Page 3 of Little Children

‘Wasn’t that a week ago?’ If he wasn’t back by now, it was looking like a totally different kind of investigation. ‘They need help on a case for a missing boy?’ she went on, confused. Even if this did turn into a murder enquiry, she was sure the local CID teams could deal with it.

‘There’s another. It hasn’t hit the wires yet, but a second boy went missing late last night.’

Okay, that shed some light on the reason for the secondment. Two boys in the same week.

‘Ages?’ she asked.

‘Twelve and eleven.’

‘And they don’t have other local teams they can draft in?’

‘You know anything about Blackpool, Stone?’

‘There are lights?’ she asked, remembering a trip there with Keith and Erica, her foster parents, when she was ten years old. It had been within the first few months of living with them, and she’d barely uttered a word to either one of them.

She recalled that the day had been grey and dismal, the arcades crowded and noisy. The chips had tasted of sand, and the heavens had opened once they’d set off for a drive through the two miles of illuminations. Her main recollection was of bright lights being distorted by the hammering rain pounding off the windows.

The day hadn’t ended a moment too soon.

‘They’re about to start their busiest week of the year. It’s half term. They’re about to be overrun with unrelated offences. The figures Miranda quoted are horrendous.’

‘Miranda?’ she asked.

‘Detective Chief Inspector Miranda Walker. We trained together back in the day.’

Okay, Kim kind of got it. They’d worked with other forces on joint investigations, but normally with a neighbouring force like West Mercia or Staffordshire. Surely Lancashire police could call upon help closer to home? Why involve a force from over a hundred miles away?

‘What aren’t you telling me, sir?’ Kim asked.

Woody took a breath. ‘There are whisperings.’

She waited.

‘You’re aware of the new reporting line?’

‘Of course.’

Kim knew that Crimestoppers had teamed up with forces across the country to launch a new Police Anti-Corruption and Abuse Reporting Service, available to all communities across the UK.

The line could be used to report any police misconduct with total anonymity. The information was then passed to the relevant force’s professional standards unit or specialised detectives.

‘They’ve had an anonymous tip about a member of Blackpool CID?’ she asked.

‘Two,’ he clarified. ‘No details, no names.’

‘What’s the nature of the complaints?’

‘No specific incidents or victims or even timelines, but both calls were about a specific team under Miranda’s supervision. Apparently the complaints include inappropriate police conduct, officer violence and potential corruption within the team.’

His hands were still knitted together.

‘What else?’

‘Miranda thinks the complaints may have come from within. So you can understand why she wants to find the source.’

‘Jeeesus,’ Kim said, getting a clearer picture.

DCI Miranda Walker was in an impossible position. The minute she started asking any questions, she was potentially putting team members at risk. No matter how far the police had come, snitching on your own could get you killed.