'No, there's no reason to do that. Wasn't exactly my finest hour, you can understand me not wanting to be reminded of it.'

'You don't want to tell me about it?'

'It might have been worse than you think. You've probably got enough of an idea of what that kind of life is about from what you read in the papers. '

'It's part of you. But if talking about it is too difficult...'

'All right.' We took beers into the empty breakfast room and sat opposite each other in the bright light of the bay window. We were committed now, but for perhaps a minute he sighed and shuffled in his chair.

'We're not talking about a one-off mistake here. There's things I've done that even Andrew doesn't know about.'

'Trust me.'

'The start of it all was way back, when I was still at school. I haven't spent all my life thieving, and what there was is all behind me. It was another life.'

'You got into trouble when you were a kid?'

'We got away with it. Maybe it would have been better if we hadn't - might have put us off.' He and a school friend had begun stealing when he was fourteen. They used to go out trying the door handles of parked cars and taking things from inside any that had been left unlocked. They took cigarettes, sweets, and small change which they spent in amusement arcades. One day they saw a leather jacket on the back seat of a car and broke a side window to get it; it was too big for either of them and they sold it for a few pounds to a friend's brother. They became more determined, made forays into new areas, and by smashing car windows greatly increased their haul. The first time a car alarm went off they ran off in opposite directions, but after triggering two or three they realised that nobody took much notice and that the best way to avoid attracting attention was to cross the street and walk calmly away.

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Later they began joy riding, forcing or breaking windows to get into older cars that were less well secured, driving them for a few miles, and ripping out the car stereo systems. They went out at night, wore dark clothing and gloves to make themselves less noticeable and varied the times and the places they targeted. They were twice spotted by someone who gave chase, but they ran fast enough not to be caught.

'Didn't your parents ask what you were doing?'




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