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Chapters (62)
  1. Title
  2. Copyright
  3. Contents
  4. About the Author
  5. About the Book
  6. Dedication
  7. Your Worst Nightmare
  8. ONE
  9. TWO
  10. THREE
  11. FOUR
  12. FIVE
  13. SIX
  14. SEVEN
  15. EIGHT
  16. NINE
  17. The Answer to All Your Prayers
  18. TEN
  19. ELEVEN
  20. TWELVE
  21. THIRTEEN
  22. FOURTEEN
  23. FIFTEEN
  24. SIXTEEN
  25. SEVENTEEN
  26. EIGHTEEN
  27. NINETEEN
  28. TWENTY
  29. TWENTY-ONE
  30. TWENTY-TWO
  31. TWENTY-THREE
  32. TWENTY-FOUR
  33. TWENTY-FIVE
  34. TWENTY-SIX
  35. TWENTY-SEVEN
  36. TWENTY-EIGHT
  37. TWENTY-NINE
  38. THIRTY
  39. THIRTY-ONE
  40. Somebody Else’s Child
  41. THIRTY-TWO
  42. THIRTY-THREE
  43. THIRTY-FOUR
  44. THIRTY-FIVE
  45. THIRTY-SIX
  46. THIRTY-SEVEN
  47. THIRTY-EIGHT
  48. THIRTY-NINE
  49. FORTY
  50. FORTY-ONE
  51. FORTY-TWO
  52. FORTY-THREE
  53. FORTY-FOUR
  54. FORTY-FIVE
  55. FORTY-SIX
  56. FORTY-SEVEN
  57. FORTY-EIGHT
  58. FORTY-NINE
  59. Sunlight on Water
  60. July
  61. September
  62. Acknowledgements

‘Liam I don’t know about,’ she says. ‘He’s not officially our case. But I’ve seen a fair bit of Evan, and I have to say I think he’s finding his way. His own way, at least. He isn’t hanging out with his mates down the skate-park or anything, and the parents are still concerned that he’s stuck in his own little time warp, that he’s suffering from arrested development. And maybe he is, but maybe that’s OK. If he wants to stay a youngster for a couple of years – or even for the rest of his life – does it matter? Isn’t there a bit of Peter Pan in all of us that would rather not grow up? Given a choice, I’d love to spend my time building tree-houses. He’s not shut away in a dark room taking way too many drugs and hooked on video games, which is what a lot of people would call normal, these days. He’s making the best of the terrible, awful hand life dealt him, and I think we can all learn from that.’

Ron smiles.

‘Very philosophical.’

‘We have to keep learning. Life’s a shark pool. If sharks stop swimming, they die. If we stop learning, we sink.’

‘And what shark’s eating you today, Inspector?’

‘Oh, I don’t know.’ Not really hungry, she lays down her fork. ‘The way it was all handled – which wasn’t exactly badly, but we made some mistakes – I’m not proud of that. Those mistakes weren’t far off being fatal errors. It’s all reactive, changing priorities every five minutes, so there’s never enough time to do a thorough job. But while we were being transferred on to other cases – which I admit were important, it wasn’t like we moved on to handbag-snatching or sheep-rustling – Evan was still lost, still waiting to be found. And we weren’t looking.’

Ron studies her.

‘You didn’t know that. You and I know that he was likely to be dead within days, maybe within hours of the snatch. People like Campbell and the Chief make difficult decisions. That’s why they make the big money. You only have to do as you’re told. They’re the ones doing the telling, and those are tough calls they make.’

‘I know. But if you hadn’t got involved and done a bit of the legwork, we might never have made that connection to Prentice, and those thirteen would still be out there now.’

‘We broke the rules. It paid dividends. We were lucky.’

‘We have to play by rules. Those we’re hunting don’t.’

Ron picks up one of his chips with his fingers and holds it out to Naylor.

‘Carbohydrate and fat deficiency,’ he says. ‘Bad for your mental well-being. Have a chip.’

Smiling, she takes it.