Heaven's Light by Graham Hurley Page A

Haagen had been a client of Barnaby’s, a local kid up on a theft charge. Barnaby, for some reason, had thought the world of him and had promised the magistrate he’d give him a job as one of the conditions of a deferred sentence. The kid had evidently performed well in the office and Barnaby had brought him home for the odd meal. Jessie, a year older, had fallen for him at first sight. Much to Liz’s disbelief.
    Liz was filling the caddy with tea-bags. According to her, Haagen had been trouble from the start.
    ‘Why?’
    ‘I don’t know. It was just something about him. You could sense it the moment he walked in. He was…
dangerous.
Do you know what I mean?’
    Charlie eyed her across the breakfast bar, helping himself to another custard cream.
    ‘You mean different?’
    ‘No …’ She trailed off, thinking. ‘Yes, different, of course, but something else as well, something more than that. He was looking at you all the time. He made you feel, I don’t know, awkward. It wasn’t anything he ever said. He wasn’t abusive or rude or anything like that. It was just… as if… I don’t know… he didn’t
like
us. Nothing especially personal, just on principle. He’d made up hismind before he’d even met us. We were there to be disliked, hated even.’
    The tea-caddy was full at last and she tried to force the lid down, angry again. Charlie was watching her.
    ‘And Hayden?’ he said. ‘Did he feel the same way?’
    ‘I don’t know.’
    ‘Didn’t you ask him? Talk about it at all?’
    ‘No, never.’ She looked up suddenly as if she’d betrayed a confidence and flushed.
    ‘This Haagen?’ Charlie said slowly. ‘Where does he figure now?’ Liz scalded the tea-pot with hot water.
    ‘God knows. They share a flat together, some ghastly basement. I’m sure that’s where it all started, the heroin, whatever it is.’ She looked up, the kettle still in her hand. ‘She should have gone away. That’s what’s so silly. She should have gone away to college somewhere and got on with her life. Staying here, she’s just a sitting duck. You should see them together. She’ll do anything for him, absolutely anything. It’s pitiful. I hate it. God, how I hate it.’
    Charlie thought about trying to change the subject but knew there was no point. Jessie and her junkie boyfriend had become a running sore, a boil on the face of Liz’s marriage, and her fingers would return to it again and again.
    ‘What are you going to do,’ Charlie enquired, ‘when she comes back?’
    ‘If she comes back. If.’ Liz sighed. ‘I don’t know. That’s the frustration. I went to the police this morning, asked them.’
    ‘The
police?
What did they say?’
    ‘They asked me if I was making a complaint.’ She snorted, a short, mirthless bark of laughter. ‘Actually, that’s unfair. The man on the desk said that. I met someone else afterwards, someone from the drugs squad. He was nice.We just talked about it. He gave me his number. Told me to ring any time.’
    ‘I bet.’
    Liz looked up, catching the innuendo, and Charlie winked at her, Mr Nice Guy, no offence meant.
    ‘It’s good to see you,’ she said suddenly. ‘You do wonders for Hayden.’
    ‘Really?’
    ‘Yes, you make him laugh. He doesn’t do much of that these days.’
    ‘And you?’
    ‘Me?’ She glanced across at him and then slipped the tea-cosy over the steaming pot. ‘I honestly don’t know.’
    There was a long silence and Charlie thought about getting back to London. The fast trains left at four minutes past the hour. The taxi he’d ordered would be here any minute. ‘Hayden can be a head case sometimes,’ he said lightly, ‘but that just makes him normal.’
    ‘You think so?’
    ‘I know it. He worships you. He’d be lost without you. No kidding.’
    ‘Really? You think that’s true?’
    ‘Yeah, and if it isn’t then he’s even more of a head case than I thought.’
    Charlie slipped off the stool. His bag was at the top of the spiral