‘A moneylender? What makes you think that?’
‘I dunno. Just that he was always broke. Whenever I talked to him, anyway, which wasn’t that much or that often.’
Winsome knew that she couldn’t mention the five thousand pounds yet. The public still didn’t know about the money. If Gavin Miller wasn’t involved in dealing drugs, as she was coming to believe was the case, then the money probably had nothing to do with that, or with Lisa Gray. Lisa certainly wasn’t at a level to deal in numbers that high, and it wasn’t a price that Miller could afford to pay. ‘Just out of interest,’ she said, ‘you were around when Mr Miller had his spot of trouble at the college, weren’t you?’
‘Spot of trouble? They fucking crucified him.’
‘Were you in his class at the time?’
‘It’s not like school. You have classes with different lecturers. I was in his Film History course, yes. There were a lot of slackers there because they thought it was a doddle and all you had to do was sit and watch movies week after week, but it was really quite tough, and lots of people dropped out early on. Quite a few failed, as well.’
‘What about Beth Gallagher and Kayleigh Vernon?’
‘The Bitches of Eastvale? Actually, they were prize cunts.’
‘Do you think Gavin Miller did what they said he did?’
‘No way.’
‘How do you know?’
‘He told me. He was clearing his desk, and there was no one around. All his so-called mates who shared the office space were too embarrassed to be there to say goodbye when he left. I was walking by the office. His door was open. I said goodbye and that I was sorry to see him go. And he told me.’
‘Why you?’
Lisa shrugged. ‘I told you. We got along OK. I listened to him. Maybe he liked me and my good opinion mattered to him. Or maybe I just happened to be there at the right time. I don’t know. I like to think he felt he could trust me.’
‘Was there any—’
‘No, I wasn’t fucking him, if that’s what you’re after. There was nothing like that. He never even tried it on. Was always a real gentleman. A bit shy about all that, really.’
‘What did he actually say to you that day in his office?’
‘He said he’d been accused of making an improper suggestion to Kayleigh Vernon and letting his hand brush over Beth Gallagher’s tits, and he’d been asked to leave. He swore to me that he didn’t do it. He said that he was innocent, and he didn’t know why the two girls would want to do something so cruel to him. That he wanted me to know that, whatever anyone else believed. That it was important I should believe him.’
‘And what did you say?’
‘I told him that I believed him.’
‘Were you sure?’
‘If I wasn’t then — which I was, pretty much — then I certainly was later.’
‘Why?’
‘Because I overheard the two cunts talking in the toilet when they thought there was no one else around.’
‘When was this?’
‘Later. Two or three weeks after he told me.’
‘What were they saying?’
‘That they’d got away with it, got rid of him, and how easy it was. They hadn’t expected everyone to just believe them, but it was so easy they couldn’t believe it. They were laughing at the way the members of the examining tribunal, or whatever they called themselves, had simply believed them, especially when Kayleigh put on the waterworks.’
‘But why did they want rid of him?’
‘It was Beth, really. She was the ringleader. She put Kayleigh up to it, then she weighed in herself when they thought another voice would do it.’
‘Was it some sort of practical joke?’
‘Fuck, no. Sorry. But no. If you’re searching for a drugs connection, perhaps this is it. They said how pleased Kyle would be. That’s another thing I didn’t find out until later, and something Mr Miller obviously didn’t know about, either. Kyle McClusky hung out with Beth and Kayleigh, and he was starting to deal a bit. Quite a lot, actually. I’m surprised your lot weren’t on to him. And Kyle dealt the really bad stuff, stuff I’d never touch with a bargepole.’
‘Such as?’
‘Crystal meth, coke, oxycodone, even heroin. He sold roofies as well.’
‘Are you saying...?’
‘Kyle McClusky was a piece of shit.’
‘So what did Gavin Miller have to do with all this?’
‘He found out about it. Or someone told him. He knew McClusky from one of his classes and gave him a chance, told him he’d better leave while he could, or he’d report him to the college authorities and the cops. If you’d known Mr Miller, you’d know how much effort it cost him just to do that. And I don’t know if he was smoking spliffs himself then, or anything, but I very much doubt it. There was never any talk, anyway. If you ask me, it was just something he got back into after he lost his job. He always seemed pretty straight at college. Weird, but straight, if you know what I mean. I think when he lost his job, he started drifting back into the past, trying to relive his favourite years. I can understand that. Sometimes the future doesn’t seem worth facing.’
‘You’re too young to be talking like that, Lisa.’
‘How old do you have to be to know that life sucks sometimes?’
‘What happened to Kyle McClusky?’
‘Fuck knows. Or cares. He just disappeared, eventually. I think he’s in Manchester or Birmingham or somewhere. Ask your drugs squad. Even they’ll probably have him on their books by now. Course, he was really pissed off with Mr Miller for ruining all his dreams, though from what I knew of him he didn’t have a hope in hell of realising them to start with. He was probably more pissed at his nice little drugs business going belly up, and those cunts Beth Gallagher and Kayleigh Vernon came up with a plan to help him get his own back.’
‘Didn’t Gavin Miller try to explain all this to the college authorities? It would have given the girls a motive for getting him sacked, for lying about what happened.’
Lisa snorted. ‘That’s a laugh, that is. What could he prove? Nothing against Kyle McClusky, that’s for sure. Remember, he had known what Kyle was up to ages before he got hauled up before the board, but he hadn’t reported him. That wouldn’t look so good to a committee of stuck-up prigs, would it? It was the girls’ word against his, and the college believed the girls. End of story.’
‘Did Gavin Miller know that Kyle hung out with Beth and Kayleigh?’
‘I don’t think so. Not till later. Kyle was only in one of his classes, and not the same one as Beth and Kayleigh. No one made the connection until too late.’
‘But you found out later?’
‘Yes. I saw the three of them cosying up together and giggling at a party, totally stoned, sharing a joint. But that was a few weeks after Mr Miller got kicked out. Again, far too late, it seems.’
‘So Miller ruined McClusky’s dreams, and McClusky, with the girls’ help, lost Miller his job,’ said Winsome. ‘But at the time he had no way of linking the two incidents: what he’d done to Kyle, and what Beth and Kayleigh were doing to him. But what about you? You say you were his friend. You knew. Or you found out later. What did you do with your knowledge? Why didn’t you help him? Why do you say it was too late?’
Lisa stared into the remains of her foamy coffee. ‘I was having problems of my own then. I wasn’t very clear about things.’
‘Drugs?’
‘No, it wasn’t drugs,’ Lisa snapped. ‘For crying out loud, you lot seem to think everyone’s problems are down to drugs. If you looked a bit closer, you’d see that some lives are actually improved by them, but that’s too much to expect of you, I suppose. It was... just life. That’s all. I was going through a bad time. A rough patch. You don’t need to know the details.’