Page 134 of Child's Play

Eric sat astride one side of the see-saw still wearing the clown costume he’d used to infiltrate the event. The yellow half and the red half were separated by two blue pompoms on his stomach and chest. The multicoloured wig had been removed, but the white face and grotesquely painted red lips remained.

At the other end of the see-saw was Ellie. Her hands were tied around the handle and a scarf gagged her mouth. Terror shone from her eyes.

Kim briefly wondered how he’d managed to get her so trussed up, but given Ellie’s earlier encounter with a knife, she would have been petrified and would have done whatever she was told.

Ellie made a sound as her half of the see-saw came down, and Kim suddenly saw why.

The knife had been rigged to stand in an upright position so that every time her side of the see-saw came down the knife sliced into the flesh on the back of her leg between her ankle and her calf. If she didn’t push back up, the point of the blade would bury itself firmly in her flesh. Her feet were bound, so Ellie couldn’t control the angle at which her legs were going to fall.

Eric was forcing Ellie to play with him, and the pool of glistening blood beneath her seat told Kim they’d been playing now for quite a while. Eric was having the time of his life while Ellie was getting weaker.

Kim knew she had only one option and that was to get him off the see-saw.

She took a second to do the maths. Ellie had been tutoring privately for fourteen years. Fourteen years ago Beth Nixon had attended the Brainbox event. Ellie must have ignored this kid too.

Kim moved forward.

‘Take one more step and I do this,’ he said, speeding up the see-saw.

He pushed harder and quicker so that Ellie had no choice but to match his pace to avoid the blade burying into her flesh but that meant even more slices to the back of her leg. This was lose or lose more.

The woman cried into the gag as blood began to drip from the extra wounds.

Kim stopped moving.

‘You didn’t seem surprised to see me, Inspector?’ he said, disappointed. ‘What gave me away?’

Kim was tempted to tell him he’d been too clever for his own good, but she had to try and think how best to get him off that see-saw.

‘Salt, Eric,’ she said, calmly. ‘You overcooked your reaction to finding the body of Belinda Evans. Your vomit contained high levels of sodium chloride that was in your water bottle to make you throw up once you’d killed her. You refused to take a drink of it when I told you to.

‘You wanted people to see how clever you are. You got no gratification from your first kill. No one found Freddie Compton for days, so when you killed Belinda you wanted to see what you’d caused while sitting there with your head bowed, feigning shock.’

He smiled appreciatively, and the see-saw had slowed while she had his attention.

He clearly enjoyed having his actions replayed to him. She would try and take advantage of that fact.

‘You went into the college on open day and called Belinda from that cleaner’s room. You arranged a meeting at the…’

‘Yeah, she was a dirty old bitch all right.’

Kim ignored the insult, knowing the woman had been so much more than that.

‘Your last victim wasn’t hard to find, was he, being your brother-in-law?’ Kim said, remembering the last three cases Stacey had highlighted.

The brother heckling Beth’s performance when they were kids. Trying to take the attention away from her.

‘And that poor boy’s suicide pushed you over the edge, didn’t it? The brother of a genius who felt the only way out was death.’

Kim knew she had to keep him focussed, keep his attention on her until she could work out how to get him off the see-saw.

‘You were always second fiddle to your sister. Weren’t you?’ she asked gently.

She had no weapon and no help but the one thing she did have was knowledge, her mouth and the seedling of a plan to divert his attention and anger away from Ellie.

‘I get it, Eric,’ she said. ‘I understand how awful it must have been as a child when Beth was getting all the attention. All these people played with your sister, lavished attention on her while completely ignoring you. None of these people saw how special you are. None of them took the time to play with you.’

His eyes were on her and he opened his mouth but she didn’t want him to speak. She wanted him to listen. She needed her words to enter his brain and register. For her plan to work she needed to pick at the scab of rejection in his mind.