Kelly couldn’t sleep. Too many things whirred around her head. She guessed it to be still night-time but was surprised when she looked at her phone that it was 4.30 in the morning. Her mother always called it the witching hour, when demons and ghouls roamed the world.
She sighed and sat up in bed; there was nothing else for it, she might as well get up. She thought about Luke and Sadie spending the night in the cells, and what they’d done to their friend. Blackman had gone AWOL again, and she had entered his details on the PNC nationwide for immediate arrest with caution.
She went downstairs. There was no one else in the house. Johnny had taken Josie to see a movie and had gone home afterwards, guilty that he wasn’t spending enough time with her. Most parents in north Cumbria had suddenly become paranoid about the welfare of their children. Kelly experienced the same acute desire to protect those around her, and it manifested itself in visiting her mother. She’d gone to see her late last night and found her comfortable, but weak, and hooked up to a drip. She was also receiving regular doses of morphine from a syringe driver in her wrist.
She refilled the coffee machine (a Christmas present from Ted) and popped a pod into it. When she switched it on, it made percolating noses reminiscent of a Parisian bakery. Kelly figured that she would’ve been good at night-shift work, as the small hours seemed to suit her: they were quiet and private, giving her the head space she needed to tackle her job.
Her mind went back to her conversation with Ted. Faith had given up some of her last secrets, and now it was up to Kelly to find out what had happened to her after her so-called friends left her alone in the forest. Her suspects were varied. It could have been Bailey, Luke or Danny Stanton, though she was unclear how he was involved yet; he was awaiting interview in Dover. They already had Bailey’s DNA, and she was hoping that some of it had been found on Faith, but with freezing, one could never be sure. She wanted as many answers for the family as possible.
She decided that if she finished her coffee and had a long shower, by the time she’d dressed and stopped off in Penrith for another coffee, it wouldn’t be too early to pay a visit to Sadie Rawlinson in her cell. She knew from speaking to social services that teenage mental health was at breaking point, and children with mothers like Belinda Rawlinson, who were whacked on drugs for most of their existence, stood little chance of breaking the chains of learned behaviours. But she refused to dwell on it. Sadie was key. The girl had cracked halfway yesterday and then clammed up in the middle of a full-blown comedown.
When Kelly left the house, the dark sky hadn’t yet shown any sign of changing colour, and the street was empty and black. Pooley Bridge was deserted and the road to Penrith the same. The castle shone red in the emerging dawn and she parked behind Eden House. She wondered what sort of a night the kids had had. The cells were quiet, and she went to Sadie’s and swung the grate across. The girl sat on the small cot bed, rocking back and forth.
‘What do you want?’ she asked.
‘I want to talk to you, Sadie.’
‘Why?’
‘Because I don’t believe that what happened to your friend doesn’t hurt you. You’ve been pretty much blamed for everything, haven’t you? I want to hear your side. If you really want Mr Blackman out of your life, you need to tell me everything you know.’
There was a pause.
‘He’ll kill me.’ It was a whisper. Kelly got the uniform on duty to open the door.
‘Not if you tell me what he did. Sadie, listen to me. We can help you get clean, we can keep you away from all of them, but you have to tell me the truth.’
The girl had dark circles under her eyes and her hair was matted and greasy. Getting her clean would be a struggle. They had drug squad briefings every month and the tide was turning in favour of the addict. Money was being poured into detox and recovery, but altruistic as it was, there simply weren’t the incentives to keep the sobriety going: relapse ran at eighty-eight per cent. It was endemic.
‘Come on, I’ll make you a hot drink and get you something to eat.’
Sadie looked up, and Kelly thought she looked ten years older than her true age, and exhausted. She stood up and let the blanket fall away from her. Kelly hadn’t noticed how skinny she was. She led her upstairs and got some food from the small kitchen. The interview rooms were warm and there was a sofa for Sadie to curl up on. She visibly relaxed and accepted a hot chocolate as well as a prawn sandwich, which she devoured. The munchies were always strong in the absence of poison. Her hands shook.
‘Withdrawal?’ Kelly asked. Sadie nodded. ‘How much do you do?’
‘Enough. Faith could take it or leave it.’ The girl’s face crumpled and the tears came. Kelly waited.
Once Sadie had calmed a little, and the tears had subsided, Kelly began.
‘I’m going to record you, Sadie.’
The girl nodded.
Preliminaries out of the way, Kelly started with the forest.
‘You went to Whinlatter for a joyride and a party?’
Sadie nodded again.
‘Tell me for the tape; I need you to describe exactly what you remember.’
‘I never used to be addicted. He gave me more and more until I was.’ Sadie put her head in her hands and Kelly thought she might lose her again. The despair was palpable.
‘Who?’
‘Mr Blackman.’
‘Where? We found nothing in his flat.’
‘He was always careful. He has another place too, but I never went.’
‘Did Faith cause a problem? Did she threaten to snitch?’
‘We used to play this game where we’d take Faith to places and leave her there. We were animals.’
‘You regret the way you treated her?’
‘Yes! She was so sweet. I was jealous of her.’ It was a heartfelt admission, but it didn’t take away the fact that Faith’s death had indeed been caused by animals, and Kelly held that thought.
‘Luke said we should do the same that night. Faith begged us not to. She knew we were in the middle of nowhere. Danny came to do a deal with Luke. Faith had been drinking, but she was saying she wanted to go home and she was crying. I don’t think they knew what to do. When she started screaming and trying to leave the car, Luke pushed her out and phoned Bobby. Just to scare her.’
‘What about Justin?’
‘He’s terrified of Luke, he said nothing.’
‘And you?’
‘I tried to get between them. I tried to get out of the car, but I was so spiced.’
Sadie looked at her fingers and picked the skin around them; they were already red and sore. Then she put her hands to her face and began to sob, rocking back and forth on the sofa. Kelly couldn’t decipher her words and tried to be gently persuasive, but she was losing her.
‘Did you see Bobby arrive?’ The picture unfolding of Faith’s last moments was causing Kelly’s gut to turn over. She switched off the recording equipment. ‘Tell me, Sadie, or I will make sure you never get out of juvenile correction. You think you have it rough now; you haven’t lived. And don’t even think about whether I have the power to do it or not; believe me, I’ll make it my mission.’ She switched the equipment back on.
‘Bobby was on the phone to Mr Blackman when he arrived. I watched from the car, but then Luke took off and left her.’
‘With Bobby?’
Sadie nodded.
‘You need to be very careful what you tell me, Sadie, because you’ve already had one case against Mr Blackman dropped by the CPS. They now think that was a miscarriage of justice, but you’re telling me that he’s behind all of this? You planted those images, didn’t you?’
Sadie nodded.
‘You wanted him out of your lives?’
She nodded again.
‘What did he do?’
‘You won’t believe me. No one will. He’s so clever and he’ll never get caught. No one will ever believe us! Mr Clean, Mr Popular, Mr Friendly. Mr Fucking Devil!’ Sadie screamed.
It was the classic mantra of an abused child, and Kelly had heard it a thousand times before. Don’t tell: no one will believe your word against mine.
‘Tell me from the beginning,’ she said. ‘I believe you.’