When the Evil Waits by M Lee (top fiction books of all time txt) 📕

to remember something. ‘And Tony Greene texted me saying they were going to the basketball court so it seemed a good time to ask Dad.’

Emily glanced across at Ridpath. Daniel was telling them everything, he just needed prompting to remember the details.

Ridpath remained as stony-faced as ever.

‘So you went to the park. What time was it when you left the house?’

‘I dunno.’

‘Had the BBC News started?’

‘I think it had. I remember hearing that rotten music as we were going out the door.’

‘So you went to the park, crossing the main road with your brother…’

‘Yeah, I held his hand like my dad said and waited for the green man.’

‘Perfect, that’s exactly the right way to cross the road. What did you see when you walked to the park?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Did you see anybody? Hear anything?’

Daniel closed his eyes, obviously reliving the walk. ‘There were a couple of men fixing one of the fairground trucks and there was the smell of cut grass everywhere. I remember Dave sneezing, he hated that smell.’

‘So you arrived at the park and went to the playground. Why there?’

Daniel frowned. ‘Sorry, I don’t understand.’

‘Why did you go to the playground? It’s a big park, you could have gone anywhere.’

Daniel smiled as he understood the question. ‘Dave wanted to play on the swings and it’s where we always met up with Tony Greene.’

Once again, Emily glanced across at Ridpath. He carried on writing in his notepad, not returning her look.

‘Good. When did Tony Greene and your friends arrive?’

‘I dunno.’

‘Was it five minutes or ten minutes after you were in the playground?’

‘I dunno, not long, though. We weren’t there long.’

‘So you met them. What did you do next?’

‘Like I said, we went to the court to play basketball.’

‘Leaving Dave on the swings.’

‘Yeah, he wanted to carry on in the playground.’

‘It must be a bit of a pain having a younger brother trailing around you all the time,’ said Ridpath.

Daniel smiled. ‘Yeah, it is,’ he answered quickly before remembering and changing his response. ‘Yeah, it was.’

Emily pushed a sheet of paper and a marker pen across the table to Daniel. ‘Could you do me a favour? Could you draw the park, putting in the basketball court and the playground?’

Daniel seemed glad of the change, giving him something to do. Ridpath glanced at the time: 4.45. He saw the social worker, Ruby Grimes, had seen it too.

Daniel finished drawing and held up the paper. ‘Here’s the court and here’s the playground. The path we took here leads to the main entrance.’

‘Aren’t there a few trees between the court and the playground? Could you draw them for me?’

He quickly drew a couple of trees in a child’s style.

‘Now where were the baskets? Can you draw them in?’

‘Sure, they’re at either end. But we always play this way because one of the baskets is broken and nobody’s fixed it.’

‘One last favour. Can you draw a circle to show where you were and the rest of the players, putting a name above each one?’

‘But we were moving around all the time?’

‘No worries, show me roughly where you were.’

‘We were playing two attackers versus three defenders. I was an attacker.’

‘All the time?’

‘No, some of the time I played defence.’

When he had finished naming the players and their positions, Emily looked at the drawing and said, ‘So when did you notice the man talking to Dave?’

Daniel looked down and mumbled. ‘I don’t know what time it was.’

‘Make a guess. Had you been playing for five minutes? Ten minutes? Fifteen minutes?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘Could it have been twenty minutes?’

‘Daniel has already said he doesn’t know, DS Parkinson.’

‘And when did you run across to speak to the man?’

‘I dunno.’

‘Daniel has answered the question.’

Emily held her hands up. ‘This is important, Dan. Remember what we said earlier about telling the truth?’

The boy looked like he had been caught in a trap.

‘Because when we talked to Tony Greene, he said you never left the basketball court. You stayed there all the time playing the game.’

Daniel looked across at Ruby Grimes, then at Ridpath and finally at Chrissy Wright, none of whom reacted.

Emily asked the question. ‘Did you run across to Dave?’

Daniel Carsley stared down at his feet and shook his head.

‘I’m sorry, Dan, I’ve got to hear your answer.’

‘No,’ he said quietly.

‘You didn’t run across to talk to a man, did you?’

‘No.’

‘Did you see a man?’

‘No.’

‘Dan,’ said Ridpath, speaking for the first time.

The boy looked up, his eyes full of tears.

‘You mustn’t blame yourself. You did nothing wrong.’

‘But if I’d looked after him better, like my dad said, then he wouldn’t be dead. He’d still be alive.’ There were tears in his eyes. ‘It’s ma fault.’

Ridpath understood the emotions the boy was feeling. That overwhelming sense of guilt, that sat in the middle of the chest like a lump of concrete. When he spoke again, he knew the words were meant to reassure himself as much as for the boy. ‘It’s not your fault, Dan. A bad man hurt your brother, don’t blame yourself.’

‘I think it’s time to end this interview, Daniel is unable to carry on.’

‘One last question, Ruby… please,’ asked Ridpath.

She nodded.

‘Dan, why did you leave Scotland? Was your dad hitting you?’

The boy exploded. ‘You don’t get it, do you?’ he yelled. ‘It was my ma, my ma who was hurting me and Dave. She was sick and couldn’t control herself. She kept hitting us. Dad took the blame but it wasn’t him.’

‘This interview is definitely over,’ said Ruby.

Chapter 65

Ruby Grimes took Daniel back upstairs so he could dry his eyes before he sat down to dinner. The last thing she wanted was for the other residents to see he had been crying.

Ridpath, Emily and Chrissy were left alone in the room. The place was cold as if a shroud had been wrapped around it. In this case the shroud was a young boy’s guilt.

Eventually, Ridpath broke the silence.

‘Did you get everything on tape, Chrissy?’

‘Yeah.’ The answer was monosyllabic, almost sullen in its tone.

He checked his watch.