Page 90 of Little Children

‘But what if cocaine is listed as lemon sherbet or fruit burst. Heroin could be listed as?—’

‘Okay, I got it. So, you’re saying that trying to find this on the dark web is virtually impossible unless we know the codes they use?’

‘Pretty much,’ he said, pushing away his keyboard.

Kim thought for a moment.

‘Not so fast with the defeatist attitude. If we’re right, we’re talking about a network.’

‘Correct.’

‘Well, networks were around a long time before the internet, so maybe this one existed before then too. And good old networking starts how?’ Kim asked, pushing back her chair.

‘Talking, word of mouth, newsletters.’

‘Exactly. Grab your coat. I know precisely where we need to start.’

Penn followed her and Barney down to the car park, where a familiar vehicle pulled up alongside them. They barely had a second to respond before Steve Ashworth was out of the car and blocking their way.

‘Detective Inspector, long time no see.’

Yes, it had been over twenty-four hours, and she’d felt it was too good to be true.

‘Had lunch with Lydia today. You remember Lydia, don’t you? The wife of the man you?—’

‘Oh, fuck off,’ she snapped, trying to walk around him.

He stepped right in front of her, and she had to stop short so as not to touch him. She could imagine what he’d make of that. Barney growled, straining on the lead.

‘Aah, losing your cool now, Inspector?’ Ashworth goaded. ‘Probably not the first time. It’ll come as no surprise to learn that Lydia really, really hates you. So damn helpful she was. Gave me lots of dates, times. She still has them after all these years. Makes for very interesting reading.’

She attempted to step around him again as Penn looked to her for guidance.

‘Oh, and I found Amber Rose. She’s twenty-eight now, and life hasn’t been all that?—’

‘I’m not interested,’ Kim growled.

‘Oh but you were interested, Inspector. Interested enough to cause a man’s death.’

Kim stepped into his face. ‘Ashworth, so help me God, I’ll tear every?—’

‘One of those pages from your notebook,’ Penn finished, getting in the middle of them. He then stepped back, forcing her away from the reporter and giving her a second to regain her sanity.

Ashworth met her gaze with a look of triumph that he’d broken through her composure and got the reaction he’d been waiting for.

He offered her one last smirk before he got back into the car.

‘Damn it,’ she cursed under her breath as she got into Penn’s car.

Her colleague said nothing as he pulled out of the car park, but he’d done her a huge favour.

If he hadn’t got in between them, there was no telling what she would have done.

Fifty-Seven

LEWIS

Lewis had lost track of the days he’d been here. He was sure it had been longer than a week, but for all he knew it might have been two.