I
N MY ROOM, I SAT IN DARKNESS FOR A LONG TIME, STARING out at the water. One by one lights across the bay went out, and as each one disappeared, a tiny chunk of time seemed to be slipping away. Eventually, all movement ceased and the bay settled down for the night.
At one o'clock in the morning, I knew I couldn't play a waiting game any longer. I had to get back to London. More importantly, I had to get Mark Joesbury off my back.
Against all odds, coming to Cardiff had helped, I realized. I'd got through the various traps he'd set and he was starting to get some measure of trust back. Not enough, though. It was time to take a huge gamble.
I was going to have to tell him the truth.
Not giving myself the chance to chicken out, I left my room and walked barefoot to the lift. I'd changed after getting back and was dressed in loose jogging pants and a running vest. At the door of his room, I knocked gently.
When he opened the door, he was bare-chested, with brightly coloured, button-up cotton trousers slung low on his waist. The way he was squinting at the bright corridor lights told me I'd dragged him from a pretty deep sleep. When he registered that it was me, the look in his eyes became a mixture of bewildered, curious and hopeful. I didn't give him chance to open his mouth.
âThere's something I need to tell you,' I said.
He rubbed both eyes and then turned and walked back into the room. I followed, letting the door swing shut behind me.
Joesbury's room was even bigger than mine, with two double beds. As he switched on a reading lamp, I saw that the bed he'd been sleeping in had a pillow laid lengthways and that it was dented. He'd fallen asleep hugging it.
On the other bed, glossy pages from a souvenir book of the Ripper mystery had been spread across the counterpane. I had a copy of the book myself. As a reference work it had been close to useless, but it did have perfect reproductions of much of the original documentation, including the mortuary photographs of the five victims. Joesbury, who I guess had fallen under the Ripper's spell like so many do, had spread them out across the bed in chronological order. Polly Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catharine Eddowes and Mary Kelly.
He walked the full length of the room. I picked up the photograph of the mutilated Mary Kelly and moved it further up the bed, before perching on the corner.
âWant a drink?' he offered. I shook my head.
The huge windows were open a fraction and the room was cold. The night air was goose-pimpling the skin on his shoulders and I found myself shivering. I watched him walk to the bathroom, reach inside and bring out a large, white towelling robe. He wrapped it round himself and then, from a pile of clothes over a chair, found a sweatshirt and threw it across.
âCentral heating at night gives me a headache,' he said.
I pulled the sweatshirt over my head. It was the one Joesbury had been wearing all day. It was cool, like the room, but its smell made me think of a warm body, moving closer. When I could see again, he was pouring himself a drink from the minibar. More awake now, he sat in an armchair in front of the window and looked at me.
I took a deep breath. âI know this is something I should have told you before,' I said. âBut I think you'll understand why I didn't. At least, until I was sure there was no alternative.'
A glass with about two centimetres of amber-coloured liquid was in his left hand. He brought it to his lips.
âYou remember me telling you I lived on the streets for a while?' I asked him. He inclined his head and the glass went down on the
table beside him with a soft clink. âAnd you know I had a drug problem once?'
Another nod from him. Another deep breath from me.
âThe truth is, I was a complete mess,' I said. âCompletely addicted to heroin for nearly two years. It was far, far worse than I told the Met's selection process.'
One eyebrow went up.
âWhat I told them was that I'd had a problem in the past,' I went on. âThat it had been the main reason why I didn't finish my degree, but that I'd been clean for several years before I applied to join the police.'
Joesbury's eyebrow relaxed. His eyes hadn't left mine.
âThey did lots of tests,' I said. âAnd they found out that as far as that part was concerned, I was telling the truth. I was completely clean when I applied. I'd been lucky in that I'd always managed to avoid any serious trouble with the police. If I'd had a record of any kind I wouldn't have got past first base, I know that. But when I applied, they were broadening their admissions criteria. The fact that I knew so much about what you call London's low-life was seen as an advantage. They thought people like me would bring something new to the service.'
I could see from Joesbury's expression what he thought about the Met's relatively recent relaxation of its selection procedures. âThey'll let anyone join these days,' was a refrain heard a lot around stations.
âI had to be routinely tested all the time I was going through training,' I said. âAnd I had to see counsellors. The Met didn't take any stupid risks. But I kept my nose clean and I got good marks in all my exams.'
âSo they let you through,' said Joesbury.
âThey let me through,' I agreed. âBut if they'd known the truth, it would never have happened. When you report what I'm about to tell you â and I know you have to â I'll be finished in the force.'
I stopped, giving myself a moment.
âI have no family,' I went on, after a second. âAnd as you've probably seen for yourself, not much of a social life. My career is everything and I couldn't give up on it until there was no choice. Can you understand that?'
âConsider it understood,' said Joesbury. âBut you haven't really told me anything yet.'
âMy home life was abusive,' I began. âYou don't need the details. I went to live with my grandparents, but they couldn't cope. So I spent most of my childhood in and out of children's homes and foster care.'
âSounds like someone we know,' said Joesbury.
âBy the time I was sixteen I was smoking weed, using cocaine when I could get it, experimenting with all sorts of weird cocktails. Cocaine and meth was a popular one at the time. For all that, I was pretty bright and I managed to hold things together enough to get a university place. But on a campus it was all so easy to get hold of. By the end of my first year, I barely knew what day it was. I was thrown off the course, naturally. I had nowhere to go. My grandparents were both dead by this time and the State stops looking after you when you're eighteen.'
