Read Eoin Miller 01 - Faithless Street for Free Online Page A

they moved in?”
    “We tried. I made a
point of going round and knocking on their doors, tried to explain we weren’t
looking for trouble, be neighbors, like, aye?”
    “How did they take
it?”
    He shrugged, “Oh, you
know. Some gave us a chance, some didn’t. Bennett did at first, used to come
through the gap and buy eggs off us, promised to take my son to a football
match.”
    “What happened?”
    “You have to
understand, we see them as the
squatters. My father bought that land. He owned it, had a piece of paper with
his name on it.”
    “So-”
    “People from over
here started going over there and causing trouble. They’d steal things, or
damage property. A couple of our boys burned out Bennett’s car.”
    “Why target him?”
    Another shrug,
“Because he was there.” He stopped walking and turned to look at me. “Look, I
was born here. Most of us were. You want us to just give that up? They’re going
to keep coming and people here are going to keep fighting back.” I turned to
continue walking put he pulled at my arm and continued talking, “When they come
for us, they’re coming for you too. Do you think of that?”
    A Clash song popped
into my head unbidden.
    Bass and violence
running through my head.
    ***
    I found Shannon’s son
sifting through the mess of the ruined allotment.
    “What happened?”
    He didn’t acknowledge
me at first, but looked up once he realized I wasn’t going away. “What’s it to
you?”
    “Just wondered.”
    “I come here to
think, sometimes. This was my mum’s favorite place, you know? She loved coming
down here and working. We had chickens, over there,” He pointed to a twisted
heap of wood and chicken wire. “I’d come and help out, feed them, or dig the
soil.”
    “Where is she? Your
Mum?”
    He shrugged and I
left it alone.
    “Men come over
sometimes,” he said. “They made that hole in the fence, they come over when
they’ve had too much to drink, wreck our stuff. They trampled this, and mum
said she’d had enough. Took my little brother with her.”
    “But you stayed?”
    “Gotta stick by my
dad. He can’t do it all himself.”
    He turned to walk
back into the camp and I followed.
    “You know Tom
Bennett, right?”
    He didn’t answer, so
I stayed at his side, matching him step for step, a dog with a bone. At the
door to his fathers caravan he hesitated and turned to me, “Yes.”
    “You used to be
close, too, right?”
    He nodded. “Used to
let me go round his and watch the football on his big TV, hang out with his
mates like I was an adult, you know? But I think I was just there as a token,
like, to show how cool and open minded he was.”
    “He promised to take
you to a match?”
    “He used to have a
season ticket at Chelsea, drive down to every home game. He said he’d take me,
if my mum said it was okay, but they fell out.”
    I snapped a
connection.
    Of all the things
over here that could have been vandalized, they had targeted Mrs Shannon’s
allotment. I don’t believe in coincidences anymore than the tooth fairy. I kept
that to myself though.
    “Is that why you
torched the car?”
    “He couldn’t afford
the payments on that thing anyway, like the season tickets.”
    He pulled the door
shut behind him.
    My phone buzzed in my
pocket, and I pulled it out to see Becker was calling me. I thought about
ignoring it, but remembered he was doing background checks.
    “Michael Shannon has
quite a record,” he said. “Was arrested for GBH in 1995, and for arson in 2000.
Charges were dropped both times. Broke a coppers jaw during the first
evictions. Be careful.”
    I hung up and turned
back to the caravan. Shannon was stood in the doorway, staring at me.
    “Come in,” he said.
    ***
    Shannon settled down into the same sofa as before and
waited for me to sit opposite. Then he leaned forward so that we could talk
quietly.
    “I admit it, I did
it, take me in.”
    “No you didn’t. Tell
me, your son-”
    “Sean’s a good