‘Hai.’
Steph passed me a half full tumbler of whisky. ‘He says hi.’
‘Nice to meet you,’ I said and then took a mouthful of booze, realising it would probably take sixty or more to level this particular playing field.
Thornton swung his head round to Steph, frowning.
‘Whizz this ga? Ta.’
He took the glass that Steph was offering him and attempted to put it down on the table.
‘He’s a man who wants to speak to you about some things.’
Clunk. The glass made an awkward touch-down, with a jolt of whisky escaping onto the table.
‘Sat right?’
‘Uh-huh.’ She looked at me after she’d finally poured herself a drink, and then passed me the piece of paper that I’d stolen from Hughes. ‘Why don’t you tell Jim what you want to talk to him about? Go on. Show him what you brought.’
I took the paper from her and passed it to Thornton. His hand was trembling as he picked it from me, and then he held it up for inspection.
‘Look at the one in the middle,’ I said.
Steph glared at me, and then looked back at him and said, ‘You know what that is, Jim?’
He shook his head violently.
‘Naw. Naw.’
Bullshit, I thought.
‘You sent it to a man named Walter Hughes.’ I leaned forward. His hands were now trembling even worse than before, and he was still shaking his head, as though trying to deny something fundamental. Like gravity.
‘You send them to him, and he pays you for them.’
‘Naw.’
Thornton closed his eyes.
‘Where do you get them from? Who sends these to you?’
‘Naw!’
It was a centimetre from being a shout, and he stood up. Upright, his body looked thinner and more whittled away than ever: like somebody who’d been in a coma.
‘Okay, Jim.’
Steph had stood up with him. She placed a calming hand on his shoulder.
‘It’s okay. Don’t worry.’
‘Naw.’ He was whispering it again and again, and was starting to cry. His face barely seemed to have the strength to contort into tears. ‘Naw.’
‘It’s okay. Shhh.’
Steph kneaded his bony shoulder once and then took the piece of paper away from him.
‘Shhh. Don’t you worry now.’
His hands now free, they went automatically to his face.
‘Sit down, Jim.’ Her palm pressed him back into his seat. It was a barely controlled descent, and he just about managed it. ‘You enjoy your drink and forget all about this fella.’
She glared at me again.
‘Come with me.’
I took my glass and followed her over to a table in the far corner, where Jim Thornton wouldn’t be able to hear us.
‘Sit.’
She placed the paper in front of me.
‘You saw that, right?’
‘Saw what? Saw how he reacted?’
She nodded.
‘Yeah, I saw.’
Steph lit a cigarette and leaned back in her armchair.
‘That was for your benefit,’ she said. ‘You little shit. Not his. I wanted you to see what this thing can do to him, and why you need to leave him alone. You’ve seen the state of him. Doesn’t he look like he’s been through enough to you?’
I thought about it.
‘Yeah. He does.’
‘Well then.’ Steph looked exasperated, like she’d proved something obvious which I was still trying to deny. Ash fell on the table as she leaned forwards and jabbed a finger at me.
‘You and me – we’re gonna talk. And afterwards, you’re gonna leave well enough alone. Okay? Jim spends a lot of his time here, but not all his time. I don’t want you bothering the old man out on the street and breaking his heart. That’s one thing’s been broken ten times too many.’
‘Okay – we’ll talk, then. I need to find the man who wrote this.’
Steph glanced down at the paper with disgust.
‘You want that man, huh?’
‘Yes. You know where I can find him?’
She shook her head.
‘Well, does Jim know?’
‘Does Jim look like he knows much of anything?’ She shook her head again, pulling a face. ‘If he does, you ain’t looking right. Jim doesn’t know anything about this.’
She pointed vaguely at the paper. ‘These things.’
‘So what can you tell me about them?’
‘They’ve been coming regularly for a year or more, now.’ She shrugged. ‘We don’t let him see them no more. Damn near breaks my heart on top of his to see the look on his face when he does. I sorted out the arrangement with that fella Hughes. Every week, I package these things up, the day they arrive. And every week, near as anything, I send them out. The money changes accounts – and it’s good money – and Jim never needs to know about it.’
‘But they come here addressed to him?’
She nodded.
‘They come to him here, sure. Regular as clockwork, give or take a few days. We rent an apartment for Jim a block away, and we give him all the booze he can drink. Feed him, too. Keeps the man happy.’
‘Yeah,’ I said. ‘He seems real happy.’
Steph shrugged again. ‘He can be an empty shell out on the street. Or he can be an empty shell in here. Least here, we fill him with something, even if it ain’t much.’
I looked her over more carefully: took in the tan, the hard eyes, the heavily aerobicised body. The way she looked, she should almost have been some executive’s bone-thin, middle-aged housewife: too many free hours whiled away on the exercise bike or down the salon, or gossiping about abortions in the hairdressers; too long spent sunning herself in Costa del somewhere, sipping cocktails and being too loud with her brash husband. Almost. But she looked tougher than that: like a muscle that had been built in a series of grubby streetfights rather than the air-conditioned comfort of a ladies-only gym. The same kind of woman, just a class size down. Sucking on her cigarettes as though someone might try to steal the smoke.
It occurred to me that Hughes probably paid more than enough to keep Thornton waist-deep in liquor, even with his habit as tall as it was.
‘Doesn’t do you any harm, either, I bet.’ I looked around. ‘How long have you had this little extension?’
‘About a year now,’ she said. Glared at me. ‘And no. It doesn’t do us any harm. Your point being what?’
It occurred to me that that particular conversation would be a dead end.
‘My point being the man who sends these things to you,’ I said. ‘I need to find him.’
‘Why?’
‘Because something bad has happened to somebody I love.’ The truth slipped out, but it felt okay. ‘And I think this man might be able to help me find her.’
‘Well, that is sweet.’
‘It’s true.’
Steph studied me for a moment, supporting her cigarette elbow with her free hand while smoke listed leisurely into the misty air above us. Eventually, she moved it to her mouth and took a drag.
‘Okay,’ she said, leaning towards me. ‘Let me tell you what I know.’
CHAPTER TEN
The writing is always done by hand.
There are a couple of things you need to know, and that’s the first.
He’s gently flexing his wrist as they bring the girl in: warming himself up. It should take about half an hour from start to finish, and that’s a long time to write for, so you need to be prepared. Loose and relaxed. He gives his shoulders a roll and watches the girl. The bed, covered in straight sheets of glinting polythene, is on the other side of the studio. When she sees it, her step falters, but they push her from behind and she starts moving towards it.
The door is locked behind them.
‘Fucking behave,’ Marley tells her. He’s the one that pushed her. She glances at him, scared, but he’s not even looking at her: just grinding out the remains of his cigarette on the floor. The smell of the smoke drifts over, catching his attention just as the girl sees him.