A shadow fell onto the bench next to him. He looked up into the smiling face of a girl he recognised as being in his year but not in his class. She had long brown plaits, hazel eyes and a small gap between her two front teeth. She sat down.

‘I’m Janice.’

Treasure hadn’t known her name. Most of the kids called her Flipper. Her arms finished where her elbows should have been, and her hands, misshapen and elongated, grew out of the stumps at odd angles, hence her cruelly depictive nickname. But neither the name nor the reason for it seemed to bother Janice. She pulled a packet out of her pocket and offered it to Treasure.

‘Do you want a Spangle?’

They sat in silence for a moment sucking their sweets. Janice picked at the offending graffiti with her fingernail.

‘You shouldn’t take any notice of Terry and his stupid friends,’ she said. ‘They’re tossers.’

Chapter 28

Chapter 28

1973

Jimmy Cox was weaving his way homewards along the pavement having closed the pawn shop early and spent the last couple of hours drinking in The Mother’s Ruin. Business at the shop had been slow for the past few months and he blamed that bloody gypsy woman on the promenade, who had read his cards. She had told him that his judgement day was coming and that the shop would close for good, and he had told her where to shove her cards. But now, part of him wished he’d kept his mouth shut. He was beginning to think that she had cursed him. Bloody witch! He aimed a vicious kick at an empty beer can discarded on his driveway, missed and then steadied himself against the front door while he searched in his pocket for his keys.