Page 84 of Little Children

An arrest for Jasmine Swift, so soon? He was definitely wondering about that, although that wasn’t the question foremost in his mind.

Two pre-teen boys had been bundled into the same van within ten days.

His biggest question was why?

Fifty-Two

The first thing Kim noticed when she entered the morgue was that Josh Lucas’s body was still on the table and that the white sheet had been pulled up to his neck as though he’d been tucked in for sleep.

Keats offered compassion and respect to all his charges, but there seemed to be an added element of tenderness employed on this occasion.

‘Okay, Keats, what we got?’ she asked, coming to stand beside the body.

‘More injuries than I can count at the minute.’

‘Go on,’ Kim said, stepping back and leaning against the countertop. Penn remained standing beside the body as though he couldn’t be so presumptuous.

‘General health first. It’s clear to anyone that the boy is undernourished. The weight range for his age is between a hundred and two pounds to one hundred and seventy-two pounds. Josh weighs in at ninety-four pounds.’

‘Six and a half stone?’ Kim asked.

Keats nodded. ‘But it’s important to note this hasn’t always been the case. Neither his organs nor his digestive system show signs of long-term starvation. This is recent.’

Why would he have been kept in good condition for years and then suddenly starved? Kim wondered.

‘There are no remnants of solid food in his stomach, and his last meal was some kind of health shake.’

Kim took a moment to process the information before nodding for him to continue.

‘The boy has had many broken bones over the years. Every fracture leaves a trace, and I’ve counted seventy-six separate injuries. Some are scattered around his body, a couple of toes, three in the ribs, but by far the highest concentration, forty-four to be exact, are in his hands.’

‘Boxing?’ Kim asked.

‘Yes, and not the good kind. Actually, there is no good kind, and the sport should have been outlawed years ago.’

‘The guy at the gym told us there are safeguards though?’ Penn said.

‘Oh, dear boy, let me take a minute to disabuse you of that opinion. Do tell me what regulating body can foresee whether knocking a person unconscious will cause a concussion or permanent brain damage. Tell me how they regulate the force needed to knock a person out or kill them. Name me one governing body that can predict the later onset of a degenerative brain disease called chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which has no cure and which begins gently enough with mood and personality changes and then turns to memory loss, confusion and problems with movement.’

‘But boxers know?—’

‘Did he know?’ Keats shouted, making Penn jump as he pointed to Josh.

Her colleague hadn’t read the signs.

The summons back from Keats with as few words as possible.

The absence of banter at Kim’s expense.

The thoughtfulness extended to the victim.

Very few cases got to Keats emotionally, but this one had.

‘You said this was the bad kind?’ Kim asked, feeling that Penn had suffered enough.

‘Bare-knuckle boxing. You see, early fighting had no written rules. Head-butting, eye-gouging, chokes, et cetera were all permitted. Bare-knuckle boxing originated in England and had a resurgence as we came into the twenty-first century.’

‘But he’s a kid,’ Kim whispered, wondering what kind of sick individual wanted to watch kids beat the shit out of each other.