Chapter 30
Thirty
Penn stared at his lunch as he picked up his phone for the third time.
And then put it back down again. The Costa ham and cheese toastie had been toasted in the fires of hell, and each bite threatened to ulcerate his mouth.
Yes, he could have taken it back and complained and he’d have been given another one, but he didn’t do things like that. He never complained about anything.
He remembered once in a restaurant when he’d mentioned his steak being overcooked.
He’d witnessed the chef being chewed up by an overbearing manager, and he’d felt mortified that the man had been forced to take a public dressing-down on his account.
He’d never done it since. He didn’t like making waves, and that was the cause of his current indecision.
There was something amiss in the Chance household.
It was more than just a secret KFC bucket that the parents didn’t want to share with the kids.
It wasn’t just the fact the parents couldn’t be bothered to educate their kids or that they allowed them to run wild on an estate that saw its fair share of physical and sexual abuse.
The place was littered with sex offenders, drug addicts and dealers, and the supervising child wasn’t even into double figures.
It was a crime scene waiting to happen. No, what was bothering him was all of those things plus the fact that one of the children had returned home with a fresh injury and neither parent had even asked how it had happened.
With that in mind, he finally picked up his phone again and scrolled down to the contact that could help.
The woman answered on the second ring.
‘Austen Penn, how the devil are you?’ she asked with genuine warmth.
‘I’m very well, Gloria. How’s yourself?’
‘I’m fine. And Jasper?’
Penn cringed at the woman’s concern.
Gloria Lincoln was the social worker who had been assigned to them before his mother had died. Both he and Jasper had warmed to the woman’s compassion and humour. Once her assessment had been completed, she had told them to call her any time, but Penn was sure this wasn’t what she’d meant.
He took a deep breath. ‘Jasper’s well, thank you. That’s not why I’m calling.’
She hesitated before speaking. ‘Okay, go on.’
‘I’ve got this family. I have concerns.’
‘Austen, you know—’
‘I know, I know,’ he said, already aware of what she was going to say.
There was a process for police officers to follow if child services needed to be involved, and he felt terrible putting her in this position, but he trusted her judgement implicitly.
‘But can I just tell you about them and see what you think?’ he asked, knowing he was trying to throw the grenade at her before running away.
‘I shouldn’t…’
‘I know, and I don’t think the children involved are in imminent danger, like this very minute. But you know that feeling of being worried that if you do nothing at all, you’re going to regret it right up until you see a headline on the news. I don’t want this family on my conscience.’
‘None of us want any families on our conscience,’ she said sadly. ‘Look, I can’t launch any kind of investigation after an informal phone call, especially when there’s no immediate risk to a child or children. What I will do is see if the family are known to us and take it from there.’
Penn felt instant relief that the woman was even prepared to do that. Surely the department would have had dealings with the family before.
‘The couple are Mr and Mrs Chance, and they live at—’
‘Wait one second. Do you mean Warren and Lyra Chance from the Hollytree Estate?’
‘Are they that well known to you?’ he asked, surprised that she knew who he was talking about before he’d even finished the sentence.
‘I’ve literally just got off a call with Warren Chance.’
‘They rang you?’ he asked, confused.
‘They did. They wanted to make a complaint.’
‘About what?’
‘They claim that their niece is being sexually abused.’