A Room Full of Killers

by Michael Wood

  ACC Masterson didn’t knock on Matilda’s door, she just pushed down the handle and stormed in.

  ‘This station is in chaos—’ Valerie began but was silenced as Matilda put up a hand to stop her.

  ‘Richard Grover has been abusing the boys at Starling House.’

  ‘What?’ Valerie moved around to Matilda’s side of the desk and watched the interview on the computer. ‘Who’s that?’

  Matilda swallowed hard. ‘Thomas Hartley.’

  ‘So that’s Thomas Hartley. Nice to put a face to the name. Please tell me you have this Richard Grover in custody.’

  ‘We certainly do. He’s not going anywhere.’

  ‘Jesus! As if we haven’t got enough on our plate with the abuse scandal in Rotherham now we’ve got it in Sheffield too. How many victims are we talking about?’

  Matilda shook her head. ‘I’ve no idea. We’ve got six downstairs that we know of. We need to look at the inmates who have been at Starling House during Richard Grover’s time there. We could be looking at dozens.’

  ‘Oh my God,’ Valerie stepped away from the computer. The worried look on her face said it all. It wasn’t the abuse of power or the disturbing stories she couldn’t stomach, it was what was going to happen to her and her career.

  ‘Could this Richard have killed Ryan Asher?’

  ‘I don’t know. If Ryan had been at Starling House for longer than forty-eight hours I would have said it was a possibility, but Richard would have needed to get to know Ryan, understand what kind of boy he was dealing with. After all, these are convicted killers. They’re not your usual timid boys you can warp.’

  ‘You will be questioning him about Ryan’s death though?’

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘Matilda, I want some order brought to this station. You’re not the only detective investigating a case here. Have you seen how disruptive these boys are being downstairs?’

  Matilda pushed herself out from her chair and followed Valerie out of the office. The computer was still playing the interview with Thomas Hartley. On the other half of the screen the interview with Callum Nixon was about to begin with Aaron and Rory leading.

  Matilda really should have been watching that interview.

  FIFTY-FIVE

  There were four inmates from Starling House in the custody suite and they were all being purposely difficult. They knew the abuse that went on at the hands of Richard Grover, but none of them ever talked about it. Now it was out in the open they wanted the gory details from each other.

  ‘It’s Lee he fancied the most,’ Mark said, nudging Lee and winking. ‘He knew he could mould you and get you to do anything he wanted.’

  ‘Piss off, Mark,’ Lee said. There was no force behind his warning. The timid boy sat in the corner, shoulders shrugged, head down, looking like he wanted to cry but couldn’t.

  ‘You know why he liked Lee best, don’t you?’ Lewis teased. ‘Because he was good at it. He’s been sucking cocks all his life.’

  ‘You can piss off as well,’ Lee said.

  ‘I bet you’ve got a right stash of stuff in your cell. Not just food. Games, iPad, mobile … ’

  ‘En suite bathroom, curtains, rugs,’ Mark laughed. ‘Fitted wardrobes, Jacuzzi bath.’

  ‘A balcony outside the window,’ Craig joined in. ‘A maid to turn down his bed at night.’

  ‘I think Lee would prefer a manservant to turn his bed down at night,’ Lewis winked.

  Shrinking further into the corner, Lee clenched his fists together to hold in the rage he was feeling. He hated the fact he was different to the other boys and always tended to keep his head down and not draw attention to himself. With the other three teasing him, loudly, everyone who walked past kept looking in his direction.

  ‘Come on, Lee, give us the details. What else did Groper Grover do to you?’

  ‘Leave me alone.’

  ‘Did he make love to you?’

  ‘Oh God, can you imagine his sex face?’ Craig laughed.

  ‘I bet he looked like he was having a heart attack.’

  ‘While he was screwing you did he ask you to call him daddy? Did he pretend you were a girl—?’

  Lee snapped. He raised his fists and punched Lewis in the face so hard he was knocked off balance. Lee took the opportunity to pounce.

