by GS Rhodes
“What did they say?”
Caroline took a deep breath. “It wasn’t so much what they said, as what they did,” she said darkly. “They were quite cruel to Gregory, but it never stopped him from trying to teach them, trying to get them the grades they deserved. He always told me how bright they were, how much potential they had, so he never gave up on them, not one little bit.”
“And how do you think that affected Robin?” Zoe asked cautiously.
“I think it broke him a little,” Caroline said. “He watched his father get taunted and abused on a daily basis and then received it himself from those boys. The school didn’t do anything. You know what schools are like, I’m sure. They made the boys apologise to each other and then it would just happen all over again like clockwork. It’s a wonder he made it out of that school alive.”
“Then, why invite them to the wake?” Kidd asked.
“It seemed like the right thing to do,” Caroline said, her eyes a little misty. “Gregory always spoke so highly of them no matter what they did and…I wondered if maybe they did it because they liked him too. They wanted his attention, even if it was negative. Even after they left school, he never really forgot about them. Always wondered what they were up to, how they were getting on.”
“And Robin?”
Caroline opened her mouth to speak but quickly stopped herself, her mouth forming a thin line. She seemed unsure all of a sudden, hesitant of getting her son in any sort of trouble.
“Mrs Paige, if there is anything you can tell us that might be useful…” Kidd started but trailed off.
“He didn’t recover from it,” she said. “He was changed by what happened with them and I thought…I thought him agreeing to have them over for the wake was a turning point. I thought he was finally going to let it all go, leave it in the past.”
“And you don’t think he has?” Zoe said.
Caroline shook her head. “I would say, seeing them again has made things worse. Much, much worse.”
Kidd’s blood ran cold. That was what he’d been afraid of. And Robin wasn’t even here for them to take in, there wasn’t anything that he could possibly do about it, at least not in this moment. He was who they needed to be speaking to.
“Do you know where he’s gone?” Kidd asked. “We would really like to speak to him.”
“I feel I’ve been so disloyal,” Mrs Paige replied, her voice quaking. “I don’t…I don’t want my boy to be in any trouble, I don’t want that for him. I’m supposed to protect him and now—”
“You’ve not done anything wrong, Caroline,” Kidd said firmly. He tried to keep his voice calm, measured, but was struggling in the face of a young man on a war path. “We just need to know where he is so we can make sure he isn’t in any trouble, okay?”
Mrs Paige nodded.
“Where is he, Mrs Paige?” Zoe asked.
“That’s the problem,” she said, her eyes brimming with tears. “I have no idea.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Kidd and Sanchez left the property quickly after that, Kidd immediately called Janya and told her to call Asim, David, and Tom and tell them to come into the station. They needed to speak with them and needed more information about what had happened between them and Robin. Kidd couldn’t shake the feeling that they were keeping things from him and he needed to put his mind at ease. Sanchez, in the meantime, was driving them back to the station at breakneck speed. They needed to act quickly if they were going to stop any of the lads getting hurt. They needed to find Robin Paige.
Kidd burst into DCI Weaver’s office once he was back at the station, startling the man so badly he practically jumped out of his seat. He stared at Kidd dumbstruck, like he’d simply appeared out of thin air.
“You almost gave me a heart attack,” Weaver breathed.
“Blast, almost?” Kidd said with a smirk. “I’ll have to try harder next time.”
“Very funny,” Weaver deadpanned. “Do you have something for me, or is this a social call?”
“I need you to put surveillance on the houses of the boys involved in this case,” Kidd said quickly. “We just got back from speaking with Mrs Paige and I’m worried that her son, Robin, might be behind it.”
“Evidence?”
Kidd hesitated. Years of taunting, bullying that was left unchecked by teaching staff, emotional trauma. Nothing concrete. Nothing that he could make an arrest on. “A hunch.”
Weaver shook his head. “I can’t send out a call for this lad if you have nothing on him but a hunch, Kidd,” he said. “You can bring him in for a chat, or go and see him if you want, but I can’t have officers out looking for him without cold, hard evidence. You know that.”
“Then get me a warrant,” he said. “I want to search his bedroom, maybe there’s something in there.”
“You think he’s daft enough to leave evidence lying around?”
“You’d be surprised,” Kidd said. “The worst that happens is we find nothing and we can eliminate him, but get me that warrant and get those boys watched.”
Weaver shook his head gravely. “I can’t do that, Kidd,” he said. “I don’t have the resources to have their houses on constant watch, I just—”
“These boys could die, boss, do you not understand that?” Kidd said, raising his voice, feeling the blood simmering in his veins. How could he be so stubborn, so pig-headed? “There is a murderer on the loose, we have two bodies from the same friendship group, a friendship group who used to cause great upset to Robin when he was in school with them. It’s not evidence, it’s not a dead cert, but it’s enough for me to think that maybe he has something to do with it. I can’t sit idly by and let something happen to any more of them, Weaver. I’ll never forgive myself.”
“It’s not your place to take all that on your shoulders,” Weaver shouted. “I can only do what I can do, I’ll send officers to do drive-bys, but there’s only so much we can manage. You know what the budget is like, you know how much we’re stretched to our absolute limit here.”
