Child's Play (D.I. Kim Stone #11)(79)

‘How can it be both?’ Bryant asked, watching as the siblings to his left appeared to engage in animated conversation.

‘I was asked who invented the loudspeaker. Their answer was Edward W. Kellogg and Chester W. Rice, but they are wrong,’ he said, imperiously.

‘How so?’

‘Johann Philipp Reis installed a loudspeaker in his telephone in 1861, some sixty-four years before Kellogg and Rice invented the dynamic speaker in 1925.’

‘And your parents are arguing this on your behalf?’ Bryant asked. He would have been mortified if his parents were arguing with judges on his behalf.

‘Yes, because they are wrong,’ he offered definitely. ‘At the very least they should accept that they made an error in the clarity of the question.’

Bryant really would have felt the need to laugh out loud had he not noticed Serena’s hand on Jared’s arm.

To the untrained onlooker it may have appeared that Serena was engaging in casual physical contact with her brother, but the trained eye could tell that her fingers were clenched, tense, her nails digging in.

‘So, what’s your view on what I’ve just told you?’ the boy asked.

‘Kid, I reckon you’re way too serious for your own good,’ he answered as Jared leaned in closely to his sister, said something into her ear before snatching his arm from her grip and storming away.

He watched the dismay form on the woman’s features as his phone began to ring.

The kid regarded him with irritation.

Bryant was sorely tempted to bob out his tongue before he answered the call but refrained. He really had just wanted to take the weight off.

‘Hey, Stace,’ he said.

‘Can’t get the boss,’ she explained. ‘But there’s something you need to know.’

He sat forward as the boss came through the doors from the great hall.

‘It’s that Robinson kid,’ she explained. ‘The one who died recently.’

‘What about him?’ Bryant asked as the guv spotted him.

‘I’ve been through all the media reports and there’s not a great deal of detail, but he didn’t just die, Bryant. This twelve-year-old kid took his own life.’





Eighty-Nine





Penn resisted the urge to call out to his trembling brother for fear it could startle him into falling over the edge.

He could hear a faint whimpering coming from behind the woollen hat that had been pulled down over his head.

He ached to run to Jasper across the forty feet of tarmac racetrack that led to the grassy verge at the edge of the site. But he knew that his brother was not here alone.

‘Aah, so you’ve finally worked it out,’ Doug said, appearing from behind the building.

‘Yeah, I followed your trail of breadcrumbs, you bastard, now get my brother away from that edge.’

‘Jasper’s okay, aren’t you mate? I explained to him that we’re gonna play a little game and that you were coming to play too.’

Penn was watching Jasper’s body twitch and try to turn away from the ravine because he’d heard his voice. He was looking at the back of his brother’s head. One false move and he knew his brother would step forward and fall to his death.

‘Jasper knows to stay perfectly still until I tell him to move,’ Doug said, standing approximately ten feet away from his brother. All that separated them was a cut-out in the ground. At any second Doug could leap the two-foot gap and push Jasper down into the ravine, but if Jasper tried to move towards Doug’s voice he would fall through the cut in the ground.

‘Stay still, buddy,’ Penn called. ‘Everything is gonna be okay. I promise. Just don’t move.’

‘O… Okay, Ozzy,’ his brother said, and Penn could have cried.

His brother had never been able to say Austen, so he’d been Aussie and then become Ozzy over time.

‘Doug and I are just going to have a chat and I need you to stay still for me. Okay?’

He nodded.

Penn turned his attention to his former colleague.

‘How could you do it, you bastard?’

‘What exactly did I do?’ he asked, popping a piece of gum into his mouth.

‘Was it the money? Was that it? They pay you well?’

‘Still don’t know what you’re saying, mate,’ he said, smartly.

‘You must have been laughing your fucking head off while I’ve been chasing my own tail all week. But I’ve got it all now.

‘I wondered why Mr Kapoor kept saying he’d been told numerous times about his security. I knew of only once but you went back, didn’t you? To find out if he’d made any improvements, and when he hadn’t you informed the Reed gang that the place was good for it. Told them the dummy camera wasn’t real so they could hit it. How many others have you done it with, Doug? How long you been telling them who to hit?’

‘I knew you’d work it out eventually but no one’s gonna believe you. Cos let’s be honest, that’s pretty fucking thin.’

‘I noticed that you kept pointing towards Lynne having new things. Her car, flashing her cash about buying drinks. Always trying to cover yourself, Doug, but you won’t get out of this.’

Doug smiled. ‘Oh, I think I will, but tell me more.’