The Forgotten Child

by D. E. White

  ‘Holly, I think you need to meet Bailey. After what you told me about Joey – and shit, I can’t believe you walked in and out of that yard – I want you to hear Bailey’s take on this. I was going to meet him later, but I’ll text him now. He’s got a day off.’

  ‘Really? You want me to come along?’ Holly was doubtful.

  ‘Yeah.’ Dev was already tapping out a text, and he downed the rest of his drink while they waited for a reply.

  Holly’s heart was hammering uncomfortably and nerves jangled in her stomach. If Bailey was snitching on his dad, Gareth would kill him if he found out. Joey’s cool gaze had given her nightmares when she finally snatched some sleep this morning. The reality of what she had done, walking into the yard on her own, had hit home. But sometimes you just had to go with your gut.

  ‘So that’s me. I kind of got most of the gossip on you, but you kicked your husband out, didn’t you?’

  ‘Yeah, he was cheating on me but that doesn’t matter at the moment. Do you know where Jayden is now?’

  ‘No. I’ve been looking since I came back, and I honestly swear I haven’t found out where he’s hiding. When Alexi and Roman got stabbed, that said to me he’s come back for revenge. The thing I don’t get is why he brought his kid along with him.’

  ‘Me neither. Jayden’s kid is awake, but he’s not talking, for whatever reason, so the police are pissed off. I get the impression they were hanging all their hopes on the boy telling them what was going on and where Jay is.’

  ‘At least he’s conscious again, that’s a start. If he’s anything like his dad, if he’s been told to keep his mouth shut, he will. Your brother was good at keeping secrets.’ His eyes rested on her, but his voice said there was more she didn’t know.

  ‘He’s just a boy, Dev, and he’s terrified. I could see it in his eyes. Anyway, I’m going to take Milo to the hospital to see him tomorrow after school. When I rang her this morning, DC Marriot was getting desperate to find out what’s going on.’ She looked questioningly at Dev and he nodded. ‘The kid is the best hope of finding Jay if he is still around here.’

  ‘What time are you going to the hospital?’

  ‘About five. No journos allowed though, so keep your beak out – and Dev, if you put anything I’ve said in the papers, I will personally beat the crap out of you.’

  ‘Fair enough,’ he said, but he was smiling.

  ‘Where are you staying?’

  ‘Across the river in a rental flat. I figured this might take a while, so I thought I’d get settled. I’ll text you the address if you give me your number. You should come and visit.’

  ‘I’ll think about it.’ She said nothing about the teenage castles in the air, the dreams of an apartment across the river, but ragged reminders of those memories seemed to dance between them, unspoken and unacknowledged.

  They both jumped as the gate in her back garden banged in the wind, and a spatter of hailstones slid down the windowpane.

  Dev’s phone buzzed, and he grabbed his coat. ‘It’s on. We’ll take my car. Down by the river next to the old wharf; he’ll be walking his dog.’

  Holly hesitated, then shrugged and yanked her coat off the peg. The back gate banged again and she turned back, but Dev was already opening the front door.

  ‘Come on, Holly!’

  Sometimes the bolt on the gate worked loose, but she was never that bothered, even when Milo was in the garden, because the gate only led to the path and the woods. Hardly anyone used it, just a few dog walkers. Anyway, this wasn’t the Seaview, with evil lurking in the shadows and dealers looking for secluded places to do business. But Joey’s eyes were still haunting her. ‘Dev, I just need to lock the back gate!’

  ‘Okay, I’ll wait in the car. It’s the black BMW on the end.’

  Holly grabbed her bag, checking her purse, hunting for her keys. She frowned, delving deeper, excavating biscuit crumbs, stray tissues and ancient Calpol sachets. She had two sets of keys, which had always annoyed Tom. The two back door keys were on a separate ring with a green fluffy pompom, and a black cat whose LED eyes flashed green in the dark.

  The back door keys were gone. Just great, she had bloody lost them somewhere. Probably in the car, down the back of the passenger seat again. She locked the front door behind her and ran down the road to the waiting BMW.

  In the car she quizzed Dev. ‘Where did Bailey see Jayden? And when?’

  Dev indicated right and then accelerated, ignoring the speed limit as they drove through the old part of town. ‘Beginning of the month, he said, so around four weeks ago, give or take. Bailey was driving, overnighting in a lay-by on the main road, waiting until his hours were okay to carry on and deliver his load. There’s a motel and a café. It’s near the Eastside slip road …’

  ‘I kind of know where you mean.’

  ‘Okay. Well, Bailey went into the café about midnight to get a bacon roll and he says he saw Jay in the queue for the coffee machine. It was pretty crowded but he’s convinced it was him.’

  ‘He didn’t speak to him?’

  ‘No. And he didn’t see a kid either, because I’ve spoken to him since your crash, since the news came out.’