Kidd knew that. He knew that from every meeting he’d had with DCI Weaver, every piece of news that dropped into his email inbox or on the front page of some rag. Budget cuts to police services, cuts on cuts on cuts on cuts, the entire service in absolute pieces. It was becoming more and more difficult to help the people who needed it most. And even with Weaver telling him not to take that on his shoulders, Kidd had taken an oath to protect people, and if he couldn’t do that, then what good was he? If no one was willing to help him, how on earth was he supposed to do his job?
“I know it’s not what you want to hear, Kidd,” Weaver said. “Please know, that I’ll do all I can.”
“Yes, boss,” Kidd said, though he didn’t know that. Weaver felt like a shell of the man who had been his DI all those years ago, who had fought the same fight, not gotten stuck behind a desk pushing papers and bowing down to the higher-ups. The fire seemed to be going out in DCI Weaver and it was hard for Kidd to stomach.
“I’ll put out a call looking for Robin Paige, see if anyone can track him down. You got a picture?”
“I can get you one.”
“Good,” Weaver said. “But I can’t have anybody on them 24/7.”
“Boss—”
“I just can’t,” he said. “There aren’t the resources for it.”
Kidd took a moment, locking eyes with his boss and hoping he would change his mind, but it was pointless. He wouldn’t budge. That much he could see.
“Thank you, gaffer,” Kidd said. One more try, maybe? “You know I wouldn’t ask unless it was important.”
“I know.”
“Please do all you can,” he said. “I’m…” Kidd didn’t like to be vulnerable in front of anyone, least of all the gaffer, but now felt like as good a time as any to tug on the heartstrings a little bit. “I’m worried we’re losing this one already. It’s all running away a little bit too quickly if you ask me. Bodies piling up quicker than we can sort through the evidence and fin
d the thread.”
Weaver nodded, swallowing hard. “I’ll do all I can,” he said. “But I can’t have them watched all night.”
Kidd left Weaver in his office and practically crashed into Zoe as he stepped out into the corridor. She’d been waiting for him, more than likely listening in to everything they’d been saying.
“That was a bit intense,” she said. “You okay?”
“Fine,” Kidd lied, trying to brush it off. “Always frustrating when you can’t get the boss to pull his fucking finger out.”
“Easy now,” Zoe said, nodding down the corridor. They walked together, quickly falling into step as they made their way to the Incident Room. “What did he say?”
Kidd looked over at her, widening his eyes. He knew she’d been right outside the entire time, there was no way she hadn’t heard.
“I caught most of it, but not the details,” she said. “He mumbles.”
Kidd laughed. “He’s letting me bring in Robin if we can find him, even though it’s only a suspicion,” he said. “Just a chat though.”
“Then why the rage?”
“He doesn’t have the capacity to watch the guys,” he said, the rage simmering once again, bubbling under the surface and threatening to erupt. “He says it’s not necessary, they don’t have the numbers, he’s worried about resources.”
“Fucking hell,” Zoe said, shaking her head. “I mean, I know what he means, and he’s not wrong, everything is stretched right now, but you’d think the potential for a fucking murder happening on the borough would make him do something.”
Kidd shrugged. “It’s making me nervous,” he said.
“I’m not surprised,” Zoe replied, stepping into the Incident Room. “Look, all we can do here is tell them to be careful, which you’ve already got Powell and Campbell doing, and…”
“And what?” he asked.
She sighed. “Pray.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
David, Asim, and Tom arrived not too long after. Night had since fallen and Kidd had been worried about them getting here in one piece but he needed to ask them questions, needed to find out more about what they did to Robin and if there was anybody else that they could speak to. He was starting to get the feeling that they weren’t telling him the whole truth and that was putting them in danger.
He got them an Interview Room, squeezing them around one side of the table while he and Zoe took seats on the other. They weren’t under caution, they weren’t at liberty to tell them anything, but Kidd hoped they knew that their lives pretty much depended on it.
“Right,” Kidd said as he took a seat. “By this point you know the situation we’re in, am I right?” Kidd said, watching as each of the men nodded at him. “Then you’ll know that I’ve brought you in to ask you a few questions about what you lads used to get up to, and also to give you a word of warning.”
They tensed, nervous. Maybe fear would do them good. If they weren’t scared before, they certainly should be now.
“I need you to tell me everything,” he said. “I’m not here to judge you or your past. I’m not here to make you feel like shit, alright? I’m here to solve a case, a case that is right now getting way out of hand and putting you boys in danger for reasons that I can’t quite figure. The only thing I can think of is that maybe you’re not telling me everything I need to know, would that be right?”
They shared a look between them, no one seeming to want to give anything away. Kidd was about to explode at them when Zoe leaned forward.
“Guys,” she said. “None of you are in trouble here. We just need this information for the investigation. What happened between you guys and Robin Paige? What happened between you and Gregory Paige?”
“And while we’re at it, is there anyone else who you terrorised at school who might be keen on hunting you down and brutally murdering you?” Kidd was laying it on a little bit thick, but he needed to get the point across. The fact that they’d kept this from them in the early stages of the investigation had lost them valuable time. There was no guarantee they would have gotten to Robin quicker, but it certainly would have helped.
