WHEN DANIEL WENT TO bed he felt as if he would sleep for days. Instead, he was awake in a couple of hours, and he stayed awake. By the time he set off for school he felt drained of energy, in the mood to go back to bed. To make matters worse he felt anxious and fearful about what he had to do later.
He was just about to leave when the doorbell rang. Postman, he thought, but when he opened the door it was his stepfather, George, standing there.
‘Can I come in?’
‘I’m just off to school.’
‘Just a few minutes.’
He stepped aside and followed George into the flat. His stepfather had never visited, and Daniel could hardly hide his surprise. On the other hand, he guessed right away that it was something to do with his real father.
‘It’s about your dad,’ George said. ‘Your mother’s had a couple of calls. She’s worried about you.’
‘Why doesn’t she tell me that herself?’ Daniel asked.
George shrugged.‘It’s tricky. There are lots of things she doesn’t want to talk about.’ He paused. ‘Even to me.’
‘Do you know whether he’s alive?’ Daniel asked him. ‘And where he is?’
‘Look,’ George said. ‘I don’t know any more than you do. What I wanted to tell you was that your mother’s upset.’
‘I’ve upset her before. You never said anything.’
George sighed. ‘That was different. But these phone calls. She got a call from a woman who said you were asking about your father. Then she got a couple of calls she wouldn’t tell me about. I think they must have been from the same man. She told him not to call again, but he did. Then she told me she’s changing the number. She said it was some guy she had fallen out with. It appears that he stalked her once, and now he’s starting again.’
‘You don’t believe that.’
‘I don’t know what to think,’ George said.
‘But I have the feeling it’s all about what you’re doing.’
‘I’m just trying to see if I can find out about my dad,’ Daniel said. ‘I always thought he was dead, or I would have done it before. Now there’s some mystery. I want to know what it is.’
At the door, as George left, he shook Daniel’s hand. The gesture touched Daniel. Looking at George walking down the path it struck him that his stepfather somehow cared more about him than he had imagined. For a moment he thought about calling him back, but George didn’t turn around and the moment passed.
Within half an hour Daniel was at work. During the morning he avoided Judy. He wasn’t sure now about how to respond to her offers of help. His life had been simple only a few days before. Now it was a complete muddle.
He reached the industrial estate after two o’clock. The entrance was not far from a tube station, but the site was larger than Daniel expected. It took him nearly half an hour of tramping around before he found the correct unit.
Adepo Imports was on the second floor of a three-storey block. Daniel climbed the stairs, followed the sign which read Reception and found himself in a small, neat lobby. It contained three chairs, two tall plants, and a desk where a young black woman sat in front of a computer screen. ‘Can I help you?’ she asked, barely glancing at Daniel.
He asked for Mr Adebowale.
‘He’s not here right now. What is it about?’
‘It’s a private matter,’ he told her.
She swivelled round in her chair to look at him. She was wearing a wig with long bronze-coloured dreadlocks. They swung about her face when she turned. ‘He’s not here,’ she repeated.
‘Can I wait? How long do you think he’ll be?’ He gestured at the chairs.
‘No point,’ the woman said. ‘I don’t know when he’ll be back.’
It struck Daniel that the idea of his waiting around disturbed her. ‘I don’t mind,’ he said. ‘What time do you close?’
‘Five o’clock.’
‘So he should be back by then.’
‘I don’t know. He may have meetings. It’s not a good idea to wait.’
There was a distinct tension in her voice. Daniel wrote his name, address and phone number on a sheet of paper and gave it to her.
‘What’s this?’
‘Can you give it to him?’
‘Leave it there,’ she said.
He dropped it on the desk and walked away, down the stairs. As he went he thought he could feel her eyes on his back.
Once outside he thought about what to do. If Chris was not in the building, there was nothing he could do about it. He decided to go away and come back later but changed his mind as he reached the entrance to the estate, and decided to wait. There was only one road in, and there was a bus stop across the street close by. The stop had a shelter and was close enough for him to see the cars going in and out. Daniel waited on the bench.
A couple of hours passed. Daniel hardly took his eyes off the turning. He was also trying to see through the windows of every car going in and that was harder than he had thought it would be. Sometimes there was a bus in the way when a car went past. Sometimes there were two or three cars in a row and he missed one. Half a dozen or more had black drivers, but none looked like Chris. He was on the verge of giving up several times, but somehow he couldn’t. If he didn’t find out now, he kept thinking, he might never know. Staring at the cars across the road he willed himself to believe. Sooner or later one of them would contain Chris.
He gave it until about a quarter of an hour before five. Then he crossed the road and walked back. As he got closer to Adepo Imports his heart skipped a beat.
Parked outside the building was a black Mercedes. It hadn’t been there before.
As soon as he saw it, Daniel knew. He had no idea how he knew, but he was certain the car belonged to Chris.
Instead of going in he stood outside. He leaned against the wall where he couldn’t be seen from the windows and waited. In a few minutes the young woman he had seen in the office came out. She glanced at him, almost halting in her stride. Then she walked on, fishing in her purse. In a moment he saw her take out a mobile phone and hold it to her ear.
Nothing happened for a while. He had expected Chris to follow the woman out, but no one appeared. For the next half an hour there was much movement up and down the road, cars pulling out and returning home as the offices closed. The lights went out on the ground floor of the Adepo building. A white man came out and walked over to a car parked across the road. By six o’clock the site was silent, with only the occasional car rolling past.
The lights were still glowing on the second floor of the building. Daniel went over to the door and pushed, but it was locked. He rang the bell, but there was no reply. It was still light, but the site was growing shadowy as the sun dipped below the skyline. Around Daniel the shadows grew darker as he watched the Mercedes.
It was almost seven when he heard a sound from inside the building. The lights had gone out on the second floor. In a few seconds the door opened and Chris appeared. He was older and smaller than he appeared in the photos, but Daniel knew him right away.
‘Hello,’ he called out. ‘Mister Adebowale. Excuse me.’
Chris turned and looked at him, his face blank. ‘What do you want?’ he asked.
‘I was waiting for you,’ Daniel said.
‘So?’ He had a deep voice, a precise, almost bossy sound.
‘I’m Sarah Harvey’s son,’ Daniel said. ‘You were students in the same class.’
Chris frowned, staring at him as if trying to make out something he would know about his features. ‘Sarah Harvey,’ he said slowly. He nodded. ‘Yes…Sarah.’ Then his frown deepened. ‘So? What can I do for you? He kept staring at Daniel, waiting for an answer.
Daniel was tongue-tied, searching through his brain for the words he wanted to say. They stood like this, both silent, staring at each other for several seconds.
Suddenly, Chris shrugged and gestured with his hands, smiling with a kind of contempt, as if he knew he was dealing with an idiot. ‘Sorry,’ he said. ‘I don’t have time for this.’
The car beeped and the lights flashed. He opened the door and got in. Daniel watched him, willing himself to speak. ‘I think you’re my father,’ he blurted out
Chris settled himself in the car and slammed the door. For a moment Daniel thought he hadn’t heard, then the driver’s window wound down with a slight whine. ‘How old are you?’ Chris asked in a normal tone of voice, as if they had been talking quietly for hours.
‘Twenty-six.’
The engine of the Mercedes purred quietly into life. Chris looked through the window at him. ‘You said you’re Sarah’s son?’
‘Yes,’ Daniel replied eagerly. ‘Yes.’
‘Fuck off,’ Chris said. ‘Fuck off.’
Then he put the car in gear and drove away.