Page 53 of Dying Truth
His lips pursed into an unpleasant sneer. ‘I can assure you, officer, that she’s lost a lot more than that.’
He turned and walked away from her. She saw little point in following him. He’d said all that he was going to say.
* * *
As she headed back into the hall Kim considered what she’d learned. Saffie wanted something from Eric, Eric was angry with Saffie, and Sadie had been angry with just about everyone.
‘What do we know?’ she asked her colleague, who took out his notebook.
‘So, the kid is fourteen-year-old Shaun Coffee-Todd, son of the newsreader and a former studio runner. He seemed fine in the previous class but never reached his next lesson. Apparently suffers with an allergy to nuts.’
‘Jesus,’ Kim said. She’d seen an anaphylactic shock reaction before and it wasn’t good.
The ringing of her phone stopped her thoughts.
She took a breath before answering.
‘Dawson,’ she said.
‘Kid didn’t make it, boss. Pronounced dead ten minutes ago.’
Kim ended the call and closed her eyes for a second before turning to Bryant.
‘This school has now given us two dead kids this week and it’s only Wednesday. What the fuck is going on?’
Thirty-Four
The cards filed into the candle room one by one.
Again, one chair was empty. The same chair.
A few glanced towards it but more did not.
‘Thank you all for coming,’ said the Joker, pulling out his chair.
The sound of wooden chair legs scraping on the concrete followed.
‘You all know that Six is dead?’ the Joker asked once everyone was seated.
There was a rumble that travelled around the circle.
The Joker turned to Seven. ‘Did you do it?’
Seven shook his head.
‘Answer, damn it,’ the Joker growled.
‘No, I didn’t get to him soon enough to…’
‘You didn’t make him eat a nut or something as a punishment for breaking the rules?’ the Joker asked, wondering if Seven had done so without realising the consequences.
Seven shook his head, vehemently. ‘No, no, I was going to push some tacks up through the soles of his shoes, but I hadn’t found the right moment.’
Yes, a popular punishment. Just three or four tacks and the wearer didn’t realise until their own body weight had pushed the flesh down onto the sharp points. It would have done the trick and taught him a valuable lesson.
The Joker sighed heavily. ‘If you did this, you can tell us. If this was your punishment for his rule break, which went wrong and you didn’t understand the consequences, tell us now. You know that the secret will be safe here. Remember Noah?’
Seven nodded.
