Page 120 of Child's Play
‘It’s that Robinson kid,’ she explained. ‘The one who died recently.’
‘What about him?’ Bryant asked as the guv spotted him.
‘I’ve been through all the media reports and there’s not a great deal of detail, but he didn’t just die, Bryant. This twelve-year-old kid took his own life.’
Eighty-Nine
Penn resisted the urge to call out to his trembling brother for fear it could startle him into falling over the edge.
He could hear a faint whimpering coming from behind the woollen hat that had been pulled down over his head.
He ached to run to Jasper across the forty feet of tarmac racetrack that led to the grassy verge at the edge of the site. But he knew that his brother was not here alone.
‘Aah, so you’ve finally worked it out,’ Doug said, appearing from behind the building.
‘Yeah, I followed your trail of breadcrumbs, you bastard, now get my brother away from that edge.’
‘Jasper’s okay, aren’t you mate? I explained to him that we’re gonna play a little game and that you were coming to play too.’
Penn was watching Jasper’s body twitch and try to turn away from the ravine because he’d heard his voice. He was looking at the back of his brother’s head. One false move and he knew his brother would step forward and fall to his death.
‘Jasper knows to stay perfectly still until I tell him to move,’ Doug said, standing approximately ten feet away from his brother. All that separated them was a cut-out in the ground. At any second Doug could leap the two-foot gap and push Jasper down into the ravine, but if Jasper tried to move towards Doug’s voice he would fall through the cut in the ground.
‘Stay still, buddy,’ Penn called. ‘Everything is gonna be okay. I promise. Just don’t move.’
‘O… Okay, Ozzy,’ his brother said, and Penn could have cried.
His brother had never been able to say Austen, so he’d been Aussie and then become Ozzy over time.
‘Doug and I are just going to have a chat and I need you to stay still for me. Okay?’
He nodded.
Penn turned his attention to his former colleague.
‘How could you do it, you bastard?’
‘What exactly did I do?’ he asked, popping a piece of gum into his mouth.
‘Was it the money? Was that it? They pay you well?’
‘Still don’t know what you’re saying, mate,’ he said, smartly.
‘You must have been laughing your fucking head off while I’ve been chasing my own tail all week. But I’ve got it all now.
‘I wondered why Mr Kapoor kept saying he’d been told numerous times about his security. I knew of only once but you went back, didn’t you? To find out if he’d made any improvements, and when he hadn’t you informed the Reed gang that the place was good for it. Told them the dummy camera wasn’t real so they could hit it. How many others have you done it with, Doug? How long you been telling them who to hit?’
‘I knew you’d work it out eventually but no one’s gonna believe you. Cos let’s be honest, that’s pretty fucking thin.’
‘I noticed that you kept pointing towards Lynne having new things. Her car, flashing her cash about buying drinks. Always trying to cover yourself, Doug, but you won’t get out of this.’
Doug smiled. ‘Oh, I think I will, but tell me more.’
‘You found Ricky Drake and sent him into Lynne to interview. No link back to you, but you overplayed your hand with Irina. You told her she’d best keep her mouth shut when I sent you to check on her story. She panicked and realised she was in too deep after the neighbour was killed. She came and told the truth.
‘It was you that planted the blood-soaked tee shirt in Nuryef’s shed and then directed me to find it. You bought a brand new tee shirt and smeared it with blood from the clothes or shoes of the real killer.’
‘And of course you can prove all of this, eh, mate? Ah, actually it’s getting thinner every time you open your mouth. Even if it was all true, you can’t prove a fucking thing.’
