EPILOGUE

Jess felt little satisfaction in Martin Brass’s conviction; the judge had given him life with no parole.

It had been six weeks since she’d heard from Darren, and Clive Marshall’s empty assurances provided no comfort. Her dad had made discreet enquiries over in Stoke, but after he was threatened at gunpoint, then beaten by two Eastern European thugs they suspected where connected to the OCG Darren was infiltrating; Jess begged him to stop, for fear of losing another precious loved one.

It broke her heart not knowing what had happened to Darren, and she vowed to never stop looking for him, but despite the sleepless nights and emotional torment, she had to try and move forward for the kids’ sake.

***

Aware of the outrage and sensitivity surrounding Our Lady and St Patrick’s children’s home abuse scandal, Leek and Moorlands Council made a bold decision to open a public inquiry and bulldoze the kids home, in an attempt to go some way to healing the truly shocking events that took place there between 1980 and 1985.

As the sun dipped below the horizon, casting long shadows over the desolate moors enveloping the rubble of the infamous children's home, the relentless hum of the JCB excavator unearthed a patch of soil undisturbed for over three decades. Abruptly, a ground worker thrust his right hand into the air, signalling an urgent halt to the earthmover. Amidst the churned mud, between his worn wellington boots, the hollow gaze of a child's skull emerged, piercing through the layers of time with haunting significance.