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

boys and always tended to keep his head down and not draw attention to himself. With the other three teasing him, loudly, everyone who walked past kept looking in his direction.

‘Come on, Lee, give us the details. What else did Groper Grover do to you?’

‘Leave me alone.’

‘Did he make love to you?’

‘Oh God, can you imagine his sex face?’ Craig laughed.

‘I bet he looked like he was having a heart attack.’

‘While he was screwing you did he ask you to call him daddy? Did he pretend you were a girl—?’

Lee snapped. He raised his fists and punched Lewis in the face so hard he was knocked off balance. Lee took the opportunity to pounce.

It was at that moment Matilda and Valerie entered the custody suite. Two boys were brawling on the floor, the other two were jeering them on and there wasn’t a single uniformed officer in sight.

‘Aaron, there’s a phone call for you. It’s Katrina. Again’

‘Shit. I’m doing to have to take it. Do you mind?’ Aaron asked. The look of worry was back on his face.

‘No. Go on, we haven’t started yet,’ Rory said.

‘Am I all right to pop to the toilet then, before we start?’ the appropriate adult asked.

‘Of course. Turn left just before the double doors and it’s your second on your right.’

‘Thank you.’

Rory closed the interview room door behind him and looked at Callum Nixon sitting at the table. They were alone.

‘Can I ask you a question?’ Rory asked, sitting down.

‘Don’t you need to wait for the others to come back?’

‘This isn’t part of the interview. I just want to get something clear in my head.’

‘Shoot,’ Callum replied, sitting back and relaxing.

‘I’ve looked at your file, read about what you did to end up at Starling House. I want to know why you did what you did, basically.’

‘You mean, why I killed those teachers?’

‘Yes.’

‘Why?’

‘I’m interested. I want to know what makes somebody, a child, kill another person.’

‘Why? You got a few victims lined up for yourself?’ he sniggered.

‘No. Like I said, I’m interested.’

‘Well, if you must know, they pissed me off. They were horrible teachers. High and mighty. Thought that just because they were adults and we were kids they could do what they wanted, and we just had to suck it up and go along with it.’

‘But you could say that about all teachers. There were a few at my school I didn’t like.’

‘I got suspended. For something stupid. I wasn’t having that. You don’t suspend me.’

Rory guessed correctly Callum Nixon fitted into the narcissistic role of a killer. ‘But being suspended is part of a school’s policy. It’s not something they do lightly. They obviously thought they had a reason.’

‘Maybe they did, but I didn’t.’

‘They were their rules, though. Not yours. You have to abide by the rules set down by the school.’

Callum smiled. ‘If I don’t like the rules, I don’t abide by them. I stand up to them.’

‘And that’s why you were suspended.’

‘And that’s why I killed them,’ he grinned.

‘But what made you think killing them was the ideal situation?’

‘What other solution was there? They wouldn’t listen,’ he said, raising his voice. ‘They wouldn’t see my side of things. I was always the bad guy. So if they wanted me to be the bad guy then I was going to be the best bad guy ever.’ His smile changed into a smirk. He looked at Rory out of the top of his eyes.

‘Are you sorry for what you did?’ Rory asked after a beat of silence.

‘Fuck, no. I did the world a favour. Two dickhead teachers in a shit school.’

‘Nobody has the right to take another life, Callum. It’s not your place to judge.’

‘It’s not yours either. So don’t go looking at me like I’m a piece of shit on your designer shoes.’

‘I’m not judging. I want to know why you thought killing someone was the only way out of the mess you found yourself in.’

‘I wasn’t in a mess. Those teachers needed to pay for what they did to me.’

‘Why not just vandalize their cars or something?’

‘Because I wasn’t eight years old,’ Callum scoffed.

‘Surely your parents taught you right from wrong and instilled in you the fact you don’t fight your battles with violence—’

That was the trigger. Rory mentioning Callum’s parents and the way they brought him up was the catalyst. Rory saw the change in Callum’s eyes before he finished speaking. What happened next was a complete blur as Callum leapt from his seat and jumped over the table.

FIFTY-SIX

‘I will not have that kind of behaviour in my station,’ Valerie shouted at the boys of Starling House once the fight was broken up. ‘And where were you lot?’ she asked the uniformed officers who had come running into the custody suite once they heard the commotion.

There was nothing they could say.

‘We need to arrange for them to be moved elsewhere. They can’t go back to Starling House. They’ll have to go to other institutions,’ Matilda said.

‘Right, leave it with me. I’ll make a few calls. In the meantime, they’ll have to be placed in the holding cells.’

‘You can’t do that we haven’t done anything wrong,’ Craig Hodge spoke up.

‘You’re a convicted killer. You’ve done everything wrong.’ Valerie said. ‘Sergeant, clear the cells wherever possible and get these boys locked up. I’ll deal with why there was nobody watching over four murderers later.’ She turned to the boys. ‘Don’t worry, it’s nearly lunchtime, you’ll be fed and well looked after. God forbid we infringe your human rights.’

Valerie took Matilda by the arm and led her to the corner of the suite. ‘Matilda, get Richard Grover interviewed. I want names, dates, and details of everything he’s ever done to the boys at Starling House past and present. Then get him charged and get him out of here.’

‘I was just about to do that.’

‘No. I want you to solve this Ryan Asher case by the end of the day. Have you seen the amount of press that’s building out there? In