‘You got that right,’ the boy said. ‘What happened to your face?’
‘Bear attack,’ Harry said, not a hint of humour in his voice. ‘Ripped it off in one swipe.’
A splutter of nervous giggles bounced around the group.
‘Best you jog on then, before I make it even worse,’ the boy said, displaying surprisingly more bravado and balls than Harry would have given him credit for, seeing as he was about as physically threatening as a streak of piss.
The other two boys high-fived each other, also very impressed.
Harry stared at the boy who was now clearly not only sporting a spliff, but also an attitude, and pulled something from his pocket to show him.
‘What’s that?’
‘Look closely.’
The boy did exactly that.
‘You’re police?’
‘Give the lad a coconut.’
‘What?’
‘A coconut. A prize, son.’
The lad took another fat drag from the spliff, then flicked it over his head and into the beck, before shoving his hands in his pockets.
‘Nowt to see here, is there?’ he said. ‘And I’m not your son.’
Harry watched the now dead spliff drift off down the beck towards the bridge just off in the distance. ‘Can you tell me where you live?’
‘Yes I can,’ the boy said. ‘But I’m not going to.’
‘I think perhaps that you should.’
‘And I think perhaps that you should piss off.’
Harry stuffed his ID back in his pocket and rubbed his chin, as the boy spent a few moments soaking up the misdirected praise and adoration of his friends.
‘Look,’ Harry said, ‘I just came down here to have a quiet word, okay? I could smell you up there, so you’re not exactly being discrete, are you? I’m not here to make an arrest. Just want to ask you a few questions. How does that sound?’
The boy looked thoughtful, rubbing his chin in mock of Harry’s own body language. Then he held out his right fist, middle finger pointing to the ground. ‘How does it sound?’ he said. ‘What, you want me to turn it up for you?’ The boy swivelled his fist so that it was palm up, the middle finger raised good and proud. ‘That loud enough?’
More squawking and laughing from the rest of the gang. God, Harry thought, these kids hadn’t the faintest sodding clue, had they?
‘So what was it?’ Harry asked. ‘Resin? Bud? Skunk? No, I doubt it was skunk, didn’t reek like that stuff does. And you couldn’t handle it anyway. Not someone like you. But you enjoyed it, right? Made you feel on top of the world, am I right? Relaxed? Because that’s how it starts, yeah? It’s why it’s called a gateway drug. And that doesn’t just mean a gateway to other drugs, like this time next week I’ll find you dead in a barn, having shot yourself up with some badly cut heroine, bleeding from your eyes and your arse, vomit all over your shirt, your parents screaming at your pale, cold body, wondering just where the hell they went wrong to have you go and do something so bloody selfish and stupid.’
Harry paused briefly. He had them now. The laughter was gone. They were staring.
‘The fuck are you on about, old man?’ the boy said. ‘It was just a joint, that’s all. I’m not dealing.’
‘Not yet you’re not,’ Harry said. ‘Gateway, remember? Who did you buy it from, then? That’s what I want to know. Was this a first time? I don’t think so. You seem to know what you’re doing. You’re showing off with it, like you’re king of the hill. So you have a relationship with whoever it is, right? Think you’re almost mates, probably have some shitty little special way of greeting each other, don’t you? Handshakes and fist bumps and a manly hug? They asked if you want to sell a bit yourself?’
The boy went to nod, then shook his head. ‘Yeah, I mean, no, not really. None of your business anyway. Why haven’t you fucked off yet?’
‘So you’ll sell a bit, you’ll become the easy way to get product around, a nice in. And you’ll get a taste for it, the money as well as the drugs. More will be offered, more will come. You’ll widen your distribution. Before you know it, everyone will know who you are. The flash kid with the money. The one with the good stuff. You’ll get noticed up the chain and they’ll call you in. Then what, kid? What do you think?’
Harry stared hard, knowing full well that the look on his face right there and then was all dark threat and horror.
‘You’ll get the car, the house, the girls. Move onto dealing other drugs. But that’s when things get a bit more sketchy, because this isn’t just business, it’s war. You’ll get threats, you’ll want protection. For all we know, it could go well for you, make it big, yeah? The big man who started off with a spliff on the banks of a river in the dales! What a story! Until that day something goes wrong, and it always does. Bad stuff happens in a very bad way in this particular world, you know? Very bad indeed.’
Harry stepped forwards and the boys friends parted to allow him through. And now he was face to face with the teenager. Couldn’t have been more than sixteen. Same age his own brother was when it started to wrong for him.
‘I remember this dealer,’ Harry said. ‘Few years older than you.
