It was torture too, because every time I went chasing after a prospect it meant leaving her behind, and all the time I was gone I’d be worrying. Maybe that’s one reason I never got anything – they could tell I hadn’t brought my brain with me. Anyway, April came along and my situation hadn’t changed and Gail was still with me, which astonished me when I allowed myself to think about it. She didn’t seem to mind that I had nothing to offer. I put it down to love.

One Saturday – it was a warm, sunny day – we were sitting on the tow-path opposite Pullit, the local night-spot, enjoying the sunshine, when a middle-aged guy came up to us. ‘Excuse me,’ he said. ‘I wonder if you can help me?’ I thought he must be lost or something, but then he said, ‘I’m trying to trace my daughter, and I wondered if you might have seen her. Her name’s Tanya. This is her.’ He held out a snapshot. Gail took it, shook her head and passed it to me. It was Toya. I nodded. I’ve seen her a couple of times.’

‘Where?’ The guy practically jumped down my throat. ‘Where’d you see her? When?’

I nodded towards the Lock. ‘There. The market. Not for a while, though.’

‘Did you talk to her? Did she say where she was living or anything like that?’

I shook my head. ‘She was dossing, I think. I don’t know where she hangs out.’

‘Was she with anyone – an older man, perhaps?’

‘No. Once she was with two young guys, the other time she was alone.’ I looked at him. ‘Why would she be with an older man?’

He shook his head. When he spoke I could tell he was trying to keep from crying. ‘I don’t know. I spoke to a man last night – a man in a watchman’s hut. He told me he might have seen my daughter about a week ago, going into the ground floor flat of the house he lives in, with the man who has the flat. A man in his forties.’

‘Did he give you the address? Have you tried there?’ I knew his informant must be Captain Hook. He nodded. ‘I went there last night. I rang the bell but there was nobody in.’

‘The guy in the watchman’s hut – does he know this man?’

‘No. He’s not been there long, apparently.’

‘Have you tried the police?’

‘No. I tried them months ago – when Tanya left home. They didn’t want to know. She’s seventeen, you see – free to go where she chooses.’ He stifled a sob. ‘It’s breaking her mother’s heart.’

Poor sods, I thought. They drive their kid out, probably without meaning to, then think tramping round London with a snapshot’ll get her back. It won’t, but I wish someone cared about me like that.