Child's Play (D.I. Kim Stone #11)(74)

‘He give you your toast?’

A slight smile and a nod.

‘So, where’d he go, mate? Why didn’t he come into school with you?’

‘I was only looking on Lucy’s phone for a minute. She’d got a video of a dog water skiing. It was funny and—’

‘Where was Jasper, Billy?’ Penn pushed, trying to keep the urgency out of his voice.

‘Dunno. There was a car and…’

‘Jasper got into a car?’ Penn asked, hearing how his voice had risen.

‘Y… yeah,’ he answered, as his eyes widened and his lower lip started to quiver.

‘It’s okay, mate. You’ve not done anything wrong,’ he said, heading to the front of the bus.

Penn tried to think. His confusion was clouding his brain but he knew Jasper was a sensible kid.

Jasper understood that he mustn’t go anywhere with strangers, which caused Penn’s heart to beat loudly in his chest because it could only mean one thing.

His brother had got into a car with someone he already knew.





Eighty-Two





‘Damien Crouch,’ Kim said to Bryant, ending the call that had come from Stacey while she’d been briefing her colleague on her conversation with Veronica. ‘He’s twenty-seven years of age, ex-chess champion here with his young daughter. Stace is looking for an up-to-date photo now.’ She looked around. ‘And then we gotta go looking for him,’ she said, striding over to the reception desk.

This was a good, solid lead that Tink and Stacey had uncovered and was exactly the type of person she was looking for. History with the event and right here, right now.

She held up her ID to the male receptionist, glancing at his name badge.

‘Raymond, we need to speak to one of your guests immediately. His name is Damien Crouch and his car has just been hit out there on the car park.’

Concern immediately registered on his features.

‘It’s okay, no one was hurt but my colleague witnessed the whole thing,’ she said, as he began to tap away on the computer.

‘Does your impatience have no limits?’ Bryant asked, turning his back on Raymond.

‘That’s clearly rhetorical,’ she answered, following suit as Raymond picked up the phone.

From the activity around them it appeared that sessions were ending for break time. There was a sudden rush of voices and movement like a train emptying on to a quiet platform. With this level of movement, even with a photo they could be chasing around the venue after him all day.

She watched as a dark-haired man wearing an expression of concern cut around the meandering crowds and headed straight towards the desk. He wore black jeans, trainers and a casual sweatshirt.

‘Here he comes,’ Kim said, stepping forward into his path.

She held up her ID. ‘Mr Crouch?’

He looked beyond her to the reception to confirm this was who he’d been called to see.

Raymond nodded.

‘You want to speak to me about my car?’ he asked, looking towards the hotel entrance and the car park beyond.

‘Your car is fine, Mr Crouch,’ she said. ‘We need to speak to you on another matter.’

‘But…’ he said, glancing around.

‘Oh, never mind Raymond. He got it wrong. He’s very busy. We don’t want to talk about your car. We’d much prefer to talk to you about murder.’





Eighty-Three





Penn watched the school bus drive away, everyone on it going about their normal business while his own world was crumbling around him. He wasn’t sure what he expected them to do. Right now he knew he was on his own.

When the call had first come through from the school he’d decided to delay letting his mother know. Her ailing health could do without the stress. Especially when he’d been convinced that he could locate Jasper in a few short minutes, but the hours were growing since his brother had last been seen. His fear for his brother’s safety was now very real, and the call to his mother was inevitable.

‘He’ll be fine, he’ll be fine, he’s a sensible kid, he’ll be fine,’ he chanted to himself as he took out his phone. He had to convince his mother that everything would be fine and that he would find Jasper. But first he had to convince himself.

He hesitated before making the call, feeling as though he had failed her somehow. That he had been responsible for his brother’s disappearance. He wished that Jasper had simply wandered off on foot. Limiting the distance he could travel. In a car, he could be anywhere by now.

‘Where are you, buddy, and who are you with?’ he whispered.

The events of the week began to circle in his brain. The coincidence of his brother going missing during the week he was reviewing an old case. Everything he’d uncovered had confirmed that Gregor Nuryef was not responsible for the murder of Devlin Kapoor. He’d been about to tell Travis that he thought the murder was related to the Reed gang and that was a whole new set of problems for them all.

His mind started to unravel the ball of string that had just started to come loose in his brain. Had the Reed gang got wind of the internal investigation and worked out that he was going to point the finger at them? Did they know they were his first suspicion before the evidence against Nuryef began piling up?