Chapters (68)
- Cover
- Dedication
- NOW
- One
- BEFORE
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- NOW
- Twenty-One
- BEFORE
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- NOW
- Thirty-Nine
- BEFORE
- Forty
- Forty-One
- Forty-Two
- Forty-three
- Forty-Four
- Forty-Five
- Forty-Six
- Forty-Seven
- Forty-Eight
- Forty-Nine
- Fifty
- Fifty-One
- NOW
- Fifty-Two
- Fifty-Three
- Fifty-Four
- Fifty-Five
- AFTER
- Fifty-Six
- Acknowledgements
- About the Author
Natasha finished another bite of her toast, then wiped her mouth free of crumbs. ‘I don’t know much. We’ve had a few clients who have used their… services, shall we say? I tried to get more information about them for a long time, but ran into a brick wall. Seemed like they’d disappeared, but I wouldn’t be surprised to hear they’ve just found another avenue to make nuisances of themselves.’
‘Nuisances?’
Natasha made as if to speak, then hesitated. Thought for a second, then opened her mouth again. ‘I think you have a good idea what I’m talking about.’
Mark smiled. Tried not to slip. ‘What do you know about them? It might be helpful.’
‘They were set up by some rich bloke who lost his son,’ Natasha said, after she’d let a few seconds of silence grow between them. ‘Killed himself because he was being bullied. From what I can gather, he was just the money in the operation. Had no idea what was going on behind closed doors.’
‘And how did you become aware of it, as a social worker, I mean?’
‘We had a few kids who’d been on the website and spoken to the people behind it. Counselled, was the term they used. A couple of the kids thought it helped them. Said it gave them some skills to cope, that sort of thing.’
‘Not all of them, though,’ Mark said, shifting uneasily in his chair, the salad in front of him picked at, but mostly untouched. ‘How much reach did this website have?’
‘I could never really work that out – how many local kids used the site before it went dark. I know of five who came through our service, but it was probably more than that. Then, if you go nationwide – worldwide even – you’re into god knows how many people. From what I could gather though, there were only a few face-to-face meetings. And they were all local.’
‘What happened to make you so interested in it?’
‘There’s not much I can tell you on that. All I know is that a couple of those kids went to separate meetings and both of them were very scared to say anything about it at all. I tried – we all tried – to get more out of them, but they just refused to say a word. Something very shady about that, I thought. So I started looking into it a bit more. Didn’t get very far. I spoke to the rich bloke…’
‘Kevin Blackhurst.’
‘That’s his name,’ Natasha replied, but Mark suddenly had a feeling she knew his name quite well. She wanted to see how much he knew.