Page 92 of Little Children
Warren swallowed loudly, telling her a lot. He knew something, and he was terrified.
‘You know kids are going missing, and that kids are turning up dead and beaten. From abduction to murder, I’m working out how many crimes I can arrest you for.’
‘I don’t do anything, I swear,’ he said, almost falling onto the sofa.
For his legs to fold on him so easily, Kim believed him.
‘But you know stuff, so let’s start there.’
‘I can’t. They’ll know. They’ll hurt me.’
‘We can do this down at the station if you’d feel safer.’
‘God, no, definitely not. I just can’t put my family in that kind of?—’
‘Everyone’s got a family, Warren. But okay, let’s talk hypotheticals.’
He nodded.
‘Is it possible that boys from this gym have been trafficked into an underground fighting league?’
‘It’s possible,’ he said, looking behind him even though the place was in darkness.
‘And is it possible that your boss, the gym owner, might be heavily involved?’
Warren nodded.
‘Was the fire a set-up? A distraction to make Josh’s abduction easier?’
Again, he nodded.
‘When did you know?’
‘I didn’t know for certain,’ Warren said as the air seemed to leave his body. His flesh crumpled in on itself. ‘I got suspicious that something had happened when I questioned the camera angle the following day. The same company’s been servicing them for years. They’d never left one positioned like that before.’
‘You think your boss moved it?’
Warren nodded.
‘Why Josh?’ Kim asked. There must have been hundreds of boys passing through these doors.
‘Josh had talent. He had skill from the minute he stepped into the ring. He had a gift that couldn’t be taught and the right amount of anger to go with it. He could have been a professional,’ Warren said with fondness in his tone.
Kim took out her phone and thrust it towards him.
‘That’s Josh now.’
Warren’s mouth dropped open as his face drained of all colour.
Kim could see that he wanted to look away but couldn’t. Not until his own body betrayed him and he turned to the side and vomited.
Penn grabbed a wastepaper bin and placed it beside him.
‘Okay, okay, put it away,’ he begged before making more retching noises.
Kim waited.
‘Th… that’s not boxing.’
