Suffer Little Children

But Jesus said, suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 19:14

Suffer Little Children is the first book in the series written by Luke Heath.

Blurb[]

Eleven-year-old Holly Grisham is abducted on her way home from school, sparking an investigation by the police. The following Monday, she is found in Hester Park, alive but in a coma.

Detailed Outline (contains spoilers)[]

Eleven-year-old Holly Grisham is abducted on her way home from school on a Friday afternoon, sparking an extensive investigation by the police. The following Monday, she is found in Hester Park, alive but in a coma.

Initially, her father is pursued as a suspect; however, less than a week later, Joanna Yorke goes missing while at Hoyts Southlands – and because Ian Grisham is being interviewed by the police at the time, he is ruled out as a suspect.

They interview Devin Rhodes, who has a part-time job at Southlands Woolworths and lives in a house on the route they believe Holly must have taken to get to her father’s house. However, partway through the interview, it becomes apparent that Rhodes doesn’t have the intellectual ability to facilitate these two crimes in the organised fashion it appears has been used.

So the team resorts to a public appeal for information, hoping that someone might have seen either Holly or Joanna before they were taken. But two days later, Joanna’s body is found and the appeal has not given any solid leads.

John conducts the autopsy on Joanna and determines that there are too many similarities in the victimology and modus operandi.

Although they were initially considered to be two separate cases because of the distance from where Holly went missing, and the investigations are linked. The detectives go back to the beginning and look at how the killer might have crossed paths with both victims.

The press conference proves helpful when the team is approached by members of the Australian Federal Police, who have been investigating a national child pornography ring, and come across images of Holly. In the process of looking at the images, Brady sees that there are also images of Joanna, so confirms that the two cases are linked.

Almost a week later, no more solid tips have come in, and Niamh O'Hara goes missing within the apparent comfort zone of the killer. The police come under fire for their apparent inability to catch the killer, though they still have no solid evidence to go on. Niamh’s body is found in the same part of Bicentennial Adenia Park he used to dispose of Joanna’s body.

Aimee Isaacs is playing in her front yard, with her mother watching through the kitchen window, when in the few minutes she was distracted, Aimee is taken without any trace of her abductor.

That night, Aimee reacts negatively to being touched and hurt by Massey, she and starts screaming. To silence her, he stabs her repeatedly in the neck and chest before dumping her body at the edge of the Canning River in the early hours of Monday morning.

However, barely a couple of hours later, her body is found by a couple who are kayaking on the river. Knowing that it is the closest they have come to a fresh crime scene, the team works with the local police to interview everyone who was in the area at the time.

This process reveals a new possible suspect, thirty-eight-year-old Alexander Foster, who has a criminal history and was seen in the area on the morning Aimee's body was found.

On Good Friday, Faith Olsen is on her way to an Easter youth service at her church. When she doesn't arrive, her parents call the police.

When Mel goes to apprehend Massey, she finds him with Poppy Van den Berg in a locked room. Though enough cause to take him in for questioning, the team needs to find evidence connecting him to the murders of the other girls.

When the forensics team searches his vehicle, traces of blood are discovered on the outside of a toolbox in the back. When tested, it is revealed to be too old to get any viable DNA, and though it is the same type as Joanna Yorke, it is also the same type as 40% of the population, including Massey himself.

Timeline[]

For the series timeline see Timeline.

