A Kestrel For A Knave

When he returns home, Billy checks on Kes and finds the shed door open and the bird missing. He runs around the house and fields with his lure, calling out for her. Realizing that Jud is likely responsible, he rushes to the bookie to ask if Jud checked on his bets. The bookie reveals that he did and that he flew into a rage when he found out that the horses had won. The bet would have netted Jud 10 pounds, a significant sum.

Billy returns home and finds Jud and Mother at the dinner table. He demands that Jud tell him what happened to Kes. Jud reveals that he killed Kes to punish Billy for not placing the bet. Billy, heartbroken, goes to Mother for comfort, but she rebuffs him, uncomfortable with the emotional vulnerability. Jud reveals that Kes’s corpse is in the dustbin.

Billy recovers her and then flies into a rage at Mother, drawing attention from their neighbors. He then flees the house, runs across town, and takes shelter in an abandoned building. In a flashback, he recalls a trip to the cinema with his father. They returned home to find Mother engaged in sexual intimacy with a man Billy knows as “Uncle Mick.