Like This, for Ever

head at the TV screen, at footage taken the night before of a large black bag being carried out of the yard. ‘Poor kid.’
    ‘Isn’t that where Granddad’s boat is?’ said Barney, watching his father’s face carefully.
    His dad screwed up his eyes, stepped closer to the screen. ‘Looks like it,’ he said after a moment. ‘Was he found at Theatre Arm Marina?’
    ‘That’s what they said,’ said Barney. ‘Must have been just by Granddad’s boat.’
    His dad scratched the back of his neck. ‘Well, it’s a big area. All the same, we should pop down there soon, make sure it’s alright. Maybe when all the fuss has died down.’
    Apparently losing interest in the TV, his dad opened the dishwasher to find it empty. Barney had already washed all the cocoa mugs by hand and put them away. The KitKat wrappers were in the outside bin and the sitting-room looked as if no one had been near it.
    ‘Why are you back so early?’
    Barney shrugged. ‘We all woke up early,’ he said. ‘I didn’t really want to hang around.’
    ‘Bit messy, was it?’ teased his dad. ‘Dirty socks on the carpet?’
    ‘Something like that,’ admitted Barney, wondering if he found lying so easy because his dad did. Maybe it was a genetic thing.
    ‘Make sure you marry a tidy woman, son, or neither of you will have any peace.’
    Like you did
, Barney wanted to say. His mum had been tidy.
Is that a genetic thing, too? Did I get my tidiness from Mum and my ability to lie from you?
He couldn’t say it out loud. Mentioning Mum was a taboo he couldn’t possibly break. Even now.
    ‘Are we going to watch the rugby this morning?’ his dad asked him.
    The others from last night would be at the rugby. He could check none of them were having jitters. Reassure them they’d got away with it. The body had been found and no one suspected they’d been involved. It was all fine.
    Barney ran upstairs. He just had time to check Facebook before he went. He found his jacket, hat, scarf and gloves while he waited for the system to boot up. He logged on to Facebook and went to the Missing Boys page.
    Christ, everyone on the planet had been on the site this morning, he’d never have time to read through it all. Barney started scrolling down. The usual messages of sympathy, expressions of outrage, taunts from the sickos. Barney kept going, looking for the earliest time the news about Tyler’s body could have been broadcast.
    Shortly after midnight, the boy calling himself Peter Sweep had posted.
    Badly decomposed body of Tyler King pulled out of Deptford Creek at 10.30 this evening. Slightly damp. Who said he would never be found? Never is an awfully long time, and murder will out. Even mine.
    Peter had finally admitted that he was the killer.

39
    ‘ NO, SORRY. I think her face was thinner. The sort of face that would be pretty, if it had a bit more flesh on it.’
    ‘Like this?’
    Dana leaned back on her chair. Her eyes were getting sore from spending too long staring at one image on a computer screen. The image of a Caucasian woman, in her late thirties to early forties. ‘Yeah, that’s better. But shorter. A smaller face.’
    The image on the screen compressed.
    ‘Bigger eyes. There was something a bit elfin about her. Yeah, that’s getting closer.’
    ‘How’s the mouth?’
    The mouth was unsmiling, medium in size, full lips with a good natural colour.
    ‘You know what? I think that’s as close as we’re going to get,’ she said. ‘Can you run a check? See if there’s anything on the system.’
    ‘No worries. You expecting her to have a police record?’
    Dana thought about it for a second. ‘I won’t be at all surprised,’ she said. ‘I’ve definitely seen her before.’

40
    WHEN BARNEY AND his dad arrived at the rugby club, the Chiswick Crusaders were leading ten points to five against the Lambeth Lions. The wind was rough, stirring up hair and scarves and tempers. Barney took in the field, and knew it was a game without the usual rhythm and grace, a game of irritable break-outs, subdued tension and an undercurrent of violence.
    He spotted Sam and Lloyd standing with their dads, some way apart as they’d agreed, and Jorge, Harvey and Hatty, who seemed to have come without adults. Also Huck Joesbury, next to a tall woman with long blonde hair. On the other side of the pitch Mr and Mrs Green stood together. Mrs Green spotted them and gave Barney a wave.
    As Barney and his dad approached the touchline, Chiswick were in