CHAPTER 21
I ran the idea past Tom on our next shift. He was as pragmatic as ever.

“Sounds like a sensible idea, Jen, but the politics will be well above our pay grade. We really need to run it past the bosses before we do anything at all. I’m still thinking of that arsehole Sammy Patel was talking about, if you get me. What exactly did you have in mind?”

“To be honest, butt, not just the sharps box. A proper exchange scheme, if we can, plus a bit of outreach”

“That RTC has really got to you, hasn’t it?”

“Yes it has. Something else Debbie said, about runaways. Street kids, aye? Might give us a chance to do some signposting, shelters and shit. Try and let someone have a different route to hers”

“Sorry?”

“She was a runaway herself, Tom, I am guessing. I hadn’t realised, till I was in bed that night, just some of the things she said were a bit too ‘been there, got the T-shirt’ to be second-hand tales. And she’s a bit intense, aye? I would really not like to get on the wrong side of her, cause I think she really knows how to hate, long term and industrial scale, aye? Fierce woman, Funny thing, though, get her onto the right subject, and she’s too fluffy for words. Really loves the mountains”

“You don’t fancy her at all, then?”

“Oh piss off, she’s not my type, and you know that, and she made it very clear she is straight, but… I don’t know, Tom. Different circumstances, aye? She reminds me of Elf, in a way, just not quite as frightening. Oh, and she considers Elf her bloody sister, so yeah, real minefield”

“When do you want to talk to the bosses?”

“Ah, Friday’s our admin day next week. Book it for then?”

“You’re just assuming I’ll be up for this?”

“Are we not partners?”

“Cheeky woman. For that, you can get the doughnuts tonight”

I was more than a little nervous as we waited outside Mr Plummer’s office, for this was the first time I had raised my head above the ‘steady worker’ parapet, and I wasn’t sure how he would take it. Eventually, the door opened and he waved us in. To my surprise, he not only had a tray of coffees waiting for us, but a copper.

“Tom, Jen, welcome. Your e-mail was nicely to the point, but You are just a LITTLE late”

Shit. I knew it was too good an idea for them to have missed.

“No, Jen, Tom, that wasn’t a dismissal but simply recognition that you are thinking, and I really hate language like this, but… Corporate mindset. This is PC Welby, who does the parallel outreach around that area”

“He wasn’t that old for a copper, but his smile reached his eyes when he offered his hand.

“I’m Paul. I was already doing a sort of semi-official exchange with the girls, and anyone else they pointed at me. Having you around gives us all a lot more options. Talking to Mr Plummer here, he had another idea, if you are up for it”

I settled back with my coffee, which smelled a bit nicer than our normal stuff.

“Go ahead, boss”

“Simple, Jen. Paul has had a chat with our epidemiologists. We’ve had a real spike in hepatitis infections, and the clusters are mostly around that area, or people, women, sometimes young men, who we suspect work there”

“Ah. Barebacking?”

“Plus stealthing, and needle-sharing, of course. You seem well read on the terminology”

“We did a bit of research beforehand, sir”

“Thank you for that. It was nice to get a proposal with some meat on its bones. The idea Paul had was to offer a blood test service, filtered through him to retain rights to anonymity. That way, we can offer the hep-positive a treatment programme without scaring them off, and the same if we catch any other nasties, of course. Would you be up for that?”

I looked at Tom, and he simply nodded, as it made perfect sense. Our boss smiled, and I realised that this was, in essence, no different to Adam Price’s shiny-suited arsehole. Mr Pullman was about to get a notch on his own notional bedpost, but for a far more human and humane reason.

“We have some planning to do, then. I will get back to you when we have firmer details, but understand that it will most probably mean a single crew being tasked, to mitigate any trust issues, and if you are willing, and as it was your idea…”

Once again, we both nodded.

“Fine. I will set the ball rolling. One last thing, though”

Shit.

“I have had reports about the multiple RTC west of Swansea, and simply want to say thank you both. I’ve had multiple reports, as well as letters from some of the casualties. Some emphasise their admiration of a rather short—sorry, Tom—paramedic who crawled into the wrecked van to help the driver. Others talk about a very, very calm, smiling paramedic who ran triage on them, alert enough to spot a heart attack, and still there to back up her burrowing partner. So a huge thank you, both of you. I realise it was a seriously unpleasant job, so how are you both bearing up?”

I decided honesty was the best approach.

“Wobbly, boss, to be honest. Dead baby, aye?”

He nodded.