It was Asim who broke first.
“It wasn’t much,” he blurted before quickly shrinking back. “At least it didn’t seem like it at the time.”
“What did you do?” Kidd asked.
“Nothing bad,” Tom said. Though Kidd would argue that any form of bullying, no matter how slight, was bad. “We called him names, we…we threw stuff at him.”
“Did he react?”
“He’d ask us to stop,” Asim said, his gaze turning down to his hands. “He asked us, begged us even, and we just kept doing it. It was…it was just a joke. It was supposed to be fun.”
“Was he laughing?” Zoe snapped.
“Excuse me?” Asim asked.
“When you were making these ‘jokes’ with Robin, was he laughing?”
“No.”
“So he wasn’t quite in on the joke,” Kidd said. “Doesn’t sound like he was anyway.”
“It was never meant to go as far as it did,” Tom said. “We used to make fun of him and the fact that his dad worked at the school. And how much of a knobhead his dad was when he gave one of us detention.”
“That was something that happened too,” Asim said. “If one of us got detention or something from Mr Paige, he’d get it worse from us.”
“Worse how?” Kidd asked.
“We beat him up once or twice,” Tom said, his voice small. Everything about this moment was small, as if the quieter they said it, the less true it would be. But it was horrifically true and now it was possible they were all paying the price for it. “It just went too far…it became a habit almost.”
Kidd’s blood was boiling but he didn’t want to blow up at them and have them suddenly stop talking. He needed to hear all of this, to get a full picture of their relationship with Robin.
“A habit?” Zoe asked.
“We were going to apologise to him at the wake,” Asim said. “Well, I remember talking to James about doing that. He said he was going to go off and find him at some point. He felt really bad. We all did.”
Kidd noticed how quiet David had been throughout their chat. He’d not added to the conversation in any way, just watching as the other boys admitted to all of their youthful wrongdoings. Maybe he didn’t feel the same remorse.
“Do you know if he managed to talk to Robin?” Kidd asked, wondering what that conversation would have been like. If Robin had been planning to kill one of them that night maybe his decision had been made there and then that it would be James. Maybe James didn’t apologise at all.
“No,” Asim said. “He ended up speaking to Tanya Green. Got her number apparently.” Kidd noticed David flinch at the mention of her name. He would have to circle back to that.
“Who is Tanya Green?” he asked.
“She was a girl in our year,” Tom said, his gaze flicking to David and back to the two detectives. Something was going on here. “We weren’t so great to her either. Kind of the same thing.” He turned his attention to Zoe. “I don’t think she saw it as much of a joke either.”
“Why are we bringing her up?” David snapped. “She was just a trouble maker, it wasn’t that bad. None of it was that bad. We were kids. None of us deserves to have this happen to us.”
“Like Tanya and Robin deserved for you to make their lives hell?” Kidd asked.
“No, of course not, but we were teenagers, it’s what teenagers do,” David spat.
“It’s not what I did,” Kidd said through gritted teeth.
“It was a long time ago,” David said. “Everything that happened back then is in the past, there’s no use in dwelling on it.”
“But when your past so heavily impacts your future, like it may have done for Robin, possibly Tanya, possibly someone else you lot have been arseholes to, it’s hard to forget,” Kidd said. “You can’t sit there and tell me that these things you did are isolated, that they’re easy to
forget.”
David shrank down in his chair. He wasn’t willing to talk, wasn’t willing to say anything more than that. He didn’t feel the remorse that the other boys did. He may have felt the pressure, the creeping hand of whoever it was that was responsible for this coming to get him, but he didn’t feel bad for what he’d done. It made Kidd feel sick.
“There is no one else that you were like this with?” Kidd asked, tearing his gaze away from the apathetic David. “Now is not the time to be shy, boys, if you have anything else to say, I suggest you say it.”
“That’s all,” Asim said. “I swear. But like David said, it was when we were young, we didn’t think. And…I’m sorry.”
“Me too,” Tom added quickly.
Kidd shrugged. “I’m not the person you need to be apologising to.”
◆◆◆
Kidd walked back into the Incident Room one last time. It was empty now, the rest of the team having left for the night. Zoe followed him in. Up on the board, under the heading of “Victims” were pictures of Stephen London and James Blythe. Two young men who were taken before their lives could really begin. It was a tale as old as time. He’d seen it happen before and he still felt a surge of guilt that he hadn’t managed to stop it. But it wasn’t like you could stop someone before they did something like this. He just needed to stop it from happening again.
The smiling faces of David, Tom, and Asim stared out at him from the evidence board. Despite all they’d done, he needed to stop it from happening to them too, which meant they needed to act quickly and track down Robin Paige either to stop him from striking again, or to rule him out. There was still something not sitting right with Kidd. It almost seemed too easy.
“What was the name of that girl they said James was talking to?” Kidd asked, not daring to bring his voice above a whisper.
“Tanya Green,” Zoe replied. “We’ll track her down in the morning. Her phone number should be in James’ phone if the guys are correct.”
