Or maybe they did and just pretended not to see what was right in front of them. These commuters hurrying home or young students heading out for a night out saw the bright lights, the cosmopolitan café and bar culture, the museums, the fine restaurants, but there was a different Glasgow if you cared to scratch beneath the surface, and that was his world.

Kevin’s world was dark, frightening, dirty, and full of invisible people, people that would be born and die in grinding poverty just like he was and would be till the day it was his turn to die, and nobody would miss him.

Life was a constant struggle to survive, and that was what got him in trouble with the Sharkeys the first time around, and now put him in this position of being in debt to someone like Malky McDade.

He took a peek around the corner and saw the Sharkey guys get into their car and drive off. Kevin moved around the corner and walked as quickly as he could to get to one of McDade’s dealers, a homeless boy called Shug.

When Shug saw him, he tried to run, but Kevin grabbed him and pushed him back into the alcove where Shug had been sitting.

“Going somewhere?” Kevin said.

“Kev, it’s you. I was just coming to try to find you.”

“Aye, so you were. Where’s ma money, Shug?”

Shug was barely twenty but looked like he’d lived a whole lifetime, and while taking drugs he probably had.

“I haven’t got it.”

Kevin put his hand around Shug’s neck. “Why haven’t you got my money? I gave you that stuff this morning. Did you stick it up your nose or in your veins?”

“No, no, I couldn’t sell it, Kev. The polis were everywhere this morning, and then Jamsey and Murdo found me.”

“I know, they’ve been doing the rounds today.”

“They said they better not see me selling in the Sharkey territory again. They’ll take me for a swim in the Clyde. You know what that means?”

Kevin squeezed his neck with his hand, the anger and panic overflowing inside of him. “I need that money for Malky. If you don’t sell for him, he’ll end you and me!”

Shug was struggling for breath. “I’m sorry.”

“Give me the stuff, then.”

“They took it, Kev. I had no choice.”

Kevin’s stomach dropped. This was the third dealer that had given their drugs to Jamsey and Murdo. The rest had dumped it and run, or run and used, as the rumour went around that the Sharkeys were on the prowl.

“I’m dead.”

He heard a car stop behind him. Kevin looked around and saw a blacked-out people carrier there. The door slid open, and he saw Malky sitting there.

“Get in, Kevin.”