“She said he was a bit of a mystery man. Is that how you think of him?”
Steve moves across the seat and gestures to Jane to sit down.
Dave says, “Yeah. Jasper, total freak. But kind of… innocent? If you know what I mean?”
“Yeah,” says Steve. “Like a child really.”
“So him being out there in the world? Is that unlikely?”
Dave nods. “Totally. That man has only known this place, this world, since he was virtually a kid, you know? I can’t see him out there. Fending for himself. In here, you see”—he gestures through the window—“he had us to look after him. To make sure he didn’t just, you know, spiral into his weird fantasy world.”
“You hung out?”
“Yeah, we hung out. He liked a drink or two. He liked playing games with us. He liked reading books.”
“Yeah,” Steve agrees. “Always, always reading.”
“What sort of books?”
They both shrug. “Facts?” says Steve.
“Yeah. Nonfiction.”
“And what about family? Did he ever tell you about them?”
They glance at each other. Then Steve says, “Not really. I mean, I know he left home when he was quite young and I did get the impression that something bad had happened. That maybe his family life was a little bit…”
“Dysfunctional,” Dave finishes.
“Yeah. Dysfunctional.”
“Where was he from?”
“London, I think?”
Jane nods. “Hampstead?”
“Yeah. I think so.”
“And did he mention a sister? Or a niece?”
They glance at each other and shake their heads.
“He didn’t talk much,” says Steve. “He said his family was a ‘bad memory.’?”
“Yeah,” says Dave. “I remember him saying that once.”
“So, do either of you have any idea at all where he might have gone? Was he doing anything unusual? Did he seem different? Talk about anything new?”
They both look at each other again and shake their heads. “No,” says Dave, “he was totally normal…”
“Well,” says Steve, “as normal as he ever really was.”
“Which wasn’t very,” says Dave, and they both laugh wryly.
“You didn’t see him with a young woman? A girl with a white dog? Here.” She shows them the photo of Daisy in her phone, and then a photo of Hugo.
“Nope. I’d definitely have noticed if I’d seen him with a girl. Or a dog. And I definitely didn’t.”
