The Wilds by Kit Tinsley Page B

name around these parts.’
    ‘He was a traveller, an Irish gypsy, a pikey if you like,’ Jason said, there was a hint that he was ashamed of this part of his heritage. ‘He moved here to get away from that lifestyle. He wanted to settle down. He got a job and met and fell in love with my mum. Her family were less than pleased about it, though, they didn’t go to the wedding, and they were even less thrilled when they found out she was pregnant with me.’
    ‘Despite the fact that my dad had done everything he could to get away from his lifestyle, people couldn’t let go of his past. There were a spate of muggings in town, and just because he was a traveller, my father was the number one suspect. One of these muggings went bad, and the victim died. After that the police went after him hammer and tongs. They got some flimsy evidence, from a questionable source, but it was enough to get him sent down.’
    ‘A few weeks later, a fight broke out in the prison. My dad, being the kind of man he was, stepped in to try and break it up. One of the guys had a makeshift knife, he stabbed my dad in the throat, and he died on the floor of the prison canteen.’
    ‘Jesus,’ Karl said. He was shocked at how bad the story was.
    ‘I barely remember him,’ Jason said. ‘The thing is, the muggings started up again not long after, and when they eventually caught the guy he confessed to all of them, including the ones my dad was sent down for. He was innocent.’
    Karl shook his head. The story was tragic and explained a lot of Jason’s resentment towards the police. Jason looked deep in thought for a few moments, then shook it off.
    ‘Let’s take a look around’ he said.
    The two of them walked slowly down the layby, scanning the floor. Though the police had done clean up there was still a lot of broken glass and small fragments of metal on the floor. Jason knelt down and picked some up, examining them.
    ‘What I don’t get,’ Jason said, still looking at the fragments in his hands. ‘If he’s supposed to have hit something somewhere else, and then pulled up here after, why is there so much debris lying around here?’
    Karl had no idea.
    ‘What did your guy in the police say?’ he asked.
    ‘He said Pearce is trying to say that he hit something somewhere else, then parked here to inspect the damage, and that when he was inspecting it he must have dislodged all of this debris,’ Jason replied.
    ‘That’s possible, I suppose,’ Karl said.
    ‘Are you kidding?’ Jason said ‘For this much shit to be left lying around here he must have been inspecting the damage with a lump hammer.’
    Karl stepped away, leaving Jason to continue examining the debris. He didn’t really know what they were looking for, how was looking at this helping them find his brother. As he looked at the ground a thought occurred to him; he looked at the concrete of the layby searching for something that wasn’t there. He went over to the road itself. Scanning the narrow lane for the thing that should have been there if Jason was right. There was nothing.
    ‘Jason?’ he called out, he turned to see the reporter stand up and walk over to him.
    ‘What is it?’
    ‘If you’re trying to say that the police are lying, and that Phil hit something here, then where are the tyre marks?’ Karl said, pointing to the surface of the road. ‘He would have hit his brakes, there would be marks on the road.’
    ‘Exactly my point,’ Jason said with a slight trace of a smile forming at the corners of mouth. Karl was confuse. Jason had been trying to tell him that the police, Pearce in particular, were lying about Phil crashing somewhere else, but when faced with evidence that the crash had not taken place at this location, Jason was agreeing.
    The confusion must have been clear on Karl’s face, as Jason smiled widely and shook his head.
    ‘I’m not saying that he hit something here,’ Jason said. ‘I’m trying to say that he didn’t hit anything at