‘Don’t tell me. You’ve been on to this loony for months, right? But you didn’t give a shit how many kids got murdered, just so long as you and this wally were on the spot when they grabbed him.’

‘Hey, steady on!’ cried the photographer. ‘She saved your life, remember.’

I looked at him. ‘One more word out of you and I’ll ram that fozzing camera right where the sun don’t shine.’

Gail was shaking her head. ‘You’ve got it wrong, Link. I was researching homelessness, that’s all. I knew nothing about this other business. Nothing at all. You’ve got to believe me.’

There was more in the same vein. I was so distracted with anger and grief I hardly knew what I was saying. I remember asking Gavin why he didn’t get some shots of the victims and sell them to the parents. Gail was in tears by this time, and so was I. It ended with her shoving a wad of banknotes in my hand. ‘Good luck, Link,’ she choked. ‘I’m really sorry.’ Gavin was starting his car. She got in with him and I found myself standing in a haze of blue smoke, watching her exit my life.

Oh, I know. I ought to have chucked the money in her face. A telly hero would have, but then a telly hero doesn’t have to live on the street. Anyway, that’s the sort of happy ending it was.

Yeah, but like – justice was done, right? Was it, though? Shelter (that’s what he called himself – they found a sort of log book) – Shelter gets life, which means he gets a roof, a bed and three square meals a day. I don’t.

What I hope is this. I hope when Louise and Gavin do their story it’ll have some truth in it and that a lot of people will read it. People can only start to make things better if they know what’s going on. There has to be an end to this some day. I just hope it happens while I’m still around.

In the meantime, though, I’m not sure what I’ll do. I can’t stay round Camden, that’s for sure. Too many ghosts. I’d be forever seeing Gail across the street, or Ginger. I might try the Embankment or Covent Garden. There’re a lot like me round Covent Garden. Or of course I could leave London altogether.

It’s a free country, right?