CHAPTER 79
It felt unreal, as if so many years of my life had simply boiled away in hatred. This was my place, my first ever escape from the life I had been handed and the boy I had never been. This was where I had stared in through shop windows, where I had dreamt of a real life. Full circle.

We had driven up, three of us, and there had been silence in the car, Jon concentrating on the road as Diane sat in her own little world, almost seeming to meditate. I had found myself wondering about the way her mind worked, especially after spotting the way she drifted off at times, before returning with such a keen focus on detail I expected to see wounds on people she questioned, little razor-cuts of inquiry, and I had asked myself whether it was a fall-out from her rape, or whether she was somewhere on the autism spectrum. She had opened up so much as Blake had loved her, but there were still times when it seemed that the rest of the world, including the people around her, simply ceased to exist.

We were there in plenty of time, and I excused myself for a few minutes and walked past the Old Dee Bridge to where I could see past the weir to the hire boats drawn up by the river’s edge, tonneau covers stretched taut over them, and my memories nearly floored me.

Dragged out of one of the boats at the start of my journey to Mersey View.

Called out of a horse box in Shrewsbury at the start of so much more, of love and acceptance, and finally loss, the image of the waves moving through the grass at Brocolitia almost matching the ripples below the white water of the weir. Time to put some of that to bed, Debbie Petrie Wells. Time to do the best you can, and with a head held high. I turned to walk back, and spotted both Di and Jon standing watching me as I came towards them, and all I was offered was a nod of understanding from each one.

We made our way back to the Crown Court, where the senior copper, Sedgewick, was ready for us once more, tight-lipped and almost seeming nervous.

Jon was trying his best to be casual, but I could tell that something had passed between him and Diane. He gave a very bogus smile to Sedgewick.

“Anywhere I can grab a coffee before we go in, sir? Bit of a long drive”

“Not a problem, son. I’ve got some set up already. Rank has its privileges, sometimes. Down this way; make the introductions when we are all in. Ms Wells?”

I had guessed he would start with me.

“Aye?”

“Thank you for the VIS. Do you feel up to reading it out yourself? Ben Nicol-Clements has delegated it to his husband, so I will understand”

You have got to be fucking joking, copper.

“No. Not this time. This time I do the abusing”

Something moved behind his eyes, something far gentler than I was used to seeing in a copper, and I remembered his remarks about digging in back gardens.

“No, my dear. Not so. This time, some of us get closure, and for him that will mean a cell door, permanently if the judge is switched on, and trust me, we have a live one today. In here, please”

In through security to a room full of chairs and desk-top computers, and a load of other people including all of the Elliott clan. Jon made a beeline for a man I hadn’t met, and I guessed he must be that footballer he had been so enthusiastic about. Sedgewick had the usual table of snacks and drinks, and I found myself smiling in as genuine way as I could remember, given where we were, When Diane did her eyebrows-up thing, I started to open the bag I had carried through security, with amazingly few issues.

“Di, it was Gemma, aye? So bloody typical of her. ‘Take a few pastries away with you’, she says, and I tell her there’ll be more than just me, so she says ‘Take a few more then’ and that’s why I have the big bag”

It was almost hilarious, which was a much-needed gift, as Jon clearly recognised the boxes and found another interest beyond an aging kickball player. There was a ripple around the room as the word spread, and Gemma’s supplies started to vanish in twos and threes. As I sipped a cuppa and chewed on a Danish, I watched the others, seeing some people I had yet to meet properly, and… Oh.

One of them stood out, a hard-faced and rather bony blonde, about the same age as the kickball man, or perhaps between his and Stevie’s age, and what Marlene called ‘transdar’ went off in my mind.

Later, Deb. The other copper was at the door, and the dance was about to start.

“Thank you all for coming. Our boy is ready for the dock, but the Court Service has asked if any of you wish screens? We are sitting victims in the body of the Court, along with a support if required, but we can arrange things so that Cooper can’t see you”

Ben looked at Peter, squeezed his hand with a smile, then turned back to us.

“Thank you, Officer, but no. I am going to let Peter read my Victim Impact Statement for me, as he actually wrote it, and I do not believe I would have the strength, but today I want that pig to see me smile as he receives what he is due”

Sedgewick looked towards Stevie Elliott, but I had already guessed what his reply would be. Unfortunately, the question wasn’t the one I had assumed would be asked.

