Karen had also dressed. She lay back on the sofa, smoking another of Baldock’s cigarettes.
‘Is he alright?’ she asked. ‘He didn’t hear us, did he?’
‘Hear you, you mean. No, he thought I had the telly on.’
Karen smiled, and wrapped her lips around her smoke, like she’d wrapped her lips around Baldock. She always did things in the most personal way. Baldock sat back in his armchair and finished the rest of his bottle of lager. It tasted flat.
‘So, what exactly do you know about TJ?’ Baldock asked.
‘I know he’s stitched you up. Been skimming off the top, hasn’t he? I’m surprised the little bugger had the nerve.’
‘He’s got onto the hard stuff. He’s a smackhead now.’
‘Yeah, I know. Julie said. He’s just feeding the habit. She blames you.’
‘Aye, she would. Anyone but TJ and herself. But you know I only do dope. That’s nothing. Booze and those’ – Baldock pointed to Karen’s cigarette – ‘are much worse.’
‘Maybe.’
‘TJ would have got onto it anyway, with or without me. He was the type.’
‘What type is that?’
‘The hopeless type. The type that’s got to put something into their lives, something to fill up the nothing. Something to get them up in the morning, or the afternoon, in TJ’s case.’
‘What are you going to do, then?’
‘I’m not sure, yet.’
‘Oh yes, you are. You’re going to hurt him, aren’t you?’
‘I can’t let it go. Don’t worry, he’ll live.’
‘You think you’re so big, Baldock. Mister bloody big and his slaves.’
‘The man you were all over, just now.’
Karen threw the remnants of his cigarette at him. Baldock blocked it with his hand and was showered in sparks.
‘Temper, temper. Is that what really brought you back here, Karen? TJ bloody Davies?’
Karen ran her hand through her long hair, tossing it around. Baldock tensed for an attack but she calmed down. Something she’d never been able to do so quickly before.
‘How long is it going to go on, then?’
‘What?’
‘Your bloody dealing.’
‘Not sure.’
Baldock was sure. He’d made a firm decision to end it. At forty.
‘You never did explain why you finished us,’ Baldock murmured. ‘Not really.’
‘I didn’t want to end up one of your slaves.’
‘When we started you earned nothing in that hairdressers. I showed you another life.’
‘You’re not going to take the credit for my modelling, are you?’
‘Maybe.’
‘God, you’re an arrogant bastard. I’m having another lager. You want one?’
‘No.’
Karen’s long legs whisked past Baldock’s face. He wanted her again, but would not show it. Karen came back with the bottle in her hand, and stood behind him. He could hear her swallow slowly.
‘Is that why you’re here, Karen? To plead for TJ? That’s pretty weird, if you are.’
‘I might get out of the valley for good,’ Karen said, leaving the question unanswered. ‘I’ll be thirty soon. Bloody thirty.’
‘So?’
‘I want to do something better with my life. This is a place of dead-ends, and dead-heads.’
‘I’ve made it work for me.’
‘Yeah, by taking the chance of being banged up for five years – or more.’
‘That’ll never happen.’
‘That’s what they all say. Look, why not let TJ go? He’s never going to do anything like that again.’
‘No, he’s never going to get the chance. Look, you know how it is round here. TJ has crossed me. If I let it go, what kind of signal am I sending out? They’ll say Baldock has gone soft, and they’ll all be ripping me off.’
‘You could stop. You must have enough money. And I’m earning good, now.’
‘And we’d start up again, is that what you’re saying? All this for that little runt. Not very romantic.’
Karen raised her voice.
‘Of course it’s not just for him, but when Julie phoned me it got me to thinking about us, about how it hadn’t been too bad – most of the time.’
‘Keep your voice down, or the old man will be knocking again. It was more than not bad just now.’
Karen grinned. ‘I know and I got a flat now. A few miles down the valley.’
‘You know I can’t leave the old man.’
‘It’s not going to be for much longer, is it?’
‘Hard to tell.’
‘Well, do you fancy it, or what?’
Baldock got up and took hold of Karen.
‘I fancy this.’
This time he was in charge. His brain had recovered from the shocks forced on it and he did not flinch as Karen ran her hands over his head, pressing down on the kettle wound. Maybe he could start again with Karen. He’d be lying if he said he hadn’t missed her. But TJ was something else. TJ was business.