Page 36 of Little Children

‘Except you,’ Penn observed.

That wasn’t in her statement.

‘Yes, I’ve got a soft spot for him, but I can only do so much. I’ve got another thirty-one in my class that need looking out for as well.’

And yet, Penn felt that she’d been looking out for Lewis Stevens extra hard.

‘He’s had a few suspensions. Wasn’t there one for stealing glue?’

Many teenagers had tried sniffing glue when he was at school. Solvent abuse had been a quick, cheap way of trying to get a feeling of euphoria. He’d tried it once and had only felt disorientated, but he’d had friends who nicked tubes of glue continually before moving on to household aerosols.

‘It’s not what you’re thinking,’ Brenda Perton said with a smile.

He waited. Why else would an angry, lonely, neglected twelve-year-old boy be trying to steal glue?

‘He likes making models out of old matchsticks. That’s why he was rifling in bins and gutters. They’re harder to come by these days, but it was something he liked to do.’

More information that wasn’t in her statement.

A clearer picture of Lewis was starting to emerge in his mind.

‘And do you think he’s run away?’ Penn asked. She seemed to know him quite well, and he trusted her judgement.

She shook her head immediately. ‘Not that particular weekend.’ She nodded towards the countertop, where piles of matchboxes were stocked. ‘He was excited for the following Monday,’ she said. ‘I was going to get the whole class to have a go. He couldn’t wait.’ She frowned. ‘What I don’t understand is that I’ve already told the police this. I’ve told them there’s no chance he would have run away.’

Penn seethed silently. Her opinion on the subject was absolute.

Just one more thing that hadn’t been recorded in her statement.

Twenty-One

‘And the piece of paper was hidden under your keyboard?’ Kim clarified. She and Bryant were sitting in a quiet corner at the back of a café, and she’d put Stacey on loudspeaker.

‘Yeah, with just three names on it.’

‘And?’ Kim asked.

‘Can’t tell you any more. I only have access to the incident log for Lewis. I don’t know who these people are.’

‘Or why their names were left on your desk and, most importantly, by who. Any guesses?’

‘The whole team was in before we were, so it could have been anyone. But DS Walsh struck up a conversation with me a little while ago.’

‘Anything interesting?’

‘Nothing yet, but we’ll see what happens later. I’m trying to get cracking on this CCTV, but I have got an address for Jasmine Swift if you want it. She’s the first name.’

‘How did you…?’

‘Still got access to the electoral register,’ Stacey said, and Kim could hear the smile in her voice.

‘Text it to Bryant, and good work,’ she said before ending the call.

‘Well, I appreciate the gesture, guv,’ Bryant said, ‘but this cuppa is doing nothing to get rid of the bad taste in my mouth.’

Yeah, she too could have done with nipping back to the hotel for a quick shower after their meeting with Roderick Skidmore. Despite his protest that Lewis was in the wrong age bracket for his attention, she wasn’t ruling him out. Most paedophiles had a specific age range that piqued their attention but none were averse to a couple of years either side.

Her colleague’s phone sounded the arrival of a text message.