Page 76 of Little Children (Detective Kim Stone #22)

Seventy-Five

By the time they were nearing Burnley, Red had called to say they were right behind and there was a car between them.

She enlightened him about the reporter, and he told her that he’d been unable to get anywhere near the chief. She was working hard to delay the announcement about Roy and getting prepared for when the news broke.

Right now, there was no formal operation and the eight of them were on their own.

Kim felt her excitement start to grow as the satnav said they were only a couple of miles away from the postcode Penn had tracked down.

Most of the forty-mile journey to Burnley had been spent in silence as Bryant had focussed on the driving. Motorways had taken them around both Preston and Blackburn, and they were now on the other side of Burnley, driving in the dark.

The roads had become narrower, with hedges on both sides, giving Bryant no visibility. Both Stacey and Penn were operating Google Maps, giving them daytime views of the area.

‘Just approaching the postcode area now,’ Penn offered.

‘Stace?’ Kim asked.

‘Nothing yet.’

Kim knew that postcodes covered around twelve properties, but out here that could stretch for miles. It had been almost a mile since they’d passed any kind of building.

‘Slow it,’ Stacey said. ‘There’s something coming up on the left.’

Bryant slowed to ten miles per hour.

‘Nope, it’s just a farmhouse,’ Stacey said. ‘Keep going.’

Bryant picked up speed but not by much.

There was a feeling in the car that they were getting close.

‘Slow again,’ Stacey said. ‘This time on the right. Half a mile ahead. Single building at the end of a dirt track.’

There was silence in the car until Bryant pulled to a stop at the next break in the hedge.

Kim got out of the car as Red pulled up behind. A third car pulled up behind him.

Steve Ashworth had managed to stick with them.

Kim was met with a locked field gate. The dirt road was a good half mile long but straight, and appeared to lead to a single building like a cowshed or a barn.

‘You see that?’ Kim asked Red, who had appeared beside her.

‘Lights and cars, lots of them.’

‘Why?’ Kim asked.

‘Exactly,’ he agreed.

Kim felt in her bones that they were in the right place.

‘We need a closer look,’ she said, putting her foot in the first rung of the field gate.

Bryant tried to follow suit.

‘Yeah, not you,’ she said. With the limp he was still sporting, he’d never make it over the gate, never mind the half-mile walk to the building.

Red took her cue and began to climb the gate.

Kim couldn’t help but think that his nice suit wasn’t going to like following her around.

‘Bryant, explain to Steve what’s going on and then don’t let him out of your sight. Everyone else focus on getting these cars hidden before anyone attempts to leave.’

She stepped away from the gate and moved to the left of the dirt track, using the cover of the trees in case anyone was watching from up ahead.

‘I didn’t know, all right,’ Red said, moving quietly behind her.

Instantly, Kim knew he was talking about Roy.

‘Don’t get me wrong, I knew he was a bastard, but I didn’t think he was capable of murder.’

‘I don’t think any of us thought that,’ she said honestly. But a part of her still couldn’t believe he hadn’t seen some signs of the man’s corruption, given how closely they’d worked together.

As Roy’s superior officer, Red was going to have to answer some difficult questions and justify himself to someone far higher up the food chain than her…but right now she needed him and his team on her side.

As they neared the building, Kim could see there was no one standing guard. They obviously felt that secrecy and a padlocked gate was enough security.

A few metres closer and it was clear that the light being cast was coming from inside the building. A gentle hum told her that a portable generator was powering that lighting, some of which was leaking out of slatted boards to illuminate the vehicles.

Closest to the building were two vans, the nearest being the one they’d seen on CCTV.

Her pulse quickened as she realised they were definitely in the right place. Lewis might be in that building, possibly even Noah too.

‘Let’s look around the side,’ Red whispered.

She followed as he led the way. If someone came out right now, they’d be caught.

Bramble and brush had been allowed to grow up the side of the building, and Red’s suit took another hit as he stamped a path through.

Being this close to the building, they could now hear the sounds from within. There were oohs, aahs, cheers and boos, but what struck Kim most was the sound of excitement. The sheer exhilaration of what they were witnessing.

She swallowed her disgust as she joined Red at a narrow clearing along the west side of the building.

The lower half of the structure was formed of breeze blocks that were now covered in green moss.

The upper half was made up of wooden panels, plank width, with half-inch gaps in between allowing thin lines of light out into the darkness.

There was an inch-wide ledge where the wood sat on top of the blocks.

‘Okay, go on,’ Red said, lowering himself to his hands and knees so she could stand on him.

She now knew the only place that suit was going was in the bin.

She stepped up onto his back, and to his credit he didn’t even groan.

Even though she’d switched her phone to silent, she felt it vibrate the receipt of a text message.

Hell no, Frost , Kim seethed. Now really ain’t the fucking time.

She reached for the ledge to steady herself before putting one eye to a gap in the wood.

The scene that met her gaze was even worse than she’d imagined.

From her vantage point, she could see that the focal point was a make-do boxing ring formed of cheap metal fencing, the kind normally used to line the streets for crowd control.

There were no niceties like referees or stools or judges, just two kids beating the shit out of each other in their underpants.

Kim had to hold in a cry as one of the fighters staggered backwards and fell to the ground.

His opponent danced around him, waiting for him to get up while the crowd jeered and booed. Kim waited for someone to approach him, to check on him, see if he was unconscious – or worse.

No one moved towards the boy lying on the ground.

After what seemed like hours, the boy staggered back to his feet.

He swayed once before seeming to find a burst of energy.

He swung and caught his opponent on the chin.

The other boy took a second to refocus, and as he lifted his head, she saw that it was Lewis, the boy who had been missing for over ten days, the boy that had been in her head since Monday.

Only this Lewis looked even younger than his twelve years, and he was a thinner, frailer version of the boy she’d seen on the CCTV.

His blonde hair had been shaved crudely, and although it wasn’t on a par with Josh, his body was mottled with cuts and bruises.

She took a second to glance around the space beyond the four spotlights aimed at the ring.

Against the far wall sat another four boys with adults either side of them. Kim guessed they were the rest of the fighters for the night.

All of them stared at the ground. They looked defeated and scared already.

The rage was building within her.

Every one of these boys had been stolen from their lives and their families for the sick entertainment of monsters. She pulled her gaze away. Red couldn’t support her weight for much longer.

A brief head count told her there were fifty plus spectators to this horrific event.

She wanted to barge in there right now and close it down.

‘You ready?’ Red asked as she stepped down off his back.

She knew he intended to burst in there and make some arrests.

‘We can’t do it, Red,’ she said with a heavy heart. ‘If we just barge in there, we’ll never find the others. We’ll never find Noah.’

‘We can’t just let?—’

‘Give me a minute,’ she said, leaning against the wall.

Suddenly, a huge cheer erupted, and Kim guessed that was the end of fight one. She didn’t need to get on Red’s back again to know that the end of the fight probably meant one of the boys had been knocked unconscious.

‘Running out of time,’ Red urged.

Kim thought about the tools she had at her disposal.

‘Okay, Red, I’ve got an idea, but I’m gonna need your help.’