Trilogy Collection

‘Yeah, yeah, save your sermon for someone who cares,’ she said, flapping a dismissive arm and reaching for her baccy tin. Anyway, you alright? How was your holiday?’

‘Educational,’ he told her, feeling suddenly twice the age that was written on his birth certificate; as if he’d lived more life in three years than she had in ten. ‘Anyway, it’s Robbo I’m after. I hear he’s got something going on that I might be able to get a piece of. Where is he?’

He could see Lyndsey struggling to focus as she tried to roll a joint, squinting as she crumbled a warmed lump of Lebanese black onto the tobacco. He watched her with distaste. Fucking drugs were for morons. She was out of it on heroin almost as soon as she got up in the mornings. And now she was topping up with this shit as well.

‘Out and about,’ she said.

‘Collecting off Melvin?’

She looked up then. ‘You know about that?’

‘I know about lots,’ he said, sensing that there was something he ought to know here. ‘So. What’s he into him for?’

Lyndsey blinked at him, then stared at him, then eventually lifted a finger and tapped it clumsily against the side of her nose. ‘None of your sodding business, little brother,’ she told him, enunciating the words carefully.

‘Course it’s my business,’ he said, expecting that. They wouldn’t want to cut him in, would they? ‘Look, we’re family, aren’t we? Anyway,’ he said, thinking on his feet, the bit between his teeth now,’ I know why he’s into him because everyone knows why anyone would be into him – because he’s a fucking nonce, Lynds – I just wondered how much he was into him for.’

Lyndsey’s expression changed then. ‘You do?’ She looked shocked. ‘Well, for fuck’s sake don’t tell her anything about it, okay?’ She shook her head. ‘Because what she doesn’t know can’t hurt her, can it? We said we’d sort it and we sorted it …’ Her slurring was getting worse now. ‘An’ maybe, now you’re back –’ he watched her lips curl into a half-smile. ‘We could even put the price up a bit, couldn’t we?’