Like This, for Ever

to carry on. Then a muffled but distinct yelling stopped her in her tracks. The sound a terrified child makes when his mouth is covered.
    Stewart Roberts looked Dana straight in the eyes, but there was something rather defiant about his face now. He’d grown paler, the muscles in his jaw were twitching and his eyes were beginning to look damp.
    ‘I want to talk about the time you went to the boat to dry itout,’ she told him. ‘The second week in January, I understand.’
    Wary, he inclined his head. ‘The locksmith I sent there said it looked damp,’ he replied. ‘Thought perhaps a hatch was leaking. I went a couple of days later and found he was right. There were small pools of water on the floor. And most of the soft furnishings were damp.’
    ‘Did you find a leak?’
    He shook his head.
    ‘For the benefit—’
    ‘For the benefit of the tape,’ he interrupted, ‘I didn’t find a leak. None of the hatches had been left open, to my knowledge. The boat seemed completely sound. I had no idea, and still don’t, how the boat could have been wet.’
    Dana pressed a key to take her to a different page.
    ‘Our crime-scene investigators have found traces of blood on your boat,’ she said. ‘At least two distinct types, neither originating from Mrs Green this time. Could either be yours?’
    Slowly, reluctantly, he shook his head. ‘I keep a record if I cut myself,’ he said. ‘It happens very rarely. I’m extremely careful.’
    ‘What about Barney?’
    His breathing was quickening. ‘Barney hasn’t been on the boat since last October. And when he cuts himself, the whole world knows about it.’
    ‘You do realize that if the blood we’ve found matches any of the victims, then they could only have been killed by someone with access to your boat?’ Dana said.
    Stewart didn’t reply. For a few seconds she watched his chest rise and fall.
    ‘More than once now,’ she said, ‘you’ve referred to the keys to the houseboat going missing late last year. Mrs Green said the same thing. What can you tell us about that?’
    ‘The keys were missing over Christmas,’ Stewart told her. ‘I had the locks changed.’
    ‘Can you give us some dates?’
    He sighed and pulled out his phone. He looked at the screen for several seconds, tapping various apps. ‘The last time I was at the boat before Christmas was the thirteenth of December,’ he saidafter a moment. ‘That was a Thursday. The following Tuesday, the eighteenth, Gilly and I met for a drink. I imagine the keys went missing some time over the weekend in between.’
    Dana looked at her laptop calendar. Anderson leaned closer so he could see it too. Tyler King had disappeared on the twentieth of December, Ryan Jackson on the third of January. Both bodies had been found in or by the Creek.
    ‘When did you get the locks changed?’ asked Anderson.
    Stewart had been anticipating the question. ‘The eleventh of January,’ he said. ‘Friday morning.’
    On the tenth of January, Ryan’s body had been found on the beach at Deptford. From the following day, the killer would have been unable to access the boat. He’d found somewhere new. Somewhere he didn’t dare risk keeping the boys for too long. So he’d started killing them faster. It was all starting to come together, except …
    ‘Any idea how the keys went missing?’ Anderson asked.
    Stewart shook his head. ‘I kept them on a hook by the front door with all the house keys,’ he said.
    ‘I think you told us before you don’t have many visitors,’ said Anderson. ‘Barney doesn’t like people in his house. I think you said that’s the reason why you never used babysitters.’
    Stewart seemed to shrink a little. He shook his head, but the conviction had gone.
    ‘Who, apart from you and Barney, could have taken those keys?’ asked Dana gently.
    ‘No one,’ said Stewart. ‘No one comes into our house. Just me and Barney and occasionally his mates. He can tolerate kids, you see, because he stays in charge. Other than a few kids, though, no one.’
    Silence. The man across the desk remained perfectly still. Outwardly, he was unchanged. Inside, Dana knew, he was crumbling.
    Knowing that if you’re going to attack, you do it fast and hard, Lacey ran up the last few steps. She burst through the one door on the upper landing and in the tangerine light of the street lamps had a moment to take in the huge, high-ceilinged room, the bloodstainsfestooning the walls and rafters like forgotten