“I can’t see as you’ve any reason to lie to me,” Banks said. “When we’ve finished, my colleague here might like to talk a few things over with you. Is that OK?”

Greg lit a second cigarette. “I’ve already told you pretty much all I know, man. And I don’t want any of this coming back on me. From what I’ve heard, those Albanians can be really fucking nasty when the mood takes them.”

“But they don’t know you. You only met them once. You never actually worked for them.”

“Even so. They don’t like loose ends. Would you take the risk? Besides, I don’t really know anything. Basically we were just glorified mules. We took the stuff up to the trap house, passed it on to the users and collected the money. They used us kids because we were least likely to be stopped or picked up. The younger the better. And believe me, Lenny G absolutely knew if you came back with one penny less than you ought to do.”

Banks took the photo of Samir Boulad from its envelope and passed it to Greg. “Do you know this lad?”

“Little Sammy? Sure,” said Greg, handing it back.

“Was he one of the sellers?”

Greg nodded. “Poor sod. I read about what happened. The bastards. Poor little Sammy. He was only, like, twelve or thirteen. He was the youngest of the lot of us. Looked like butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth.”

“How did you meet him?”

“He just turned up one day. A bunch of us used to hang out in this little park in the city center after dark, you know, share a few tins of cider, smoke a few spliffs, have a laugh. Most of the kids had left home, and some of us were living in a council house on an estate up Gipton way. It was supposed to belong to Kit’s dad, like, but he was in the nick, and his mother had done a runner, so we stayed there. Nobody seemed to mind. We invited Sammy back. He’d got nowhere to stay. He’d been sleeping rough. He was a nice kid. Quiet. A bit sad. Christ, you should have seen him eat, though, if you put some food in front of him. Like a fucking vacuum cleaner.” Greg smiled at the memory.

“He’d left his family behind in Syria. Did he speak any English?”