âYou went to London?' Joesbury said.
I nodded. âIt seemed as good a place as any,' I said. âI found a group of kids in north London who taught me the ropes. We used to sleep in abandoned buildings, until we were moved on. Then we'd look for the next one.'
âWhere did the drugs come from?' asked Joesbury.
This was the bit I was going to struggle with. I dropped my eyes to the carpet.
âWere you on the game?' he asked me.
I kept my eyes down and nodded. âThere was a boy called Rich,' I said. âHe was Jamaican. Young, but big and nasty with it. He was ⦠my pimp ⦠I suppose. He had a few other girls working for him as well. He'd take us out, sometimes to clubs or bars, sometimes just street corners and derelict buildings, and send the punters to us.'
I risked looking up. Joesbury's eyes seemed to have lost all their colour.
âI never saw any money,' I said. âNone of the girls did. We did tricks and then we got the gear. There was a brief window every day when we were just about functional. Rich would collect us, take us to places where we could get cleaned up and fed, and then we'd go out. By the time the business was over, we were desperate. All we could think about was the next hit and just being able to forget.'
Joesbury's empty glass made contact with the table.
âSometimes, Rich would just turn up wherever we were sleeping with some of his mates,' I said. âHe didn't even charge them. They just took turns until they'd had enough. That's why I want to work with the sex-crimes unit. Because of what happened to me.'
Joesbury got up and poured himself another drink.
âI think it would have gone on like that,' I said, âuntil one day I took the wrong stuff or just too much of it and didn't wake up any more.'
âSo what happened?' he asked me, sitting down again.
âI met a girl,' I said.
Joesbury sat a little more upright in his chair.
âI'd been on the streets for a few months when she just turned up one day,' I said. âShe was about my age, maybe a year or so younger, and completely naive about street life. But she was different somehow. She was focused.'
Joesbury put his drink down. âFocused how?'
âShe didn't take drugs,' I said. âShe had nothing to do with Rich and his friends. She wasn't â I don't know how to put it, really â she wasn't hopeless.'
âGo on,' said Joesbury.
âShe was looking for someone,' I said. âAnother girl. She had a photograph. She spent her days just making her way around London, around all the places where homeless people gather, showing the photograph, asking around.'
âDid she tell you who it was?'
I shook my head. âNever,' I said. âShe really didn't talk much about herself. I knew she'd grown up in care, like me, and that she had nowhere else to go, like me.'
âWhat was her name?'
âI called her Tic.'
He frowned at me. âTic?' he said.
âPeople on the street don't use their real names,' I said. âMost of them are hiding from something or someone. They use nicknames, made-up names, several names. She told me to call her Tic and I did.'
âDo you think she was Victoria Llewellyn?' asked Joesbury.
I nodded. âI think she must have been,' I said. âBut you have to
believe me, she looked nothing like that photograph we have. Her hair was much longer, for one thing, and she was fair, not blonde exactly, but close. She wore practical, sensible clothes and no make-up. Ever. And she had, I don't know, a sort of poise about her. There was no way she was some screwed-up Welsh teenager.'
âWelsh accent?'
âPossibly.' He raised his eyebrows, gave me an incredulous look. âLook, I was a total sleepwalker, I couldn't have told you about my own accent most of the time. I remember a lovely, soft voice. That's all.'
âOK, OK, calm down. What happened to her?'
âI think â I have problems remembering time frames, I was out of my head so much of the time â but I think she found the girl she was looking for and it wasn't good.'
He leaned forward. âShe was dead?' he said. âWell, that would fit. We know Cathy died round aboutâ'
I shook my head. âI don't think so,' I said. âI remember getting back one night and Tic was like all the fire had gone out of her, but it didn't seem like grief somehow. After that, she stopped going out, she just hung around all day, brooding. When I tried to cheer her up, to say there were other places we could look, she just said there was no point, that some people just didn't want to be found.'
âMaybe she got tired of looking.'
âMaybe,' I said. âBut I think if that had been the case, the change would have been more gradual. This happened instantly. I think she found her â Cathy â and it wasn't a happy family reunion.'
Joesbury sighed. âYou know, it would really help if you could put a timescale on this,' he said.
âTen years ago. End of the summer,' I said. âAugust, maybe September. I remember because we knew the place we were living in wouldn't be suitable when the weather got colder, we knew we'd have to find somewhere else.'
âThe houseboat accident when Cathy died was 27 August,' said Joesbury. âWhat happened to her, this Tic girl?'
âI don't know,' I said. âBut I do know that she saved me.'
âHow so?'
âShe started talking about leaving,' I said. âSaying that there was no point staying on the streets any longer. I'd got so dependent on
her by that stage. I just couldn't face the thought of being on my own again.'
âSo?'
I ran a hand over my face. A decade later, this was still a memory I struggled with. âSo I took too much stuff one night,' I said. âMaybe it was just corrupted shit, I don't know. When I came round the next morning, I was in hospital.'
âShe took you there?' asked Joesbury.
I nodded. âShe managed to get me to the main street. It was the middle of the night and there was no transport. She couldn't find a phone either. So she stole a car and drove me to hospital. I'd have died if she hadn't.'