Free Throwaways by Jenny Thomson

his death wasn’t linked to his work there. He’d left his job there after four years by “mutual consent.”
    When the police delved deeper they discovered that he’d been asked to resign over his “questionable therapeutic methods.” These included encouraging a 13-year-old child rapist to scrub his genitals with steel wool and telling a 15-year-old girl who’d drowned her baby sister in the bath, to sit in a bath full of ice for 10 minutes to atone for what she’d done. The girl had nearly died of hypothermia. Cassidy had claimed that in order to be cured, these disturbed kids had to be cleansed. He sounded crazier than the people he’d been treating and his erratic behaviour was blamed on the stress of the job.
    Tommy put it best when he said, “So, the psychopath was looking after the psychopaths. Lovely. Wonder if they’ll mention that in his eulogy.”
    I didn’t have the energy to laugh because with Cassidy dead we were faced with one big problem: we’d no idea where he’d hidden the women. We had to find them. With their captor dead, the clock was ticking before they starved to death. That’s if Cassidy hadn’t killed them before he’d killed himself.

Chapter 12
    Tommy’s face was etched with concentration. “If he did take those women where would he hide them?”
    We were back at his place, hoping that a mug of strong tea and a few Tunnock’s teacakes would bring us inspiration. So far, it’d failed.
    “Well, it can’t be his home or his rental properties. The police will have checked them. Detective Inspector Waddell’s very thorough.”
    Tommy grinned. “Detective Inspector Waddell? Thought you two would be on first name terms, being best pals and all?”
    Leaning over, I gently punched him on the arm. “It’s not like that. You know that.” I paused, trying not to rise to the bait, but I couldn’t stop myself. “You know he was the only one who came to visit me in the hospital…after, you know.”
    My only other visitors had been my cheating ex-boyfriend and my auntie who soon scarpered when she realised I was in gaga land.
    “Now, where would he stash the girls?” said Tommy. “Think.”
    A thought occurred to me. “What if he didn’t act alone? The girls could be hidden at the home of his accomplice?”
    Tommy frowned. “There’s nothing to suggest he had an accomplice.”
    “Fair enough,” I said. “What about the secure hospital where Cassidy worked? He’d know it well. I’d be a great place to hide them. Nobody would think of looking there.”
    Tommy made a face. “Nah, I checked that with my contact. The place is run like a prison and they have a biometric entry system and an iris scan. It’s been stepped up since Cassidy last worked there. Before, it was all electronic key cards. Besides, he’s been banned from the place. He’s not even allowed to visit.”
    “So, where does that leave us?”
    We both knew, but we’d been avoiding saying it out loud because that would mean taking drastic action.
    “We need to find Kim,” said Tommy.
    Initially labelled as a missing person, she’d been spotted on the streets again and there was only one way we’d find her.
    It was time for a career change…
    “Mummy, can we have fish fingers and beans for dinner?”
    A smile formed at the corners of Diane’s mouth as she looked at her little girl’s gap-toothed grin. Another tooth had fallen out that day
.
That meant it was tooth fairy time. She’d wait until Kyra was asleep and leave two shiny pound coins under her pillow
.
    “Of course we can.”
    Kyra let out a happy shriek and ran over to her
.
    “Mummy, you’re the best,” she chirped, as she wrapped her little arms around her waist. Diane took in the strawberry scent of her daughter’s hair and closed her eyes. Right at that very moment, she was content
…
    A swathe of light burned into her retinas as the door was thrown open. And with the light, her little girl was banished like she’d never existed at