Gina pulled out a few notes and Jacob snatched his pen from his coat pocket and tested it on a fresh page of his notebook.
‘Can I ask why Mr Swinton stopped coming last year?’ Gina pulled the wooden chair towards the desk.
He opened a folder full of notes. ‘He lost his job and I couldn’t get through to him. After he’d been doing so well, he’d started to take drugs again.’
‘Can you confirm what he was taking?’
‘There is such a thing as confidentiality.’
‘Mr Dullard, your client has been murdered and we need to catch whoever did this to him.’
The man sighed. ‘He was a heroin addict and he’d been on a methadone programme. I’d say the breakdown of his marriage wasn’t helping. He’d lost his desire to continue. He didn’t turn up to all our sessions and when he did, he was on the heroin. Not everyone that gets help becomes a success story but I didn’t give up hope, I never give up hope. I told him that this door was always open but I never heard from him after the end of summer. I tried to call him but by then his phone never connected the call. He never read my messages. I always hoped he’d come back to me for help, and two weeks ago, he did. I couldn’t have been happier to see him. He really wanted to change and I knew the time was right for him.’
Gina opened the calendar up on her phone. ‘Could you tell me when this was?’
Maurice flicked through a few sheets of paper on his desk until he pulled out a scraggy notebook containing all his appointments. ‘I know we’re in the digital age but I much prefer good old paper and pen for my diary keeping.’ He shifted the page to the right and squinted at the page. ‘It was Friday the sixteenth of October, at one in the afternoon. That’s when he came in.’
‘How did he seem?’
Maurice pressed his lips together and scrunched his brow. ‘Subdued.’
‘And what did he say?’
‘He told me he was desperate to get his life back on track, that he’d been stupid and thought he was losing his mind. He was trying to come off the drugs again, but without any help. He said he’d been crawling the walls and had succumbed to another fix. He was desperate. His emotions ranged from despair then to anger. Despair at feeling as though he was failing at going it alone and anger as he was an addict. He said I was his last hope when it came to seeing his child again. He knew he’d let his parents down and he wanted to make it up to them. He wanted to see his mum again but he said he wouldn’t until he was clean and he could pay the money back that he’d stolen from her. He’d come back with fire in his belly. I really thought he was ready to try the programme again and I really wanted to work with him. There’s no bigger satisfaction in my job than seeing someone come out of this at the other end and win the battle against addiction.’
Jacob sat back and leaned his notebook in his lap.
‘Did he say that he’d seen his wife or son?’ Gina needed to establish if Mrs Swinton was telling them the whole truth.
Maurice pulled his glasses from a pouch on his desk and put them on before scanning his case notes. The little dents in his nose were highlighted by the ray of sunshine that reached through the old sash window. ‘He said he’d been to the house. When I probed him further, he said he wanted to knock on the door but he couldn’t. Again, he said he wanted to get better before taking that next step. In his words, he wanted his boy to be proud of him and he knew he had to earn that. Also, his wife wanted nothing more to do with him. That was something he was trying to find a solution for.’
Gina noticed that Maurice had a warm smile. She could see why Alexander Swinton would have felt comfortable with him. ‘Do you know where he was staying?’
Again, Maurice flicked through his notes. ‘He said he was of no fixed abode. I made a note and it simply says “squatting”. He didn’t say where. I offered him some numbers to get help, but the council is stretched and that leaves a lot of people like Alex on the street. Unfortunately, he’s not alone. There are many Alexes out there with barely any help and nowhere to go. You can see why it’s so easy to give up.’
‘Have you heard of a squat that the kids refer to as the tramp house?’
He shook his head. ‘Should I have?’
‘No. One of the local teens said they’d seen him at this particular place. That’s where he might have been living.’
‘Sounds about right.’
‘Did Alex seem worried about anything else, other than the drugs? Did he mention any enemies?’
Maurice coughed a little and banged his chest. ‘That’s better.’ He paused and bit his bottom lip. ‘He rambled on a bit and said he thought he was seeing things. He thought a woman was following him. One minute he could see her, the next she was gone. He kept saying that it was while he was high. I didn’t take too much notice as he went on to talk about the weird nightmares he was having. He spoke about being trapped and not being able to get out.’ Maurice shivered. ‘I should have asked him more. I saw the news reports, I know what happened to him. He knew this was coming and I thought it was all in his dreams. He said they were laughing at him and taunting him while he choked.’
Gina tilted her head slightly as she tried to fathom what might have been going on in Alexander Swinton’s head.
‘I don’t know whether that was one of his dreams or whether something like this happened. He mentioned it when talking about dreams so I didn’t worry too much. He said there was no going back. He kept repeating that phrase. I thought he meant going back to his mother or wife, but maybe there was more to it.’
Jacob kept his pen on the page, noting everything down.
‘Did he try to contact you for another appointment?’ Gina shifted her chair slightly to avoid the sun blinding her.
Maurice shook his head. ‘I wish he had. I had another appointment booked for him but he didn’t turn up. That was on Monday of this week. Before hearing about him on the news, I just suspected that he wasn’t as ready as he’d said he was to tackle his problem. I had no phone number or address for him so I had to leave it at that.’
‘Thank you, Mr Dullard. If you can think of anything else in the meantime, here’s my card.’