“Mr Elliott, we are also proposing to sit you with the Mersey View victims, as you sort of qualify”

Sedgewick’s grin wasn’t as ‘feral’ as Diane’s or Patel’s would have been, but full marks for effort.

“It would also put the shits up him, which would be welcome indeed. Are you happy with that?”

Stevie’s answering flash of teeth was, however, actually a cheeky one.

“I’ll have Dad with me to hold my hand”

The kickballer threw a wadded serviette at him.

“That was for legal reasons only, you sod!”

Elliott simply grinned again.

“No it bloody wasn’t, and you know it! Anyway, are we ready? Are YOU up to doing this, Brian?”

Suddenly I realised I was missing something, as all of the extended Elliott clan turned their attention onto ‘Brian’. That man just nodded, but I caught a twitch in his cheek.

“I’ll get through it, my friend. I owe people this”

We weren’t in the public gallery this time, but sitting behind the wigs, seven of us, Jon sitting next to me and, with such gentleness I could have wept, giving me a squeeze of reassurance on my forearm. I understood, and leant closer to him, whispering, “You did well last time, love. My turn now”

Time ticked away, and then the prison officers or security or whatever they were brought in a worn wreck of an old man. His eyes found the seven of us as we sat in the body of the court, and I caught Stevie’s sharklike grin of hate at him. Cooper flinched, and jerked his gaze up to the public gallery, where the rest of the Elliotts were giving off almost visible waves of hatred. His flinch was clear, as was his desire to be absolutely anywhere else but Chester Crown Court.

“All rise!”

The judge was in, and the charges were read out, crime by crime, victim by victim. The last of all the names was mine, “Deborah Petrie Wells, formerly known as William”

I was deliberately looking away from him, but the corner of my gaze caught his jerk of shock. I kept my eyes away as the clerk droned on, and then had one of those ‘what?’ moments, questioning what I had just heard, and my head turned as Jon’s hand jerked on my arm. Rewind..

“Brian Dennahy, then being a child under twelve years of age”

I have never been interested in football in any way, but it is a big thing for so many straights, and I knew Jon was a fan. The reaction in the jury was very visible, and I caught a buzz of whispered comments from the public gallery. The judge’s face was stony, and he just stared at the court until silence returned. Once that was done, the clerk asked what the bastard was saying in reply to the charges, reading off that long record of rape and violated childhood in a droning voice that must have come from years of practice, but which was still leaving little flickers of outrage showing in the whiteness of his knuckles where he held the bundled papers.

My rapist was staring down at his hands, and to each charge we got a faint murmur of guilty, right up to the point where he heard my name again, and that was the first time our eyes actually met. Was that fucker actually starting to bloody cry?

The judge spoke directly to the jury, looking a little pissed off, but still with that measured speech.

“Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, please be patient. Would Learned Counsel please be so good as to explain?”

Cooper’s wig stood uprose.

“I beg Your Honour’s pardon?”

I am no legal expert, but I knew enough to understand that he was, as the Americans say, politely ripping the wig a new arsehole. Apparently, all of the [leading should have been done at some earlier hearing, and the jury had never been needed.

Wiggy made some sort of apology, the judge then apologised to the jury, told them they could either stay or go, and I watched twelve pairs of eyes light up, not just with prurience or curiosity, but with clear disgust. More than a few lips were curling as they looked at Cooper, and not one rose to leave.

The judge nodded at them..

“What does Learned Counsel have for this Court?”

Jon squeezed my arm once more, whispering the simplest of questions: would I be okay? I brought my other hand over to squeeze his, with a sharp nod. I would never be more ready, but then I would never actually be ‘ready’ at all. It had to be done, though. I needed Cooper to know me, to know what I thought of him, to die knowing who and what he really was.

Peter went first, though, as our wig explained that we had our little speeches ready, and once again I saw a shuffling in the jury. For a moment, my thoughts went down a dark street, wondering how many of them would find the details titillating, before realising that if they were actually twelve ‘decent and true’, this would actually fuel their own nightmares. Benny’s husband was trembling, but he stood up straight in the witness box to cut the first slice from Cooper. The judge, bless him, smiled at Peter.

“My name is Peter Nicol-Clements, and I have been married to Ben under one description or another for thirty-one years. I watched him abused by the police, I saw him nearly crack as vindictive and malicious liars accused him of molesting children, and I have held him, for nights beyond counting, as he sobbed or shouted in his sleep. I have tried to help him through his self-harming sessions, I have struggled to cope with his OCD, but above all I have loved him more than anyone else I have ever known.

