Random Acts of Unkindness by Jacqueline Ward Read Free Book Online Page A

o’clock, with Sam and Colin in the backseat and two other men in the front. I scanned them for my son but he wasn’t one of them. The curtains across the road moved and my neighbours on either side came out to see what the fuss was.
    Children from up the street came to see the panda car and soon everyone was interested in the police visit. The only police activity we usually get on Ney Street is Sam Mackie having a quick ciggie up the ginnel, but everyone knew this was serious. These police were from town. Everyone knew it was serious. Everyone could see me and Colin stood outside. So everyone would know it was about our Thomas.
    They all came into the house and I looked at Colin. His eyes were red rimmed and he held his cap in front of him. Sam Mackie stood beside him and the other two men pulled up chairs and sat in front of me.
    ‘I’m Inspector Little, Mrs Swain. This is DC MacDonald. We’ve come to have a little word about Thomas. Just some information about him.’
    I started to tell them what had happened the previous morning, the scene well-rehearsed in my head. They wrote everything down in notebooks and nodded. When I’d got to lunchtime today they stopped me.
    ‘Look, Bessy, you said that Thomas had his lunch with him? In his Billy can and box? Corned beef sandwiches and tea?’
    I nodded, watching as the other man reached into a bag, and everything goes into slow motion. I could hear the tap in the kitchen dripping and I wanted to go and twist it tight to stop it. My face crumbled into disbelief. DC MacDonald produced Thomas’s can and sandwiches, his lunch that I had put up for him. I stared at them.
    ‘Yes. That’s them. Where did you get them?’
    They all looked at each other. Inspector Little spoke.
    ‘We found them during a search of the route. They were in a front garden, just over the wall. We think someone could have just dropped them there.‘
    ‘Someone?’
    ‘Yes. Either Thomas or someone else.’
    I snigger. I can’t help it.
    ‘But why would Thomas throw his dinner over a wall?’
    ‘Look, Bessy, we have to investigate everything. He could have gone off somewhere, made a plan, gone off with a friend. In that case he could just walk back in anytime. You know what teenagers are like.’
    I stared them out.
    ‘But Thomas isn’t like that. He’s not that kind of boy. He likes his bed.’
    ‘His dad told us he likes a pint. He can pass for eighteen easy. Some lads just go off, Bessy. Only they know why. Was he worried about National Service or anything?’
    We’d never discussed it. We’d known it was coming, next year, but it was just unspoken. I started to worry that I hadn’t spoken to him enough about adult things. I knew Colin had told him about the birds and the bees. But I hadn’t really talked to him like that. He was still my little boy.
    ‘No. I don’t think so. He just wanted to go to work, then come home and have his tea. He’s never done anything like this before.’
    Colin went into the kitchen to make a pot of tea. I could see his hands shaking as he picked up the teapot. I wanted to touch him, tell him I was scared, but I couldn’t. Not with strangers here. Inspector Little carried on.
    ‘Look, Bessy, the other thing we have to consider is that something has happened to Thomas. You know there’s been other incidents around here of people going missing, kids and teenagers, and we can’t rule out that with Thomas. It’s something else we’re looking at. But I don’t want you to worry. We don’t think it’s that at the moment. We’re thinking he might have just gone on an adventure.’
    The casing cracked for a moment and I erupted.
    ‘An adventure? This isn’t Boy’s bloody Own, you know. It’s my son.’ Colin rushed over and put his hands on my shoulders. A tear squeezed out of my eye and all the men looked relieved that I was upset, as if that’s what should happen next. ‘I just want him to come back. I just want him to come back for his tea.’