‘Have you given any more thought to Darren O’Driscoll?’ Michael asked.

Kash shook his head. Repeatedly. Almost violently. His left hand touched a darkened area of skin on his temple. A subconscious tell.

‘Did O’Driscoll do that, Simon?’ Michael had spotted what Draper and Ross had not. ‘The bruise you’ve hidden under your hair. Was it him?’

Draper and Ross looked more closely. Kash’s lank brown hair was a little more than medium in length. Its style was out of date, parted in the centre like a cool kid from the early 1990s. The left-hand side of the ‘curtained’ style had hidden the bruise, but it was less effective now that Michael had pointed it out.

‘Why did O’Driscoll hit you, Simon?’

Michael’s earlier question had been unanswered and he was taking Kash’s silence as a ‘yes’.

Once again there was no answer.

‘Did you tell him what we discussed when we first met, Simon? That you had to protect yourself, not him? Is that why he hit you?’

There were no answers to any of the questions, and Kash looked weaker with each one. Looked more terrified.

Michael knew that he could only push his questions so far. He had to be careful not to break the boy.

‘Simon, you need to listen to me now.’ He tempered his voice, speaking as softly as he could. ‘You can’t let fear of Darren O’Driscoll get you convicted of something you haven’t done. You can’t be so afraid that you don’t let me defend you. We can make arrangements that protect you from him. You just have to tell me that you need protecting.’

Kash looked up and met Michael’s eye. The first time he had ever done so.

‘No one can protect me from them.’

‘From them?’ Michael grasped the first lifeline Kash had thrown. ‘Who’s “them”, Simon? It’s not just O’Driscoll?’

‘I’m not saying any more, sir.’ Kash’s voice was quiet again. It was steeped in fear. ‘I just want to get through this.’

‘You need to want more than that, Simon. You need to want to be acquitted. To be found not guilty. You can’t serve a life sentence just because you’re afraid.’

‘I can, sir.’ A tear threatened to escape Kash’s eye as he spoke. ‘Because at least a life sentence means I’m alive.’

Michael began to answer, only to stop.

What the hell do I say to that?

For the first time in as long as he could remember, Michael had no response. Not a real one. Not a truthful one. Michael had grown up in a world alien to Ross and Draper. But a world that Kash might understand. And so Michael knew that there was truth in Kash’s words. There were consequences to what Michael wanted Kash to do. A price to pay for putting the blame where it truly belonged.

Those consequences could be exactly what Kash feared. For Michael to tell him otherwise would have been a lie.

‘We can make sure that they can’t get to you, Simon. I swear.’