“On my way to tower one.” I gestured to the looming hulk of my destination. Shadow and grime had never looked so safe.
I should have been more careful with my paperwork. In the chaos my clipboard had lolled carelessly, and I was too slow to avert it from his eyes.
“You’re going to me mam’s.”
“I’m, um, making some local visits.”
“She says any shit about me, she’s a fucking liar. I didn’t touch her.”
I struggled to hold my nerve. “Tyler Jones said he hoped someone had been hurt... was he talking about her?”
“Me mam?! Fuck no.”
“Throw me a line here... I should be screaming blue murder and calling the police.”
“Pretty sure of yourself, ain’t you? What makes you think I’d let you call the pigs on me?”
I dared to stare right back at him. “What are you planning on doing? Keeping me here forever?”
“Dunno yet.”
“You could just tell me what’s going on. If someone’s in danger...”
I flinched as he thumped the wall above my head, convinced I’d made a terrible mistake. Christine’s words smashed around my brain. Dangerous, dangerous, dangerous.
“Like someone like you’s gonna help someone like me.”
I dropped my eyes to the floor, kept my voice neutral but firm. “I know Tyler Jones has history... with women...”
“You ain’t gonna help. You won’t give a shit.”
“Try me.”
“You’re gonna call the pigs anyway, as soon as I let you go.”
“Then what’s to lose?” I chanced. “I won’t say anything about the fight. Jones would never talk, I know that as well as you do.”
He clenched his fists, pressed them hard against the wall on either side of my head, caging me. “I can’t go back inside, not until she’s safe.”
“Who’s in danger, Callum?”
His eyes flashed with surprise at the sound of his own name, and for one tiny moment he was human. The pain I saw in his face nearly took my breath.
“Casey,” he said, simply.
“Casey?”
“My dog. They took her.”
I felt the tension leave my body enough to breathe freely. “You were fighting over a dog?”
His face turned sour, as though I’d struck a blow.
“Yeah, just a fucking dog. I said you wouldn’t give a shit. You can piss off now, estate manager.”
He turned his back on me, gathering up a load of strewn clothes and shoving them into a tatty holdall.
I brushed myself down, ordering my thoughts. My suit felt crackly, crumpled and tight. “What are you going to do now?”
“Like you fucking care.”
“Why did someone steal your dog?”
“They didn’t. My stupid fucking mam gave her to Jones while I was locked up, then that sack of shit sold her.”
“And you don’t think the new owners are taking care of her?”
He shot me a look over his shoulder, one that made me feel about four years old. “The Scotts bought her. You know them? Dog-fighting cunts.”
I knew them. And yes, they were. They were right at the top of my eviction hit list.
“Have you asked for her back?”
He didn’t even grace me with an answer. “Piss off and see me mam. And get some of those pissing bars she wants on the windows. She’ll need them if anything’s happened to Casey. Tell the pigs all you want, I don’t give a shit. She’s the only reason I’m out.”
“The early release for good behaviour... that’s because of a dog?”
“Never had a dog, have you?”
He was right. I’d never had a dog in my life. Never had a pet, in fact. My parents weren’t ones for mess. I watched with my heart still pounding as Callum Jackson dug around in his bag, returning to wave a picture in front of my eyes: a battered photo of a scruffy black mongrel.
“She’s not just a dog to me.” He took it away and shoved it deep in his bag. “I’m all she’s got.”
And she’s all you’ve got. I daren’t speak it aloud. “How long have you had her?”
“Few years. She was a stray, like me.” He slung his bag over his shoulder.
“What are you going to do?”
“Whatever it fucking takes.”
I reassembled my phone, weighing up my options. I should call the police, should call the office, should explain to anyone who’d bloody listen that Callum Jackson was embroiled in his usual round of shit and needed putting away again. Should, should, should, fucking should.
“If you go up there starting trouble they’ll lock you up sooner than you can blink. Who’s going to take care of your dog then?”