Nobody raised any further issues and he indicated that Holly should follow him to his office.
They sat facing each other.
‘Thoughts?’ Tom said.
‘Very few,’ she conceded. ‘I got the impression Isaac was the quieter one of the twins, so for him even to be going out so late, in the middle of his exams and the night before the maths one that’s so important to him, is crazy. Where the hell was he going? And without Jack? Kenny’s said a couple of times he doesn’t worry about them, because they’re always together. They’re not now.’
‘Think Jack knows something?’
‘Like what?’
‘Possibly where his brother’s disappeared to, possibly something to do with his mother’s murder…’
Holly shook her head. ‘No, I’d have thought he would’ve made Isaac go for the exams. These lads are focused, Tom, and I imagine Jack is feeling pretty pissed off with Isaac. Let’s hope we bring him home alive.’
Tom stood. ‘Right, let’s head off over there, see what’s happening. I’d like to talk more with Jack, maybe he knows something he doesn’t realise is relevant.’
Kenny was sitting on the front doorstep yet again, cigarette in hand and a mug of tea by his side. He looked gaunt, and kept running his hand through his hair, pushing it back, as if it would help him think.
He stood as the two officers walked through the open front gate. ‘Any news?’
Tom shook his head. ‘No, sorry. We’ve come round for a chat with Jack, see if he comes up with any tiny thing that might point us in a direction we can follow.’
‘He’s upstairs. His exam’s this afternoon, and through all this he’s still revising.’
They followed Kenny into the kitchen and he texted Jack to tell him to come downstairs. Kenny gave a half-smile and waved his phone. ‘Easiest way. He revises with music on and his headphones in. He never hears me shout, so we use texts. Strange times, aren’t they.’
They heard a door open and close. ‘Certainly are strange times,’ Tom said with a smile, ‘but it works. If I ever have a child I’ll make sure it’s born with a mobile phone in its hand.’
Jack walked into the kitchen, then stopped in surprise. He clearly hadn’t heard their arrival. ‘You want me?’
‘Yes, for a little chat,’ Holly said. ‘Come and sit down. We half expected you to be out looking for your brother, but your dad says you’ve an exam this afternoon.’
‘Yeah, history. It’s not one of Isaac’s, so if he comes back today he’ll be okay for the next one and he’ll have only missed maths.’
‘You think he’ll come back?’ Tom raised an eyebrow.
‘Don’t you?’ Jack countered.
‘It was the way you said it,’ Tom said. ‘Jack, do you know anything at all that could help with this? Where is he likely to go? Does he have friends who are maybe a little unsavoury, that your parents wouldn’t have approved of, somewhere he could escape for a couple of days to sort out his head?’
‘I’ve been over and over this. We covered Crystal Peaks yesterday, went in every damn shop, but he wasn’t there. He wasn’t even in McDonald’s, which is always his go-to place for food. His only other escape area is the tree, and it’s not exactly a place to spend the night. I can’t even think where to look today. Your men searched the school, didn’t they? Not that you’d find him there, there’s dozens of hiding places. It’s a big school.’
Holly smiled at the serious-faced boy. ‘It’s a pity this much-vaunted twin telepathy hasn’t come into play. Can’t you concentrate and see if he comes through?’
‘You think I haven’t tried?’ Jack said. ‘That was the first thing I did.’
‘It works? Honestly, I was joking, trying to lighten you up a bit.’
‘It doesn’t work in any sort of dramatic fashion, daft things like finishing sentences off for each other. We don’t have visions or stuff like that, so don’t build your hopes up. But I do keep concentrating on his name, anything’s worth a try.’
‘And you absolutely can’t think of any other place he would go to?’
‘Look, we don’t have any really close mates other than Leo. We’ve got friends, but outside of school we don’t hang around with them. I can’t think for a minute he’d go there, or why he’d go to them. It’s only the three of us, and he’s not with Leo or me. We’re the two who spent all day yesterday looking for him. Leo’s out at the moment, walking the estate, talking to people. He’s like that. He’s taking the history exam this afternoon, but he’s not revising, he’s out looking for Isaac.’
Holly held up a hand. ‘Please don’t overthink this. Go back to your studies, and good luck for this afternoon. Thank you for talking to us.’
Jack gave a brief nod, and went back upstairs.
‘He can hold his own,’ Tom said to Kenny. ‘Very confident.’
‘That was down to his mother. Speaking of her, have you tracked down the reason for her going to Leicester? Was it a new job, or is there a feller?’
There was a moment of silence between the two officers. Holly spoke first. ‘We can only give you minimal information, but she did meet someone. They live and work in Leicester and she was moving to be with them. We obviously won’t be disclosing the name of this person, unless this issue becomes part of the court case when we catch whoever killed Carla and Lorraine. At the moment we can see nothing that links Leicester to here.’
‘I want to know who he is. Did she meet him through work?’
‘That won’t help, will it? You’ll shoot off to Leicester and cause all sorts of trouble for yourself, not for this person you’re supposedly going to sort out, and your boys will be left to fend for themselves. Would Lorraine have wanted that?’
‘Lorraine’s dead,’ Kenny said. ‘What she wants or wanted ain’t relevant anymore. I thought she loved us, clearly she didn’t.’
‘I don’t think there’s any doubt she loved her boys, Kenny.’ Holly felt brutal as she followed on. ‘It was you she didn’t want anymore.’
Kenny’s cheeks glowed red with anger. ‘I need to talk to him.’
‘No you don’t. And we’ve found out who it is by police work, by using the internet, not by having the information given to us, so don’t attempt any bully-boy tactics with any of Lorraine’s friends. It won’t work because there was only Lorraine who knew.’
They stood to leave and Kenny accompanied them to the door. ‘I will find out,’ he said quietly, and closed the door.
Holly drove back, neither of them speaking, both deep in thought. Finally Holly broke the silence. ‘He causes me to worry. If he ever finds out about Beth…’
‘There’s only one person who knows, apart from our team, and that’s Janice. We need to speak to her, and stress that she knows nothing, that Lorraine hadn’t spoken to her about anyone. And more than anything he mustn’t find out it’s a woman. That would really send him over the top.’