The Swap - By Antony Moore Page 0,49

reunion?'

Harvey admitted that he had.

'It is just that we have received some information that we were wondering about. It regards a comic that Mr Odd is said to have had. A . . .' Here he consulted his notes. 'A Superman One?'

'Oh yes.' Harvey looked at the wall, the ceiling and the door instead of looking at the bottom drawer of his desk. 'The Superman One. The famous Superman One.' He felt his smile becoming a rictus and forced himself to stop grinning and do the sigh. 'Someone told you about the Superman One.' Jeff Cooper. Had to be. Bloody snitch.

'Perhaps you could tell us about it, Mr Briscow.' So nice.

'Well, OK. It was just a comic. I swapped it years ago with Charles Odd, when we were twelve. When I had it it wasn't worth much, but it has gained in value and become rather rare. I believe it is quite valuable today.'

'How valuable? Do you know?'

'I'm not sure . . . I suppose it would be worth about two hundred thousand pounds if it was in perfect condition.'

Jarvin raised his eyebrows in a rather vague attempt to look impressed. 'That much?'

'But only if it was perfect,' Harvey stressed.

'And did Mr Odd know this?'

'I don't know,' – God knows he'd wondered – 'but I doubt it. I don't think he was very interested in comics.'

'Did you talk about comics at the reunion?'

What had Bleeder told them? 'Er, yeah. I think it was mentioned. I think I sort of made reference to the swap, reminiscing, yeah? To be honest, I hadn't seen Charles for years and we hardly knew each other at school, so . . . there wasn't much else to talk about.'

'One or two of the people we've spoken to mention that he was badly bullied at school. Is that your recollection too?'

'Er, yeah. Maybe. I don't really know. He was kind of different, I guess, and you know what boys are like?' Inspector Jarvin looked like a man's man to Harvey.

'Some of our informants have suggested that you were one of those who bullied Mr Odd.'

'What?' Now that wasn't fair. If anything Harvey had always thought of himself as kinder to Bleeder than most, one of the ones who gave him a chance. 'No way!' He spoke with genuine hurt. 'It wasn't me that picked on him, it was other people, especially the rugby crowd, they used to kick him all the time, every day. I was never like that.' Did Inspector Jarvin like rugby?

'Mr Odd himself suggests that you were very cruel to him. That on the day of the comic swap you called him an effing freak. Would that be right?' The chief inspector was watching Harvey closely. Harvey didn't like that so much.

'Bleeder said that?' Then he covered his mouth with his hand. 'I mean, Charles said that? I don't think that's fair . . . I mean, everyone called him a freak, all the time . . .' He could feel the beautiful friendship with Chief Inspector Jarvin slipping away. How could you argue that you didn't bully someone twenty years ago when they say that you did? Especially when you called them Bleeder.

'Bleeder.' The chief inspector jotted something on his pad and Harvey became aware that the other policeman, Allen, had silently been making notes throughout, recording his words. Shit. 'That is what you called him, is it? Was that his nickname?'

'Yeah, Bleeder, Bleeder Odd. But I didn't call him that.'

'You did just now.'

'No, I mean, I didn't invent the name, it was just what he was called. I was called "H", yeah? Everyone has a nickname.'

'You were called "H"?'

'Yes I was. But not because of drugs! I never took heroin, never have, actually, although I've often thought I should just like to try it once, you know . . . or rather I'm sure you don't and I never have and never will.' Jesus.

'Why was he called Bleeder, do you know?'

'Um. No, I don't think I do. Maybe 'cause of the nosebleeds and he had a lot of scabs and stuff. He was always bleeding, you know. So it was kind of descriptive.'

'Yes. But not very nice?' It was said to sound like a question but Harvey took it as the statement it actually was.

'Well, no,' he said rather desperately, 'no, not very nice. But then children aren't nice, are they? Or rather, they can be . . .' Did Inspector Jarvin have children? 'But they can not be, if you