wanted to see his mum again but he said he wouldn’t until he was clean and he could pay the money back that he’d stolen from her. He’d come back with fire in his belly. I really thought he was ready to try the programme again and I really wanted to work with him. There’s no bigger satisfaction in my job than seeing someone come out of this at the other end and win the battle against addiction.’
Jacob sat back and leaned his notebook in his lap.
‘Did he say that he’d seen his wife or son?’ Gina needed to establish if Mrs Swinton was telling them the whole truth.
Maurice pulled his glasses from a pouch on his desk and put them on before scanning his case notes. The little dents in his nose were highlighted by the ray of sunshine that reached through the old sash window. ‘He said he’d been to the house. When I probed him further, he said he wanted to knock on the door but he couldn’t. Again, he said he wanted to get better before taking that next step. In his words, he wanted his boy to be proud of him and he knew he had to earn that. Also, his wife wanted nothing more to do with him. That was something he was trying to find a solution for.’
Gina noticed that Maurice had a warm smile. She could see why Alexander Swinton would have felt comfortable with him. ‘Do you know where he was staying?’
Again, Maurice flicked through his notes. ‘He said he was of no fixed abode. I made a note and it simply says “squatting”. He didn’t say where. I offered him some numbers to get help, but the council is stretched and that leaves a lot of people like Alex on the street. Unfortunately, he’s not alone. There are many Alexes out there with barely any help and nowhere to go. You can see why it’s so easy to give up.’
‘Have you heard of a squat that the kids refer to as the tramp house?’
He shook his head. ‘Should I have?’
‘No. One of the local teens said they’d seen him at this particular place. That’s where he might have been living.’
‘Sounds about right.’
‘Did Alex seem worried about anything else, other than the drugs? Did he mention any enemies?’
Maurice coughed a little and banged his chest. ‘That’s better.’ He paused and bit his bottom lip. ‘He rambled on a bit and said he thought he was seeing things. He thought a woman was following him. One minute he could see her, the next she was gone. He kept saying that it was while he was high. I didn’t take too much notice as he went on to talk about the weird nightmares he was having. He spoke about being trapped and not being able to get out.’ Maurice shivered. ‘I should have asked him more. I saw the news reports, I know what happened to him. He knew this was coming and I thought it was all in his dreams. He said they were laughing at him and taunting him while he choked.’
Gina tilted her head slightly as she tried to fathom what might have been going on in Alexander Swinton’s head.
‘I don’t know whether that was one of his dreams or whether something like this happened. He mentioned it when talking about dreams so I didn’t worry too much. He said there was no going back. He kept repeating that phrase. I thought he meant going back to his mother or wife, but maybe there was more to it.’
Jacob kept his pen on the page, noting everything down.
‘Did he try to contact you for another appointment?’ Gina shifted her chair slightly to avoid the sun blinding her.
Maurice shook his head. ‘I wish he had. I had another appointment booked for him but he didn’t turn up. That was on Monday of this week. Before hearing about him on the news, I just suspected that he wasn’t as ready as he’d said he was to tackle his problem. I had no phone number or address for him so I had to leave it at that.’
‘Thank you, Mr Dullard. If you can think of anything else in the meantime, here’s my card.’
The man smiled. ‘Will do. Do you mind if I don’t show you down?’
‘Of course not. We’ll see ourselves out.’
As they left the building, Gina glanced back up. The autumn sun shone over the tiled rooftop, casting a slight shadow of the