A Room Full of Killers

by Michael Wood

  ‘To be nosey I suppose.’

  ‘Or maybe you’re planning something depending on the outcome.’

  ‘You think Ryan’s murder was planned long before he ended up at Starling House?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Scott mused with a heavy frown. ‘It was a quick flash of something that stayed in my head for seconds then just flew out. Ryan was killed after only a day in Starling House. It’s like he was killed at the first opportunity to get him alone.’

  ‘But if that’s the case then the killer is someone connected to the family, and also to Starling House.’

  ‘So either the family is hiding something,’ Scott continued Faith’s thought, ‘or someone at Starling House is.’

  TWENTY-SEVEN

  Matilda looked out of a top floor window at Starling House overlooking the driveway. It was a cloudy day and a fine mist covered the landscape. The view was limited but there was a good angle of the entrance gates and winding drive. She watched as a dark red Audi crawled gently over the gravel. It didn’t stop at the main doors but turned left into the staff car park and parked in the bay for visitors. After a short while, the driver’s door opened and an elderly man struggled to climb out. The low autumnal sun bounced off his bald head. He took a tweed fedora from the passenger seat and placed it carefully on his head. From the boot he took a heavy-looking briefcase, then locked the car. He took long strides to the main entrance. Matilda hoped the uniformed officers would stop him entering.

  Matilda reached the foyer just as the smart looking man with the bushy moustache was talking to the uniformed officers.

  ‘Can I help you, at all?’ Matilda asked.

  ‘Ma’am, this man says he works here,’ one of the officers said.

  ‘Really?’

  ‘Yes. I’m Dr Henrik Klein. I’m a therapist. Has something happened?’

  Matilda baulked at the word therapist, remembering an appointment was due with her own in a few days’ time. It seemed she couldn’t get away from them at work or in her private life.

  ‘There has been an incident. Would it be possible to have a word—?’

  An alarm sounded, interrupting the conversation between Matilda and Dr Klein. A troop of officers came out of different doors and flew down the corridor behind the stairs. Kate Moloney stepped out of her office.

  ‘Matilda, Henrik, come in here. Now,’ she shouted abruptly.

  ‘What’s going on?’ Matilda asked, following Kate inside.

  ‘A fight has broken out in the library. The alarm is just a precaution until it’s under control,’ Kate said as she closed the door and locked it behind her.

  ‘Is that necessary?’

  ‘A fight can lead to other things.’

  Matilda pulled her mobile phone out of her pocket and dialled Sian’s number.

  ‘What’s going on?’ Sian shouted down the phone. An alarm speaker in the boardroom was drowning out what she was saying.

  ‘There’s been a fight in the library. Get everyone into the boardroom and lock yourselves in until you hear from me.’

  ‘What? I can’t hear what you’re saying.’

  Matilda repeated her warning, screaming down the phone.

  ‘Shouldn’t we help?’

  ‘Not until we’re asked to do so. It could be a storm in a teacup, in which case our presence would only escalate the situation. Just lock the doors.’

  ‘Oh, right. OK. Will do.’

  Matilda hung up. ‘How often do these kinds of things happen?’

  ‘Surprisingly, not as often as you’d think,’ Kate said, returning to her desk. ‘However, you get a bunch of boys together, tempers can flare up over the slightest of things. And remember, these are not ordinary boys, are they? So, I see you’ve met Dr Klein. Henrik, this is DCI Matilda Darke. She’s investigating the murder of Ryan Asher.’

  ‘Nice to meet you,’ Henrik said, holding out a hand for Matilda to shake.

  ‘Likewise,’ she shook his hand, a firm grip for someone on the wrong side of seventy.

  ‘I’m sorry … murder?’ he asked, as if only just hearing Kate.

  ‘Yes, Dr Klein. Ryan was found stabbed to death in the recreation room on Tuesday morning.’

  ‘But he only arrived on Sunday. What happened? Was there a fight?’

  ‘No. No, there wasn’t a fight,’ Kate said quietly. ‘Nobody seems to know what happened,’ she added, giving Matilda an icy look.

