‘It’s me,’ she replied.
There was slight pause before the man spoke again. ‘What do you want?’ he asked without any politeness or subtlety.
She drew deeply on her cigarette, exhaling as she spoke. ‘We may have a problem.’
‘Go on,’ he told her.
‘These new cops on the estate – the one in charge,’ she explained, ‘I think he’s planning on upsetting things around here.’
There was a long silence before the voice spoke again. ‘Can he be persuaded?’
‘Not like that,’ she assured him. ‘He’s young. Clean. Untainted. He still has … ideals.’
‘Do I need to do something right now?’ he asked.
She sighed before answering. ‘No. Let me keep an eye on him – for now.’
‘OK,’ the man agreed casually. ‘But keep me informed.’ The line went dead before she could answer.
‘Shit,’ she cursed under her breath before taking a long pull on her cigarette.
King and Renita waited silently in the dark shadows of the corner, their eyes well adjusted to the dim light. The sound of distant laughter made them look at each other as they visibly tensed, but as the noise grew louder and closer they realized it was more giggling than laughing – the sound of children. Soon they could hear their footsteps as well as their voices talking softly to one another as they filed into the opening and took what appeared to be their usual places on the stools and cushions; their conversation grew a little louder and coarser as they became increasingly confident they were alone.
‘Now,’ Renita whispered in his ear.
‘Not yet,’ he hissed back as he watched the five children aged between twelve and fourteen empty their pockets onto the table making a communal display of cigarette papers, lighters and broken cigarettes. The youngest-looking child pulled something too small to see from his trouser pocket and began to fiddle with it. King guessed what it was and what he was doing, but still he waited until he could be sure.
He didn’t have to wait long before the boy began to heat whatever it was he was holding over the small flame of a lighter, immediately filling the basement with the smell of softening cannabis resin, but still they waited until he crumbled the resin into the waiting tobacco on a paper bed that another boy rolled and ignited with his own lighter. King tapped Renita on the shoulder and stepped out into the space, clicking his torch on and half blinding the youngsters. They looked to one another in terror before trying to scramble to their feet, but King and Renita were already on top of them.
‘Police!’ King half shouted, before lowering his tone. ‘Everybody stay where you are.’
‘Fuck,’ one of the girls announced, dramatically clutching her chest. ‘It’s just the police. You nearly scared the hell out of us.’
‘Nobody do anything stupid,’ King warned them. ‘You,’ he spoke directly to the youth holding the joint. ‘Put that out and drop it on the table. Everybody else – let’s have any drugs, cigarettes or booze on the table too.’ He gave them a couple of minutes to search themselves, but they produced little to add to the collection that they’d already made.
‘Is that it?’ he asked once they were no longer fidgeting in their pockets.
‘That’s it, man,’ the one who’d brought the cannabis resin answered. ‘What d’you expect – a whole soap or something?’
‘Watch your mouth,’ Renita scolded him, ensuring the silence of the others too.
‘Right then,’ King shone his torch in their faces one by one. ‘Who do we have here?’
‘I recognize chatty boy here,’ Renita told him. ‘Darren Stokes, right? Been causing trouble round here for years. And that one,’ she pointed to a pretty girl with long, straight blonde hair, but the eyes of a battle-hardened street fighter, ‘that’s Crissy O’Sullivan. Don’t be fooled by the angelic face.’ Crissy gave them her best sarcastic smile before her face again turned to stone.
‘Who else?’ King asked, but no one answered. He tapped the nearest one on the shoulder with his torch. ‘You. Name?’
The small, unhealthily slim boy sighed before answering, his translucent skin shining in the light. ‘James.’
‘James what?’ King snapped at him.
‘James Mulheron,’ he admitted with another sigh as King moved to the next girl.
‘And you?’
She brushed her short brown hair from her young face. He could see the fear in her eyes and guessed she was new to the group. The weak link. ‘Kimberley Clarke,’ she almost whispered.
‘Your parents know you’re hanging around with these clowns?’ King asked. Kimberley just shrugged. ‘Thought not,’ he told her and turned his attention to the last of the group who, despite his boyish appearance and slight build, had a look of feral viciousness about him. King instinctively knew that if this was the boy’s first contact with the police it certainly wouldn’t be his last. He shone the torch directly into the boy’s face, making his eyes appear black and red – like a trapped rat’s. ‘And you?’
‘I don’t have to tell you anything,’ the boy snarled, summoning some fight from his urban, animal instinct.
‘Have it your way then,’ King warned him. ‘If you won’t tell me who you are we’ll have to arrest you – for your own good, you understand.’
‘Just fucking tell him,’ Mulheron demanded, but the boy stood firm – his face a mixture of fear, defiance and hatred.
‘And obviously if I have to arrest you then we’ll have to arrest all of you,’ King threatened, immediately turning the entire group on the isolated boy as they took turns to tell him to say his name – their fear of arrest making their young faces twisted and ugly until Mulheron could take no more.
‘His name’s Billy Easton,’ Mulheron told them. ‘It’s fucking Billy Easton.’
King saw the fire burning in Easton’s eyes. Betrayal on the estate to the police had clearly long been installed in the boy’s fabric as the greatest of sins – even if it was just a name to save them from arrest.
‘Billy Easton, eh?’ King nodded, tapping the boy on his shoulder with his torch. ‘I’ll be sure to keep an eye on you.’
The boy never flinched – his eyes intense flames of intent that momentarily unnerved King.
‘All right, you lot,’ King suddenly barked. ‘Leave all your shit here and fuck off.’ The children looked to one another, unsure – suspicious of King’s motives. ‘I said fuck off,’ he repeated, this time drawing a look of concern from Renita.
‘Sarge?’ she checked. ‘You sure?’
‘I’m sure,’ he told her. ‘Now go, all of you. Just go and tell all your friends