“When he cracks, when he spends a week tidying one part of one room, I have stood by as a species of safety net, because beneath all of his oddities and twitches he remains the same man I have known and loved for so many decades. Kind, generous beyond any concept of fault, incapable of harm. I thought I knew him, and then, one day, two police officers, those two there sitting with my Benny, turned up on our doorstep. In my ignorance I assumed it was yet one more nasty little liar trying to extort something from an old puff. I learned better, though. Perhaps I should say that I learned worse”

He grimaced, waving the bundle of papers.

“All this is what Benny sat and wrote down with Jon and Diane there, two honest coppers at last, two people who bloody well care about justice. I could read it all out. I intended to, as my Benny simply could not face doing so, but I find that I similarly lack the capacity. You will hear more of it, as I well know. Deborah there lived through it, as did Brian, as did Steven there, and I know now that it was because of Steven’s courage that Cooper is already locked away from the humanity he did so much to destroy.

“I will say two things only. Firstly, there are more victims than the obvious ones. All here are victims, either immediately, as with Benny, Stevie, Brian, Deb, or vicariously, from the damage done to a loved one. I have lived with Benny’s pain without ever fully understanding its origin, and that family there, their friends; so have all of us, for we have to share the same planet, breathe the same air as Cooper.

“I will leave you with one image only, one that still leaves my beloved man crying in his sleep. You are ten, or eleven, and living somewhere that is supposed to be a place of safety, and every night, EVERY night, you hear the sound of creaking stairs, or a footfall in the corridor outside your room, and you pray to your God that the steps go past, that Cooper or whichever of them it might be continues on to some other child’s room and rapes them rather than you. Those were Benny’s prayers at ten or so years of age. Please, God, not me, not tonight, please let it be one of my friends instead”

That was when I nearly broke and ran, but Jon’s hand was on my arm, Di with me, and Benny deserved as much from me as he and Peter had already graced us all with.

Peter made a strangled comment, “Sorry. Enough”, and he was led back to his husband, the two of them collapsing into an embrace as the obvious hate from the jury ramped up several notches. Even the screws guarding Cooper were sharing expressions of disgust at the nature of who and what they were standing next to. Our wig was back up.

“We have a VIS from Brian Dennehy, if it please the Court”

The judge looked at Peter and Ben for a long moment, then nodded.

“Messrs Nicol-Clements are thanked by this Court for their courage and service in this matter. Mr Dennahy?”

The footballer looked like so many of his kind, impeccably dressed and clearly still fit, but I could see his own nervousness in the way he played with a glass of water before smiling at the jury, the performer in him doing its best to cover his fears. He spoke directly to the jury, his accent as strong as Stevie’s.

“Aye, I know. I’m not exactly unknown in some quarters, so bear with me. This is not an easy thing to own up to, and I have kept the details from my family all this time, but it is time I owned up. I was a criminal, a petty thief, from a very young age. Bad crowd, wrong friends, whatever you want to blame it on, but it was me that did the stealing, so no dodging the blame. I ended up in an Approved School for a couple of years, and it turned out to have what can be called connections.

“After that man in the dock, that rapist, after he had finished destroying young lives at poor Ben’s place, well, he moved on, to somewhere that was even worse. That place was Castle Keep, in Carlisle, and I know all about that shithole. Sorry, but, well, words are hard to find. My best friend is sitting there, my greatest friend apart from my wife, and he spent years there, years with Cooper and his kind. That senior copper sitting up there in the Public Gallery, I know for a fact that he was one of the poor buggers that had to dig up the bodies. What Peter said, aye? More victims than are obvious. When I found out where they had Stevie…

“I was eleven when I went to the school. I saw them bring the kids over from Castle Keep, colour-coded shirts and all. I watched as Cooper and his mates handed off the boys to our own screws for a bit of leisure time, horizontal relaxation, every kid nicely broken in by Castle Keep. How much did you fucking get for each kid, Cooper?”

Once again, I found the nightmare taking shape again, and still Jon’s hand was there for mine, even though I could feel the heat of it, the sweat coming out as his hero opened his soul to the world, all so that Cooper could be damned. He tried a little grin to the judge, and an apology, but that man was almost tender in his reply.

“This Court understands, Mr Dennahy. Thank you for your bravery”

Brian barked out a totally unamused laugh.