Friday 6th February (afternoon) – Massey abducts Holly Grisham after school and takes her to his house in Parkwood, where he spends the next two days assaulting her and taking pornographic images of her.
Sunday 8th February (late night) – Massey stabs Holly repeatedly and dumps her body in Hester Park.
Monday 9th February (early morning) – Arthur Bailey finds Holly, still alive, but barely.
Monday 9th February (morning) – Taskforce Bowerbird meets for the first time.
Monday 9th February (evening) – Holly is positively identified and her parents arrive at the hospital.
Tuesday 10th February (evening) – The media documents a vigil being held at Princess Margaret Hospital for Holly.
Wednesday 11th February (morning) – Holly dies in hospital.
Thursday 12th February – John conducts the post-mortem, cataloguing Holly’s external and internal injuries.
Saturday 14th February (afternoon) – Joanna Yorke is taken from Hoyts Southlands while detectives are questioning Ian Grisham.
Sunday 15th February – Knowing that there must be a connection between the two victims, detectives interview Devin Rhodes, who lives near where Holly went missing.
Sunday 15th February (late night) – Massey dumps Joanna's body.
Wednesday 18th February (morning) – Joanna’s body is found in Bicentennial Adenia Park.
Thursday 19th February (morning) – John conducts the post-mortem on Joanna and sees the similarities in the modus operandi and the injuries caused.
Thursday 19th February (evening) – After the connection between the two cases is made, the detectives hold a press conference for the evening news.
Friday 20th February (morning) – Agents from the Australian Federal Police inform Rick that they have found explicit pornographic images of Holly. Rick also discovers images of Joanna.
Monday 2nd March – Labour Day public holiday.
Thursday 5th March (evening) – Niamh O’Hara goes missing while walking home from the local shops.
Sunday 8th March (late night) – Massey dumps Niamh's body in a different part of Bicentennial Adenia Park.
Sunday 22nd March (afternoon) – Aimee Isaacs is taken while playing in her front yard.
Sunday 22nd March (night) – Aimee reacts negatively to being touched and hurt by Massey, she and starts screaming. To silence her, he stabs her repeatedly in the neck and chest.
Monday 23rd March (early morning) – Massey dumps Aimee's body in Bicentennial Adenia Park and then goes to work.
Monday 23rd March (~0800) – A couple who are kayaking on Canning River find Aimee's body floating in the water.
Friday 3rd April (evening) – Good Friday; Faith Olsen is taken on her way to a church youth group.
Tuesday 7th April (Easter Tuesday) – Massey dumps Faith’s body in XXXX.
Friday 24th April (afternoon) – Poppy Van den Berg is taken from a local park. However, her brother Michael gets a look at the vehicle of the person who might have taken her, leading local police to comb over CCTV and call for anyone who might have seen the white ute.
Saturday 25th April – Bronwyn Williamson contacts Crimestoppers, saying that an ex-partner of hers, Alan Carson, used to drive a car similar to the one the police are looking for and he spent time at Karnet Prison Farm.
Sunday 26th April (morning) – Detectives interview convicted paedophile Alan Carson. However, during the interview, he reveals that his conviction was related to an underage boy, who was known to him, so they must continue searching.
Sunday 26th April (afternoon) – Kenzie looks at CCTV footage in the hope that the white ute might have been at the service station.
Monday 27th April (morning) – Members of Canning Vale police team track down the ute, and find the same vehicle on cameras around the locations of the other attacks, allowing them to identify the owner as Robert Massey.
Monday 27th April (afternoon) – Melinda and the rest of the team go to Massey's house to apprehend him and find Poppy Van den Berg in the house.
Tuesday 28th April – Massey is formally charged with the abduction and assault of Poppy Van den Berg, pending connection to the other victims.
Sunday 10th May – A memorial service is held for all of the victims. While attending this service, Poppy collapses, her stab wound having become infected and septic.

Characters[]

Memorable Lines[]

'...The team from Cannington is in the process of trying to find out who she is, but it looks like the doctors will have to go ahead and operate.’

Where urgent treatment is required to save a patient’s life or prevent harm to his or her health and the patient is not able to consent to the required treatment at the time (for example because the patient is unconscious), the patient is deemed to have consented.

‘We need to dot every ‘I’ and cross every ‘T’ with this one. I don’t want it to be a repeat of the Dante Arthurs case.’

Dante Arthurs was convicted of the 2006 murder of Sofia Rodriguez-Urrutia-Shu.

'We believe members of this ring may even be connected to those picked up in Project Spade.'

Project Spade was an international investigation into child pornography that resulted in almost 350 arrests in Australia alone.

‘Another kid disappears due to parental inattention – just a few months after Sam Trott…’ Troughton said, grimacing.

Sam Trott went missing in December 2014 and his body was later found in a nearby lake.

‘It’s times like this I wish we had never got rid of capital punishment. Prison is too good for this guy.’

Capital punishment in Australia was abolished in 1985.

‘Almighty and everlasting God,’ She began, ‘you are always more ready to hear than we are to pray, and to give more than we either deserve or desire. Pour down upon us the abundance of your mercy, forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things which we are not worthy to ask, except through the merits and meditation of Jesus Christ, your Son our Lord. Amen.’

This is taken almost word for word from the Book of Common Prayer.

Exceptional Character Moments[]

Points of Interest[]

Stranger abductions represent just 0.5% of cases but are more likely to be fatal.
The title is taken from the New Testament, Matthew's Gospel, 19:14.
The unspecified cricket match playing on the radio in Ian Sheridan's office is the second match of the 2015 ICC World Cup, played between Australia and England.
John Lacy saying he "has worked with Claire Gerritsen before" is a nod to the fact that David Franklin, who provided the inspiration for the physical description of Lacy, and Tammy MacIntosh, who provided the inspiration for Claire, worked together on Farscape.
Although not specified, the movie Joanna Yorke and family are watching is Paper Planes.
The song that Poppy Van den Berg sings at the memorial service is Over the Rainbow (the Israel Kamakawiwo'ole version played on ukelele).
Robert Massey is the first person in Western Australia to be given a life sentence without the possibility of parole.