TODAY WE ARE DELIGHTED TO WELCOME OUR GUEST AUTHOR, MICHELLE KIDD, WHO IS SHARING AN EXCERPT FROM HER NOVEL, 'MISSING BOY' #RWRTeamBlog #ReadWriteRepeat

Extract from Missing Boy – Michelle Kidd

(published 3 May 3023 by Joffe Books)

Tuesday 30 October 2018

5.30 p.m.

He placed the chair in the centre of the room and smiled. The sight of it always gave him a fluttering sensation in the pit of his stomach — the sense of anticipation, the intoxicating sense of what was yet to come.

The room was slightly bigger than the one back home. He’d boarded up the single window, telling his brother he needed the room to be dark for his photography. He didn’t quite know where that lie had come from, springing from his mouth before it had fully formed in his brain. But his brother had merely shrugged and kept out of his way.

He’d then turned off the radiator to give the room its customary damp chill. It was better like that. It was what he remembered. He’d been pleased to see that the room had largely been abandoned by his brother, leaving it to develop patches of mould on some of the walls. Thick, sticky cobwebs hung down like curtains from the peeling ceiling.

It was perfect.

He’d already cut the precise lengths of thin rope, which now sat curled up at the foot of the chair. Waiting.

Everything else in the room had been stripped bare — just the wire-framed bed pushed up against the wall beneath the window and a bucket in the corner for waste. He felt another ripple of excitement. Sometimes this was the best part — the waiting. Not fully knowing what might happen. It was a thrill he never tired of — not now he’d tasted it for himself.

It’d been some time since he’d taken the last one. But the memory of him was still fresh in his mind. He’d been a good boy — obedient and quiet. Just how he liked them. It had been difficult forcing himself to wait this long for another: at times the urge had felt almost impossible to resist.

But now he was ready.

He checked his watch and smiled. He had a feeling that this one would be easy.

Stepping out on to the upstairs landing, he pulled the padlock from his pocket and slotted it into place. He knew his brother wouldn’t pry, but he locked it just the same. The padlock gave a satisfying click, and another smile spread to his lips.

It was time.

*****

Tuesday 30 October 2018

7.00 p.m.

Wrapping her frozen fingers around the warming cup of caramel hot chocolate, Sophia let the sweet-scented vapour waft towards her nostrils. Amelia had predictably opted for a bag of candyfloss and Lucas a toffee apple — but judging by the size of the apple, Sophia reckoned they would be taking most of it home with them.

As they turned away from the stall, Lucas’s eyes lit up and he began to jump up and down on the spot, his Batman cape flapping around his shoulders. “Mummy! Mummy! Can I, please?” With a hand sticky with toffee, he grabbed hold of Sophia and dragged her towards an inflatable slide in a quieter section of the gardens by the river.

The slide was busy, swarming with children climbing up the rope ladder at the side, and more slipping and sliding their way down into the ball pit at the bottom. All Sophia could see were bobbing heads in a variety of woollen hats, the air full of the sound of children’s delighted screams. A selection of mums and dads, brothers and sisters, gathered in groups around the base, stamping their frozen feet into the ground. An array of shoes and boots littered the ground.

“It looks very busy, Lucas,” replied Sophia, warily. “Maybe later.”

“Aw, no Mummy. Now. Please Mummy, now!” Lucas looked up at her with those wide, cornflower-blue eyes and Sophia knew she would relent. She could almost see Liam’s smiling face, waiting to catch his son as he came flying down into the ball pit.

“OK, but take your wellies off first.” Sophia watched as Lucas promptly sat down on the frozen ground and obediently pulled off his boots, still gripping his toffee apple in one hand. “And it looks like there’s a bit of a queue,” she added. “You’ll have to wait your turn, Batman.”

“I will, Mummy.” Lucas scrambled to his feet, his eyes shining. “Can I pay the man, Mummy? I’m six now!” He held out a gloved hand and began dancing from foot to foot.

Sophia smiled and dug into her pocket for some change. “All right. But make sure you don’t move from that queue. I’m only going to be over here.” She nodded towards a seating area behind them. “You come straight over here when you’re finished, and I’ll be watching you the whole time.”

