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

set-up here – a secure unit for teenage killers – and yes, they are prisoners, but that doesn’t mean we have to keep them in cages. We have an excellent security system here and state of the art CCTV. The inmates are allowed to access limited parts of the building as and when they see fit.’

‘I wouldn’t call your security system excellent or state of the art. You can hear the cameras whirring away from right down the corridor. I also noticed the cameras in the recreation room are dummies. Why is that?’

Kate looked down. She was biting her bottom lip. ‘The cameras were outdated and needed replacing. Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough money in the budget for new ones. Gavin said he would install fake cameras until the next financial year.’

‘And do BB Security know about this?’ Matilda frowned at Kate’s lack of emotion. Everything she said was spoken like an automated machine.

‘I am not required to inform BB Security on every tiny detail of the day-to-day running of Starling House. They have every faith in my management skills.’

‘I wouldn’t call a lack of funding for security equipment a tiny detail.’

‘I have been here for almost twenty years. I’ve been in charge almost eight. I am more than capable of running this place without outside interference.’

‘Until now,’ Matilda said with a sly smile.

‘Are you questioning my leadership?’

‘I am.’

‘You have absolutely no right—’

Finally, a raised voice, a display of emotion.

‘Mrs Moloney,’ Matilda interrupted. ‘You have been able to run this place without any form of supervision. You’re hiding something from me, I know you are, and I intend to find out.’

‘I am hiding nothing.’

‘Really? Tell me about Elly Caine.’

Kate’s eyes widened at the mention of the name and her lips pursed. She stopped breathing. ‘Elly Caine?’

‘Yes,’

‘How do you know about her?’

‘I just do.’

‘Elly Caine,’ Kate began, choking back the words, ‘Elly Caine was a member of staff here. She only stayed a few months. She had trouble with the boys.’

‘What kind of trouble?’

Kate closed her eyes. It was as if thinking about the woman and what she had done caused her great physical pain. She unlocked a drawer in her desk and took out a thin brown file. She handed it across to Matilda.

‘This is Elly’s file. Obviously, I’d like it back. What Elly did was an incredibly dark day for Starling House. However, I sorted it out. I don’t want to be reminded of it again.’

Gingerly, Matilda took the file and placed it on her lap. Kate’s eyes would not leave it.

‘You should have given me this earlier,’ Matilda said. The terse look on her face showed she was fuming with Kate.

‘I know. I’m sorry.’

‘There better not be anything else you’re hiding from me.’

The walls of the room felt as if they were closing in on them both. The tension had ratcheted up several degrees. ‘Tell me about the inmates. I’m guessing once they reach eighteen they’re moved on,’ Matilda said eventually.

Kate took a slow deep breath. ‘Once a place becomes available. We’ve had some inmates here until they’re twenty. As you know the prisons are awfully overcrowded.’

‘Have you had any inmates who have given you cause for concern?’

‘They all give me cause for concern. When you take away someone’s freedom and force them to be with people they wouldn’t normally associate with on the outside, tempers can become frayed. Sometimes this place is like a volcano just waiting to erupt. It is the duty of my staff to help calm matters before they explode.’

‘But that’s not always possible – like we’ve just seen.’

‘That’s right. Obviously, I don’t know the circumstances over this current upset, but I’m guessing it will be something incredibly simple. Maybe one of the boys was reading someone else’s magazine or something petty like that.’

‘After Monday night I would have thought you’d be more concerned than you seem to be.’

‘DCI Darke, if I took every little outburst to heart then I’d be a nervous wreck by now and probably not in a fit state to work here.’

‘So it’s a stressful job.’

‘Highly.’

‘For you and your staff.’

‘Yes.’

‘Someone could just snap at any moment.’

‘Ye—’ Kate stopped herself. ‘I suppose it’s possible,’ she admitted finally.

‘So one of your staff could have snapped on Monday night and killed Ryan Asher?’

‘Although I agree that that it is possible, Ryan was only here for a day. What could possibly have happened in that short time for one of my staff to snap – as you call it?’

‘I’ve no idea,’ Matilda said, stressing the ‘I’. ‘You were here. What did happen on Monday?’

‘Nothing.’

‘Well, something must have. Who knew Ryan was coming on Sunday night?’

‘Just the staff working here at the time. We don’t get a lot of notice when a new inmate is arriving, for obvious reasons.’

‘You must have all suspected Ryan was going to end up here during his trial. It was well publicised. The odds were in favour of a guilty verdict.’

‘Yes,’ Kate nodded. ‘We did talk about him coming here.’

‘So, in actual fact, everyone who works here assumed Ryan Asher would end up here.’

‘Yes.’

‘What were people’s feelings towards Ryan and his crime?’

‘The same as everyone else’s in the country. We’re not robots, DCI Darke. At the end of the day we’re people and we have families. We all knew what Ryan did and we all had our opinion. However, we’re all professional and able to put our feelings to one side.’

‘Well, someone obviously wasn’t able to because they took Ryan from his room, laid him out on a pool table and stabbed him twelve times. Who do you think could have done that Mrs Moloney?’ Matilda was getting riled. Kate’s stony façade and reluctance to name any member of staff with a short fuse or a quick temper was starting to get on her nerves.

‘I don’t know. I genuinely, honestly, hand-on-heart, do not know,’ she said, raising her voice for the first time. ‘I personally hired and vetted all staff working here. Obviously, if one of them turns out to