New Story - With new ideas and directions to hand. I'm writing this and posting it straight onto Steemit - You can not get more exclusive than that! 31

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Please remember this story is being written and posted 'live' every day. I am writing today's episode and posting it here without benefit of a read-through, let alone an edit. I don't usually work this way and this experiment is exciting and different for me, not my normal work-ethic at all. To that end, please forgive me any typos, grammar errors and anything that you may think should have been picked up in an edit - it WILL be picked up in the edit.

I've already spoken with a publisher about getting this story published - possibly after Christmas, we'll see how it goes.

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Robin sauntered in as though nothing had happened, just after Ash had settled herself back on the sofa to watch the cartoons.

“OK?” he asked as he poked his head around the living room door.

They both looked at him and though they were a little subdued and quiet, they thought they’d managed to avoid any suspicion.

“Cuppa?” Robin called from the kitchen.

“So how do you know Nigel?” Justin asked Ash once Robin had made the tea and brought it in.

“He used to come to my dad’s when he was smoking weed,” Ash said. “My dad always said, ‘That lad’s trouble, he’s got more money than sense and he has no idea what to spend it on. He’s going to progress to hard drugs before long, just because he can.’ No, he didn’t say that to me, but I overheard him telling one of his friends.”

“Well, he got that part right,” Justin said. “He first came to the police’s attention when he was caught in the middle of a drugs bust and his lawyers had to work overtime to get the charges against him dropped and keep his name out of the papers.” Justin shook his head as he recalled those times past.

“My dad kept away from the harder stuff. I don’t know whether that was because he has some conscience or because he’s been warned off.”

“He’s probably been warned off,” Justin said. “There are more profits to be made from addicts than from occasional smokers and the pushers put a lot of time and effort into reeling the potential addicts in. They give them discounts and freebies and eventually, the addicts are dealing just to get enough money for their own habit. They don’t want small-time dealers getting in their way.”

“You were telling us about Nigel and his dad’s lawyers?” Ash said, prompting Justin for the story he’d started.

“Yeah. As soon as big-time lawyers start getting involved with scumbags and their drug busts, we know it’s a celebrity or a wealthy parent that’s pulling strings. There’s no point in fighting it, they have more money than the police force and any charges are never gonna stick. It makes sense to either let the celebrity junkie go before the charges are drawn up, or shove them out the back door before they get arrested and put in the back of the van.”

Robin and Ash sat listening to Justin’s reminiscences, fascinated by the processes that go on behind the scenes in the police force.

“That little shit, Nigel was either unlucky and just happened to be wherever there was a bust, he was stupid and couldn’t read the signs of an upcoming bust, or he was trying his hardest to cause as much embarrassment and trouble for his dad. I’m sticking with the theory that it was funny for him to cause trouble. He always seemed disappointed when we pushed him out of the way of the arresting officers.”

“Is that how that Mike guy got to know him?” Robin asked.

“Yeah, that’s exactly how they got together. And I do mean got together. Mike took Nigel under his wing, I thought. He spent a lot of time with him and I honestly believed Mike was trying to get him cleaned up and back on track with his relationship with his dad. I thought at first, it was a way of getting in with Nigel’s old man,” Justin said. He paused and made sure the kids were listening.

“It looks different from the benefit of hind-sight. Now I think Mike was grooming Nigel, if he wasn’t already shagging him in exchange for drugs. I found out after I left the force, Mike was already on the radar of the commanding officers for his inappropriate behaviour with the likes of Nigel.”

“So Nigel isn’t the only kid Mike’s shagging?” Ash asked.

“He’s not shagging him these days. Mike likes them young and Nigel is way too old for his tastes.”

“Oh my god…” Robin said.

Justin and Ash looked at Robin. The lad’s face had turned pale, almost grey. His eyes looked darker than usual because of the contrast between them and his pale skin. His lips had gone pale too and he closed his eyes and bent his head forward, almost to his knees.

Ash put down her tea and put an arm across Robin’s shoulders.

“Are you ok?”

“No. I just remembered a lad at school… he’s getting friendly with Mike and I don’t know just how friendly they are already,” Robin said.

“You’re gonna have to leave it for now,” Justin said. “Hopefully, we’ll gave it all wrapped up in a nice tidy bundle and everything, including your friend at school, will be taken care of.”

Robin looked at Justin, a haunted look in his eyes. He nodded but Ash could tell he didn’t like having to leave a friend at the mercy of such a predator.

“Mike started doing deals with the bigger dealers and they would give him back-handers in exchange for information on when the drug busts were likely to happen. That’s what I thought he was getting investigated for. They knew it was someone in our crew but the heat would be taken off if one of us coughed to it and left the force with as little fuss as possible. I’d been given the bad news that my career was about to be cut short because of this illness, so when he asked me to do him that one favour, I told him he’d owe me a big one in return.”

“That’s your currency, isn’t it?” Robin asked. “You buy and sell in favours.”

“Yeah. You can’t get taxed on favours, kid,” Justin said. “But it is possible to live quite well off them.”

And this is where the idea for the title has come about:

Ash and the Favour Man