Page 86 of Little Children (Detective Kim Stone #22)

From the anchor: Good morning, Steve. We hear you have a big story to share with our viewers this morning .

Ashworth: I do indeed, Jessica. I’m currently standing outside the headquarters of Kent police in Maidstone.

Oooh, lovely area. Are you taking a holiday?

Probably soon, Jessica, but I’m here to report on a case I’ve been following for a few weeks.

Kim moved away from the desk to face the window. She didn’t need to see the reporter standing windswept in front of the police building. She only needed to hear what the man was going to say.

The anchor: Tell us more, Steve.

Ashworth: I can finally report that just an hour ago, the final branch of a nationwide illegal boxing ring has been uncovered and arrests have been made.

‘Yes,’ Stacey shouted, punching the air. Kim heard Penn and Bryant high five each other across the desk.

The anchor: Illegal boxing?

Ashworth: Bare-knuckle fights involving children aged eleven to fifteen. All of the boys were abducted from their homes and families.

‘Bastards,’ Bryant said.

The anchor: How many children are we talking, Steve?

Ashworth: With the five boys rescued this morning, the total is thirty-one boys, all now reunited with their families.

‘Thirty-one families made whole again,’ Penn said with wonder.

Ashworth: Operation Joshua was a high-security undertaking, involving almost every police force in the country.

Great effort has been made to keep the whole operation secret so that the country’s combined forces could target the infrastructure of the underground ring while ensuring the safety of the victims.

The anchor: Goodness, Steve, this is an unbelievable story. Do you know how many arrests have been made?

‘Yeah, how many, Steve?’ Stacey called out.

Ashworth: To my knowledge, twenty-two people have been arrested on kidnapping charges and a further seventeen on accessory charges. The police will now be turning their attention to the spectators at the events, and more details will be coming out shortly.

There’s a lot to unpack here, Steve. Can you tell us how this all got started?

‘We can tell you,’ Penn offered.

Ashworth: The underground boxing ring was uncovered a few weeks ago by Detective Inspector Kim Stone from the West Midlands police force. She…

Kim heard no more as she left the phone on the desk and headed into the Bowl. She didn’t need the details. She’d been there for all of it. She’d heard what she wanted to hear. The boys were safe, and that was all she truly cared about.

Her team was enjoying the triumph, and they thoroughly deserved it.

Bryant appeared in her doorway and leaned against the frame with his hands in his pockets, while Penn and Stacey continued to heckle Ashworth’s report.

The viewers didn’t know this had only been half of the case they’d worked. The other half, the one that had seen them investigating fellow officers, had affected them all but no one more than the man standing before her. A man who had been distant and preoccupied since their return from up north.

‘You okay?’ she asked.

For the first time in weeks, she saw an open, honest and genuine smile form on his face as he nodded back to where the report was still playing on her phone.

‘I am now, guv. I am now.’