The Soul Collector by Emma Salisbury

Author:Emma Salisbury [Salisbury, Emma]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-11-20T16:00:00+00:00

21

The atmosphere in the interview room was tense.

‘Tell us what happened, Barry.’

‘I can’t tell you about something I didn't do.’

The boy stared defiantly across the table at Curran as he tried to establish his whereabouts when Kelly was raped and murdered. A DNA sample had been taken and sent to the lab – the results wouldn’t be known until the following day. A receipt from a jewellery store in the Arndale Centre had been uncovered during a search of his bedroom; a quick phone call confirmed it was for the gold chain found in Kelly’s locker. The clothes Barry had been wearing at the time of the attack had been taken away for forensics to trace any fibres from Kelly’s clothing or DNA. In the meantime, the evidence was circumstantial, needed to be tightened up.

Barry was average height for a 15-year-old boy but stocky. Never having spent time on a sports field or in a school gymnasium he had the physique of someone who should watch what they ate but didn’t. With bright blue eyes and a cocky smile he had inherited his father’s good looks, but not his metabolism. Pot belly by the time he was twenty, if he didn’t watch out.

‘We’ve heard you fancied your chances with Kelly,’ Galloway commented.

‘Wishful thinking more like,’ Barry muttered, subdued. He’d been mouthy when they’d first brought him in but once they’d taken him down to the cells to wait for his solicitor he’d quietened down, relaxed a little.

‘Is that why you bought her the necklace, because you wanted to impress her?’

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’

Curran pushed the gold chain, together with the receipt for its purchase, towards him. Watched the boy’s face flush in answer.

‘It’s not what it seems! Honest!’

‘Then tell me about it.’

Barry sighed, fidgeted with the zipper on his tracksuit top.

‘Look, I liked her, OK?’

‘Bit young for you Barry, can’t you get a girl your own age?’ Galloway taunted.

Barry reacted by kicking the table leg with his trainer, over and over, like a toddler in the throes of a tantrum. Educationally sub-normal through lack of school attendance, a psychological assessment carried out the year before reported he had the reading age of an eight-year-old. Barry, like many other boys who lived on the edge of society, was the product of his environment, Curran observed sadly. What chance, in reality, did he have?

‘Bit of a temper you’ve got there.’

Galloway kept pushing his buttons, wondering how long it would take for him to crack. The duty solicitor, Jonty Atkinson, touched Barry’s arm as if to say enough.

‘Go on Barry, you were saying you liked her?’ Curran prompted.

‘Yeah, she was OK looking, not stuck up like her friend.’

‘Tina?’

‘Yeah, that’s her. A bit toffee-nosed if you ask me.’

Barry wrinkled his nose in distaste as though he reckoned he stood a chance with either girl, depending on his whim.

‘She claims Kelly didn’t like you, wanted you to leave her alone,’ commented Curran.

‘You probably scared her Barry, big lad like you chasing after her!’ Galloway ventured.

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