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prisoners came from a brutal world and they understood brutality, so punishment was swift and hard and physical. In prison, it’s survival of the hardest, and some of the screws had to be the hardest boys on the block. Davie understood it, but he did not accept it. He knew it was an abuse of power, knew it was just the kind of behaviour that would backfire some day on the system. However, he did not fight back, even though he felt cold rage steal over him as they beat him, felt the power to retaliate pulsing through his body. But something told him that if he let whatever was inside him take over again, it would only make matters worse. So for the first time he brought it under control and he let them beat him, let them show off how powerful they were, and within a few minutes it was over. As he lay in his cot that night, his body throbbing in agony, he thought of Audrey and imagined her cool hands soothing his bruises and somehow he felt better.
    His time alone allowed the bruises and contusions to heal and also gave him the opportunity to think about why Harris had been sent after him. Davie had gone out of his way not to cause any trouble or get in anyone’s face. Violence was commonplace in the jail, but Davie didn’t think it was anyone on the inside. But who? The only two people he could think of who had ever wanted him dead were both lying cold themselves – Johnny Jones had been found shot and Clem Boyle had been taken out by cops. A striping in the jail could be bought for a few packets of tobacco, a killing for not much more. So who hired Harris? Who had enough pull to get the boy to risk a life sentence? Not only that, a screw had set him up. Who the hell was behind it?
    Then his father’s smiling face and that little wave came into his mind, as it had many times before. The little wave that said I’m back . Davie became convinced that Danny McCall was at the root of this attack, that he wanted his son to leave prison in a wheelchair or in a box. Danny McCall saw his boy as a threat. The thought made Davie smile in the dark solitude of the Digger. It was a grim, determined little smile, and if Danny McCall had been able to see it he would have been fearful.
    Harris’s attack did not result in Davie’s death or crippling, but it did lead to an extension of his sentence.
    Lomas, the prison officer, lied in court, claiming that he saw Davie attack with no provocation. He also claimed Davie had taken a swing at him, which explained the visit by the muftis. The court, naturally, swallowed everything he said – screws, like cops, being paragons of virtue in the eyes of Scottish juries. Davie denied it but who the hell would believe a convict? He was given another eight years for the assault. He felt his heart sink as the judge handed the sentence down and his body was numb as the guards on either side of him led him to the cells below the court. He had only been months away from early release and then this happened. He had been defending himself but he was the one who was going down and Harris was being treated like a bloody victim.
    Another eight years. He wasn’t sure he could handle that. He had been a model prisoner, but the system had turned on him. As he travelled back in the prison van, Davie McCall decided he would show them what vicious was all about.

5
    JIMMY KNIGHT LAID the two plastic bags of groceries on the small formica table in the tiny kitchen of the flat. He’d bought them earlier that afternoon, knowing he was coming to see her that night. Jack Bannatyne had asked him to tap his touts for info on the dead girl and Mary was best one he had. Even if she was dying of the virus.
    ‘You’re good to me, Mister Knight,’ she said.
    He didn’t answer. He’d had a patchy relationship with the woman at best, but ever since she’d been diagnosed as HIV Positive, he’d felt sorry for her. He still held an assault charge over her head, but truth was that wasn’t much of a threat after all this