“Me? I hid this from everyone for years! I kept my nose clean, in the end, because what I saw, what I dreaded, was leaving that school for somewhere far worse. I was lucky, in the end, spotted by a scout, football apprenticeship, well, I think many of you will know the rest. Lovely wife, wonderful kids, the best friend sitting over there that any man could ever dream of, and so nearly lost forever. Yes, Cooper raped Stevie for years, but he’s already doing time for that. This one’s for me, me and my self-respect. Things I could never find the courage to tell my wife, things I hid even after we found my mate there, things that stopped me loving freely and openly until Stevie and Emily and Karen showed me how it could be done, and then those two coppers there, Jon and Diane, well. It’s been said. Proper terriers, them; they don’t stop digging, and all credit to them for that. Where was I?

“Sleepovers. Sort of thing you get in Yank sitcoms or teenage girls’ stories. Well, they did them for us, or rather to us. I think Charlie over there got bored every so often and needed fresh meat, so we’d get to spend a few nights away from our own dorm. I did that three times, and I met Charlie, and Alf, and Don, and thank all that’s holy that one of them gave me a dose of gonorrhoea in the arse because I really, really wouldn’t have been able to survive a fourth stay, and by the time I was clear of that dose of clap I was being signed up by Carlisle United.

“I was lucky. I never saw the cellar. Stevie can tell you all about that place, as can that senior policeman I pointed out. Three times I was raped, three times only, and two of them are dead, but not Cooper. It’s odd, you know? I should wish him dead, it’s the traditional thing, but I don’t. I wish him a long, healthy life, full of the knowledge that every decent human being in existence knows exactly how foul he is.

“Live in hate, you piece of shit”

Brian almost staggered back to us after that, his strength clearly failing him, and the judge adjourned everything for an hour. I simply followed the rest, led by Sedgewick, and we ended up in some odd café away from the court, with a terrace to sit outdoors, and I was so grateful for that. There was such darkness in that courtroom I needed a reminder of life. I needed the hills, the cleanliness and honesty of height and space. Our group was subdues at first, as partners cuddled each other, Brian still in a state approaching collapse, but with his family like a wall around him. The older man, Peter’s friend, broke the spell, poking fun at Diane. He was fruitier than one of those Carmen Miranda hats.

“Darling, perhaps somewhat presumptuous of an old queen, but I was always forward. I feel we should keep in touch; even if you are Welsh”

She actually laughed, which was a relief.

“What you got against Wales, then?”

“Absolutely nothing, young lady! My darling boy spent rather a lot of our time up there, cottaging”

Oh dear. I had worked that one out after spending so much time with Marlene, But it was Jon who spilled half his drink.

“You bloody what?”

The older man, Roger, smirked.

“My dear husband and I are… were… climbers, as is young Steven. We would take a cottage somewhere like Beddgelert and explore the crags”

That caught my attention, coming as it did so shortly after my own thoughts.

“Oh! My Dad used to take me up there a lot! Quite the hillwalker, my Dad. Never really did the ropes thing”

“Well, Ada, Steven’s grandmother, lived in the Lake District, which is how we met the dear boy and his darling wife, plus all these others. There are some here you do not yet know. That is my cousin Tessa and her lovely husband Wyn; Steven’s Brother Iain and his wife Hildi; darling Sidney and his sweet Viking Per; Tom, such a waste, married to Sally there”

He waved around at the group, and Tessa was clearly the name of the woman my ‘transdar’ had picked up on. I zoned out for a while as they spoke, and then realised Diane was calling me over to them.

Grasp the nettle, Petrie. I turned to Roger.

“That Tessa is on my bus, isn’t she? You don’t need to answer; my transdar is as good as Jon here’s gaydar. She happy?”

He absolutely beamed at me.

“Very, now”

A story I need to know more of, clearly.

“OK, subject closed. Yes, Di?”

She looked really worried.

“Are you up to this, love?”

My decision was obvious.

“Absolutely, girl. I mean, how could I not be, after what that bloke over there just put himself through?”

“Well, Cooper’s given us a plea, and with Ben and Brian’s statements, the court should have enough to work on. I don’t want you hurt, love”

Fuck that for a game of soldiers.

“Not at all, Di. Been hurt, haven’t I? This is requital, getting back at him, showing the world what a piece of vermin he is. No; I do it, and do it today”

There was still something there, something hidden. She took a couple of her usual deep breaths, finding her control before answering me.

“Then there is something you will need to know, and as he’s coughed to everything, I can now tell you”

“And?”

