He shook his head. “Thanks, but I think I can handle him. We’ve just got to hope that he’s willing to start paving the way, because it won’t be possible without him.”

Chapter Thirty-Five

Funny we should reach this point now when I’ve already written so much to you, mostly about my background and how I came to . . . well, we know what I did so no need to spell it out. Not saving myself here, saving you from having to hear it again.

Anyway, I’ve already told you about my arrest, so now here’s an account of my first meeting with Dan. I know I touched on it before, but this is it in the order of things happening.

By the time he turns up at Sellybrook I’ve been on remand for a few months and my trial date’s already been put back twice, so still no real idea of when it’s going to happen. I don’t fret myself about it, nothing to be gained from that, it’s more helpful in my circumstances to focus on the day-to-day and keeping out of trouble. I don’t go looking for it, but there are times when it finds me. You’ve just got to look at someone the wrong way in here and your head’s getting stuck down a toilet, or your balls are being crushed in a meaty fist. It’s not a good idea to beat anyone at table tennis, or to support a different football team, or to ask someone’s name, or to take a shower on your own, because you’re never on your own for long.

No music in here, I miss that more than anything—not that I’m expecting you to shed any tears for me, just saying, is all.

Anyways, there I am in my cell one morning, hurting badly after a smacking from a couple of GBH-ers who’d taken against me, when I suddenly get dragged out to see a visitor and it’s not a visiting day. I automatically think it’s my jerk of a lawyer, finally turned up again, or the cops wanting another little chat about how I can help them fill in the big picture.

As I truck off with the Blimp—one of the screws—I’m hoping I might be about to hear that the charge of attempted murder has been reduced to attempted manslaughter, if there is such a thing, or even that it’s been dropped altogether. OK, I wasn’t holding my breath for it, but it was in my head.

I end up in this room I’ve never been in before that’s a bit like the ones you see in cop shows for interviews, only bigger, and I can hardly believe it when I see who’s waiting for me.

It’s only Superman.