into the countryside or to the sea. Hiking in the Pennines. Something like that. At the end, we invite them back for classes. Computers. Cookery. Single living. Health. From learning to earning."
"Jobs, you mean?" Havers asked.
"They aren't ready for jobs. Not when they first get here. Most of them are monosyllabic if not completely nonverbal. They're beaten down. What we try to do is show them there's another way from what they've been doing in the streets. There's returning to school, learning to read, completing college, walking away from drugs. There's having a belief in their future. There's managing their feelings. There's having feelings in the first place. There's developing a sense of self-esteem." She looked sharply at them both, as if trying to read them. "Oh, I know what you're thinking. Such touchy-feely crap. The ultimate in psychobabble. But the truth is that if behaviour is going to change, it's going to do it from the inside out. No one chooses a different path till he feels differently about himself."
"That was the plan for Kimmo?" Lynley asked. "From what we've learned, he seemed to feel fairly good about himself already, despite the choices he made."
"No one making Kimmo's choices feels good about himself at heart, Superintendent."
"So you expected him to change through time and exposure to Colossus?"
"We have," she said, "a high level of success. Despite what you're obviously thinking about us. Despite our not knowing Kimmo was murdered. We did what we were meant to do when he failed to show up."
"As you said," Lynley agreed. "And what do you do about the others?"
"The others?"
"Does everyone come to you via Youth Offenders?"
"Not at all. Most of them come because they've heard about us in another way entirely. Through church or school, through someone already involved in the programme. If they stay, it's because they begin to trust us and they start to believe in themselves."
"What happens with those who don't?" Havers asked.
"Don't what?"
"Start to believe in themselves?"
"Obviously, this programme doesn't work for them all. How can it? We're up against everything in their backgrounds, from abuse to xenophobia. Sometimes, a kid can't cope here any better than he can cope anywhere else. So he dips in and then out and that's how it is. We don't force anyone to stay who isn't required to by a court order. As for the rest, as long as they obey the rules, we don't force them to leave either. They can be here for years, if they like."
"And are they?"
"Occasionally, yes."
"Like who?"
"I'm afraid that's confidential."
"Ulrike?" It was Jack Veness. He'd come to the doorway of Ulrike's office, quiet as the fog. "Phone. I tried to tell him you were busy, but he wasn't having it. Sorry. What d'you want me...?" He raised his shoulders as a way of completing the question.
"Who is it, then?"
"Reverend Savidge. He's in a state. Says Sean Lavery's gone missing. Says he didn't turn up at home last night when he was due back from the computer course. Should I-"
"No!" Ulrike said. "Put him through, Jack."
Jack left her office. She closed her fingers into a fist. She didn't look up as she waited for the phone to ring.
"There was another body this morning, Ms. Ellis," Lynley said.
"Then I'll put him on the speakerphone," she replied. "Please God this has nothing to do with us." While she waited for the phone call to ring through, she told them that the caller was the foster parent of one of the boys in their programme: He was called Sean Lavery, and he was black. She looked at Lynley, the question hanging unasked between them. He merely nodded, confirming her unspoken fears about the body found that morning in the Shand Street tunnel.
When the phone rang, Ulrike punched the button for the speaker. Reverend Savidge's voice came through, deep and anxious. Where was Sean? he wanted to know. Why hadn't Sean returned from Colossus last night?
Ulrike told him what little she knew. As far as she understood, Reverend Savidge's foster son Sean Lavery had been at Colossus as usual on the previous day and had left as usual on his regular bus. She'd heard nothing contrary to that from his computer instructor, and his instructor hadn't reported him as absent, which he definitely would have done because Sean had come to them via a social worker, and Colossus always kept in touch.
Where the hell was he, then? Reverend Savidge demanded. There were boys going missing all over London. Was Ulrike Ellis