Ben took a sip of his drink. Maddy watched him, thinking about what Gwilym might have done to her while she was unconscious.
‘Like I said,’ Ben continued, ‘I don’t know for definite, but I’ve heard rumours. Lots of them. I’ve seen him do worse than that, though. As soon as you told me what had happened, about the…’
‘Abortion.’ Her voice small, fragile.
‘Right. I knew. I knew it was him up to his old tricks again. He gets the girl pregnant. Forces her to have unprotected sex with him, knowing what’s going to happen. Then, when she’s pregnant, forces her to have an abortion. Manipulation, see? Controlling not just her mind but her body. And her dead baby’s body.’
‘And then… and then…’ Maddy felt tears welling up inside her.
‘That’s not all, though. There was a girl I knew. Friend of mine at uni. Nice girl. Really nice. Lovely.’ Ben sighed, trailed off, his eyes taking on a sad cast.
Maddy waited. Eventually he came back to the room, back to her, continued.
‘This girl.’ He sighed. ‘She was lovely until Gwilym got hold of her. She had to leave uni in the end.’
‘What happened?’
‘Started off like I said. Who, me? He likes me?… all that. The drink, the sex, the drugs. Oh yeah, the drugs… He got her hooked on heroin. Proper full-blown junkie.’
‘But… why?’
‘Because he could. Because he wanted to. He takes innocent girls and corrupts them. For fun.’ He looked straight at Maddy, eyes full of honesty.
Maddy tried hard not to let the tears fall.
Ben reached across, took her hands. ‘I’m sorry. I’m sorry…’
She shook her head. Wiped her eyes with the napkin. ‘Sorry…’
‘Don’t be. It’s my fault for mentioning him. I shouldn’t have.’
‘No, no, you should. I’ve got to… got to face it.’
Ben nodded, sat there. His turn to say nothing, to wait.
‘So… when this girl, these girls… when he’s done this, then what?’
‘Nothing,’ said Ben. ‘He drops them. Lets them go. Moves on to the next one. Cut adrift.’
She nodded. ‘Yes. Yes, that’s right.’
‘Sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything. I’ve ruined the evening.’
‘No, it’s…’ Maddy felt something hardening inside her. Crystallising. Her sadness, her fear turning to cold, bright anger. ‘What about the university?’ she said, her voice shriller and more abrupt than she had intended. ‘Don’t they do anything? Don’t they know?’
‘Oh, I’m sure they know.’
‘Well? Why don’t they do something?’
‘You mentioned Jimmy Savile before. Why didn’t anyone do anything about him? People knew what was going on, what he was like. But they did nothing. Why? For the same reason the university do nothing about Gwilym. He’s a cash cow, a money-spinner. A prized asset. What’s a few unhappy students compared to the good he does for them?’
Maddy said nothing. Shaking inside. With what, she could no longer tell.
‘He was ready to drop you, Maddy. Cast you adrift.’ Ben smiled, gripped her hands harder. ‘You met me at just the right time, didn’t you?’
‘How do you… how do you know all this? About Gwilym?’
Ben sighed, took his hands away. At first Maddy thought she had upset him, gone somewhere he was unwilling to follow, but she soon realised she had misjudged him. He was rolling up his sleeve.
‘The girl I told you about, the one Gwilym got hooked on heroin,’ he said. ‘She was my…’ He sighed again. ‘We used to be close.’
‘Where… where is she now?’
He couldn’t meet her eyes, looked down at the cooling food. ‘She’s… gone. Dead.’ The last word whispered.
‘Oh God. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry…’
He shook his head. ‘Don’t be. It’s not your fault.’ He pointed to her wrist. ‘You’re not the only one. Gwilym’s victims take different forms.’
He rolled his sleeve right the way back, showed her his inner forearm. The scar was still vivid. Red and ridged.
‘What… you tried to…’
He nodded, rolled his sleeve back down, looking round once more to see if he had attracted attention. He hadn’t. ‘Like I said, his victims take different forms.’
She said nothing. Just stared ahead, eyes glazed.
‘The question is,’ said Ben, ‘what d’you want to do about it?’
Her eyes came back into focus. ‘What d’you mean?’
‘Well, it looks like we met just in time.’
‘For what?’
‘Revenge,’ he said.
‘Revenge?’ she echoed.
‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘Don’t you think it’s time Hugo Gwilym got his comeuppance? A taste of his own medicine? Don’t you think it’s time for payback?’
‘Well…’
Ben leaned in closer. ‘Don’t you think he should suffer for what he’s done? Really suffer? Not just for what he’s done to you or…’ His eyes darted to his scarred forearm. ‘But for all the other girls. All the ones who came before you. The ones who’ll come afterwards.’
‘Yes, but I don’t see how we can do anything… We can’t do anything.’
‘We can,’ he said. ‘And we will. We have to. If we don’t, we’ll be letting him get away with it. We’ll be no worse than those bastards in the university who sit and do nothing, knowing exactly what he’s about.’
Maddy thought. She realised that her answer could be the most important thing she had ever said.
‘Yes,’ she said eventually. ‘Yes, you’re right, we have to do something. We have to stop him. Yes. But how?’
Ben smiled. ‘That’s the spirit,’ he said. Then he looked at the cooling food before them. ‘Hey, you’d better eat up. You’ll need your strength for what we’ve got to do.’
Maddy did as she was told. The food was delicious. As she ate, she suddenly realised that her appetite had returned.
With a vengeance.