Page 99 of Little Children

‘I’m telling you the truth. You sold your son into an illegal, underground fighting ring where young boys turn up dead.’

‘No,’ Shirley cried out, covering her mouth with her hand.

Kim turned towards her. She might not have had all the facts, but she’d still allowed her twelve-year-old son to be taken by strangers.

‘When he comes home, we’ll make it right,’ Shirley said.

Kim took out her phone and felt no guilt for what she was about to do.

‘Another one of the boys abducted by this gang went home yesterday. And this is what he looked like.’

She held up the photo of Josh’s bruised and battered body on the mortuary table.

‘Nooooo,’ Shirley screamed before tears began flowing over her cheeks.

‘Four years they had him against his will. Four years he suffered at the hands of these monsters, being held captive, starved, forced to fight?—’

‘Get out,’ Shirley said in a voice that had turned icily cold.

‘Mrs Stevens, we?—’

‘Not you. Him,’ she spat across the room.

‘Don’t be soft, Shirl,’ Bobby said. ‘He’ll be back.’

‘Get out of this house or I swear to God, I’ll stab you. Police or no police.’

‘Shirl.’

The woman launched herself from the chair with murder in her eyes. ‘So help me I’ll wring your bloody?—’

‘Easy,’ Bryant said, stepping between them.

Shirley’s arms flailed around Bryant, trying to make contact with her husband. Bryant held her still while Bobby tried to inch out of her way.

‘Just go,’ Kevin said, standing. ‘No one wants you here.’

Bobby Stevens looked around the room, and nothing but contempt met his gaze.

He grabbed his jacket from the back of the door and slammed his way out of the house.

Bryant didn’t need to be told to follow him. They needed to learn everything about the people who had approached him in the pub.

‘He is dead, isn’t he, that boy?’ Shirley asked with a face now devoid of all colour.

Kim put her phone away and nodded. ‘Unless we catch them, Lewis won’t be coming home,’ she said.

The pain ravaged Shirley’s face as her tears fell quicker. A low guttural moan came out of her mouth and began to fill the room.

Kevin looked at his mother with compassion if not understanding before heading across the hall to check on his younger siblings.

Kim waited while the woman came to terms with the consequences of her actions. There was no doubting the depth of her regret and pain. Kim was sure she was watching a heart break in two.

Shirley’s hand shot out and grabbed her wrist. ‘Whether I deserve it or not, you have to bring my son home.’

Kim had every intention of getting Lewis back. She just wasn’t sure that home was going to be the right place for him to go.

Sixty-Two