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‘I wasn’t there at the time, but I heard about an incident where they cornered one of the female guards and dragged her into the boys’ showers. Went as far as pulling down her trousers before someone got to wondering where they all were.’
The intent had been clear.
‘She left. Didn’t press charges and wanted nothing more to do with the place. I also remember hearing talk of them being in the area when a particularly strict officer fell down the stairs and died. That’s just a couple of incidents. There were many. This wasn’t kids acting up. It was mean, nasty, vicious. It’s as though being part of that group brought out the worst in all of them.’
‘Anything you can remember where just Eric and Paul were involved?’
He thought for a moment.
‘There was one kid. I can’t remember his name – he was only thirteen, I think. He was put in with the two of them, and they weren’t happy. They tied his wrists and ankles together, put him on the top bunk and pushed him off repeatedly. Stuffed his mouth with a pair of his pants and just kept doing it. He couldn’t even break his own fall because of how they’d tied him up. He was discovered the next morning by the guards, unconscious and covered in blood. He was in the hospital for a week and then transferred to another wing.’
‘Charges filed?’ she asked hopefully.
Baldwin shook his head. ‘The boy was promised an early release for his silence.’
‘Seriously?’
He frowned at her. ‘Inspector, how do you think these places work?’
‘By the book and, hopefully, best practice guidelines.’
‘Oh dear. I hate to be the one to disillusion you, but I visited probably seven or more institutions in my career, and I can assure you that very few of them are run to any book I’ve ever read. A book or a process is a rigid instrument. Human beings are not. We adapt, we learn, we barter, we bargain. We do what we need to get the job done.’
‘Mr Baldwin, you are destroying my illusion of—’
‘You have a book, don’t you – your PACE regulations?’
She nodded.
‘It’s very black and white, isn’t it? Tells you everything you need to do in any situation.’
‘Yes.’
‘And you’re telling me that in a major investigation, you don’t deviate from the script to get the desired result?’
Kim saw the list form in her mind’s eye.
Breaking into the home of a dead man.
Tampering with evidence once inside said home.
Secretly questioning a colleague’s wife about a man’s death.
Yeah, nothing to see here, she decided, pushing the thoughts aside.
‘There are grey areas, Inspector. The management team at Welton didn’t want certain incidents travelling up the food chain and so deals were made.’
‘What about you – did you make any deals?’
He shook his head. ‘Absolutely not. I would never do such a thing.’
‘Did this Psycho Six ever target you?’
‘No, I got off very lightly. They left me alone.’
One had to wonder why, Kim thought, but she said nothing.
None of the questions running around her head could be answered without access to the historic records at Welton. Who was the boy bullied mercilessly by Eric and Paul? What happened to him? Where was the woman they attacked? How had it affected her life? Had that prison officer’s fall been a tragic accident?
