“Just listen. Later on this year you are going to meet a guycalled Aaron. You’re going to think he’s the bee’s knees and fall hook, lineand sinker for him. You won’t see what he’s really like until it’s too late. Thereality is, whatever charm he spins you, he’s a drug dealer, a bully and he’llabuse you so badly you’ll be driven to try to take your own life.”
She looked at me, a look of horror on her face, still tingedwith disbelief, but there was no doubt I had her attention.
“Oh, and there’s one final thing. You see that beautifulbaby over there?” I gestured over to where the baby was now asleep in her pen.“You’re going to lose her, too.”
“Who the hell are you?” she reacted angrily, eyes blazing,but with a hint of tears behind them. “What do you think you’re doing, cominghere scaring me like this?”
“Look, just trust me. I know your future and you don’t haveone worth living if you get together with this Aaron.”
“I don’t even know anyone called Aaron,” she insisted.“You’d better leave, right now.”
She got up and began to usher me towards the door.
“Look, you don’t have to believe me right now, but justremember what I’ve said. If someone called Aaron comes into your life, keepaway from him. Or at least do your homework – find out about him before you getinvolved. Seriously, your whole future depends on it.”
“You’re insane! Just get out!” she yelled, pushing methrough the door, and slamming it behind me. From the other side, I could hearthe sound of sobbing.
Had I done the right thing? Would she remember what I’dsaid? Had I achieved anything here today at all, other than to upset avulnerable young woman? I had no way of finding out the answers to any of thesequestions. All I could hope was that by being cruel, I had ultimately beenkind.
When I went back outside, the dodgy geezer I’d seen beforewas still out there, dialling a number on his phone. As I passed him, I caughtthe start of the conversation.
“Dale, it’s Aaron. I’m in the new flat, mate, just moved inlast night. The coast’s clear if you wanna bring the stuff over.”
It had to be him: it couldn’t just be a coincidence. Sure,there was more than one Aaron in the world, but somehow I just knew this wasthe guy. It all fitted.
He glanced at me briefly as I passed with a look of distasteon his face. He really did look like a nasty piece of work, but I could see whyKacey could be taken in by him. He was a bad boy, but a good-looking bad boy,and they were the most dangerous ones of all.
Seeing him had given me an idea. Maybe there was somethingelse I could do. I headed round the corner, well out of earshot, and thendialled 101 on my mobile. When I got through, I gave the police a gooddescription of Aaron, and told them I’d just seen him dealing drugs outside theflats.
They said they would send someone down to investigate. I hadmy doubts whether it would do any good because the likes of Aaron seemed tohave a knack of staying one step ahead of the police.
Perhaps they would get lucky, catch him in possession andthen Kacey might be spared the misfortune of ever meeting him. Failing that,hopefully she would take heed of my warning and make a different choice whenthe time came.
Would she? I wasn’t sure. I had seen so many friends overthe years make unsuitable choices because they kept their brains in theirknickers when it came to men. And if I was totally honest, I had been guilty ofit myself on more than one occasion. Fortunately the worst that had happened tome was being cheated on – I hadn’t been abused or bullied like Kacey would beif she didn’t give this guy a wide berth.
I had done all I possibly could. It was out of my hands nowand time to get on with the rest of my plans for the day.
I was done here.
Chapter Six
2021
With my newly acquired Fever ticket safely stowedaway in my bag, I walked into the centre of Headington towards the bus stop.
There were at least a dozen people waiting, including threeyoung mothers with pushchairs, all jockeying for pole position at the front.They knew the buses only had room for two pushchairs and one was going to haveto fold theirs up and have their baby on their lap. That was assuming, ofcourse, that when the bus came, the spots weren’t already taken.
I watched as the mothers eyeballed each other, determinednot to be the one to cede territory. The longer it took for the bus to come,the more full it was likely to be. When it would come was another matter.
I looked up at the electronic board inside the bus shelter.It was displaying the information that bus number nine was due which wasn’tvery helpful as there was no sign of it – not in this direction I wanted to goanyway. On the other side of the road, two number nines swept past in convoy,bound for Barton. I had never had much luck with the buses in Oxford.
Then a thought struck me – why waste my now precious timehanging around for a bus? There was a taxi rank just up from the bus stop, so Iwent and hopped in the back of the one at the front of the queue, a whiteToyota Prius.
The interior had a sickly sweet smell coming from acollection of dangling Christmas tree-shaped air fresheners in the front. Itwasn’t quite enough to hide the stench of stale cigar smoke coming from thedriver, a fat, middle-aged man who looked like he probably needed to be winchedin and out of the cab.
I sank back on the soft, black leather seats, buckled up andsaid, “Town please.”
I got a grunt of acknowledgement and that amounted to thesum total of our conversation all the way into the city centre. So much fortaxi drivers being talkative and friendly – this one
