Page 87 of Child's Play

He was right. Kim had taken them both by surprise when she’d told him to pull over once they reached the village of Cleobury Mortimer and she saw traces of human existence once more.

A tiny café with handwritten signs and two outside tables had beckoned to her. Right now she needed fresh coffee and fresh air. The stench of Freddie Compton’s rotting body was imprinted on the membranes of her nostrils. She also needed a minute to think.

‘Bryant, what do all the crime scenes have in common?’

‘The victims were all dead,’ he offered, smartly.

‘That kind of response is not gonna get you a plant,’ she said, breathing deeply through her nose.

‘Well, obviously the connection to playing a game of some kind and the letter X on the back of the neck.’

‘Yeah, about that, about the placement. What are your thoughts?’

He shrugged. ‘Easy to get to.’

‘Inflicted after death, so why would that matter?’ she pondered. ‘He’s shoved a blade inside them, pretty intimate already. He wants them dead, so why does he care?’

‘Maybe the neck is important. Maybe that part of the body means something to him.’

‘And the clothing?’ she persisted. ‘Always in place, always correct, nothing showing. It’s like…’

‘Respect,’ Bryant said, staring over her head.

‘Precisely,’ Kim agreed. ‘It’s like he hates them but respects them too.’

‘When I was a kid…’

‘Oh, Lord, now is not the time for one of your—’

‘When I was a kid I only ever got one smack that I remember. Nothing bad, just a slap around the back of the head. My dad hated our next-door neighbour. Constantly borrowing his tools and not bringing them back for weeks. Dad always had to go and ask for them back. I was about ten when he came to the door and asked to borrow my dad’s sander. I told him he could have it when he brought the cordless drill back.’

Kim chuckled. ‘You cheeky little bugger.’

‘Exactly,’ Bryant said. ‘That’s why I got the slap. You didn’t cheek your elders. You showed respect, regardless.’

‘We’re thinking the same thing, aren’t we?’ Kim asked. ‘That the killer is a grown-up child genius.’

Sixty

‘You do realise Stacey would be much quicker at this?’ Bryant asked, as he scrolled through Amazon.

‘You don’t think she has enough to do?’ Kim asked, typing keywords into Wikipedia. ‘A little research won’t kill us.’

‘Damn it, this screen is too small,’ he said, hitting the wrong key again.

‘Put your glasses on and stop being so bloody vain,’ she muttered as the waitress approached to take their empty cups.

They had quickly realised that they knew absolutely nothing about child geniuses and really needed advice from someone that did.

‘There’s got to be a book here somewhere,’ Bryant said. ‘Amazon has a book for everything.’

Kim worried that without his glasses he was looking straight at it.

She opened her mouth to ask when a slow smile spread across his face. ‘Got something. Self-published book by Doctor Gerald Kennedy entitled,Child Prodigies – Where are they now?

‘Sounds exactly what we need.’

‘Shall I order it on Prime?’