  It was at that moment Matilda and Valerie entered the custody suite. Two boys were brawling on the floor, the other two were jeering them on and there wasn’t a single uniformed officer in sight.

  ‘Aaron, there’s a phone call for you. It’s Katrina. Again’

  ‘Shit. I’m doing to have to take it. Do you mind?’ Aaron asked. The look of worry was back on his face.

  ‘No. Go on, we haven’t started yet,’ Rory said.

  ‘Am I all right to pop to the toilet then, before we start?’ the appropriate adult asked.

  ‘Of course. Turn left just before the double doors and it’s your second on your right.’

  ‘Thank you.’

  Rory closed the interview room door behind him and looked at Callum Nixon sitting at the table. They were alone.

  ‘Can I ask you a question?’ Rory asked, sitting down.

  ‘Don’t you need to wait for the others to come back?’

  ‘This isn’t part of the interview. I just want to get something clear in my head.’

  ‘Shoot,’ Callum replied, sitting back and relaxing.

  ‘I’ve looked at your file, read about what you did to end up at Starling House. I want to know why you did what you did, basically.’

  ‘You mean, why I killed those teachers?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘I’m interested. I want to know what makes somebody, a child, kill another person.’

  ‘Why? You got a few victims lined up for yourself?’ he sniggered.

  ‘No. Like I said, I’m interested.’

  ‘Well, if you must know, they pissed me off. They were horrible teachers. High and mighty. Thought that just because they were adults and we were kids they could do what they wanted, and we just had to suck it up and go along with it.’

  ‘But you could say that about all teachers. There were a few at my school I didn’t like.’

  ‘I got suspended. For something stupid. I wasn’t having that. You don’t suspend me.’

  Rory guessed correctly Callum Nixon fitted into the narcissistic role of a killer. ‘But being suspended is part of a school’s policy. It’s not something they do lightly. They obviously thought they had a reason.’

  ‘Maybe they did, but I didn’t.’

  ‘They were their rules, though. Not yours. You have to abide by the rules set down by the school.’

  Callum smiled. ‘If I don’t like the rules, I don’t abide by them. I stand up to them.’

  ‘And that’s why you were suspended.’

  ‘And that’s why I killed them,’ he grinned.

  ‘But what made you think killing them was the ideal situation?’

  ‘What other solution was there? They wouldn’t listen,’ he said, raising his voice. ‘They wouldn’t see my side of things. I was always the bad guy. So if they wanted me to be the bad guy then I was going to be the best bad guy ever.’ His smile changed into a smirk. He looked at Rory out of the top of his eyes.

  ‘Are you sorry for what you did?’ Rory asked after a beat of silence.

  ‘Fuck, no. I did the world a favour. Two dickhead teachers in a shit school.’

  ‘Nobody has the right to take another life, Callum. It’s not your place to judge.’

  ‘It’s not yours either. So don’t go looking at me like I’m a piece of shit on your designer shoes.’

  ‘I’m not judging. I want to know why you thought killing someone was the only way out of the mess you found yourself in.’

  ‘I wasn’t in a mess. Those teachers needed to pay for what they did to me.’

  ‘Why not just vandalize their cars or something?’

  ‘Because I wasn’t ei
ght years old,’ Callum scoffed.

  ‘Surely your parents taught you right from wrong and instilled in you the fact you don’t fight your battles with violence—’

  That was the trigger. Rory mentioning Callum’s parents and the way they brought him up was the catalyst. Rory saw the change in Callum’s eyes before he finished speaking. What happened next was a complete blur as Callum leapt from his seat and jumped over the table.

  FIFTY-SIX

  ‘I will not have that kind of behaviour in my station,’ Valerie shouted at the boys of Starling House once the fight was broken up. ‘And where were you lot?’ she asked the uniformed officers who had come running into the custody suite once they heard the commotion.

  There was nothing they could say.

  ‘We need to arrange for them to be moved elsewhere. They can’t go back to Starling House. They’ll have to go to other institutions,’ Matilda said.

  ‘Right, leave it with me. I’ll make a few calls. In the meantime, they’ll have to be placed in the holding cells.’

