[ CW ] A alphabet book about any topic . ( i.e . A is for ... B is for ... Z is for ... )

A: an apple on a wall, having rocks thrown at it. Finally one hits and the apple bursts into half-rotten fragments. 
 
 B: a body waiting to be found, and the bump on its temple. It wears a big blue coat and sturdy boots. 
 
 C: the Creighton Centre. Teens come there after school, to play games that have been refined over decades with equipment available on every street corner. The can that is the target of Craig's catapult shots; the cannabis being sold thirty feet from the gate. The clanging of rocks against the metal fence. 
 
 D: the danger in every glance January-tanned Devan casts on the inferior people he meets. Even at 15 he is already viewing the world as his treasure chest to be raided at will. 
 
 E: Evalina, the Nigerian girl he is looking at. She looks straight back, the only girl who's ever done that. Is that erotism in her expression, or distaste? Who cares, they will end up in a borrowed bed anyway. Maybe tonight he will shake her out of her equivocation. 
 
 F: a fur coat hanging negligently off the shoulder of a red-haired young woman. Five in the afternoon is fine for a Fernet. The barman calls her Penelope, though she has had at least four other names. 
 
 G: three green things. The rubbish bin of the Grand Martin Hotel, the overalls of the refuse collector, and his face as he sees the body stuffed behind the bin. 
 
 H: Inspector Harper of the Metropolitan Police. Murders always happen at home-time when Harper is around. He is half-glad to have his theory confirmed. 
 
 I: the many intrusions into the hotel's affairs, and the informality Harper brings to every interview. Impertinences are the more inadvisable when made with Harper's inevitable hint of a grin. 
 
 J: James the barman, the only person in the hotel who will put up with being grinned at. James sees most things, and is happy to talk about them. But his salary is not so large that he will refuse `` money for jam''. 
 
 K: Keith Kelly, the identity of the corpse. He is, James says, a beggar - but no beggar ever got a hundred pounds in a day, or had the phone of a suspected drug dealer on speed dial. 
 
 L: the London news on which Harper appeals for witnesses. The laugh with which his superintendent greets the idea. 
 
 M: Memories. A blue-coated man talking with a sharp-dressing teenager, and money changing hands. A rock thudding into a man's head, an expression of surprise on his face. Hands pulling a boy away from the corpse. 
 
 N: a note from someone called Penelope, who claims to have seen the man's body being dumped. 
 
 O: the omnipresent recollection of a dead man's last breaths by one unused to such things. Oscar the binman burying what he saw under mounds of refuse. 
 
 P: Penelope, called from a party in her fur coat. Her pert expression is belied by the mischief in her eyes. She sits opposite Harper getting more and more playful, and he gets more and more uncomfortable. 
 
 Q: the question she was hoping to be asked. Gradually she stops making quips and becomes serious. Of course she is not too quick to drive him away. 
 
 R: a rock in a dark corner of a wardrobe. Is that red a little iron in the grain, or... 
 
 S: the beginning of the word Devan says as he realises what the stain is. Sepia skin shining under sodium lights as Evalina lifts her suitcase into the train. 
 
 T: a telephone ringing on Harper's desk. He talks into it, and forms a theory. 
 
 U: the unarmed combat Constable Urie has to engage in to get into Devan's room. The unanswered questions that echo round the interview room while Devan just stares into space. 
 
 V: a Volvo speeding up the motorway, as fast as possible while still being inconspicuous. The view in the mirror as the redhead checks for tailing cars. The value of the objects she hopes to earn. 
 
 W: the warrant for arrest Harper has made out. The wails of a mother who despite much evidence to the contrary still believes her son is a good boy. 
 
 X: the sign the superstitious guard makes at Devan's cell door. They whisper he has the Evil Eye. Since the conviction he seems to have gone downhill. Soon he will be `` exported'' to a secure hospital. 
 
 Y: the yellow gold Evalina hands to Penelope. It will have to be melted down - `` for your safety'', says Penelope. She reflects she has n't done much for her fee - yanking Harper around was rather fun, and lying to the police has long ceased to worry *her*. 
 
 Z: a boy called Zack, wondering why the dark girl saved him. He never even hurt anyone before. Who would think one rock in the wrong place could do so much harm?
