The Secret Child (DI Amy Winter #2)(25)

Having committed the image to memory, Amy put her phone away. ‘The card doesn’t seem recent. It’s old and battered, as if Nicole’s had it for some time. It seems like a warning, rather than an immediate threat. Why didn’t she report it to the police?’

‘Perhaps she had something to hide.’

‘The letter sent to the paper talks about children going missing from the Curtis Institute, but we’ve no evidence of that.’ Amy sighed, her brows knitted in a frown as she tried to imagine what life had been like in the institute. ‘Do you think it’s true, what he wrote about Dr Curtis? He’s not the nicest of men, but testing children? It all seems so far-fetched.’ The possibility of Curtis using children in such a way had plagued Amy’s thoughts since her visit to his ex-wife that morning.

‘On the contrary . . .’ Malcolm paused to sip his drink. ‘Have you heard of the Little Albert experiment?’

Amy’s puzzled expression relayed that she hadn’t.

‘You should familiarise yourself with the case.’ He crossed his legs, a leather shoe bobbing as he enjoyed his captive audience. ‘It involved a chap named John Watson who conditioned a nine-month-old baby to the extent that the child developed irrational fears.’

‘Nine months old?’

Malcolm nodded, clearly in his element. ‘He started by introducing the baby to a white rat. As expected at that age, little Albert showed no fear. But then Watson made a terrible racket by hammering a steel bar every time the baby touched the rat. He did it again with other animals and objects, until the baby was terrified of them all. The very sight of them made him cry.’

‘How was that sanctioned?’ Amy asked. It sounded like something out of the pages of a Stephen King novel.

‘It was back in 1920, and not the worst experiment by far. It’s referred to now by scholars. Some would say we learned a lot from it.’

‘Really?’ Amy replied, unable to comprehend the justification for such acts.

‘It’s fascinating,’ Malcolm said. ‘Mind you, I was shocked at some of the experiments conducted on children when I did my research. It wasn’t that long ago that the law changed and such things came to an end.’

‘Is that what happened to Luka? He was brought over here on the promise of a scholarship, wasn’t he?’ Amy’s team was still digging, but the details of Luka’s past were slowly filtering through.

‘So I heard. It reminds me of another case I researched – the Willowbrook Studies.’

Amy smiled. This was why Malcolm had wanted to take her out, and she loved him for it. Like her, he lived and breathed his job and was keen to impart what he had learned.

‘It involved some children with learning disabilities who were promised enrolment into Willowbrook State School in Staten Island, New York. All their parents had to do was to sign a consent form allowing their children to be vaccinated.’

‘Something tells me this involved more than vaccinations.’ Amy put her glass down on the table after taking another sip.

‘Oh, they were vaccinated all right.’ Malcolm’s face grew serious. ‘Fed the faeces of patients with viral hepatitis to track the development of the strain.’

Amy baulked. ‘Are you serious?’

‘Back in the 1960s this sort of experimentation was rife, and none of it against the law. I researched a whole plethora of cases which were government-approved. One clinic that experimented on children with cerebral palsy had over 1,400 patients die in their care over five years.’

Amy gaped in disbelief. ‘That’s horrendous. Surely they were arrested when it was brought to light?’

Malcolm shook his head. ‘As far as I could see, not a single researcher has been prosecuted for such experimentation. But how could they be, when it was government-approved?’

There was a pause as Amy took it all in. ‘Why take a child from Russia? Surely Dr Curtis could have used kids from the UK.’

‘There could have been more likelihood of intervention with an English child. Curtis made trips to Russian orphanages before Luka’s mother applied for the post.’

‘So you think choosing him for his intelligence was a ruse?’

‘Let me put it this way. Curtis was a lot more likely to get the family on board if they believed Luka had some special gift. He was clever, yes, and offers of a scholarship made them dream of better days. You have to remember, this was before the collapse of the Soviet Union. Back then, poverty was rife. As for corruption . . . one wrong word could land you in prison. The offer of a scholarship in Britain would have been a dream come true.’

Malcolm’s words echoed those of the letter she had read twenty minutes before. ‘But that was years ago. Why wait so long for revenge? Unless seeing Dr Curtis in the media brought it all back.’ Amy realised she had answered her own question.

‘True, but why did he insist on dealing only with you? He contacted you for a reason. You investigate serious crime. What really happened at the Curtis Institute?’

‘The building was old, in need of a facelift. It wasn’t safe for students to sleep in the dorms, which is why the previous occupants moved out. But Dr Curtis managed to lease it for six months.’ Amy reeled off her officers’ research to date. ‘On the night of the fire, the alarms didn’t work and the orderly on duty was on a cigarette break. Luka and his mother were asleep in their rooms. The experiments had wound down by then and the other students had left. According to the paperwork, arrangements were being made for Luka and his mum to travel home.’