Dark Winter by Andy McNab

08:30 hrs
    Kelly was still in bed when I tiptoed in and dumped my sleeping bag next to the rest of my stuff. I was sleeping on the settee but had to be up before eight. Dr Hughes’s receptionist had called last night to arrange for us to talk this morning. She’d promised to give me some sort of indication of where we went from here, and what conclusions she’d come to after their first meeting.
    Carmen and Jimmy were munching their muesli and toast in the kitchen, so I excused myself and went and sat outside in the front garden with a brew. My cell rang exactly on time. ‘Good morning, Mr Stone.’ Her tone was very no-nonsense: she obviously had a lot more calls to make after this one. ‘I have two questions for you. The burn on Kelly’s right index finger. Can you tell me how she got that?’
    ‘She said it happened at school, something in the science class.’
    ‘Is she eating normally?’
    ‘Like a horse.’ I hesitated. ‘Listen, she’s told me about the Vicodin.’
    ‘She has? That’s good. Were you alarmed?’
    ‘Should I be? I put on my happy face when she was talking about it, but it did worry me. I guess it conjured up images of drug-dealers outside the school gates, but I really don’t know anything about the stuff.’
    ‘Vicodin is an opiate, with the same active ingredient as heroin and codeine, and can lead to a serious dependency. We can go into it in detail when I see you. In fact, if she’s already talking to you about it, perhaps you could come in together?
    ‘Mr Stone, I fear she may also be bulimic. The acid burn on her finger could very well be from her own gastric juices. I suspect she pushes it down her throat to make herself vomit, and it’s rubbing against her teeth. It’s a common problem with girls of her age, but not a complication we’d welcome in Kelly’s case.’
    I suddenly felt pretty fucking stupid. ‘She’s always brushing her teeth and using mouthwash strips like they were going out of fashion.’
    ‘I see. Has she started her periods yet?’
    ‘Last year.’ Josh had found some tampons in her schoolbag and Kelly had felt very grown-up about the whole thing.
    ‘Do you know if she’s still having them?’
    ‘No, I’m not very . . .’ I wondered where this was going.
    ‘Please don’t worry, I may be asking you more of these sorts of questions as we go along. It’s just that when bulimia becomes extreme, women stop menstruating.’
    ‘You say it’s quite common?’ I was starting to feel like a complete idiot. This girl didn’t need me and the God Squad on her team, she needed her mum.
    ‘As many as one in five girls of her age. It starts as a way to control weight and then it develops a life of its own. Again, it’s an addiction. Bingeing and purging are the addictive behaviour. Yes, of her own admission she has the drug dependency, but she hasn’t admitted to the bulimia. I just wanted you to know that because we might have a long and rather rocky road ahead.’
    As I was listening to this, I got the signal for an incoming call. I ignored it and raised my voice as it kept bleeping. ‘It must be a good thing that she’s opening up to me, don’t you think?’
    ‘Yes, of course. But we can’t discount the possibility she’s doing it because she’s angry with you. She might want to shock and punish you.’
    ‘Then why would she hide it? Wouldn’t she go to town and hit me with bulimia as well?’
    ‘Possibly. I just wanted to warn you, though, that it could be a long time before there is light at the end of this particular tunnel. She’ll need all the support you can possibly give her.’
    ‘Where do we go from here?’
    ‘There are a number of concerns. There’s the dependency, and in some ways that’s the most urgent. It’s more immediately life-threatening.’
    ‘Life-threatening?’ My heart sank. What the fuck was going on here?
    ‘That’s the worst-case scenario, but it cannot be discounted. Opioid painkillers are dangerous