Free Attrition of the Gods: Book 1 of the Mystery Thriller series Gods Toys. by P.G. Burns

before he is prepared to confide in him why he would break into a jeweller’s shop then wait patiently for the police to arrive, only to assault a young officer. Leo also avoids the issue of why he left the Vatican twenty-four hours before the Pope announced his retirement. Although Leo is shy when it comes to relaying information he certainly is not averse to asking questions. Shane gets the feeling that Leo is in some way interviewing him but for what he has no idea. Every game of chess turns into an inquisition. How? What? Where? Who? It is unrelenting. Yet strangely, Shane doesn’t mind. He likes Leo and more importantly he trusts him. Shane has nothing to hide and although he’s usually uncomfortable discussing his past, he eventually opens up to Leo, telling him all about his upbringing on the notorious Ballymun estate in Dublin and about his drug-addled mother who attempted to raise Shane and his baby sister Chloe.
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    To say his childhood was traumatic would be a gross understatement. His mother, Ainne, was addicted to heroin long before Shane was born and for a long time after. At first she managed to balance her addiction and live a comparatively normal existence but when Shane was three years old his sobbing mummy held him and told him, “Ya da has died. He’s been killed.”
    His father, Tommy Mills, a well-known tough guy from north Dublin, was shot dead in a row over a missing car. On reflection, Shane lost both his parents that day. Without Tommy’s income to feed Shane and more importantly her own drug habit, Ainne resorted to selling her body and with it, her soul.
    Of course at such a young age Shane was not really aware of his mum’s addiction or the trade she plied to pay for it. He was under the impression she was just poorly and had a lot of male friends. Ainne loved her little boy, and she would never have introduced Patrick O’Hagan into the family unit had she any indication of his schizophrenic personality. Patrick started out as a just another punter. Then after a couple of months he moved in with Ainne and Shane. It didn’t take long before Ainne fell pregnant and within a year of Patrick moving in, Chloe was born. Shane didn’t remember any trouble before Chloe was born but soon after her birth the relationship between his mum and Patrick became very volatile. Patrick would kick her out to earn money and then kick her head in for the way she earned it.
    It seemed to Shane that every night he would be woken by his mum’s screams as she and Patrick fought. He would wake up and go straight to Chloe, his beautiful little sister who Shane felt an overwhelming obligation to protect. She was a little bundle that would cry and cry unless her big brother held her and sang to her. She had big rosy cheeks and, although unkempt and often mucky, her cuteness shone through. Always either smiling or crying, she was a ‘mischievous wee skitter’ as their neighbour Fat Beryl described her.
    By the time he was eight Shane was aware that his mother was a junkie and a whore: he just wasn’t sure what that meant. Patrick was not a drug addict. His weakness was alcohol and when he had a lot he liked to believe he was either Elvis or Bruce Lee. Shane preferred his Elvis impersonation as the Bruce Lee one usually ended up with Shane being punched unconscious. Patrick completely ignored Chloe, and Ainne was generally either working or out of her head so Shane would change, feed and bath his little sister. Looking back, they were the happiest times of his childhood. Patrick would be unconscious from a late-night binge and Ainne would be shooting up before midday so that left Shane and Chloe safe and together.
    Shane was a very extroverted and chatty little boy, always mucky like his sister and wearing hand-me-downs from people on the estate. They looked like they had walked out of an old war orphans photo. Everyone on the estate knew them and commented on how good Shane was with his little