Page 75 of Little Children

‘Hey, no choice, I’ve been assigned,’ Bryant explained as Moss re-entered the anteroom.

‘False alarm but it was worth a shot.’

Wade said nothing, waiting for an explanation.

‘There was a recent case up in Glasgow. Similar circumstances but with bruising to the back of the neck. Just wanted to see if our girl had anything similar.’

‘Trying to offload your case onto someone else, Moss?’ Wade asked.

‘You know me, pal – work smarter not harder.’

Wade allowed the repulsion to show on his face as Moss headed for the door.

Bryant would have liked longer to talk to the pathologist. He felt he could have learned a lot, although it would probably have been anecdotal. From Wade’s demeanour, if he’d had anything concrete, he would have shared it before, and Bryant had to be careful of not blowing his cover. Even to Wade, he needed to appear as the disillusioned, disaffected copper just treading water until retirement.

‘What’s the case in Glasgow?’ Bryant asked as they approached the car.

‘Ah, nothing you’d know about,’ Roy said, getting into the driver’s seat.

He rubbed his hands together as though they were cold.

‘Buckle up, buddy. Time for a little distraction. There’s a girl named Pippa I’d like you to meet, and I know you’re gonna love her just as much as I do.’

Bryant said nothing as he turned to stare out of the window. He needed to think hard on this.

How the hell was he going to get out of this one?

Forty-Seven

Hours after getting back to the station, Kim was still thinking about the family she’d left. Although Clare had refused the offer of a family liaison officer at first, Kim had strongly urged her to reconsider. The woman’s wife was in hospital recovering from surgery and she had a teenage son to console as well. She needed some support.

She’d left the Lucas home wishing she could have done more, but she supposed the best thing she could do was find out what had happened to their son.

And that thought had brought them back to the office.

Penn was busy checking with other forces about missing boys. With forty-four other police forces in the UK, it wasn’t a five-minute job. She’d limited him to a three-year timeline or they’d still be collating information next week.

For herself, she wanted to pore over the case file of Josh Lucas. How had his disappearance been handled by the Dudley team? Had they lifted every stone to try and find him, and how had a twelve-year-old boy simply disappeared?

She was almost finished with the file and hadn’t yet found anything to give her pause about the quality of the work that had been done.

The missing person’s report had come in at 9 p.m. The family had been interviewed at 9.30 p.m. and by 10 p.m. the initial search had begun with more than fifty pairs of shoes on the ground.

A photo and description had been circulated around the force within three hours and to neighbouring forces by hour six.

The parents had been discreetly investigated, the local paedophiles had been questioned, neighbours interviewed, bodies of water checked. Every resident of every property that lay between the gym and the boy’s home had been spoken to, appeals had been made on local television and a reconstruction had been filmed two weeks after Josh had disappeared. The grand total of leads generated was absolutely zero.

In her opinion, Dudley hadn’t put a foot wrong. There was not one single thing she’d have done differently.

It really was as though the boy had vanished into thin air, or that he’d never left the gym at all.

The appendix indicated that CCTV footage was available.

Having taken up residence at Bryant’s desk, she logged into the system from there. Penn placed a fresh mug of coffee on the desk.

‘You, okay?’ she asked. She’d sensed a vibe since they’d returned to the office.

‘Yeah, fine,’ he said, retaking his seat.