The Trophy Taker by Sarah Flint

Author:Sarah Flint [Flint, Sarah]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, Crime, Mystery & Detective, General
ISBN: 9781786690708
Google: AtJMDQAAQBAJ
Publisher: Head of Zeus Ltd
Published: 2017-03-31T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 24

‘Boss, there’s every chance that Jason Jennings could be known to our suspects and possibly even Susan Barton. He’s originally from the South London area. He could well have crossed paths with all of them. He was quite a handful by the look of it.’

Paul held up a stack of computer printouts. Charlie took the pile and skimmed through the first few pages.

Jason Jennings had been very well known to police. The first time he had come to their notice was as an eleven-year-old when he was found in a filthy house, with no food or warmth and just a dog for company. His father was located later in the nearby pub, pissed and proclaiming that if his lazy bitch of a wife hadn’t walked off and left him, none of this would have happened. It turned out that she’d only left him after a thirteenth recorded assault but was so scared that he would find her she’d refused to give a forwarding address. Jason was therefore, through no fault of his own, taken into care.

There followed a huge number of reports detailing times when the boy had run away from foster homes, then care homes, caused damage to his surroundings, assaulted, or threatened to assault his carers and generally been out of control. He had been arrested on numerous occasions for petty crime, mainly for criminal damage, theft, assaults, public order offences and later for possession of drugs and drink-related crimes. The boy had been crying out for help.

Charlie had seen it before and hated the fact that she could do nothing to help. In the first month of her service she had dealt with a young girl, abused and left to fend for herself by drug-addicted parents. Over the following nine years, she’d watched as the girl had been lured into addiction and prostitution, before eventually ending up in a mental hospital. Jason Jennings’ childhood and teenage years appeared to have followed the same path.

‘Another kid who didn’t stand a chance.’ She threw the papers back down on Paul’s desk and sat down heavily next to him.

‘I know. It’s criminal. It’s no wonder so many of them end up dead or in prisons,’ Bet chipped in. ‘If I had my way I’d string their parents up. There’s no excuse. I’ve been through a few dodgy partners myself, but whatever happens you don’t take it out on the kids.’

‘And JJ probably had an even harder time if he was struggling with his sexuality,’ Paul added. ‘It’s difficult enough when you have good parents. God only knows what it must have been like with a father like his.’

‘Is his father still around?’ Hunter brought their attention back to the job in hand. ‘If he is, he needs talking to. He could be a suspect for JJ’s murder. Though whether he will have any link to Susan is a different matter. Who knows?’

‘I’ll take a look, boss.’ Paul made a note of the enquiry.

‘You said Jennings might be linked to all our other suspects?’

‘Nothing firm as yet but he has a lot of history.

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