  ‘You can’t do that we haven’t done anything wrong,’ Craig Hodge spoke up.

  ‘You’re a convicted killer. You’ve done everything wrong.’ Valerie said. ‘Sergeant, clear the cells wherever possible and get these boys locked up. I’ll deal with why there was nobody watching over four murderers later.’ She turned to the boys. ‘Don’t worry, it’s nearly lunchtime, you’ll be fed and well looked after. God forbid we infringe your human rights.’

  Valerie took Matilda by the arm and led her to the corner of the suite. ‘Matilda, get Richard Grover interviewed. I want names, dates, and details of everything he’s ever done to the boys at Starling House past and present. Then get him charged and get him out of here.’

  ‘I was just about to do that.’

  ‘No. I want you to solve this Ryan Asher case by the end of the day. Have you seen the amount of press that’s building out there? In fact, have you seen today’s papers? I do not want South Yorkshire Police in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons again. Let DI Brady interview Grover. You find out who killed Asher and Brown. Understand?’

  ‘Yes, ma’am,’ Matilda said, walking away.

  ‘Oh, and Matilda? I want you to call me every hour with a progress report. I don’t want you slacking off and looking into the Hartley case. Do you understand me?’

  Matilda took a deep breath and bit down hard on the inside of her mouth. ‘Loud and clear.’

  Valerie was about to add another warning, her finger came up to point at the DCI, but an alarm sounded that caused everyone to stop dead in their tracks.

  ‘Interview room two,’ shouted a sergeant behind the custody desk looking down at his monitor.

  Matilda and Valerie led the way with uniform backing them up. Matilda pulled open the door to the corridor and saw the red bulb flashing above the second interview room. Without thinking of what mayhem she could be walking into, she depressed the handle and threw the door open with her shoulder.

  Rory Fleming was on the floor with Callum straddling him raining down blow after blow with each fist. He was relentless.

  With all her energy, Matilda grabbed Callum by the shoulders and lifted him off the DC, throwing him to the other side of the room. She crouched down and looked at the unconscious detective. There was so much blood, so much damage. It was difficult to make out his features.

  In the corner of the room, Callum sat perfectly still, licking the blood from his knuckles. ‘You might want to get him to hospital a bit sharpish – I’m HIV positive,’ he smiled.

  FIFTY-SEVEN

  ‘Why was he on his own in a room with a double murderer?’

  ‘I’ve no idea, ma’am.’

  An ambulance crew arrived quickly, tested Rory’s vital signs and made sure his breathing was regular before they dared to move him. He was unconscious and unresponsive by the time he was loaded into the ambulance. As Valerie questioned one of the paramedics before he left, he told her they would perform an MRI to check for damage to his brain. There were no signs of life when they flashed a light in his eyes but his breathing was stable.

  Valerie was in her office pacing back and forth behind her desk. Matilda was sitting down. She had accepted Valerie’s offer of a coffee but it tasted foul. It wasn’t the caffeine; it was the image she had of her young DC. Rory was a good detective. He was hard-working, popular, funny, and good-looking.

  He’s not dead.

  ‘Not yet,’ Matilda said to herself.

  ‘Sorry?’

  ‘Nothing. Just thinking aloud. Look, I will find out why he was left on his own. I will sort this.’

  ‘Is there any truth in what that little bastard said about him being HIV positive?’

  ‘I don’t know. Sian is on the phone to Starling House now to get his medical records.’

  ‘I don’t understand,’ Valerie said, scratching her head. ‘Rory’s tall, he’s fit, how could he let a teenager overpower him?’

  Matilda shook her head. ‘Callum Nixon is a very volatile young man. Maybe Rory struck a nerve.’

  ‘I want these killers out of my station, Matilda.’

  Matilda put down her coffee and quietly left the office. She felt sick. Valerie had offered to call Rory’s family and Matilda accepted. It wasn’t a conversation she relished.

  On her way back to CID, Matilda was asked by almost everyone she met how Rory was doing. She didn’t reply to any of them.