“I will, Mummy.” Lucas closed his fist around three pound coins.

“Amelia, go and stand with him. Make sure he’s OK.”

Amelia opened her mouth to object but was immediately silenced by the stern look on her mother’s face. “OK,” she huffed, passing her bag of candyfloss to Sophia and thrusting her hands into the pockets of her puffa jacket.

Sophia turned and made her way to an arrangement of wooden chairs behind them, sitting down to finish the last of her hot chocolate. She balanced the four-foot teddy bear on its own seat and sat back to see Lucas skipping happily towards the inflatable slide, and Amelia trudging on behind. Smiling, she sipped her drink and savoured the sugar hit. Tiredness began to wash over her; she hadn’t stopped all day, what with preparing for Lucas’s birthday, and now found herself feeling a little lightheaded.

The burglary last night hadn’t really sunk in yet, not properly. Waking up that morning, she’d immediately sensed that something was different. Not wrong as such, just different.

And she hadn’t seen it — not straight away. She’d got up as usual, making her way downstairs to make a cup of tea and switch on the radio. It wasn’t until she felt the chill draught on the back of her neck as she waited for the kettle to boil, that she saw the back door was open. She was certain she’d shut the door before they went to bed last night, but had she locked it?

The thought that someone had been inside the house while they slept made Sophia shiver once again, and she took another mouthful of hot chocolate. It was a horrible feeling — it made you feel violated and dirty. Exposed. As far as she could tell, nothing of much value had been taken. Not that they really had that much to take anyway. Her handbag was still on the kitchen worktop, her purse and car keys still inside. All she could see was that two ten-pound notes had gone — but the other cash, a five-pound note and a twenty, remained untouched. The detectives that had arrived later that morning advised her to cancel her cards anyway, just in case, and make sure she locked her back door in future.

All in all, she considered she’d got off lightly.

Shuddering again, she forced the thoughts from her head and gazed towards the slide. Lucas had joined the queue and was munching on his apple as he waited. Amelia stood behind him, her face glued to the screen of her mobile phone.

As she leant back in the uncomfortable wooden chair, Sophia let her eyes wander around the rest of the Fayre. They’d strolled around most of it now, but there were still a few stalls to look at before they called it a night. The crowd was increasing, everyone wrapped up in coats and scarves to do battle against the cold, frosty air. Despite the freezing temperatures, many of the children, just like Lucas, appeared to be in

some form of fancy dress or dressing-up costume, with coats and jackets discarded. With tomorrow being Hallowe’en, there were a fair few ghosts, ghouls and zombies scampering past, plus a smattering of Marvel superheroes.

There must be a face painting stall somewhere, she mused, as she watched two young boys run past — one with a full Spiderman face, the other with some form of green monster. A lone vampire with a deathly-

white face and bloodied lips brought up the rear.

Suddenly, Amelia came striding into view, a familiar frown decorating her brow. “Lucas is on the slide now — he’s got six goes. I’m not hanging around there for him. The place is full of kids.”

Sophia smiled and patted the seat next to her. “Have a sit down for a couple of minutes, then. We can watch the slide from here.”

Amelia slumped down next to her mother and pulled out her phone from her pocket. Sophia saw the familiar glare from the screen light up her daughter’s face and heard the usual ‘ping’ of an incoming message.

“You know, you could go and take a picture of your brother on the slide.” Sophia leant across and nudged Amelia’s arm. “Go on, get a birthday photo of him.”

Amelia let out another huff before pushing herself out of her chair and storming back across to the inflatable slide, returning a minute or so later to thrust her phone towards her mother. “There.”

Sophia took the phone and saw a series of four pictures — two of Lucas at the top of the slide, one of him halfway down the slide, and another when he landed in a heap in the ball pit at the bottom. In all four he was still clutching his half-eaten toffee apple.

“I’m sure he shouldn’t still have that apple with him,” remarked Sophia, handing the phone back.

“He wouldn’t give it up,” replied Amelia, turning her face back towards the phone screen. “I think the man just let him on with it to keep him quiet.”

