Page 26 of Little Children

‘Adil is waiting,’ Stacey said. ‘He watches everything and is just waiting for someone to put them in their place. For every blow you land, he hides a micro expression of triumph. Carly is uncomfortable. She shifts slightly in her seat a lot as though she wants her chair to fall through the floor. I wouldn’t mind a conversation with her.’

‘Dickinson is interesting,’ Penn continued. ‘He’s completely unruffled and seems to enjoy the conflict. He’s relaxed and happy to be a spectator, but there’s a faint look of distaste every time Roy opens his mouth.’

‘Any thoughts on potential internal complainants?’ she asked.

Everyone shook their heads.

‘There’s always the chance it’s not from inside,’ Kim said. ‘But keep your eyes peeled. In the meantime, our focus is firmly on Lewis and bringing him home. Stace, I want photos on the board of family, suspects and anyone else of interest, cos right now we’re the only ones who seem to care about this kid.’

One way or another, she was going to find out what happened to Lewis, and she intended to return to the people that were supposed to be closest to him.

His family.

Seventeen

‘So, has Charlie worked out how to use FaceTime yet?’ Bryant asked once they were in the car.

‘Kind of but not really,’ Kim said honestly.

She’d tried to call him last night to get a look at Barney, and she’d seen just about every part of Charlie’s house except where the dog was lying. She could tell the elderly man was getting anxious because he couldn’t work it out, so she’d reverted to a good old-fashioned phone call instead, to learn that Barney was being as spoiled as he always was when he stayed with his best friend.

She knew she had nothing to worry about, but she didn’t like being so many miles away.

‘He’ll be fine,’ Bryant said, winding through the back streets of Blackpool.

She said nothing. Somehow her colleague always knew when she was thinking of her canine buddy.

‘Any more texts from your bestie?’

‘Bryant, I dare you to call her that one more time,’ she growled.

He laughed in response, and they said nothing more until he pulled up outside the Stevenses’ residence.

‘Might be a bit early for them, guv,’ he said, glancing towards the house.

She too had already noticed that every window was still obscured by drawn curtains.

‘It’s almost eight, and they have three young children and a missing son. Not sure they’re sleeping all that peacefully even if it is half term.’

It was an unfortunate part of any investigation into a missing child that family members had to be investigated too. History and statistics had shown that almost fifty per cent of missing kids that didn’t come home had a family member or friend tied up in it somehow. Very few people hadn’t heard of the Shannon Matthews case; the twelve-year-old girl had been concealed by a family member with the knowledge of her mother in a bid to get rich from donations.

For the families that were completely innocent, the spotlight cast on them by police questions made the stress of an already heartbreaking situation unbearable. She didn’t care very much about the others, and while she wasn’t sure which camp certain members of the Stevens family came into, until she had something that said otherwise, they would be treated with consideration and respect.

It took three heavy loud knocks to get an answer, so Kim revised her earlier thought that none of them would be sleeping soundly.

‘What the hell?’ Bobby Stevens asked when he finally opened the door, rubbing sleep from his eyes and shielding them from the morning light.

A bit strange that he seemed confused about what they were doing there when they could easily have come to tell them their son had been found, an eventuality that wouldn’t necessarily be confined to office hours.

‘May we have a word?’

He stepped aside and beckoned them into a house where all the natural light was shut out.

Bobby immediately started opening curtains and blinds before turning to her with a frown. ‘Have you found him?’

Kim shook her head.

‘Why the early call then?’ he asked without annoyance.