Sharon Bolton - Like This, for Ever

On Facebook he went straight to the Missing Boys page that had been set up a few weeks earlier, when Ryan Jackson had become the second South London boy to vanish. 5,673 people were now following the site and, as always, there was a huge number of posts, ranging from the sensible to the downright weird.

One guy thought the boys were being used for unorthodox medical experiments in a secret research facility somewhere along the riverbank.

Some comments appeared to be from genuine friends of the boys, others from strangers offering best wishes for their safety. Not all the comments were good-natured, and there were the usual people expressing outrage that a social media site should encourage this sort of ‘wallowing’ in others’ misery.

Finally, Barney neared the bottom of the thread. God, some people were weird. And this guy, Peter Sweep, was probably the weirdest of the lot. No profile picture, for one thing, just a photograph of some blood-red roses. No personal information either, although that wasn’t so unusual for kids on Facebook. He had nearly five hundred friends, but they all seemed to be others who’d ‘liked’ the Missing Boys page. It looked like a page set up purely to comment on the murders. Barney sat looking at Peter’s latest post, the last in the thread.

Very exciting – two dead already. Now maybe two more!

The thread updated itself and Barney read with interest. It was Peter Sweep again.

Update on the Barlow Twins case. Lewisham police have recovered two bodies from the bank of the Thames this evening. Announcement expected shortly. RIP Jason and Joshua, now to be known as the Heavenly Twins.

Peter Sweep was one of the most regular contributors to the Missing Boys site. His posts always started out factual, almost official sounding, and in the early days more than one person had speculated that Peter was connected to the police investigation in some way. Certainly everything he posted turned out to be right. But then he always added a sick little message at the end, which made it seem highly unlikely he was a police officer.

In the few seconds since Peter had posted, a flood of comments had followed. Barney spotted Lloyd joining in with the conversation and, a few seconds later, Harvey. As usual, people were eager for more information, including how Peter had come by his scoop. As usual, he didn’t respond.

A thought struck Barney from nowhere. If he went missing, if his face was on television every night, in newspapers, on posters and flysheets that were handed out at train and bus stations, would his mum see them? Would that be enough to bring her back? He could spend years steadily making his way through all the regional papers, spending every penny he had, and not get close. But if he went missing, in one fell swoop he’d get national coverage. That would have to work, wouldn’t it? She’d have to come back then.

Barney stood up, suddenly tired of the Facebook site and its contributors faking sympathy for emotions they’d never feel. How many of them had any idea what it felt like to love one person more than anything in the whole world, and have no idea where she was? He was getting it again, the feeling that made him want to break something, throw something fragile against the wall, or hurl a chair at the window. Pour ink over the carpet. Deep breaths. In for four, out for four. Where was the box? Barney’s breathing was getting away from him, he couldn’t control it. In for four, out for four. He left his den and went into his bedroom. The simple, square rosewood box was in the exact centre of his bedside table. Inside it were small, wizened, green pieces of foliage sitting on tissue paper. Seven of them in total, his four-leaf-clover collection.

He’d been just two when he’d found his first one. He and his mum had been in the park, with a group of other mums and toddlers. He couldn’t remember the occasion himself, but he remembered his mum telling him about it later. ‘I was talking to one of the other mums and you squeaked for my attention like you always did. Then you held your hand out to me and said, “Mummy four. Not free. Four.” And there it was in your chubby little hand, the first four-leaf clover I’d ever seen in my life.’

Over the next couple of years, he’d become obsessed with the idea of finding four-leaf clovers. He looked at the ground and saw the patterns among the grass and the clover. The ones with four leaves jumped out at him. ‘How do you do it?’ his mother would ask. At almost four, the age he’d been when his mother had left, he’d found his last one. He couldn’t remember whether she’d seen it or not.

Barney’s breathing had settled. He closed the box and put it back down beside the bed. Tears filled his eyes. He could find four-leaf clovers. He could find any number of things that were lost. Why couldn’t he find his mum?

7

THE DOOR OF the terraced house was opened by the Family Liaison Officer. She took one look at Dana’s face and stepped back quickly so that the two of them could get inside, away from the reporters who’d been positioned outside the Barlow family home for the past two days. Inside the house, Dana could hear voices on a television programme and music upstairs.

‘Where are they?’ she asked.

‘Lounge,’ replied the FLO. She knew. They always did.

Dana let the FLO lead the way along the hall and through a door on the right. The room was long and narrow, running almost the full length of the house. The family was sitting on easy chairs, pretending to watch television. The mother, father and one of the mother’s sisters, who seemed to have worked out a rota between them, and the twins’ fourteen-year-old brother, Jonathan. Their sixteen-year-old sister was in her room, if the music drifting down the stairs was anything to judge by.

Seeing Dana, Mr Barlow rose and turned off the television set. He stood by its side, waiting. His wife seemed to have frozen in place on the sofa.

‘I have news,’ said Dana, her eyes flicking from the mother to the father. ‘Would you like me to speak to you alone?’ Her eyes wandered to their son. He caught her meaning instantly and moved across the sofa to sit next to his mum. He took hold of her hand, looking frightened and much younger than fourteen.

‘Go on,’ said the dad. He knew, too. They all did. ‘Get on with it.’

‘I’m very sorry, but we found the bodies of two young boys this evening. We believe they’re Jason and Joshua. I’m so very sorry.’

‘Two?’ he said. ‘Both of them?’

Dana wondered whether, if she listened to the mother’s howl for long enough, it might actually drill a hole in her head.

8

THE KNOCKING HAD stopped. He’d followed the usual pattern. Three sharp knocks, loud enough to be heard in the garden but not so loud as to sound aggressive or threatening. Repeated twice. Nine times his knuckles made contact with the wood of her front door. She never heard him climb back up the steps.

In the old days, he’d have been able to break into her flat using a credit card. The state-of-the-art security he’d had installed himself had put paid to that. Funny, really. It had been intended to protect her from a killer; now it was protecting her from him.

At least two minutes since the last knock. He’d gone. Feeling herself breathe easily again, Lacey walked the length of her long, narrow garden. The walls around it were high, but whoever had planned the space had chosen carefully and its plants all thrived in the shade. In summer, the sweet scents of jasmine, honeysuckle and old-fashioned roses cloaked the acrid smells of the city. In winter, the frost and occasional snow made fairytale ice-sculptures.

There was light coming from the top floor of the house next door. She could see the top of Barney’s head, just above his computer. Strange, sweet kid. He was on his own in the house after all, there wasn’t a single other room lit up. It was getting on for ten o’clock. It wasn’t right. He was sensible enough but he’d be scared, with everything that was going on, with the newspapers and the television news full of stories of boys his age going missing from their homes.