I said: what does that mean?
And he asked me a question I was not ready for.
He said: do you know what your son does with every paycheck?
I said: he’s saving it.
He said: for what?
I said: a bike.
And Gus let out a long breath, down the phone, and his voice changed.
He said: you’d better sit down.
I held the edge of my desk. I said: why?
He said: because everything that boy has told you about that money is a lie.
I said: what are you talking about?
He said: he’s not saving for any bike.
And before he could say anything else, there was shouting in the background.
And then I heard my son.
Please — don’t tell my mum!
Somebody else shouted. And then something crashed, very loudly, a sound like a whole shelf coming down.
I was on my feet. I was shouting his name into the phone in the middle of an open-plan office.
Gus came back on, breathing hard.
He said: he’s just tried to do it again.
I said: tried to do what?
And he said: just get down here. Now.
PART 3
I did not take my coat. I took my keys and I ran.
Every terrible thing went through my head on that drive. That he had stolen. That somebody was threatening him. That the cash I had seen on his bedroom floor was not his and never had been.
When I ran through the swinging door into that kitchen, the whole place had gone quiet.
A rack of plates was down on the floor by the sink, broken across the tiles. A lad with a broom was standing in the middle of it and not sweeping.
And Gus caught hold of my wrist, gently, right there at the door, before I could get any further in.
There were about sixteen people in that kitchen.
And he said, loud enough for every one of them:
He’s not in trouble. He’s been paying back your husband’s debt.
Nobody moved.
He did not let go. He said:
Look what’s in his bag. Well?
Finn was not in the room. A waitress called Nettie had taken him into the office and was standing with her back against the door.
His rucksack was open on the steel worktop.
There was a stack of white envelopes with a rubber band round them.
Every single envelope was written on in Finn’s handwriting, in blue biro, the same three words.