After another few minutes of people watching, Sophia glanced at her watch. She pushed herself up from the wooden chair, feeling the cold starting to seep back into her bones, the warming effects of the hot chocolate having worn off. She picked up the oversized teddy bear and Lucas’s jacket.

“Let’s go and find Lucas. He must’ve finished sliding by now.”

The first inkling Sophia had that something was wrong came when she saw the discarded toffee apple lying on the frozen grass at the exit from the ball pit. It took a while for the realisation to hit, but when it did, a sickness swamped her. Whipping her head round from side to side, Sophia scoured the masses of children running to and from the entrance to the slide.

“Where is he?” Sophia’s voice barely carried above the sound of excited, sugar-filled children. “Where’s Lucas?”

With fear rising, Sophia stumbled as quickly as she could towards the heap of discarded boots and shoes. It didn’t take her long to spy Lucas’s bright red wellington boots. She pushed her way through the gaps between the waiting parents, ignoring the grunts that followed, and scoured the slide once again, searching for the tell-tale Batman cape.

There were so many children it was hard to focus. Each and every one blurred into the next, a mass of multi-coloured shapes swimming before her eyes. There were ghosts and ghouls, even a few zombies and green monsters, but there was no Batman.

There was no Lucas.

Tuesday 30 October 2018

7.45 p.m.

Six-year-old Lucas Jackson could still taste the sickly sweetness of the toffee apple on his tongue beneath the sticky tape that stretched across his mouth. The hot dog from earlier was churning in his stomach.

Trying to move, he found his hands were bound tightly behind his back, and his ankles tied together with some sort of rope. All he could do was lie still and stare up at the ceiling. He was in a van — he knew that much. It was the same type of van the man from next door drove. He would often see it parked on the man’s driveway and Lucas wondered what was inside. Mummy had said he was a plumber — but Lucas didn’t really know what that was.

The bindings around his wrists were hurting, cutting into his flesh. Each time he tried to wriggle free, they bit into his skin, deeper and deeper with every turn. It felt like when Darren Porter from the year above at school would grab him in the playground, twisting his arm up behind his back, digging his fingernails in just for fun.

But this wasn’t fun.

Lucas felt himself shiver, and not just from the coldness inside the van. He wanted his mummy, and he wanted Amelia. Where were they? Why did they let that man take him?

The thought of the man sent another shudder coursing through Lucas’s tiny body and he felt the unmistakable sensation of warm urine seeping into his underwear.

Tears prickled at the corners of his eyes. “Mummy, where are you?”

**********

Missing Boy is the first book in my DI Nicki Hardcastle crime series and is available at Amazon https://geni.us/missing-boy-fbt on Kindle, Kindle Unlimited and paperback.

The series currently has four books:

Missing Boy

The Trophy Killer

The Hardwick Heath Killer

Skin of Their Teeth

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Author Michelle Kidd

Author Bio

Michelle Kidd is best known for the Detective Inspector Jack MacIntosh series of novels set in London, and the Detective Inspector Nicki Hardcastle series set in her current hometown of Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. Both series are published by Joffe Books.

Michelle qualified as a lawyer in the early 1990s and spent the best part of ten years practising civil and criminal litigation. But the dream to write books was never far from her mind and in 2008 she began writing the manuscript that would become the first DI Jack MacIntosh novel. The book took eighteen months to write but spent the next ten years gathering dust underneath the bed. After publishing her first book in 2018, she now has ten published crime novels.

After finished her legal career, Michelle spent seventeen years working for the NHS before finally achieving her dream in 2025 and becoming a full-time writer. She lives in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk and enjoys reading, wine and cats – not necessarily in that order.

Social Media links:

www.michellekiddauthor.com

www.facebook.com/michellekiddauthor (Facebook)

@AuthorKidd (X)

@michellekiddauthor (Instagram)

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COMING SOON: On Sunday, 7th December, our guest author is Carmen Radtke, who is sharing an excerpt from Chapters 2 and 3 of her novel, 'Funerals & Familiars'