Cold Justice (Willis/Carter #4)(109)

He walked out and up to the field. The noise of the pigs was deafening as he got to the gate. They were fighting over food in one of the huts, squealing as they bit one another to get their share.

He walked around the side of the largest of the huts and he saw legs, shattered remains of chewed shin bones.

Lauren looked towards Cam – he stood motionless behind the counter.

She looked back at the table in front of her, where Kensa had put an open photo album.

‘Look at them,’ she screeched.

‘Kensa, calm down,’ Cam said.

‘No, you betrayed me, Cam. You and Mawgan lied to me all this time.’

‘No, we wouldn’t do that. We love you, Kensa.’

‘Toby was the only one for me, still is.’

Lauren looked at Kensa. Her face was blotchy and mottled. She was wheezing as she ranted.

‘Yes. He was my first love.’

‘And you were his.’

‘Is that what he says?’ She looked at Lauren with joy.

‘Yes.’

‘Kensa…’ Cam started to speak. She stopped him as she aimed the gun at him.

‘I’ll shoot us all, Cam, I don’t have nothing left to live for now. Every dream I had is shattered. Even Misty is taken from me. My life is over. No one wants me here any more. You and Mawgan have been lying to me. You don’t care about me. You never helped me that night when I was raped. Raymonds told me you left me.’

‘That’s not true. They threw us out. Towan, Marky and Jago, they picked us up and threw us out and locked the door. We were only young. We tried everything to take you with us but you and Toby were already unconscious. We were in such a state, all of us. Marky, Jago and Towan: it was all their doing and Raymonds did nothing to stop it. I came back here to help us start again, Kensa. My life has been in ruins just like yours, just like Mawgan’s. This is our chance to start afresh. We have so much to look forward to.’

‘Not any more.’ She looked at Lauren. ‘I took your son.’

Lauren looked at Kensa to see if it could be true and not the dreams.

‘Why did you have to take him?’

‘I couldn’t help myself. I wanted a baby so bad. I’ve never carried another child since I lost mine and Toby’s. All this time I’ve been waiting for him to come back to me but he never came. I wanted something of my own. Toby owed me that. I got his address from Towan and I followed him from his house to the Observatory and then I waited in the park for him to come out. I changed my mind. I decided I would just talk to him. It didn’t feel right taking the boy. But then he left Samuel outside the music shop. I watched him through the window. He was talking to the man behind the counter. He was laughing and smiling with him and I thought how much he’d changed. I stood by the buggy looking in at the window for ages. If he had looked at me, maybe come out to talk to me, I wouldn’t have taken Samuel but, I kept looking down at the little boy, he was sleeping. I waited twenty minutes at least, just stood there by the buggy and Toby didn’t care. He didn’t even come out to check on him. I undid the boy’s belt and I carried him into the park and he never woke up. I gave him a few drops of Misty’s sedative. I changed him there and I put his suit in a carrier bag and threw it in the bin. People couldn’t see what I was carrying. I hid him under my coat. He was sleeping all the way till I laid him in the boot of the car and made him cosy and then I called Mawgan and I drove to the top of the park to pick her up.’

‘Where’s my son, Kensa?’ Lauren pleaded. ‘Please tell me. Please.’

She was shaking so much her knees gave way.

‘Your son is in the safe place and no one can ever find him.’ Kensa looked at Cam as she said it.

Lauren held her face in her hands, crippled with anguish.

Outside a scream went up as a large wave crashed across the road, and under the door a small gurgle of seawater forced its way beneath the door and inside the café. Kensa looked towards the Fiat, which had water surging up to its wheel arches.

‘Here’s a photo of Toby again. See!’

Lauren nodded, as she was trying to think of every way of coming out of the situation alive. All she could think of was that Samuel was alive and needed her.

‘He met me every day after school. He was broken up for the summer but I still had a month to go. We couldn’t help ourselves, getting hot and bothered in the dunes. We kissed for hours.’ She laughed and Lauren stared at her. ‘I didn’t need to worry, I thought, because I hadn’t started my periods. They didn’t start till a few months after I had my baby.’ She sighed. ‘I never saw him. I never held my baby. I would give anything to see a photo of him.’

‘It was very wrong of them not to allow you to hold your baby, Kensa,’ said Lauren. She swallowed hard. Russell started barking.

‘I don’t even know what Raymonds did with him. I don’t know where he’s buried, or was he left to the animals? Was he thrown in the sea like a piece of rubbish? Sometimes I go back up there to look for him and I swear I can hear him crying.’

‘Kensa?’ Cam said. ‘You need help. You have to give the boy back now.’

Kensa turned to Lauren. ‘Do you want to see him?’

‘Yes. Where is he?’

‘If you want to see him you have to come with me now. No phones, no nothing. Just come.’