  ‘How’s the investigation going?’ Henrik asked, fighting against the noise of the alarm.

  ‘We’re making progress.’ The standard reply. ‘I’ve got officers down in Norwich talking to Ryan’s family. Don’t you think we should help out?’ Matilda asked, pointing at the door.

  ‘Trust me, we’re in the safest place.’ Kate said.

  ‘I don’t like this,’ Rory said, pacing the boardroom. ‘I mean, what if there’s a fire or something? We could be trapped up here.’

  ‘Rory, come and sit down.’

  There were five detectives in the room. While the alarm was sounding there was obviously nothing they could concentrate on, so they downed tools and waited for the situation to end. Rory was the only one fretting.

  ‘What if they’re rioting?’

  ‘I think we’d have heard,’ Sian smiled.

  ‘You can’t hear anything over that bloody thing,’ he pointed to the alarm. ‘They could have set fire to the furniture; they could have made weapons; taken hostages, anything.’

  ‘Rory, calm down for crying out loud. Nothing like that is happening.’

  He loosened the collar on his shirt. ‘I don’t like being locked in.’

  Sian went over to him and guided him to the window. She opened it wide and allowed in the stiff breeze. Despite it being cold there was a sheen of sweat on Rory’s forehead.

  ‘Now, take deep breaths and try to relax.’

  The fresh air took a while to calm Rory down. The screaming of the alarm did nothing to help him at all. Eventually, he felt relaxed enough to pull himself back into the room. He slumped down into a seat.

  ‘I’m sorry. I don’t usually panic like that.’

  ‘That’s all right.’

  ‘I don’t like not being able to get out. It frightens me. The first time I went into a prison was a nightmare. I was supposed to be interviewing this guy who’d admitted more crimes once he’d been sentenced. I was useless. It’s lucky I recorded the interview as I had no idea what he said. I just kept thinking about what would happen if there was a fire or an explosion or something. I couldn’t get out of the place quick enough.’

  ‘You need to think rationally, Rory. Take lifts, for example. A lift in a busy hospital goes up and down several hundred times a day, thousands of times a week. If the cable snapped and it plunged to the ground don’t you think something like that would be on the news? Now when was the last time you heard of that happening?’

  ‘Never,’ he replied.

  ‘Exactly. Your thinking is irrational.’

  ‘But, in this job, situations like this are heightened.’

  ‘Yes, they are but none of us in this room have ever been caught up in a riot. Despite what the films tell us, being a copper is incredibly boring.’

  ‘You can say that again,’ said one of the DCs whose primary job seemed to be inputting data into the HOLMES system.

  Rory looked up at Sian. ‘I miss your snack drawer,’ he said.

  This triggered a laugh from around the room.

  ‘So do I,’ she said. ‘I bet the rest of CID have cleaned it out by now. Greedy buggers.’

  The alarm continued for fifteen minutes. As soon as a heavy silence fell, Kate opened the door to her office. All three of them stepped out into the corridor in time to see Oliver Byron walking a handcuffed and bloody Jacob Brown to the medical room.

  ‘What’s happened?’

  ‘The usual. Callum Nixon was up to his old tricks again and Jacob snapped.’

  ‘Wasn’t there a guard in there with them?’

>   ‘No. The police keep pulling them off their duties for interviewing. I don’t know where half of them are. We can’t keep working like this, Kate,’ Oliver said, looking at Matilda with scorn.

  Kate was looking at Jacob’s face. He had a bloody nose, and a black eye was already forming but he’d live. ‘How’s Callum?’

  On mentioning his name, Callum was brought around the corner flanked by two officers either side. His face was a mess, but it probably looked worse due to the amount of blood that was covering him.

  ‘A few cuts—’

  ‘I’m the innocent party, Mrs Moloney,’ Callum shouted, his voice muffled by the blood in his throat and his thick lips. ‘I was minding my own business when Jacob here just jumped on me.’

  ‘You fucking liar, Callum. He’s been pissing me off all day. I’m not just going to sit there while he says crap like that.’

