It was Dan, his voice back. ‘I knew Henri Dumas. He was a good man.’
‘Yeah, you knew him,’ I interrupted, ‘but I’ll put ten quid on the table now that you won’t get a funeral invite.’
Harry tried not to smile, the corners of his mouth taking a small flick upwards. ‘What’s the feature, Jack?’ he asked.
I turned to Harry and said, ‘I just got to thinking last night how this shooting might be playing on a few players’ minds, you know, like it could have been them. It has made them vulnerable. Fame is an exposed and lonely place.’
Harry nodded. ‘Go on.’
‘Which sports star in England sells the most magazines?’ ‘You know who it is: David Watts.’
I nodded. ‘Just like I thought. And a feature in your Sunday magazine about David Watts and the shooting will shift some units. The private effect on a public man. It will humanise the shooting and the footballers, make it more of a personal tragedy than a shock story.’
I heard Dan laugh. ‘What makes you think you can get under David’s skin?’ he said. ‘I’ve met him a few times. You’ve got to get to know him first.’
‘So the feature is worth a shot?’
Dan stopped laughing.
Harry lit a cigarette and then said, ‘Dan’s got a point. You don’t know him.’
‘I know him better than you might think,’ I said. ‘David Watts, the private man, I mean.’
‘How so?’
I took a breath. This was it. The final pitch.
‘We’re from the same small town in Lancashire,’ I said, and then shrugged. ‘I don’t know David Watts, but I know people who knew him really well. And these are real people, not football groupies.’ My eyes glanced at Dan when I said it.
‘What, Turners Fold?’ said Dan dismissively. ‘A dead-end mill town full of cousin-fuckers.’
‘Turners Fold, Lancashire,’ I continued, ignoring Dan. ‘He was the local football star who went to a World Cup. He’s a local hero. Anything he does makes the local front pages. I don’t know David Watts, I’ll admit that. We’re no blood brothers or secret cousins or anything. But his family are well-known around town, and he’s only a few years younger than me. We learnt to smoke in the same places, rode across the same fields, went to school discos in the same school hall. Even played football in the same school strip. If you want the real David Watts, you’ll need to go to Turners Fold.’
Harry let smoke trickle over his lip. ‘Do you think you can get enough on him in the next couple of days to go into an interview with him?’
I nodded, trying not to smile.
‘Exclusive?’
I nodded again. ‘If you’ll run it, it’s all yours.’
Harry smoked some more. ‘Okay, Jack. Get under his skin. Let’s have the hometown David Watts. Let him know where you’re coming from and see if he’ll open up.’ He turned to Dan. ‘And you lend Jack your biographies and contact numbers.’
I looked at Dan. I thought he was going to hit me. His kiss-ass breakfast was blown away. He wiped his mouth, threw his napkin onto the counter, and headed off to the toilet. I wrote my email address on it.
I watched him go, and as soon as the door closed, I leant into Harry.
‘There’s something else, Harry, now that your monkey’s gone.’
He looked at me, his curiosity piqued, his fork going down for the first time.
‘I’ve got a good contact in the murder squad for Dumas,’ I said. ‘She’s willing to feed me with information provided that I do the same for her.’
‘What have you got for her?’
‘That depends on you.’
‘Go on.’
‘The police need to know about Dumas’s private life, and not the shit you print. The real private life. Does he have any dark secrets?’
Harry laughed. ‘They all have dark secrets. Most are just thick kids with good feet when they first start out. We would have won the World Cup five times over if they could learn to stay in a bit more.’
‘But what about Dumas?’
‘What’s in it for the Star?’
‘I’ll feed you what I get, if you can find things out for me. Just don’t tell little Dan, because he’ll worry about Dumas’s memory being tainted.’
‘Leave that little prick to me.’ He paused, and then thought about the little things he had heard. ‘There was one thing. He was a randy little bastard, and she was about the same. It just seemed like it was never with each other. And that’s the trouble with these footballers. Have you ever met a footballer’s wife or girlfriend?’
I shook my head.
‘The most ruthless set of bitches you’ll ever meet. They target their man, and they get him, and then every pound that goes with him. They talk dirty, act dirty, promise dirty, and they look as good as any young man could want.’ He shook his head. ‘The poor bastards never stand a chance.’
‘But it was different for Dumas,’ I said. ‘His fiancée was already famous when they got engaged.’
‘And a hell of a lot more famous afterwards. I reckon she locked onto his career value, and he couldn’t find a way out of it.’
‘Anything else about him? Any darker secrets?’
Harry shook his head. ‘I’ll ask around and let you know if I hear anything.’
I thanked him and stood up to go. I had what I’d gone there for.
Harry’s voice stopped me. ‘One more thing, Jack.’
I turned around and I saw Harry had a slight smile just creasing his cheeks.
‘Yeah?’
‘You speak to whoever you think will give you the best story, but keep in mind that we want it quick. We’ll be back to tits and bingo after the weekend.’
I nodded gravely, thanking Harry, and then left the Poplar Diner, stepping back into London. Yesterday, the city had lost one of its sons. Now I was going back to Lancashire. More than that, I was going home.
Then I remembered Laura, and I remembered the thrill of her from the night before. It seemed flatter now, a good sleep and then the morning casting a different light over how I felt. My father had taken the shine out of that. And I realised now how little I could help her. I had made contact with the people I could trust to help me, but all I could do was wait. I looked at my phone. Three missed calls.
I would give her a call when I got home, just to let her know that I would get in touch if I heard anything. I would keep plugging, just for her, but I wondered whether my moment had slipped by. There wasn’t much to tell her, and now I was writing a different story.
She was strumming her fingers on the steering wheel as she entered Manchester, drumrolling to the thoughts racing through her head, the images of Dumas as he died, of the two people in the flat. She had stayed in a motel, some chain place just off the motorway, but her sleep had been broken, angry, woken by jolts whenever she fell asleep. She had asked to view the flat alone. They had insisted.
She closed her eyes for a moment, tried to focus, muttered to herself, took some deep breaths and tried to calm herself down. She talked to herself some more, and when she spoke, she felt the panic retreat.
She leant back in the car seat,