Page 87 of Little Children

Bryant pushed through the doors to the booking desk.

A female DI and a bunch of uniforms were booking someone in for the murder of Jasmine Swift.

The man in handcuffs was none other than her ex-boyfriend Justin Holmes.

Fifty-Four

At 8.40 p.m., Kim finally lifted her weary legs onto the sofa. She had eventually stood herself and Penn down after the trip to the morgue. She had wanted nothing more than to collect Barney and spend a little quality time with her companion.

Even though she’d only been gone a couple of days, it had clearly felt much longer for both of them. She found it hard to believe that first thing this morning she’d been in Blackpool with the rest of her team.

‘Come on, boy,’ she said, patting the sofa beside her. He jumped up and nestled into the curve of her leg. Her hand instinctively reached for the back of his head, his favourite tickling spot. As though in sync, they both let out a long sigh.

‘Yeah, I missed you too, buddy,’ she said, letting her head rest on the back of the sofa.

Her brain was still whizzing with all that she’d learned in this one day. Her thoughts moved between the sorrowful sight of Josh on the cold metal table, beaten half to death, to the picture of a small family forced to accept that the missing part of their whole would never return.

The revulsion over what she’d learned today wouldn’t leave her. She had this horrific image of Josh being trussed up at the wrists and hung like a cattle carcass for the purpose of other kids practising on him, being kept barely alive with liquids so that he could be punched repeatedly.

She felt the anger rising within her again. As did Barney, who raised his head to find out why there was now tension flowing out of her fingertips. Anyone who told her that dogs couldn’t read their owner’s emotions had clearly never had a dog.

To distract her mind, she reached for her phone and wondered how she was going to solve another one of her problems.

She’d received three messages from Frost today. The first was a Paddy and Murphy joke, accompanied by a row of laughing emojis. The second was a clip of a little girl singing a Celine Dion song brilliantly for some televised talent show. A row of teary emojis had accompanied that one. The third had been an invitation to grab coffee after work.

As she was holding her phone, it beeped the receipt of another message. Kim shook her head. Text message number four had just landed. She clicked into it.

Hey, are you watching the TV? Taskmaster is bloody hilarious tonight!!!!

Kim clicked out of the message quickly, almost like Frost could trap her there. She would not respond at all to that one. Her one-word responses without emojis were obviously doing nothing to get the message across. The next day it all just started again. Kim idly wondered if another bang to the head might put it right. Then she shuddered at the thought of it, remembering the pool of blood in which they’d found the reporter.

No, she’d have to find another way to let Frost know the truth.

She put her phone down on the arm of the chair as Barney placed his entire body across her legs.

‘You know, don’t you?’ she asked, giving his head a vigorous rub.

He pushed his head into her hand as she reached for her phone again. She couldn’t rid herself of the suspicion that there was now another boy hanging where Josh had hung, being beaten for practice. Just the thought of that possibility was enough to keep the adrenaline pulsing around her body.

She pressed on her colleague’s number. He answered on the second ring.

‘Penn, I can’t rest. I’m heading back to the station.’

‘No probs. I’ll get the kettle on.’

‘What?’ she asked, pushing herself up from the sofa.

‘I’ll make us a pot. It’s no bother seeing as I’m already here.’

Kim ended the call with a hint of a smile as she attached Barney’s lead.

Some days her team just blew her away.

Fifty-Five

It had been almost nine when Bryant parked the car. It was now twelve minutes past, and he still hadn’t got out.

He and Stacey had shared a quick meal in silence at the hotel before heading off to their rooms.