  ‘I was just telling him about this thing I’d read online about blokes who are violent to women because they can’t form proper relationships with them, maybe because they’ve got a small dick.’ He smiled but the pain in doing so caused him to flinch.

  ‘You’re a twat, Callum. You should be put down.’

  ‘That’ll do, both of you,’ Kate shouted above them. ‘Oliver, take them both to the medical room and get them patched up. We’ll talk about this later.’

  Oliver was leading them both away when Callum looked at Matilda.

  ‘Hel-lo, how are you doing, love? Fancy kissing my lips better? I’ve got some swelling down here you can help with too,’ he said, grabbing his crotch.

  ‘Piss off!’ Matilda exclaimed.

  Callum was dragged away down the corridor. He glanced over his shoulders and blew kisses towards Matilda.

  ‘Is he always like that?’

  ‘A complete shit? Absolutely,’ Kate said, disappearing back into her office.

  ‘Am I still needed here today?’ Dr Henrik Klein asked.

  ‘Now more than ever, Dr Klein,’ Kate replied over her shoulder.

  ‘Am I able to use my usual room?’

  ‘Of course.’

  Dr Klein nodded and headed off down the corridor.

  Matilda followed Kate back into the office and closed the door behind her. She sat down in front of Kate’s desk and crossed her legs. She intended being here for a while, much to Kate’s obvious discomfort if her bemused facial expression was anything to go by.

  ‘Kate, I wanted to ask you about visiting. Do the inmates get regular visitors?’

  Kate scoffed. ‘Visiting hours are once a fortnight on a Tuesday afternoon. However, nobody has visited for months.’

  ‘Really? The boys don’t have any family come to see them?’

  ‘They’re killers, Inspector. If a child or yours had killed someone would you want to visit them?’

  Matilda pondered the question but found she knew the answer almost straightaway. No she would not.

  ‘Kate, who owns Starling House?’

  ‘Since it opened it’s been owned by many companies. It’s currently owned by BB Security. They’re based in Northern Ireland.’

  ‘So why buy a place in Sheffield?’

  ‘They own several sites all over the country. Starling House was simply an addition to their portfolio.’

  ‘Do you ever see anyone from BB Security?’

  ‘I’m in regular contact with the management over there, and every six months we get a visit to make sure everything is running smoothly.’

  ‘Have you contacted them yet about Ryan Asher’s murder?’

  A guilty look swept over Kate’s face. ‘No. Not yet. I’d like to give them some information as to how the case is going. I was hoping an arrest would have been made by now.’

  Was that a dig?

  ‘This is a highly unusual case. Forensics have finished work in Ryan’s room. There is no sign of a disturbance; the door wasn’t forced, and the only fingerprints belong to Ryan. It would appear he left his room voluntarily. Now, the only people who have a key are your staff.’

  Kate shook her head. ‘Do you genuinely believe one of my staff killed Ryan Asher?’

  ‘I don’t know your staff, Kate, you do. Do you think one of them could have killed him?’

  Kate took a while to reply. She looked as if she was mulling over the question, thinking of every single member of staff and trying to decide if one of them could stab a fifteen-year-old boy twelve times. Which one of them was capable of that? ‘To be perfectly honest, I’ve no idea.’

  ‘Have you ever had any problems with your staff? Any complaints?’

  ‘No,’ she answered; too quickly for Matilda’s liking.

  ‘What’s the turnover here like?’

  ‘We have a high turnover of staff,’ she admitted. ‘Some people have difficulty coming to terms with the boys and their crimes. Some of the inmates look younger than they are. They’re fresh-faced, almost childlike. It’s difficult to get your head around the fact they’re violent individuals.’

  ‘So people tend to leave after a while?’

  ‘Yes. I’m not surprised when I get a knock on my door and a resignation handed to me.’

  ‘Is there anyone here currently serving out their notice?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Is it true you don’t have anyone from Sheffield working here?’

  ‘Unfortunately, yes, it is. When a vacancy becomes available I do still advertise in the local job centre but I never get any response.’

  ‘Do you sleep here?’

  ‘Yes, I do. The majority of the staff do. The very top floor in the eaves is divided into twelve separate rooms we use as bedrooms. Some have en suites. There’s a large communal bathroom though.’

