Chapters (67)
- Cover
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- Forty
- Forty-One
- Forty-Two
- Forty-Three
- Forty-Four
- Forty-Five
- Forty-Six
- Forty-Seven
- Forty-Eight
- Forty-Nine
- Fifty
- Fifty-One
- Fifty-Two
- Fifty-Three
- Fifty-Four
- Fifty-Five
- Fifty-Six
- Fifty-Seven
- Fifty-Eight
- Fifty-Nine
- Sixty
- Sixty-One
- Sixty-Two
- Sixty-Three
- Sixty-Four
- Sixty-Five
- Sixty-Six
‘Two are, guv – it’s a bugger this flu, it drags on and on. I should know.’ DC Fern Monroe coughed.
‘I feel for you, Constable,’ Simon said, avoiding her eye, as he tried to avoid her altogether these days, since he had made what had turned out to be an error of judgement in taking her out to dinner. ‘You’re all up to speed with the young man found dead of an OD in Starly?’
‘Moron.’
Serrailler gave DC Sandhu one of his quick, hard glares.
‘For anyone who, for some mysterious reason, has not yet looked at this . . .’
The photograph came up on the screen and Serrailler enlarged it. They had all seen their share of dead bodies in various states, and plenty of them those of addicts, but there was still a faint intake of breath. At the skin blotched with dark, livid patches where needles had probed and twisted repeatedly, searching for a usable vein. The bruised face and the skeletal torso, bone showing through ragged skin. Scabs, sores. Hypodermic hanging off the arm. Little of the room was visible but it was the body, and in particular the face, that Simon wanted them to focus on.
‘Path report is pretty straightforward. Heroin OD, and the toxicology says it was contaminated. We’ve got a growing number of junkies – there’s been a huge spike in the past six months – and the dealers can’t keep up with the demand they’ve created for themselves, so they’re mixing it with God knows what to make it go further, creating a much more dangerous substance. It doesn’t work for long of course, because word gets round, but it buys the dealers time till better supplies come in. This guy here, we’ve no idea who he is or how long he’s been living such a shitty life. I’m not here to give you an elementary lesson in substance abuse, but because there’s an explosion of it on our patch, and those nearby, we need to keep up to speed – sorry.’
‘Stay sharp,’ Bilaval muttered.
‘OK, look hard at the photo again. This is what addiction does to a young man’s body, not to mention his mind, and his spirit, his willpower, his emotional balance, his judgement.’
‘Do we know how old he was?’