Free In Guilty Night by Alison Taylor Page A

McKenna lit a cigarette, and stared at the fire. ‘We can’t get near the Blodwel kids or staff. Hogg insists there’s nothing more to tell us, and Social Services insist the boy was nothing to do with them because he was on the run.’
    ‘Pontius Pilate spawned more offspring than he ever knew.’ Roberts chewed his lip. ‘What’s the word with the local perverts?’
    ‘We should credit them with more sense, because no one would risk spending ten years on Rule 43 for a bite of fresh meat.’ McKenna shivered, the drink running fiery in his belly. ‘I hoped for something from that quarter. Somebody taking the opportunity to settle a score, perhaps.’
    ‘They’re shit-scared, ’cos this is too close to home, and they’re sitting ducks. Any of the staff at Blodwel got form?’
    ‘Clean as the driven snow, according to our records. There have been complaints about Hogg in the past.’
    ‘What sort of complaints?’
    McKenna shrugged. ‘Dewi Prys reckons he’s a brutal sod. Griffiths was told the complaints are vicious fabrications, fabricated by disgruntled ex-residents or their families.’
    ‘And who told him that?’
    ‘Guess.’ McKenna stubbed out his cigarette. ‘Our own hierarchy is as jumpy as everyone else.’
    ‘You could have fifty ex-kids-in-care telling you Hogg is a psychopath, but it’s no help to Arwel. Can’t you get at the staff?’
    ‘They don’t seem to breathe without Hogg’s permission.’
    ‘Ex-staff, then. Some bod with an axe to grind.’
    ‘And who’ll tell us where to find them?’ McKenna lit another cigarette.
    ‘You could get that pretty girl you’ve taken under your wing to waylay Blodwel kids on their way back from school.’
    ‘They don’t go out to school, and they don’t go out without staff.’
    ‘Arwel did, unless he got buggered with an audience.’ Draining his glass for the second time, Dr Roberts stared at the sputtering flames.
    McKenna broke the lengthening silence. ‘Elis’s wife has been overheard to comment about diseases caught in public school.’
    ‘What’s he like?’
    ‘Very rich, very cultured, very charming. He has a son slightly older than Arwel was. Mari said the boy’s a vegetable.’
    ‘Poor sod! Enough to ruin any marriage.’
    ‘People say a handicapped child can bring a couple closer together.’
    ‘People say a lot of things which aren’t true. Religion and philosophy depend on two opposing elements creating a unifying third. Elis and his wife created an idiot, so what hope have they got?’ Settling deep in the sofa cushions, the pathologist added, ‘Denise might know the low-down on Elis’snon-public persona. She’s running with the rich crowd, and they’re as cliquey in their own way as the queer boys and faggots.’
    ‘Elis rather outclasses someone with a tatty boat in Port Dinorwic marina.’
    ‘How d’you know it’s tatty? It could be an ocean-going yacht for all you know.’ Dr Roberts stared at McKenna. ‘Elis and his ilk aren’t averse to trawling gutters for their kicks, as his goodly wife might well know.’
    ‘I hear she tried to get Arwel’s body released.’
    ‘So maybe she knows something she doesn’t want you to find out.’
    ‘Like what?’
    ‘How should I know? It’s a bastard of a case, and you won’t get far without tapping into the gossip networks, picking up the innuendo, scrutinizing anyone with access to young boys.’ Dr Roberts sighed. ‘Nothing’s changed in the history of man, and some things never will. You can’t bypass Elis, or that Hogg. How d’you rate him as a paedophile?’
    ‘He doesn’t look like a child abuser.’ McKenna raked his fingers through his hair. ‘Listen to me! It’s the drink talking. You can’t tell from looking.’
    ‘Can’t you? I’ll lend you my rare copy of Cesare Lombroso’s Criminal Man. He reckoned the bad guys have distinguishable physical differences, but no one believes him these days, even though any artist could tell you the same.