A Room Full of Killers, Michael Wood [best books for students to read txt] 📗

‘I’m sorry. Did your husband mind moving here?’

‘Brian divorced me. Who wants to be married to the aunt of Ryan Asher? Look.’ Julia stood up and wiped away a tear before it formed. ‘I’m not going to tell you where my sister is, and I don’t care what kind of trouble Ryan has got himself involved in so you’ve had a wasted journey.’

Scott fished a card out of his inside pocket. ‘Would you please pass on my details to your sister? Tell her there has been an incident involving Ryan and to get in contact with us.’

He held the card out but Julia didn’t take it. He placed it carefully on the coffee table.

‘I’ll think about it,’ she said eventually.

‘Thank you. We’ll see ourselves out.’

‘Bloody hell, she’s full of anger, isn’t she?’ Faith said once they were back in the car.

Scott looked out of the driver’s side window at the house and saw Julia Palmer looking back at him through the grimy living room window.

‘I can understand why.’

‘She’s not going to be able to move on while she’s still living here. Did you see the furniture? It’s so old. I bet it’s the same furniture Ryan’s parents had. I’d love to have seen upstairs – I bet Ryan’s room is exactly how he left it. Creepy.’

‘So, Belinda Asher has changed her name to Lynne. What did she call the husband before she called him Paul?’

‘Oh … It began with an S.’

‘St … Stephen, Stan, Stefan … ’

‘Stewart, Stafford … ’

‘Stafford? Who the hell calls themselves Stafford?’ Scott said.

‘I’ve got an Uncle Stafford, thank you very much.’

‘Oh. Sorry. OK, Stafford then. Maybe even Stanislav.’

‘OK, say, for example, they’ve changed their names to Lynne and Stanislav, how are we going to track them down with no surname and no idea where they are?’

‘I don’t know,’ Scott sighed. ‘They need informing of their son’s death before the press end up printing it.’

‘You heard Julia, they want nothing more to do with Ryan. You can’t blame them either after what he did. They obviously don’t care. Look, you’ve given her your details. I think she’ll ring her sister and pass on the information. She’s probably on the phone to them right now. If we don’t hear anything then we leave it at that, and they’ll find out when it’s in the papers. We’ve done all we can.’

‘Hmm.’

‘And what does “hmm” mean?’

‘Nothing. Just hmm.’

Scott started the engine and drove away. On closer inspection there was something strange about number forty-two. There was a sense of sadness emanating from the brickwork. Maybe the dark aura of grief, loss, betrayal, anger and disbelief had remained in the house following the Asher’s departure.

Rory was in the boardroom at Starling House on his own. Before him on the table were the case files of all the inmates, which he kept adding to. On his laptop the night before he had found more and more cases from all over the world of children committing murder. He made notes and printed off potentially useful information that could help him understand why a child would kill. The only common link he could find so far, especially among children who killed their parents, was that they were abused, either physically, sexually, or mentally, by the very people they should have been able to trust.

One case he found online stood out more than the others. Thirteen-year-old Kyle Fisher from Scranton, Pennsylvania had been abused by his father for three years after his mother died in a car accident. The day before his fourteenth birthday, his sister, Tiffany, confided in him that she was pregnant and their father was the father of her baby. Kyle had no idea his sister was being abused too. The next morning, when Kyle should have been excited about opening birthday gifts, he sneaked into his father’s bedroom and shot him point-blank in the face, killing him instantly. During the trial, fifteen-year-old Tiffany stood in the dock, and, with her pregnancy showing, told the packed court room everything her father had done to her. Although Kyle admitted his crime, he walked away from court a free boy.

According to Callum Nixon’s file, he had been beaten by his father on a regular basis throughout his life. During a physical examination upon him entering Starling House, evidence of old injuries had been noted. His father must have hit him hard and often to sustain such signs of abuse.

Mark Parker had witnessed years of his father physically and mentally abusing his mother. When she left for sanctuary, he turned on Mark. His medical records showed signs of historic beatings, and his back was covered in burn scars.

So Sian appeared to be right. Upbringing was a definite factor in why these boys went on to kill. Lee Marriott’s parents had been overprotective. They refused him a life of his own and smothered him with their rules. He had rebelled against them in the only way he knew how. It was either kill them or, probably, take his own life.

Craig Hodge had killed his parents and his aunt and uncle. A psychiatric report dated before his crimes took place showed he had disturbed views on the world and was often paranoid his family were acting against him. A brain scan showed shadowing on his brain. Again, this was before the car crash which killed his parents. Was he led to kill because of his upbringing or from the way his brain was wired?

Then there was Lewis Chapman. Why had he decided to kill his little brother? Had he simply been watching too many horror films and become blurred with reality? Was he really just evil or was there something inside him which connected with killing? Maybe there was a chemical imbalance in his brain. Something else for him to Google when he got home.

TWENTY-THREE

‘Would you like an apricot Danish?’

Matilda was taken aback. ACC Valerie Masterson often offered a coffee whenever Matilda entered her office but this was the first time she