  ‘Are you all right?’ Sian asked from the doorway of Matilda’s office.

  ‘No.’ She was sitting in her chair, head in hands, praying and hoping to anyone who would listen that Rory would be all right. ‘What did they say at Starling House?’

  ‘Callum is not HIV positive. He was playing with us.’

  ‘Bastard. It’s horrible to say this about a teenager but I could happily smash his face in and not think I’d done anything wrong,’ Matilda said, struggling to keep her emotions in check.

  ‘You can’t blame yourself for bringing them all here. They needed to be formally interviewed.’

  ‘Why was he on his own, Sian? That’s what I want to know.’

  ‘Ah,’ she said, looking out of the window. ‘Just before the interview was due to begin, Aaron received a phone call from Katrina. Rory told him to go and they’d start the interview afterwards. Fortunately, the cameras were switched on and we’ve caught what happened in the interview room on video. Rory was asking him about his crimes when he killed those teachers. It sounds like he wanted to understand why he became a killer.’

  ‘What about the attack?’

  ‘Callum snapped the second Rory mentioned his family. He was like a man possessed. Rory didn’t stand a chance.’

  ‘Oh God, Rory. He wouldn’t let it drop, would he?’

  ‘He was desperate to find out how a child can kill. He saw his opportunity to interview Callum on his own and went for it. Everyone is asking if there’s any news.’

  ‘Not at the moment. Scott’s at the hospital. He texted saying that Rory’s in theatre. He’s got internal bleeding on the brain. It doesn’t look good, Sian,’ Matilda said, biting back the tears.

  ‘Have you called his family?’

  ‘Valerie’s doing that.’

  ‘What do you want us to do?’

  Matilda looked past Sian and out into CID. Everything was muted. Hardly anyone was working as solemn faces looked down at untidy desks.

  ‘Crucifying Callum Nixon would be a great start.’

  ‘He’s been charged. He’s locked up.’

  Matilda turned her chair to look out of the window. The dark clouds had gone and were replaced by wispy white ones. The sky wasn’t a brilliant blue but it was pale and the low sun was shining. She hoped it was an omen of better things to come, though she doubted it.

  ‘I want Richard Grover interviewed. I want to know the full extent of his abuse over the years. I don’t think he killed Ryan or Jacob but we need to know. Also, I want Fred Percival interviewed too. Again, I
don’t think he’s the killer but he has a history of inappropriate behaviour towards young boys. He should not have been working at Starling House. What the hell was Kate Moloney thinking when she hired these people?’

  ‘Well, leave Richard and Fred to me and Christian. We’ll interview them. Why don’t you go for a coffee or something? Or maybe go and see Adele?’

  As she came down from the adrenaline rush of the emergency, Matilda’s emotions raced to the surface and tears started to fall. ‘I don’t want to be on my own,’ she cried.

  Like everybody else Matilda was human and had the same emotions. However, she saw it as a sign of weakness if she showed those emotions in front of her detectives. She was their leader, and as their leader she had to be stoic and strong in the face of adversity. When everything else was crumbling around them, Matilda had to rally them into some semblance of order.

  When she started to cry, Sian quickly closed the door behind her and stood in front of her so nobody outside could see. She had known Matilda long enough to understand she wouldn’t want her weaknesses made public.

  When the tears stopped, she dried her eyes and walked out of the room with her head down, not making eye contact with anyone. She managed to make it to the car park without being accosted and drove away before the swarm of press could notice.

  Adele looked up as the swinging doors to the mortuary opened. She saw Matilda and went back to putting a lifeless body in one of the fridges. She closed the door with an echoing slam.

  ‘Matilda, excellent timing. I was just about to call … what’s wrong?’ She saw the pale look of anguish on her best friend’s face.

  ‘Rory’s been beaten. It doesn’t look good,’ she replied, barely audible through the tears.

  ‘Oh God, no.’

  Adele loved Rory. He was the adorable member of Matilda’s team, who was always there with a joke or sarcastic comment. It was never annoying. It helped that he was gorgeous too.

  ‘What happened?’