22nd March
Robert and I drove into Waterford and stopped outside Helen’s house.
We had hardly spoken during the journey. All I could think about was Helen – who had taken her and where she might be.
‘I won’t be long,’ I said. ‘I’ll just collect as many pictures of Helen as I can find to help the search.’
Robert waited in the car while I went into the house to get the photographs.
Ten minutes later, I locked the front door again and started walking back down the path.
‘Scuse me, Mr. Morrison.’ A voice spoke to me from the hedge that bordered the path. Dan Summers appeared from a gap in that hedge. ‘Can I talk to you?’
‘Hello, Dan,’ I said. ‘What’s on your mind?’
Dan was now about fourteen years old. I had first met him two years ago, although his reputation for minor thefts and anti-social behaviour in the village was well known even then. I had returned from the Dog and Ferret late one evening to find Dan in my garden shed, helping himself to some tools.
Rather than ring the police, I had asked him what he was doing and why, and this turned into quite a long conversation.
He talked about how his dad had left home when he was five, how his mum found it hard to earn enough money to live on and how it all seemed so unfair compared to most of the people in Waterford, who appeared to be really well-off.
At the end of our chat, I gave him a lecture about the risks he ran in the future if he kept stealing things – more police involvement, problems in getting a job and also the likelihood of prison. I also gave him forty pounds to help him and his mum with the bills for the week.
From accounts over the next two years, I could not conclude that our talk had had too much effect on his life of crime, but I noticed that I had not been bothered with any anti-social behaviour or petty thefts since that day – unlike some of my neighbours.
I had wondered if Dan thought that he owed me one.
‘I got summit you might want,’ Dan continued, dragging a holdall from the gap in the hedge. ‘I cum along ere the mornin afta that meteorite fing landed. There was loadsa people about, so I dunno why nobody saw this. It was lyin unda a piece a wood – just near the pavement.’
Dan offered the holdall to me. I took it, laid it on the ground and unzipped it.
‘It don’t work or nuffin,’ Dan continued. ‘I couldn’t sell it, but seein as you’re dealin wiv Mr. Collins’ fings, I fought you might want it.’
‘Thank you very much, Dan,’ I said, looking into the bag. ‘This is really useful.’ I took my wallet from my pocket and gave him forty pounds.
‘Oh, fanks,’ he said. ‘I wasn’t gonna ask you for any money.’
‘That’s fine, Dan,’ I said. ‘I think you’ve earned it.’
‘Ow’s your aunt?’ Dan asked.
For a moment I was puzzled as I do not have any living aunts. I then remembered the cover story that MI5 had invented to explain why Helen and I had to leave the village so suddenly. We said that my aunt was very ill and was being nursed in her final weeks at Duck’s farm. Helen was said to have joined us because she thought that Duck and I would be clueless about nursing a dying old lady. That analysis, at least, was true.
‘She’s comfortable thanks, Dan,’ I said. ‘But I don’t think she’s got much longer.’
‘What was that all about?’ asked Robert after I had got back into the car.
I looked at him and tapped the holdall. ‘I’ve got Sam’s laptop.’