  ‘Do the inmates have access to the top floor?’

  ‘What are you implying?’

  ‘I’m not implying anything. They seem to be able to move around quite freely. I’ve seen them walking unaccompanied from the library to the gym. I wondered where else they were allowed to go.’

  ‘DCI Darke, this may be an extraordinary set-up here – a secure unit for teenage killers – and yes, they are prisoners, but that doesn’t mean we have to keep them in cages. We have an excellent security system here and state of the art CCTV. The inmates are allowed to access limited parts of the building as and when they see fit.’

  ‘I wouldn’t call your security system excellent or state of the art. You can hear the cameras whirring away from right down the corridor. I also noticed the cameras in the recreation room are dummies. Why is that?’

  Kate looked down. She was biting her bottom lip. ‘The cameras were outdated and needed replacing. Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough money in the budget for new ones. Gavin said he would install fake cameras until the next financial year.’

  ‘And do BB Security know about this?’ Matilda frowned at Kate’s lack of emotion. Everything she said was spoken like an automated machine.

  ‘I am not required to inform BB Security on every tiny detail of the day-to-day running of Starling House. They have every faith in my management skills.’

  ‘I wouldn’t call a lack of funding for security equipment a tiny detail.’

  ‘I have been here for almost twenty years. I’ve been in charge almost eight. I am more than capable of running this place without outside interference.’

  ‘Until now,’ Matilda said with a sly smile.

  ‘Are you questioning my leadership?’

  ‘I am.’

  ‘You have absolutely no right—’

  Finally, a raised voice, a display of emotion.

  ‘Mrs Moloney,’ Matilda interrupted. ‘You have been able to run this place without any form of supervision. You’re hiding something from me, I know you are, and I intend to find out.’

  ‘I am hiding nothing.’

  ‘Really? Tell me about Elly Caine.’

  Kate’s eyes widened at the mention of the name and her lips pursed. She stopped breathing. ‘Elly Caine?’

  ‘Yes,’
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br />   ‘How do you know about her?’

  ‘I just do.’

  ‘Elly Caine,’ Kate began, choking back the words, ‘Elly Caine was a member of staff here. She only stayed a few months. She had trouble with the boys.’

  ‘What kind of trouble?’

  Kate closed her eyes. It was as if thinking about the woman and what she had done caused her great physical pain. She unlocked a drawer in her desk and took out a thin brown file. She handed it across to Matilda.

  ‘This is Elly’s file. Obviously, I’d like it back. What Elly did was an incredibly dark day for Starling House. However, I sorted it out. I don’t want to be reminded of it again.’

  Gingerly, Matilda took the file and placed it on her lap. Kate’s eyes would not leave it.

  ‘You should have given me this earlier,’ Matilda said. The terse look on her face showed she was fuming with Kate.

  ‘I know. I’m sorry.’

  ‘There better not be anything else you’re hiding from me.’

  The walls of the room felt as if they were closing in on them both. The tension had ratcheted up several degrees. ‘Tell me about the inmates. I’m guessing once they reach eighteen they’re moved on,’ Matilda said eventually.

  Kate took a slow deep breath. ‘Once a place becomes available. We’ve had some inmates here until they’re twenty. As you know the prisons are awfully overcrowded.’

  ‘Have you had any inmates who have given you cause for concern?’

  ‘They all give me cause for concern. When you take away someone’s freedom and force them to be with people they wouldn’t normally associate with on the outside, tempers can become frayed. Sometimes this place is like a volcano just waiting to erupt. It is the duty of my staff to help calm matters before they explode.’

  ‘But that’s not always possible – like we’ve just seen.’

  ‘That’s right. Obviously, I don’t know the circumstances over this current upset, but I’m guessing it will be something incredibly simple. Maybe one of the boys was reading someone else’s magazine or something petty like that.’

  ‘After Monday night I would have thought you’d be more concerned than you seem to be.’

  ‘DCI Darke, if I took every little outburst to heart then I’d be a nervous wreck by now and probably not in a fit state to work here.’