I don’t answer.
Theo scratches his cheek with three fingers.
“Cal doesn’t normally play in this league. He’s part of the Olympic squad.”
“Congratulations.”
“It’s going to be a big year for him.”
His eyes mist over. “He used to play football. When he was twelve he was taken down to Arsenal to look around the Emirates Stadium and meet some of the players. There was talk of a contract.”
“What happened?”
“Becky didn’t want him leaving home. Only child. You understand?”
“I do.”
“We had a few arguments but she was right. She let him go at sixteen. He was in their youth training squad. You should have seen him. So much speed and poise. He could ghost into positions like he was invisible, you know, and then pounce.” Theo takes a deep breath and then stares at his shoes. “He was going to fly so high, that boy. But then some whackjob, rattling with pills, drives a car into him and takes off his legs. I can remember the day. I can tell you the time and place. You don’t forget details like that. You don’t forget how someone puts your boy in a wheelchair. Destroys his dreams.”
“I talked to Aiden Foster earlier.”
Theo nods and glances at the game.
“He’s due out next year.”
“Yeah, well, he’s done his time,” says Theo. “They’ll let him go and he’ll have two good legs for the rest of his life. Won’t matter. He’s always going to be a deadbeat scumbag, a poster-child for losers.”
“Did you blame Natasha too?”
“She wasn’t behind the wheel.”
“That’s not an answer.”
He looks at me, holding a pocket of air in his cheeks. “She provided the drugs. She started the fight. What do you think? If that bitch hadn’t… if she… my boy would…” He can’t finish. “Ah fuck it, I don’t want to talk about this.”
For a long while he remains silent, watching the game, not concentrating.
“Aiden Foster never called. He didn’t write a letter. He didn’t say he was sorry. Wait, no, that’s not true. His legal team came to us and wanted to organize a meeting between Cal and Aiden, a reconciliation, they said. They turned up with a TV crew. They wanted to film the whole thing, so they could show the judge and get Aiden a lesser sentence. Maybe if Aiden had showed up without the cameras. Maybe then I’d have believed him.”
The referee has blown time. Handshakes. High-fives. Callum rolls away from the circle, crossing the polished boards. A good-looking boy with shoulders like a butterfly swimmer, he has a flop of blond hair that he flicks back, showering the sprung floorboards with beads of sweat. He looks like he should be advertising Gatorade or appearing on a BBC sports quiz show or dating a hot-looking girl. Theo tosses him a towel. Callum chugs the contents of a water bottle, wiping his mouth, tossing the empty bottle into his kitbag. He misses.
“First one I’ve missed today,” he says, grinning.
“This is Joe O’Loughlin,” says Theo. “He’s working with the police. He wants to ask you about ‘you know who.’ ”
“You can say her name, Dad.”
Callum shakes my hand. Apologizes for the sweat.
“I told him you don’t know squat,” says Theo.
“Why would anyone think I did?” asks Callum.
“That’s what I told him. I said you didn’t. I said you’ve got more important stuff to think about. That girl was nothing but trouble.”
“Don’t talk about her like that, Dad. She’s dead. What happened is in the past.”
Callum spins the chair to face me. “What happened to her? I mean… where has she been all this time?”
“We don’t know.”
“They must have some idea.”
“Do you have one?”
The pause extends a beat past comfortable. Callum shakes his head.
Theo tells him to put on a sweatshirt so he doesn’t get cold.
“The Olympics—that’s a big deal,” I say, noticing the British team logo on his kitbag.
“Yeah, it is.” He rocks backwards, balancing the chair on two wheels. “It was my dad who suggested wheelchair basketball. He took me to see a game. I told him if I can’t play on my feet, I don’t want to play.”
“What changed your mind?”
He shrugs. “Before this happened to me, playing sport came naturally. Football. Training. I didn’t have to think. After my injury I became more self-conscious about my body and staying healthy. I started this to keep fit. Now it makes me happy. Earns me respect.”
“You must have regrets.”