As soon as he saw the young man in court (22, unemployed) Lt. Freer had a strange reaction. He felt personally threatened, shaken by the sentence. He hated the thought of the lad going to prison. How different really were his bright sprayed swirls from most hoardings? Lt. Freer had no words for his feelings. He kept a report on the case with a photograph of the young man paper-clipped to its cover. The lad's name was Tom Gleadal. No previous convictions, no qualifications.
Last night his wife picked up the photograph from the floor and asked. "When was this taken?"
"Just before the trial," Lt. Freer replied.
His wife looked confused. "Was it before you met me? I don't remember it that's all." She passed it to him, and he saw.
He and Tom Gleadal have nearly the same face: the round nose, the round cheeks, the overbite.
"It's me in my artist days," he answered.