Like This, for Ever

traces of city grime. Her garden looked strangely beautiful, but beyond it was a big city, and it was no place for anyone to be out alone, especially not a child.
    ‘He’s exceptionally bright,’ said Lacey. ‘Has incredible powers of observation. But with issues. Almost certainly has OCD. I see him doing things with his hands, muttering to himself when he thinks I’m not looking. He’s very knowledgeable about tides and the river, he knows stuff the killer would need to know. And he’s been taking a very keen interest in the murders. Wanting to discuss them with me.’
    ‘Where is he now?’
    ‘We don’t know,’ she said. ‘But another child has gone missing tonight. Wherever Barney is, he could be with his latest victim.’
    ‘Hence the sense of urgency.’
    Urgency? Jesus, she wasn’t sure how much longer she could stay in one place. She wondered how Gayle Mizon was getting on, sounding out the Peter Pan theory with the MIT.
    ‘Evi, a few minutes ago, you said you’d hoped I wasn’t involved in the South Bank murders. I was just asking you about seriously disturbed kids. How did you know what case I was calling about?’
    Evi gave a heavy, sad sigh. ‘I’ve been keeping a watching brief on the South Bank case,’ she said. ‘Quite a few of us have, actually, because it’s been so completely atypical. No violence, no sexual motive. It’s all been about showing off, misdirections, fooling around. One of my colleagues spotted the Peter Pan quotations, and that got us thinking. Some of the references have come from the book, rather than the stage play, which isn’t so readily available. Others have come from the official sequel,
Peter Pan in Scarlet
. Quite a lot have even come from the 2003 film. Typically, who’s most familiar with the Peter Pan story? Kids.’
    ‘You didn’t say anything?’ Lacey knew she sounded judgemental, just couldn’t help it.
    ‘Lacey, what did we really have other than an idea? Possibly a completely daft one? Child killers are extremely rare. The few we have almost invariably come from a background of serious neglect and abuse. They’ve been brutalized from a very young age and they deal with it by passing the violence on. Are you with me?’
    ‘Of course.’
    ‘But the South Bank murders show no violence, which argues against them being the work of an abused kid. It was a feeling, a hunch. Nothing more. Only now it seems you have the same one.’
    ‘Except I was thinking of a child who identified with a character from literature. Someone who wanted to stay a child for ever and keep his buddies with him.’
    Silence again, while Evi was thinking.
Come on, come on …
    ‘The victims didn’t know each other, though,’ she said. ‘They weren’t buddies. And the killer can’t have known them all even slightly well or there’d have been a connection you’d have spotted.’
    Suddenly, it was hard to breathe. Lacey strode outside, almost panting with the effort of just moving forwards. ‘Shit, you’re right. I’ve just sent the investigation team off on another wild-goose chase and his little boy is going to be dead before the night’s out.’
    ‘Lacey, get a hold of yourself. You’re almost there. I do think your killer could be a child, and from what you’ve told me about this Barney, he seems a very likely candidate. I just don’t buy your afraid-of-growing-up theory. No, stay with me. As I understand it, murder is driven by compulsion. Sex, avarice, rage. Strong but very simple emotions. Fear of growing up? No, that’s too complex. I think the Peter Pan business is just an idea he’s been having fun with. He’s been playing with you. He has no intention of flying off to Neverland, he’s enjoying himself too much. His real motivation will be much simpler, much deeper. But for heaven’s sake, you can worry about what’s driving him when he’s caught.’
    The rain had finally stopped. The garden looked like a tiny patch of rainforest after a tropical storm, like a dense, storybook jungle – like a painting she’d seen on a wall.
    ‘Flying off to Neverland,’ said Lacey.
    ‘Sometimes, Lacey, there is no reason. People kill and there is no neat, understandable motive. What did you say?’
    ‘Evi, thank you.’
    ‘What? Are you OK?’
    ‘I have to go now,’ said Lacey. ‘I know where he is.’

65
    ‘MY SON WOULDN’T hurt anyone.’
    ‘Yes, thank you, Mr Roberts,’ said Anderson, taking the seat opposite Stewart. ‘We’ve taken