PREFACE

Reaching for the door handle, Dobson was grabbed from behind in a choke hold and shoved head-first into the front of the car.

‘What the hell?’ he gasped.

The car sped off up the road and turned left at the junction where it suddenly stopped.

There in wait stood the banged up estate and Dobson was swiftly bundled out of one car and into the front of another. The three occupants with him were all clad in beanie hats and sunglasses to conceal their identities then they took off with their hostage. The car, they left abandoned at the side of the road. There was no sign of his mates.

Still held in a tight choke hold, Dobson struggled and gagged. ‘Who the hell are you? What do you want?’

A head butt full in the face knocked the batteries out of his voice box. A second butt caused him to fight out in panic. The strangle hold was tightened and a series of short punches beat him into submission.

Dobson tried to shield himself with pleading hands. ‘OK, OK, what have I done?’

The punishment ceased for a second and a pair of sunglasses snarled in his face. ‘What have you done? What have you done? So you like beating up old men, do yer?’

A spark of discernment registered in Dobson’s eyes, although the rest of his face was reddening-up like chopped meat.

‘No! No! I was drunk, I didn’t mean to.’ He choked against the hold.

The attack on him resumed, each new blow coming with a disciplinary reminder. ‘Feel good does it? Feel good does it? Now you know how Fred felt and all the other innocent people you’ve battered over the years. All seem worth it now, does it?’

To Dobson, everything was just a blur of white light and thudding pain, it must have been the longest few minutes of his young life. Finally, the car pulled up down a quiet road on the outskirts of the town. The front door was thrown open, and Dobson was shoved out semi-consciously. As he rolled on the pavement the car skidded off with the door flipping shut again. Dobson lay sprawled on his back, bloodied, battered and finally punished for all the atrocities he had ever committed.

Justice had been served. The vigilantes had claimed their first victim.