he was far more vulnerable than me. When he’d had a fix he was good for nothing. He’d just slouch against the wall on his sleeping bag. I kept my eye on him, gave him food if I managed to get hold of a bit, things like that. I know he wanted to get his life back.’ The man stared into the thin space between them. For a moment, Gina thought she’d lost him but then she spotted the money spider abseiling on a strand of web in front of the man’s nose. He reached out and allowed the spider to crawl over his hand. ‘Let’s see if that brings me any money.’ He let out a snort and threw the spider into the corner of the room.
‘What did he say about his life and getting it back?’ The only sound in the room was Jacob’s Biro scraping across the page and the slight crackle in Michael’s chest as he inhaled.
‘He had a kid. He wanted to see his kid.’ The man turned away and scrunched his wiry brows. ‘I encouraged him to go back to his drug counsellor, to get straight. I didn’t want him to turn out like me. I made some bad decisions and got into debt. I ruined my wife and daughter’s life and now my daughter is at university and wants nothing to do with me. I’d do anything to go back.’ The man licked his bottom teeth. ‘That won’t happen for me but I could see that Al had a chance. It wasn’t over for him. I told him that he could change things and get back on track. I said he owed it to his kid to get straight and become the man we both know he could become and he was fired up for it. He went to see his counsellor but then something happened.’ The man poked a bony finger in his ear and began to scratch.
Gina glanced at Jacob. ‘What happened?’
‘A woman turned up. I didn’t hear what she had to say and he asked me to leave. I waited in the back garden and I could hear shouting. She was really going at him about something but I couldn’t hear most of what she was saying. When she pushed through the back door she almost crashed into me. She looked livid. Most people stay away, most people are scared of us, but not her. She was on some sort of mission.’
Gina wanted to smile. Mike Dowler had seen their mystery woman close up. ‘Did you hear any of the conversation?’
‘That was no conversation, she was just ranting at him. He didn’t have the energy to give much back on that day. It was one of his slip-up days. He spent most of it dribbling in a corner, dozing in and out of sleep. I heard her saying that he’d ruined everything and that he should crawl back under the rock he came from. He’d wanted to tell me something but he couldn’t and after this woman had been, he refused to open up in any way. He was a man haunted by his past. I kept telling him he needed to face it, then he could move past whatever it was and get on with his life. Anyway, that’s basically all I heard and he wouldn’t tell me any more. Afterwards, he told me that this wasn’t the first time she’d been and that she’d been following him. That’s how she found out where he was staying.’ Mike gulped down the rest of his tea.
‘Can you tell me when this was?’
He shook his head. ‘I can’t remember. Every day seems the same and I get muddled, sorry. That’s all I’ve got. I just can’t remember.’
Gina tried to blink her headache away. ‘You say it wasn’t the first time he’d received a visit from this woman. Can you tell me of any other times?’
‘I wasn’t there during other times. He just told me that she’d been. I think it was over the past three weeks and only on a couple of occasions.’ Michael sniffed and leaned forward, hunching himself over the table. ‘Can I have another cuppa?’
‘Of course. When we’ve finished here, I’ll make sure you get some tea and biscuits. Can you describe this woman?’ So far they had multiple visits by a mystery woman at times and dates that couldn’t be confirmed.
‘She was wearing a hoodie and leggings. It was also evening so I couldn’t see too clearly.