Page 28 of Little Children

‘Never saw him.’

‘And where did you go?’

‘Hey, hang on. I don’t like where this is going. You trying to say I had something to do with his disappearance?’

‘As investigators we have to rule out any involvement from family members,’ Kim said honestly. ‘And I’m really surprised you haven’t already been asked.’

He uncrossed his arms and put his hands in his pockets. ‘That’s the difference when you’re dealing with coppers who know you.’

‘Was it Red and Roy that came and gave Lewis a stern talking-to?’

He nodded. ‘They were doing a follow-up after our break-in. They had a quiet word.’

If they were still arguing about him the night he disappeared, it hadn’t done him a lot of good on the behaviour modification front.

‘So, if you can just tell me where you went when you left the house,’ she reminded him.

‘For a walk, down the front. Just to clear my head.’

‘Anyone we can check that with?’ Kim asked.

He thought for a minute before shaking his head.

‘And you returned at what time?’

‘Around tenish.’

A good half hour after Lewis had left the amusement arcade.

‘That’s a lot of head clearing,’ she observed.

‘Walking ain’t a crime, is it?’ he said, taking a cuppa offered by his wife.

Kim noted she and Bryant hadn’t been offered any kind of refreshment, almost like the Stevenses didn’t want police in their home a minute longer than necessary. Unless their names were Red or Roy.

‘Okay, if we can just speak to?—’

‘What is it?’ Kevin Stevens asked, entering the kitchen. Obviously hopeful of being able to go right back to bed, he wore pyjama bottoms and no top.

He barely even glanced their way until his mum nodded in their direction.

‘Just a question or two and then we’ll leave you in peace.’

He yawned and rubbed at his eyes.

‘Where did you go the night Lewis went missing?’

‘Bedroom, watching telly?’ he said as if she would know the correct answer.

‘We’ve been told that you went out.’

‘Might have done,’ he said, shrugging as though confused as to why it mattered.

‘Can you think hard for me, Kevin?’ she asked.

He shook his head. ‘Definitely stayed in. Nothing to do so I just stayed in.’

Friday night a mile away from one of the most lucrative night-time economies in the country and this teenager couldn’t find something to do.