Page 48 of Little Children (Detective Kim Stone #22)

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 9p.m. The family had been interviewed at 9.30p.m. and by 10p.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.

He hadn’t poured himself a drink.

‘Stop it,’ she said, seeing the pensive expression on his face.

In the time since they’d left Blackpool, Penn had tried to fill every spare minute with questions or idle conversation. He’d kept her supplied with an endless stream of coffee that she was now beginning to feel the effects of.

‘You can’t replace them both, so stop trying,’ she said with a smile.

There were two CCTV files available, and both CCTV clips were from the gym.

The first showed a view of the lobby and recorded all exits and entrances. The footage totalled four minutes and captured everyone inside heading out of the building at speed due to the small fire. She would imagine the fire alarm had been blaring.

She instantly recognised Josh’s blonde hair as he made his way out with the others, but unlike most of the others, Josh already had his sports bag slung over his back.

She switched to the second file and opened it.

This camera was on the front door, aimed down at the pavement. The angle offered a narrow view and caught people only once they were directly underneath it. The camera had no peripheral view at all, and Kim found herself looking at the top of a lot of heads.

She watched the same people file out of the building that she’d just seen in the lobby, but the view was so narrow that she could barely tell the direction in which they were walking, never mind being able to glean any further clues.

Kim sat back in frustration, her fingers tapping on the desk.

She hadn’t expected to discover a smoking gun in the CCTV footage. The Dudley team had been much too thorough for that. But there was a seed of uncertainty in her stomach.

She knew for certain that Josh had left the gym. There was no reason to doubt what they’d been told by the gym manager: that Josh had simply carried on towards home when his mum wasn’t there to pick him up.

He’d walked out with his hands in his pockets, looking completely comfortable and relaxed.

Everything she’d been told was true, and everything she’d seen on the footage was expected.

Only one thing bothered her. The angle of the external camera. It made no sense.

She knew the area well, and directly outside the gym was a small parking area, a row of bins and a grass verge onto the road.

It wasn’t logical for the camera to cover just the two square metres of space below it when it could have been monitoring the whole outside area.

She always stopped to question things that didn’t make sense.

She typed the name of the gym into her phone and got a number.

The call was answered on the second ring.

‘Hey, I’m hoping you can help me,’ Kim said.

‘I’ll try,’ said a pleasant voice on the other end.

‘I parked right outside your place last night and my wing mirror got damaged. You wouldn’t have any CCTV, would you? Only I saw a camera above your door.’

‘Sorry, I can’t help you with that directly, but if you report it to the police, they’ll request the footage, and we can pass what we have to them.’

‘Ugh,’ Kim groaned. ‘I don’t wanna go to all that hassle if your camera doesn’t cover that area. I might as well just buy?—’

‘The camera covers the car park. If your car was damaged there, we’ll definitely have caught it, but I can’t give the footage to you directly.’

‘Okay, thanks for your help,’ Kim said before ending the call.

She now had a very big question.

Why had that camera been moved?