Chapter 31

David still lived in his hall of residence, away from Emma and Archie, based in the centre of Portsmouth near to the Guildhall.

There were a couple of hundred students there, and it served their purposes well. Located close to the central shopping district and within walking distance of all the student facilities, the lecture theatres, library, student union and nightlife meant that everything was in close proximity for the students to live a full life within the very centre of the city.

This was important as most students did not have a car. There was a strong contingent of cyclists but the majority used the buses if they needed to, or, to try and keep in check their student debt, they walked everywhere it was practically possible.

David did not have a car and this had helped him to become familiar with the town centre. Portsmouth’s core had a small and dense layout, with few landscaped areas. The main green, open space was Southsea Common, which extended to the seafront itself. The only park in the city centre, comprising a small aviary and plant house, was no substitute for the East Anglian fens where David had grown up.

David regularly walked through this central park on his way to or from his engineering block. He would stop and stare at the beautiful birds caught up within their large cages. The birds were quite a sight but many of the larger, colourful specimens were separated so that they were totally on their own. David thought to himself that he often felt how these birds must; trapped in their own surroundings and unable to fly away.

He had to get away from it all, he just needed to meet the right person and then they could move to another part of the country, start afresh, anew, put the past behind them. David would then be away from other activities that had distracted him over the last couple of years, which had embedded him in a tangled web of deceit and lies.

Money was an issue. The scholarship place had been funded by the school and allowed him to come to Portsmouth University to study engineering but David had no funds of his own.

He was now seriously in debt and all of the temporary student jobs in the cafes and bars really did not attract him. The timing of the work always required a shift in the evening when David took part in his sporting activities or went bell-ringing. Other work, such as helping out in the library or turning up to be part of identification parades at the local police station, did not last long and again did not pay very well.

David was aware that he could obtain cocaine very cheaply, as Portsmouth seemed to be a major route into the UK for the drug, and sell it onto a network of contacts both within his hall of residence and throughout the wider Portsmouth city centre community. This would pay him extremely well for minimal work and as long as he kept his head down from the authorities, he would pay his debts off in no time. This was the direction that David chose.