iBoy

I glanced at Gram, not sure what to say.

She turned to Johnson. "Whatever Lucy and Tommy have talked about, that's their business. Now, have you got any more questions? Because if you haven't —"

"I'll let you know when we're finished, Ms Harvey," Johnson said, turning away from her and looking at me. "I'd like to ask both of you about a series of incidents that have occurred in Crow Lane over the last week or so."

"Incidents?" Gram said. "What incidents?"

Johnson kept looking at me. "A number of the individuals that we suspect were either involved in or have information about the attack on Lucy and Ben have recently been subjected to varying degrees of assault."

I frowned at him. "Can you say that again, please? In English."

Johnson stared at me. "You heard me. Someone's been taking the law into their own hands. Do you know anything about that?"

"No," I said.

He looked at Gram. "Ms Harvey?"

She looked puzzled. "You mean someone's been attacking the boys you suspect of raping Lucy?"

"Well, it's not quite as simple as that... and because no one's talking to us, most of the information we have is sketchy to say the least. But we think that someone, probably someone local, might be targeting anyone who has connections with the local street gangs." He looked at me again. "So we think it's probably someone who has some kind of grudge against the gangs ... someone seeking revenge, perhaps."

I laughed quietly. "What? And you think that might be me or Gram?"

Johnson shrugged, "I'm just asking if you know anything, Tom. That's all. You're friends with Lucy ... maybe you know someone who might want to punish the people who hurt her. Can you think of anyone like that?"

I slowly shook my head. "No ... no one springs to mind. And, anyway, how would they know who did it? I mean, how would they know who to punish?"

Johnson shrugged again. "Your guess is as good as mine. Maybe Lucy told them, or Ben ... or maybe they witnessed the attack themselves but are too afraid to tell us. Or perhaps they've just been listening to all the rumours going round the estate. Or maybe they don't know who did it, they're just assuming it was the Crows or the FGH —"

"This is all getting a bit ridiculous, isn't it?" sighed Gram.

Johnson looked at her. "You think so?"

"I do."

"Why's that, Ms Harvey?"

"Well, firstly ..." Gram held up a finger. "The gangs are always fighting each other. It's what gangs do — they beat each other up, stab each other, shoot each other. They've been doing it for hundreds of years, and they'll carry on doing it until they're all gone ... which won't ever happen. So I don't see why you suddenly seem to think that any of it means anything. I also don't understand why you're wasting your time looking for someone who's attacking the bad guys, when you still haven't found the bad guys yourself."

"Well ..." Johnson started to explain, "as I said before —"

"And secondly," Gram said, holding up another finger, "even if there is some kind of vigilante out there, which I very much doubt, I don't see what that's got to do with us." She stared at Johnson. "Do I look like I'm capable of terrorizing gangsters?"

Johnson shook his head. "I never said —"

"Do you think Tommy's capable? I mean, he's still recovering from a life-threatening operation, for God's sake. And even if he wasn't... well, look at him. He couldn't terrorize a fly." She smiled at me. "No offence, Tommy."

"None taken."

She turned back to Johnson. "So, unless you've got anything more relevant —"

"A number of youths were assaulted near Fitzroy House yesterday evening," he said sternly, turning to me. "Two of them are still in hospital, one in a critical condition. During the assault, a van was set on fire. We have a witness who saw you at the children's playground minutes before the attack. Do you deny being there?"

"No, I was there."

"Hold on, Tommy," Gram said. She turned to Johnson. "What's going on here? You can't just —"

"Yes, I can, Ms Harvey. Your grandson is a potential witness to a very serious assault that may end up as a murder case. I need to ask him some questions. All right?"

Gram looked at me.

"It's OK, Gram," I said.

"Are you sure?"

I nodded.

Johnson said to me, "Did you see what happened?"

"No."

He tutted and sighed. "Come on, Tom ... you were there. I know you were there

"Yeah, I was at the playground," I said. "But I wasn't there for long, and I didn't see anything happening at Fitzroy House. I didn't go anywhere near there."

"You didn't see anything?" he said incredulously. "How could you not see anything? There were about a dozen FGH boys, and six of them got knocked out, so there must have been a hell of a fight... and even if you didn't see that, a van was set on fire, for God's sake. Do you seriously expect me to believe that you didn't see anything?"

"I didn't," I said simply.

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Can I see your hands, please?"

"What?"

"Your hands ... please. I'd like to see the palms of your hands."

"What for?" asked Gram.

Johnson sighed. "Please, Ms Harvey. We can either do this here, with no fuss, no bother, or I can take Tom down to the station with me. It won't take a minute. All I'm trying to do is eliminate Tom from our enquiries. Believe me — if he's innocent, he's got nothing to worry about."

Gram looked at me. "It's up to you, Tommy."

I shrugged and said, "I don't mind," and I held out my hands, palms up, for Johnson to study. He didn't touch them, he just leaned down and looked very closely at them. I think he even sniffed them too.

"Turn them over, please," he said.

I turned them over.

"What happened there," he said, pointing to a patch of singed hair on the back of my forearm.

"Nothing," I shrugged. "I got too close to the fire, that's all."

"What fire?" Johnson said, glancing over at the radiator against the wall.

"At Lucy's," I told him. "She's got an electric heater. I sat too close to it."

He stared at me for a few moments, disbelief showing in his eyes, and then eventually he said, "Thank you ... now, just a few more questions, and I promise that's it. All right?"

"Yeah, fine."

"Right..." he said, hesitating slightly. "I need to know ... and I realize that this might sound a bit strange ... but I need to know if you own a mask."

"A mask?" I said. "What do you mean?"

"A mask ... you know, a toy mask. Superman, Spider- Man, anything like that."

Gram laughed. "Is that who you're looking for — Superman?" She laughed again. "You really think Superman's going to move from Gotham City to Crow Town?"

"That's Batman, Gram," I said.

"What?"

"It's Batman who lives in Gotham City, not Superman."

"Really? Where does Superman live then?"

"I don't know."

"Metropolis," Webster said.

We all turned and looked at him.

Blushing slightly, he said, "Superman lives in Metropolis."

"For Christ's sake," Johnson sighed. "Can we please stay in the real world?" He looked at me. if you could just answer the question, Tom."

"Sorry," I said, grinning. "What was it again?"

"Do you own any masks?"

"No," I said, still grinning. "I don't own any masks."

"Would you mind if DC Webster took a quick look in your room?"

"No, no problem." I turned to point out which way my bedroom was, but Webster was already leaving the kitchen. Gram started to follow him, but Webster said, "It's all right, Mrs H. I'll be fine, thanks," and he shut the kitchen door behind him.