16He was waiting for Jed as school finished for the day. Brian Randall. He stood opposite the main gate, sitting on a garden wall, smoking a cigarette. No doubt he felt it made him look tough – school was behind him; he could do what the hell he liked. Two fingers up to authority. Jed wasn't impressed.
“Hello Brian. You waiting for me?”
Randall threw the cigarette away, half finished. “I need to talk to you.”
“I'm all ears.”
“Not here, dickhead. Let's walk down to the park.”
The local park was just a under a hundred yards from the school, a large, uncared for space where no one ever visited. A few broken swings hung there like skeletons, dead and useless. No children played there, the broken tarmac ground waiting to cut open knees and graze hands. Jed thought it should be bulldozed ov
