My eighty-three bucks versus his hundred million.

Out of lock-up when I’m barely sixteen, or adult prison till I’m thirty.

You can only play the hand of cards you’ve been dealt and these people own me …

A chill went from head to curled toes as the pressure on Charlie’s throat made her croak, ‘I’ll speak to your lawyer.’

‘Nice,’ he growled, taking one hand off and edging a slight grin. Then he pushed out his tongue and licked from the base of Charlie’s chin to her earlobe. His breath was like rot and she could hear the spit slosh around his mouth as he spoke his final words.

‘It’s been a pleasure breaking you.’

12 ONE-LEGGED GRANNIES

How much bad stuff can you ignore? Harry kept asking himself. The world’s full of hungry babies and one-legged grannies who stepped on landmines. But is that my problem? Is Charlie my problem? Would I give a damn if Charlie was fifty and had five chins?

If you wanna be some big-shot journalist, you can’t give up easy. But you’re fourteen. The helmet picture is everywhere. It’ll be the first thing in your portfolio if you apply to journalism college. And you’ve already taken crazy risks for this girl.

This train of thought ran through the night. When sleep seemed impossible, Harry grabbed his laptop. He found stories about Charlie’s family. Court orders $6.9 million-dollar lifetime settlement for brain-damaged boy. Rock Springs mom of three found hanged. QB prospect steps out at Janssen Golf fundraiser.

The last story was from the Facebook page of a local kids’ hospice, and came with a photo. Harry had imagined Fawn Croker as an older, meaner version of Charlie. But she looked like a swimwear model, six feet tall in borrowed golf shoes, blouse tied at the waist to emphasise a huge bust. JJ had propped himself on a pricey Callaway driver and smiled with the easy confidence of a good-looking kid who’d won the lottery by being born.

JJ, aged 17, shot an excellent 79 off a five handicap, while companion Fawn Croker said she was ‘thrilled’ to break 100 for the first time …

Harry yawned, skimming the rest of the article, then moving on to research the Janssens. The Janssen Corporation website showed happy gamblers and mall shoppers. The Wikipedia page on Jay Janssen Sr had clearly been curated by a public-relations company, with lots of details on Janssen’s business success and charity work, while cocaine dealing and jail time was kept to three short sentences under the Early Years tab.

But it didn’t take much searching to find a darker side. There was a recent TV news story about Janssen casino workers complaining that they weren’t being paid all their overtime and getting threatened if they spoke out or tried to join a union.