29

Eddy had been growing increasingly desperate. After two more surreptitious trips to the bookies that week to lift himself back up out of trouble, he had only sunk deeper into debt. It was heartbreaking. But his run of rotten luck had to end soon. It defied all the odds that he would keep on losing. If he could just hold his nerve, it would all come right in the end. He had seen other guys fall apart in a losing streak and bottle it, but it was idiotic to stop when you were down on your luck. The time to throw in the towel was when you were ahead. All he needed was one massive hit and he’d be able to retire from the game. It had to happen. Sooner or later he was going to make a killing. So in the face of mounting debt, he remained sanguine. In fact, he had started increasing his bets, at higher odds. The greater the risk, the sooner he’d be able to cash in and call it a day.

He hadn’t been able to get away from Luciana even for a moment on Saturday, but on Sunday she announced she was going out for a drink in the evening with her girlfriends from work. Eddy tried to look interested as Luciana told him about it, but all he could think was that she would be going out later and she would be gone for the whole evening. This was it. He could feel his luck was about to turn. As soon as she had left the house he hurriedly pulled on his old jacket and retrieved his baseball cap from the back of his wardrobe. It was a carefully selected disguise, enough to prevent his wife recognising him if she spotted him from a distance, but sufficiently trifling to explain away if he did happen to bump into her on the street. He had rehearsed possible conversations to himself.

‘What on earth have you got on your head?’ she might say.

‘What? This old thing? I’ve had it for years. It looked like it was going to rain,’ or perhaps, ‘It’s been so hot today it seemed a good idea to wear a hat,’ or simply, ‘I came across it and thought I might wear it. What do you think?’

So far he hadn’t needed to resort to any excuse because he had only gone out when she wasn’t around to notice his absence. And now he had a whole evening stretching ahead of him, and a good feeling about his chances. After stowing the stash of cash he’d withdrawn from the bank in readiness, he set off. Whistling, he walked down to the bus stop where he only had to wait a few minutes for his bus. Yes, for once everything was going his way and he was seeing the back of his nightmare run of bad luck. Sitting on the bus, he hunched his shoulders and pulled his cap right down over his eyes. It wasn’t much of a disguise, but wearing it added to the thrill of his outings. He felt like a schoolboy playing truant. But if he left home feeling like a disobedient child, he was going to return as a conquering hero, hundreds of thousands of pounds better off.

It wasn’t as though he was leaving anything to chance. If he kept going for long enough, it stood to reason that he had to have a lucky break sooner or later. It had taken him nearly two years to amass such a huge debt. Keeping their financial troubles concealed from his wife had taken some doing, but he had been clever enough to keep her more or less in the dark. Before she discovered any more about their financial straits, not only would he have repaid everything he had borrowed but they would be seriously wealthy. She was bound to understand then that he had done all this for her, to give her everything she wanted.

Entering the bookies he found the brightly lit shop half empty. Screens displayed hypocritical messages about gambling responsibly and setting a time limit and a cash limit, even warning that ‘chasing your losses leads to bigger losses’ interspersed with adverts for ‘new’ games and online ‘bonuses’! A young man entered, gabbling into his phone in a low voice. An old man sat hunched over a table, studying a newspaper. Everyone seemed to be ignoring a woman’s voice calling out odds on horses from one of the screens on the walls. Another man standing in a corner looked round and dipped his head in a wordless nod, their eyes meeting in tacit camaraderie. Of course half a dozen or so fellow gamblers weren’t going to affect the odds, but Eddy always felt there was less competition when there were very few other people there.

He had walked in thinking this was his night, but now he could feel his confidence seeping away. He took a deep breath, reminding himself that he was no ordinary gambler. Most of them were losers, but he had a strategy, and he had the willpower to walk away at the right time. He started out with a few little bets. After losing three or four times, he had a small win. It was insignificant compared to what he had lost so far, but although he wasn’t a superstitious man, he had to accept that was a good sign. Holding his breath, he reached into his pocket and drew out the envelope stuffed with cash. This was his moment of glory, the bet that was going to solve all his financial difficulties in one stroke.

He physically staggered when he lost.

Stunned, he gazed around the betting shop, willing this to be a nightmare. The screens continued to display results, a couple of men Eddy hadn’t seen before stood staring at them, while the man behind the counter didn’t even look up. The whole shop was quiet and dull as though nothing had just happened. The old man at the table watched Eddy as he sat down on a stool. His legs were shaking. The disappointment was so huge he couldn’t even comprehend it. Unless his fortune was reversed soon, he would be homeless. He was already behind on the rent. Luciana had no idea he had stopped paying it, but he simply didn’t have the money. The bailiffs had already been round once, thankfully when she was out, but it was only a matter of time before they returned. He had given them his father’s old watch and whatever else he could find that she might not miss, but he had been forced to hand over the television. When Luciana came home, he had to spin her a yarn about having taken it back to the shop to get it fixed. He couldn’t go on like this. He had to get his hands on some money.

‘You had a bad hit,’ a low voice said, right by his ear.

Eddy spun round to see a stranger staring at him. The man’s eyes glittered with unspoken interest as he smiled, displaying yellowing teeth.

‘What’s it to you?’ Eddy muttered. ‘Fuck off, will you, and mind your own business.’

The man shrugged, undeterred by Eddy’s hostile response. There was something uncompromising in his expression. ‘You’re in the shit, mate. Maybe I can help you.’

He was standing very close to Eddy, almost pinning him against the wall.

‘I told you to fuck off. What makes you think I need anyone’s help?’

The man grinned. ‘Let’s go for a drink and talk.’

Eddy wasn’t inclined to discuss his private affairs with a stranger, but he could certainly do with a drink. Without another word, he slipped down off the stool and followed his new acquaintance out of the betting shop. Aware that a desperate man risked getting himself into all sorts of trouble he was determined to be on his guard, but one drink couldn’t do any harm, and it would help him to think clearly. As he followed the man along the street and across the road into the pub, he wondered whether he might persuade Luciana to emigrate. Perhaps they could go and live in Australia and start all over again, and she would never find out he had returned to his old habits. He sighed, knowing that was just pie in the sky. It would be impossible to persuade her to leave home without any preparation or discussion, and anyway he had no money to buy plane tickets. He could barely pay for his bus fare home.

And throughout all of his troubles his stepmother was sitting on a small fortune, refusing to share a penny of it with him, even though he must be entitled to inherit something from his father. If his father had been alive, Eddy could have gone to him and discussed his problems, man to man. His father would have understood. He used to enjoy a flutter on the horses. If it hadn’t been for his father, Eddy might never have begun to gamble in the first place, so his father had a kind of moral responsibility for his difficulties. But his father was dead, and Eddy couldn’t confide in his stepmother. He would have to find another way to relieve her of some of his father’s money.

His new acquaintance put a pint down on the table. ‘Cheers. Drink up. And then we can talk business.’