This is all 22 parts of my recent fiction serial in one complete story. It is a long read, at 17, words. Tony had always wondered why criminals were portrayed as stupid, uneducated, and brutish. It took a lot of thought to be a careful criminal, and a reasonably high level of intelligence to be a successful one. Yes, you had to be prepared to be violent, that went with the career. But you could do violence stylishly, if you put your mind to it. Then there were the other old misconceptions.
Broken homes, uncaring parents, physically abusive fathers, drug use or alcoholism in the family. Anything to excuse the fact that society was all about criminality. The truth was that modern society existed on criminality.
From the politicians and other officials taking bribes and free gifts to turn a blind eye, to the copy typist who took some typing paper home in her shoulder bag for her kids to draw on. The butcher putting his thumb on the scales to charge you extra for meat, and the mechanic who said he had fitted new parts to your car when all he had done was polish the old ones that had nothing wrong with them.
Nuns who beat kids at Catholic schools, Priests who fiddled with little boys. All criminals. The greasy-haired boys on fairground rides who put your money in their pocket instead of giving it to the bloke who owned the dodgem cars, or the tradesmen who took cash deposits to fix your roof and you never saw them again.
And they were supposed to come from deprived areas. Run around with holes in their trousers, sometimes shoeless. Never enough to eat, sleeping four to a bed. Cold in the winter, acting like feral animals in the summer until it got dark. Their life of crime started on the streets in their childhood. A midwife in fact. His dad worked in the technical drawing department of a well-known car factory, and had college qualifications. They wanted the best for their only son, and saw to it that he did well at school, learned manners and respect, and passed his exams.
