Missing Years ( Part 19 )

Trevor Wilson had been sleeping rough for over ten years, he’d travelled up and down the country during that time, bit of begging, hitch hiking, stole a bit from time to time, anything to survive. He had no family left that he knew of; parents were long gone now, both died of the booze, both in their fifties.

He was married once but that seemed like a lifetime ago, it didn’t even seem like his lifetime, it felt like it belonged to someone else.

He was now on his third bottle of the day, strong but cheap cider. He was begging by the cash machine near Kings Cross station and some drunken yuppie came up and gave him twenty quid. He should have bought something to eat but bollocks to that, the cider would be better, the cider would warm him up, make him forget the past, help him sleep during the cold night.

One of the other lads had told him it would be the coldest night of the year so far tonight, so he must keep warm. He finished his bottle of cider, looked in his pocket and found he had two pounds forty left. If I can just get a little bit more, I can get one more bottle for the night.

“Mister, mister, can you give me a quid for my bus fare home, just a quid go on mister, go on”

The middle aged man looked at him with pity, how do people end up like this he thought, he looks about sixty but he’s probably only in his thirties, he looks like shit and smells like it as well.

“Look, I know you don’t want it for bus fare, here’s some change, use it to get something to eat, no booze or drugs, promise?”

“Thank you sir, you’re a kind man, I’ll go and buy something to eat straightaway, thank you mister”

The man gave him the change out of his pocket, there was around six pounds there.

Trevor took it, what a wanker was all he could think, a bit more and he could get a cheap bottle of brandy, that really would keep him warm on this coldest of nights. Food? Bollocks to food, he couldn’t remember when he last ate, two or three days probably. He needed a piss badly. He went round the back of the railway station and urinated up against the wall in the alley. It was pitch black in the alley; he didn’t notice that his urine was a rich red colour. He went back to the station, and kept begging for another hour.

Swan had been unsettled since the call from James Conroy; he now had something else to think about. What if Ray Samuels wasn’t what everyone thought, what if he had another agenda, one that no one had spotted yet, what would he be capable of. So he had to be sure, either Ray was a good guy or a bad one. All things at the moment pointed to him being a good one, but you never know. He called Spencer.

“Have you seen Ray Samuels today?”

“Yes Sir, I saw him early this morning”

“And? What’s his plan? What’s his next move?”

There was an abruptness in his voice, an urgent tone.

“I’m not sure Sir, he was a bit upset about Tom Lucas, he seemed to think that it wasn’t an accident and that someone may be responsible”

“Like who for god’s sake, did he say?”

“No, but his Dad said he had a theory but wasn’t prepared to say what just yet”

“Listen Spencer, now that Lucas has gone, I want you to stay close to the Samuels family, do you hear me, get to know them, be a bloody nuisance if you have to, but get to know what they’re up to. I’ve got people watching from the outside but we need to get close from the inside. Understand?”

“Yes sir, I’ll do what I can”

Swan hung up the phone. We don’t want any surprises he thought.

Spencer was a bit agitated, the last person who had tried to get close to Ray Samuels was now dead and now he was being asked to take his place, he wasn’t best pleased with the idea.

Trevor had enough to buy his cheap bottle of brandy and had found a spot where he could get his head down for the night. It was the small alley way just off of York Way, behind Kings Cross where he’d earlier relieved himself. It was damp, stunk of everything foul and was extremely cold, all he had were two cardboard boxes that he’d managed to get from the man at the off licence. Still he thought, still got my brandy to keep me warm through the night. He took a large swig and although it felt good, he also felt a sharp pain in his left side of his body and a stinging sensation in his groin. The temperature was now at minus four, some parts of his body were exposed as his clothes were beginning to thin and fall apart at the seams. He felt tired, it was as if his whole body was beginning to go numb, his pulse began to slow and his breathing was getting quieter and quieter, life was slipping away.

As he began to lose his grip on life, he heard a voice in his head, a deep low voice and a dark shadow in his final dream.

“You are mine now, you belong to me, this is my time, I need your form, your being, I need to take shape once more, you are mine now”

He took another breath and then his life passed.

Suddenly he felt a sharp shock throughout his body, like he had just touched a live railway track, he opened his eyes, he now had a purpose, he knew what he had to do.

At exactly the same time Ray Samuels was in his father’s kitchen, he let out a loud scream, it felt like someone had just fired electricity into his body.

Eddie Samuels ran into the kitchen and found Ray slumped over the kitchen sink.

“What’s wrong Ray, what is it?”

“Something’s coming Dad, something’s coming”