Page 50 of Little Children
Stacey waited.
‘Not many friends, respectful to teachers, doesn’t go looking for fights but always wins them, and he seemed to think his family were planning on getting rid of him.’
‘Blimey, not bad,’ she said, trying to reconcile the matchstick-model maker with the terror that his family had portrayed.
‘Yeah, and the boss wants me looking at flights to Thailand. Looks like Skidmore might be on one of them. Any luck with the footage?’ Penn asked, taking two cans of Coke from his man bag. He slid one across the table towards her.
‘Nothing so far, but…’ Her words trailed away as she glanced back at the screen. In the few seconds since she’d looked away, someone had slid into the booth opposite Lewis.
It was Kevin. The fifteen-year-old brother who said he hadn’t seen Lewis once he’d left the house.
The older boy leaned forward, elbows on the table. Lewis took another sip of his pop and stared down at it.
Despite not being able to hear the words, it was easy to see that Kevin was doing all the talking – and quite loudly. His posture was forward and animated. Occasionally, Lewis would shake his head, but he continued to stare at his drink. Kevin paused for breath now and then or to look around the café, but then went right back into his urgent speech.
Lewis only offered head shakes and shrugs as responses.
Kevin took something from his pocket and thrust it at Lewis. It was a phone.
Lewis refused to take it, shaking his head vigorously.
Kevin also shook his head with what appeared to be despair as he put the phone back in his pocket.
He pushed himself up and stood at the end of the table as though giving Lewis one last chance.
Lewis didn’t move a muscle, not even when his brother passed by him, balled his fist and gave him a good smack on the side of his head.
Given what Penn had just said, Stacey couldn’t help but wonder which member of his family had wanted to see him gone.
Twenty-Nine
It always felt surreal to Kim when they visited the same property at both ends of the day.
Their meeting with the Stevens family had been their first of the day. Darkness was now falling around them, yet they still didn’t have a clue where Lewis was.
‘Gonna start charging you lot rent,’ Bobby Stevens grumbled, stepping aside for them to enter.
Kim was doing her absolute best to keep in mind that this was the family of a missing boy. Either her empathy tank was running on fumes, or the vibes they were giving off didn’t match the distraught and concerned family dynamic she usually encountered.
‘No, we haven’t found him yet,’ Kim said pointedly, entering the home. ‘I’m sure that was going to be your next question.’
‘Not really. I’ve already said that he’ll be found when he wants to be.’
‘Mr Stevens, why are you so convinced he’ll turn up safe and sound?’
‘He’s a resourceful kid,’ he said, heading into the kitchen.
Unlike the day before, they appeared to have caught the tail end of teatime. Shirley was putting away the dishes, and Kim could hear the younger kids squabbling over the remote control in the other room.
Free to speak openly, Kim continued. ‘But did he take anything? Clothes, shoes, money, valuables? When kids run away, they normally take a few bare essentials, even if it’s just some bags of crisps and a chocolate bar.’
She was no longer content to let Lewis’s parents bury themselves in ignorance.
Bobby Stevens shrugged as Shirley turned and leaned against the countertop.
‘You want to destroy our hope of getting him back?’ she asked.
‘I want you to be realistic about where he is. Most runaways, even the ones that return quickly, undertake some kind of planning. Maybe they pack one bag with some favourite things; they definitely take a few items of clothing. Lewis took nothing. He walked out of the arcade and just disappeared.’
