That’s clearly rhetorical,’ she answered, following suit as Raymond picked up the phone.

From the activity around them it appeared that sessions were ending for break time. There was a sudden rush of voices and movement like a train emptying on to a quiet platform. With this level of movement, even with a photo they could be chasing around the venue after him all day.

She watched as a dark-haired man wearing an expression of concern cut around the meandering crowds and headed straight towards the desk. He wore black jeans, trainers and a casual sweatshirt.

‘Here he comes,’ Kim said, stepping forward into his path.