'No. Nothing like that. What was I supposed to do? He seemed nice when we were in the club. How was I supposed to know what he was really like?'
'He tricked you by putting drugs in your coffee. He's going to get away with it unless we do something, isn't he?'
'Don't call the police, please. They'll call my parents.'
How would the police react, confronted with his story? The chances of proving a case against anyone were poor. Even if the men were found and questioned they would certainly deny doping the coffee and claim Darren agreed to the sex. Although a lot of the time he appeared very much a boy he was not under age.
'Okay, let's leave it at that for now. There's quite a bit of work waiting for me downstairs. Will you be all right on your own for a while?'
'Yeah, I'll be fine.'
In the evening he rang the burger bar to say he was feeling better and arranged to go in to make up his hours. Tom called to apologise for losing his temper and for what he had said earlier.
'An instance of bad boys getting all the attention and good boys resenting it? Don't worry, it's forgotten.'
'You're too easy on me. I was angry, all the worry about Andrew and Darren and everything, but I would never have hurt him, you know that. Shouldn't have took it out on you.'
'Strong feelings... it's okay, really.'
Though Andrew rarely joined us in the pub since his illness, we arranged to meet him there that evening so I could tell him of Darren's adventure without the interruptions inevitable at the hotel. He and Tom listened eagerly, and agreed with me that, there being no evidence of rape, contacting the police was not appropriate, in fact they seemed surprised the idea had occurred to me. Andrew had other thoughts about what we should do: 'If he had been under age the police might have acted, they would have had a reasonable chance of getting a conviction. He's back and he's safe, that's what matters. The next step is what we must concentrate on.'
Tom offered to go looking for the courier and 'give him a fright' if he found him. 'That's not a bad idea, but it isn't what I had in mind. The boy's future is what concerns me. However you may be right, someone ought to let the bastard know that boys like Darren may have friends who don't like them being used as sex toys.'
This sounded dangerous to me. 'Remember there was a group of them. We may end up being the ones who are given a fright.'