“No easy way, love, so: he says you were both in love and looking to run away together”

I was stunned. I had expected her to come out with a story of some other victim, a further list of deaths, but this? Those times he had raped me face to face, trying to kiss me; was THAT the reason? I could never find a man who could love me, while I had had a fucking suitor in Charlie Cooper? I had to work far too hard to pull back a whole range of replies, for there were too many coppers at the table,

Fuck.

“Diane, how the hell did you sit through that without screaming at him?”

“Delegation, love. I let Jon do the interview”

I looked at the young man, who was in turn looking down at his cup.

“Well done, my sweet man. She’s got a good eye, this woman, she can spot good blokes a mile off”

Diane tried a shit joke.

“I’m not shagging this one, though!”

Both Roger and Jon made a big joke of being disgusted at the idea, but, well, fuck. Change the subject, quick.

I moved over to ‘Tessa’ with a smile, and she gave a softer one back.

“Wyn and I were wondering how soon you would be asking. Yes, same here”

I tried to look embarrassed rather than nosy, but it wasn’t working.

“Sorry. My own situation’s a bit obvious, after the way the charges were read out. Didn’t want to pry, but I have an obvious inside track”

I found myself laughing, and gave her a quick account of my first meeting with Marlene, and as she cuddled up to her husband’s solidity, she was smiling more broadly.

“Yes, and for good or bad, and I think rather more of the good side, I had Stevie. We used to joke, you know? Could we find some way just to swap bodies?”

I started to laugh, as that was clearly the reply she had hoped for, but before we could chat much more, we were heading back to the court, where there was a real scrum of photographers, obviously in response to Brian’s revelations. Clearly, he was definitely still newsworthy.

Into the same seats again, through the same ritual, every single member of the discharged jury still in place, and finally one piece of shit brought in to complete the scene. I took my own few moments to find Deborah Petrie Wells before walking several miles of courtroom floor to the witness box. Keep it calm, woman. Think of your advice to Paula, and get the hooks in, set the scene for them.

“I would like to thank some people here present for this opportunity, Your Honour. May I?”

“Certainly, Ms Wells”

“Thank you”

Read it out; don’t look at him, not for now.

“There are two police officers here, Diane Sutton and Jon Philips, both Detective Constables. It is not the highest of ranks, but it is only because of their honesty and dedication that I stand here, along with Ben and Brian over there. It is not just an opportunity to tell the world what that man in the dock did to me, along with his accomplices. It is a chance for me to wash myself clean, as best I can, of those acts, and such chances come rarely, if at all. It is Diane’s strength in particular, her strength as another victim of rape, that has given me my own fortitude and allowed me to do this, and after the incredible courage of Brian Dennahy’s testimony, well, Diane offered me the chance to avoid this because she cares more about harm to me than she does about seeing that man over there sent down, and that is how things should be.

“I will speak, though. I feel almost like Martin Luther: here I stand, I can do no other. So, let me begin”

Breathe.

“I have been profoundly lucky in life, far luckier than others. I am aware, for example, of what happened to many of the poor children that were locked up with Steven Elliott over there, whose bodies were recovered from back garden graves. Here I stand, indeed, because I am indeed lucky, for I have met people whose love outshone the sun itself”

I talked them through my time in Mersey View, the rapes, the sound of footsteps, almost word for word repeating Benny’s living nightmare, and then the escape.

“And so I was hiding in a horsebox, scavenging food from dustbins, and then… Then there is a voice from outside, just asking if I am hungry, and leaving me food, hot food, and they were good people, Ken and Lorraine, and they were my parents, in truth, and even though I cast their ashes to the wind in a wild place, what they taught me remains true. You offer kindness to others, not in the hope that they will return it to you, but that it will be returned to those that need it most”

I spoke of obs, of the House, of those who had flown free to their new lives.

“That is the one good thing to come out of what he did, Your Honour, that I get to help others. I get to see others recover their own strength, rebuild their lives. I meet people who heal, and as they heal, in turn they help others to do so. That will never diminish the pain he inflicted on me, of course, him and all the others he and the other scum damaged and defiled, and by pain I do not just mean the physical damage that necessitated such a series of surgical operations to repair.

“I am single, Your Honour. I will remain so. One thing that man and his friends did to me was to destroy my ability to love as a lover. I can, and do, love others. I love that woman sitting over there, for example, yes, you, Diane Sutton. I love many of my charges. I simply cannot be IN love. That is what Cooper has done to me. Imagine my disgust when I found out that he claimed we were in love and planning to elope from Mersey View”

For the first time in the trial, hearing, whatever it now was, Cooper raised his voice, and screamed at me, his tone broken by emotion.

