Runaway (A New Adventure Begins - Star Elite 4)

“What were you asked to do, Oscar? Did you have to carry packages, or were you made to do other things?” Niall asked.

“I had to thieve,” Oscar reported. “I had to go out with some others just like me. They showed me what to do, who to pick on, that sort of thing. When I was ready, I had to go out alone, but was warned that if I didn’t return with the right amount at the end of the day, Molly would get hurt.”

“Did you see Denzel at all?” Jasper asked.

Oscar shook his head. “Not to start with. I hated that he was back in Leicestershire and close to Molly.”

“So you did as you were told because you knew he was in Leicestershire and could hurt her like they threatened to do.” It wasn’t a question, but Oscar nodded anyway.

“Were you paid in food?”

Oscar nodded. “If I didn’t steal enough, I was sent back out and told not to go back until I had gotten what I should. Then we were allowed to eat.”

“We? How many of you are there?”

“I dunno. I can’t count,” Oscar informed them with a shrug.

“Tell me their names.” Jasper wrote down the names Oscar listed. There were eight in all.

“What happened to the young girls like the one who kept crying. Are they still there?”

The room went deathly silent as the men from the Star Elite waited to hear what the lad had to tell them. This was the closest they had ever come to solving the mystery and locating the victims. Nobody dared even breathe for fear of Oscar clamming up on them.

“They were kept at the house but were scared. They were told they were moving on and taken away, but I don’t know where they went.”

“They are no longer in Rigley Row?” Niall asked.

“No. I haven’t seen them in any case, but others have arrived since,” Oscar reported vaguely. His gaze remained riveted on the apple pie in the middle of the table. Jasper took pity on him and cut him a piece.

While the boy was eating again, Jasper slid into a chair opposite and rested his elbows onto the table.

“What is your aunt like?”

“Another witch,” Oscar mumbled.

“Is that what you call her?” Jasper mused wryly.

Oscar grinned. “She is. Denzel fits right in to Rigley Row. Edith would like it there as well. The pair of them spend so much time drinking and eating that Edith is just like him. She has no idea that Denzel has tried it on with Molly every time he visited the house. I think he wanted me out of the way because I saw him once and told him to keep his hands off her.”

“Molly?”

Oscar nodded.

“What did he say?”

“He told me he wouldn’t have a guttersnipe like me telling him what to do.”

“What connections does he have with the people in Rigley Row? He knows his way around there, doesn’t he?”

Oscar nodded. For a moment, he seemed to lose interest in the food and stared thoughtfully at it while he contemplated what to say.

“He is friends with the boss?”

Jasper stilled. “Do you know his name?”

“Arthur? Edward? I don’t know but one of them is called Rupert. They are really posh,” Oscar muttered. “They don’t like Rigley Row much. When they do turn up, they don’t stop for long.”

“Do they take the girls with them?”