A vision of my cousin swims into focus. I can almost hear him telling me to keep my lip buttoned, but if he was here, listening to what Dair just said about shift work, and if he saw the care-assistant scrubs he wears, he’d know Dair is the opposite of rich. Kev would also know that everything here has some value.
I’m not the best with words. Worthless isn’t the right one for any of it.
“How big is this bill you gotta pay? We talking hundreds?”
He sighs again and shakes his head.
“Thousands?” He’s out of luck, if that’s the case.
“It’s big enough.” He points up. “And it will only keep rising if I don’t find a way to pay it.” He doesn’t go into the fine detail, and I don’t blame him for being cagey. It sounds like someone’s tried to rip him off already, but he does show me some papers on a bureau. “The other firm said it would be too much like hard work to sort all of this into auction-lot categories. And that itwouldn’t be worth my time listing on Gumtree or Marketplace either.” He shuffles through papers. “This is the contract with their charge to take it all away in one go. If you charge me less than them, the job’s yours.”
“They were going to chargeyou?”
He nods. And wets his lips before asking a shaky question. “M-maybe I misunderstood? The thing is, it has to go. All of it. If anything is left at the end of the month, I’ll be in legal trouble.” He blinks fast. “Alice’s family are going to gut the place. Tart it up and sell it on. It has to be empty the day I give the keys back.” He looks down at those sheets of paper. “What do you think?”
I think Alice’s family will make a fucking fortune. “Did you already sign a copy?”
“No. The man who came to quote for the job wanted me to. Got a wee bit pushy.” He rubs at the back of his neck, blinking fast again. “I told him I needed time.”
“To read all the small print before deciding? Good thinking.”
“You think so?” Dair speaks so quietly, I almost don’t hear him add, “He laughed at me.”
“Laughed at you?” I’ve been in that spot way too often. “Why?”
“Because he said I wouldn’t get a better offer, but go ahead, Vincent. You’re the real expert. Read all the small print and tell me if I should go ahead and pay them to take it all away.”
Now Charles Heppel takes a turn at swimming into focus.
I knew that if anyone could steer Dair in the right direction, it would be you.
Right now, I want to steer Dair to wherever this other firm is based so he can point out which fucker laughed at him. Instead, I make myself follow at least one of my cousin’s orders. “Let me check in with someone. Can I…?” I hold out my phone.
“You want to take a photo? Go ahead. Help yourself.”
I cross to the bureau and take a quick snap.
Just as quickly he says, “No.” He taps a different page. “That was the final court judgement. This is the contract he wanted me to sign.”
I photograph that second sheet, zooming in on a clause someone has circled. Less than a minute after I press Send, my phone rings, and as soon as I answer, Kev says, “I’m reading. Give me a minute.”
I do that by stepping out into the hallway where framed photos show a young bride and an older husband, a happy couple I track through the years until only a woman features.
Alice.
The last few frames show her with Dair. Any other family are absent, and I drift back to the doorway as Kev rasps in my ear. “You thinking about taking on the job?”
“Maybe.”
“That contract means someone thinks there’s some cash in it.”
“Because?”
“They’ve circled a saw-you-coming clause. Your punter would be signing everything over with no comeback even if it makes real bank at auction.” His voice lowers. “Make an offer if you want. But keeping it low would be one way to make up for all that work you did this winter for fuck all. Offer him a ton or two to clear the lot. Keep the profit.”
That’s two hundred quid more than Dair’s already been offered. I look back into the room where he’s taken a mismatched seat at the dining table, all his focus on a contract he folds up. Somehow, he looks smaller. Slighter. As fragile as the china covering each and every surface.
Maybe folding the contract doesn’t have his entire focus—he looks my way, his smile a little helpless, a little hopeless, a whole lot sweet, and I can’t do it.