“I LOVED YOU! I REALLY DID! I STILL DO!”

That was it. All my calm flew from me, all of the carefully structured words I had stacked between me and him, and that was when I finally, finally looked him directly in the eyes.

“LOVE? FUCKING LOVE? FUCK OFF AND DIE SLOWLY YOU BASTARD!”

Before I could really get going, the judge interrupted me.

“Order, please! Ms Wells, I understand your emotions are heightened. Cooper, another such outburst will see you removed. I must admit that I am becoming heartily sickened by this evidence, and that does not mean that I wish to disregard it. This confirms beyond all doubt the foulness of the crimes committed by the defendant. Does Counsel have anything else to deliver to this Court?”

As the usher took me back to my seat, our wig bobbed up.

“No, Your Honour, that is all of the statements we hold”

“Thank you. Does Learned Counsel for Cooper have any mitigation they wish to offer?”

That man seemed loaded with lead weights, he rose that slowly. He was trying, but clearly without any real hope.

“I would humbly request that consideration be given to the Defendant’s advanced age, Your Honour”

“Very well. I have, naturally, already viewed all necessary reports on the Defendant, and am therefore able to close this matter today. Detective Constable Sutton? Philips?”

Di was up on her feet, Jon a second behind her.

“Your Honour?”

“Is this matter now closed?”

“No, Your Honour. We are pursuing further enquiries”

“Of a similar nature?”

“Um, yes, Your Honour. Of the same kind”

“I ask this question, Detective Constable, in honest curiosity, given Cooper’s current situation. What is the purpose of the enquiries?”

Diane slumped a little.

“Hopefully, Your Honour, to bring other people some peace”

“Thank you, DC Sutton. That is an answer that does you and your employers great credit, and may it be successful. Cooper, stand!”

The screws hauled him to his feet, but I really don’t remember much more, apart from the judge’s repeated words “Life. Life. Life”, before Charlie fucking Cooper was dragged from the dock and my life. Even the judge looked and sounded drained.

“Ladies and gentlemen, this Court, and myself personally, thank you for your courage and honesty. We are done”

We were hurried out of the court, camera flashes igniting all round us, and after a shout about Brian Dennahy’s agent, I was all but dragged into a minibus with the Elliott group, as Di and Jon climbed into a marked cop car. Out of the car park rather smartly, and then a more controlled drive to the station. I was sitting across from Stevie, and he smiled at me, this time with genuine warmth.

“Jon says you are driving back with them, so we’ll meet up at the station. Well done in there, pet. Bloody well done. You too, Dad”

Brian took a mock swing at Stevie’s head.

“I’ve told you… Anyway, how could I not do my best? Debbie, you did all of us proud in there. Please, promise us you’ll keep in touch?”

I reached out for his hand.

“How could I refuse? And don’t sell yourself short, love”

Emily looked up from her husband’s shoulder, eyes still damp.

“That’s the word here, isn’t it? It’s what… Hearing it, coming from that bastard, I nearly… Listen. I got hints you like the hills. We know them, Stevie and me, so if you want to be shown around Snowdonia any time---what?”

I had snorted out a laugh, and her face fell, so I reached across for her hand.

“Yes, I know the place inside out, but I haven’t got a clue about the Lakes, and I have two of my girls who have been there a couple of times, and they are into ropes and stuff”

Emily’s voice dropped.

“That’ll be girls like you and Tess, then?”

I nodded.

“Yeah; I take a few girls up to Snowdonia each year, and it clicked with them. Girls like me, but still girls, and they know where the Perving Slab is, just like any other girl”

Emily looked puzzled, so I did my best to explain.

“Perving Slab. Easy rock climbing place, in the Ogwen, behind a camp site. Lots of fit young men wearing nothing but shorts, rock boots and clenched buttocks”

Stevie’s eyes lit up.

“Debbie means Tryfan Fach! Oh, we have a few stories to tell about that place, don’t we, involving bikinis, my darling wife and some other girls!”

It was so clearly an in-joke, but we were coming up to the station, and as we waited for my lift to arrive, I was hugged and kissed by everyone apart from the bus driver. As the car appeared, Tessa had the last word.

“I thought the same as you, Debbie. There is someone for you, really there is. Perhaps now, now that Cooper is finished, you will see that someone waiting”