“Aye indeed”

“Tom and me, we had a couple of sit-downs. He talks a lot of sense”

“I know, Jen. It’s my job to”

“Yeah. Anyway, wasn’t just us, was it?”

I turned to PC Welby, Paul.

“Do you know a traffic copper, Adam Price?”

He winced.

“Yes. I heard”

“Is he okay?”

“To be honest, I doubt it. Did you hear about the other nasty he had? Three dead kids?”

I simply nodded. None of us needed any more details to know which one he meant.

“Well, he’s wobbling, as you put it. We’re all a bit worried; popular lad is Adam. Anyway, he’s away shortly. Got engaged to some woman in England, so he’s off on a compassionate transfer to Sussex”

He paused for a few seconds.

“I think he’s moving off traffic, though”

That was the start of a major change in our working pattern, at least for late shifts, for that was when the working girls emerged from wherever they spent their days. Paul had worked out a code system that allowed him to attribute blood samples to individuals while cutting us out of the loop, and Mr Plummer had leant heavily on the bloods team to make it work. Anonymous women and, yes, a few young men, entered the back of the wagon, we found somewhere on their body from where to take a blood sample so that the dressing wouldn’t be too visible and so spoil their sell-by quality, and they dropped a manky spike into our yellow box in return for a pack of three sealed and sterile needles. All that, of course, was subject to more urgent needs, so we issued Paul with a smaller sharps box for his own use.

I was shocked, despite all my advance reading, at the age of some of the girls. I don’t just mean how young the youngest were, but the actual youth of many of those who seemed much older. ‘The Life’, as I heard one call it, was clearly far from kind to those forced to endure it. That old question was always in my mind: were they selling themselves to pay for their habit, or was their habit the only way they could cope with having to make such regular and personal sales?

Paul was an absolute star through it all, so steady and calm. I’d met many coppers, obviously, but he never showed any of the patronising snide sarcasm I hated, never judged, and every so often, especially in the worst of weather, I would spot a white Transit where Our Lady of the Mugs was doing her own outreach.

I saw very little of Debbie for a while, apart from one evening when she was accompanied by two mature men, who made it very obvious that while they were boyfriends, neither of them was hers, and I found myself mentally altering the lyrics of an old song to arrive at ‘Whole lotta snoggin’ goin’ on’.

Lil and Amina were still dancing happily around each other, which made me smile, and then Mr Plummer came up with another little tweak to our outreach game by adding a couple of boxes of condoms for distribution to those who might need them.

I got very, very slick in finding even the slackest of veins for phlebotomy. It was strange how even the most regularly injecting drug user would still flinch when presented with a needle by someone else.

The year went past far too quickly, but it allowed me to find a flat of my own, not far from the Grangetown medical centre. It was pure nepotism, in the end, for I had mentioned to Lil that I was looking to leave the hostel, Lil had whispered to her lover, who had spoken to her mother, and Hira had just happened to know someone, etc. Rented, of course, but sod it—no more single room, single bed. Now, I had a bedroom, living room, kitchen, bathroom/toilet, supposed second bedroom that was just about big enough for a single bed and nothing else, and an allocated car parking space. My place was on the ground floor, and had a back door as well as a front one, and the former gave onto a little patio with the smallest lawn imaginable, all decently fenced in.

Luxury!

Tom and Connie gave me a hand moving in, which amounted to transferring my few possessions in their car and then helping me to assemble a collection of flatpack items, including a bed, that had been delivered by the retailers. I bought a second-hand moped for the commute, which brought much teasing from Elf when Tom and I were inevitably called away to one of the pubs she was working.

Working was not something I did that Christmas, and it was more than a little painful. I’d bought a little artificial tree, plus some baubles, and done my best, but in the end, it was Christmas Day, everywhere was shut, and I was alone.

Boxing Day dawned, my hangover reminding me how I had got through the previous day, and I set to sorting out the empty packets and cans, realising it was past eleven o’clock. To my surprise, there was a knock at my new door; I opened it to see a smiling trio of Hira, Lil and Amina, carrying a collection of plastic containers. The barmaid grinned.

“Happy Chrimbo, Jen! Do we get to come in or not? It’s miserable out”

My immediate thought was that it had been miserable in, but left that unsaid. They had a range of dishes suitable for my brand-new microwave and oven, a card, and three bagged camping chairs, “Just in case you haven’t done the settee thing yet”, as Lil put it. The food, Hira’s work, was superb, and life was suddenly so much better. Two hours after the three had arrived, we were joined by Tom and Connie, who had brought me a present of a patio table and chairs, and my day was just about complete.

Where would we be without friends?