  ‘Did Bailey see where he went? His car? Anything else at all?’

  ‘Nah. By the time he’d paid for his food and pushed through the crowd Jay was gone, but he’s dead certain it was him.’

  ‘Fuck.’

  ‘Yeah. Look, we’ll park up next to the café.’

  Holly got out, the wind whipping her dark hair into tangles. The café was deserted apart from an old woman in a grubby apron laying tables. It was a desolate area, and the café was frequented only by truckers heading north, mainly because there was a fuel station opposite.

  They left the ugly brick building and headed across the rough grass along the side of the river. The old wharf was crumbling, graffitied and littered with broken bottles and syringes.

  Dev pointed to a man in the distance, strolling along the footpath towards them, whistling to his brown and white mongrel. As he came closer, Holly squinted in surprise.

  ‘Bloody hell, I saw him at the Nicholls’ last night. He helped me. I never realised that was Bailey when you talked about him getting beaten up.’

  ‘Yeah. He’s a good lad. Not surprising he’s all screwed up about working for his family,’ Dev said.

  ***

  Bailey stopped behind the remains of a crumbling grey stone tower, at the far end of the wharf. The wind moaned around them and Holly’s cheeks and hands were numb with cold.

  Dev made quick introductions and Bailey nodded at Holly. ‘Hallo again. Joey likes you, doesn’t he?’

  ‘Not so you would notice,’ Holly told him. ‘Thanks for last night.’

  ‘No worries.’ Bailey ran a hand across his mop of red wiry hair. His brown eyes were anxious, and he kept darting worried glances around the water meadows. A seabird flew up, wings outstretched, screaming an alarm call, and he tensed, shoulders hunched.

  ‘It’s okay. Nobody here,’ Dev told him. ‘I told you I was bringing Holly and she won’t say anything, so let’s have a quick chat. I want to help, Bailey. I really want to get you out.’

  Bailey looked at Holly again. ‘Dev told you about me? About our deal?’

  ‘Yeah. Well, kind of …’ She saw that he had the faded remains of a bruise on one freckled cheek.

  ‘No way I can go to the police myself, but if Dev can take what I give, I can get out and my dad can go to hell. Before you say it, I know if they find out I was the grass they’ll string me up.’

  ‘So Dev will write a story on the Nicholls family and give information to the police that will put them out of business?’ It was gutsy of him, trying to break free. But it was a big price to pay. ‘Bailey, are you sure it was my brother you saw? I just mean that it’s been a long time since he was around the Seaview …’

  But he was nodding. ‘I’m positive. I got a good look at him, and I’m just sorry I didn’t get a chance to spe
ak to him. Dev says he hasn’t been in touch with his family?’

  ‘Not as far as I’m aware, and certainly not with me,’ Holly said slowly. Had he been talking to her dad? Was that the reason for Donnie’s sudden turnaround – was it that Jay had come back?

  ‘What have you got for me, Bailey?’ Dev checked his watch.

  The other man smiled thinly. ‘This is it then; if I tell you, I’m committed.’ He took a deep breath, and his dog lay down at his feet. ‘Basically, Holly, I would prefer to drive other cargoes. Legal ones. I hate Dad and Joey for sucking me in and keeping me bogged down in their shit.’

  ‘It’s almost like Jay all over again, but Bailey doesn’t want any part of the business,’ Dev added.

  ‘I’ve got some video footage. It’s enough to rattle Nicholls Transport, the whole fucking lot of them involved in running the girls,’ Bailey said, the words coming out in a rush.

  She was afraid to ask, but equally she couldn’t let it lie, not when everything that was happening could be linked to Jayden’s reappearance. ‘What’s in the video?’

  ‘It’s still giving me nightmares, but let’s just say when Niko was released, he wanted to get straight back into business, and with a whole load of prison contacts on his phone, he felt he had a lot to offer. He took the contacts list to my dad. He could see the only way back was to get in with Nicholls Transport. Dad and Joey were all for it and threw him a little party with some of their new girls.’

  Holly nodded encouragingly.

  ‘I was there, Rohan too, and a few of the others from the family. They were all filming it on their phones.’ His expression hardened, brown eyes hooded for a second as he fiddled with his phone, as though trying to push the memory away. ‘I’ve seen a lot, but this was what made me sure I had to quit.’

  ‘A party? Like the old days?’ Holly queried. The Nicholls had always been notorious for their involvement in the sex trade.

  ‘Not really, it was much worse. These girls had never worked before and Dad calls them “breaking-in parties”. I swear to you I made myself watch to the end because they’d have been suspicious if I didn’t, but I actually almost threw up.’ Bailey rubbed his face with a shaky hand. ‘I’ve got two daughters now. If I thought for a moment that my kids could grow up and have to go through that …’

  ‘If I’d been there, nothing could have stopped me beating the shit out of that fucker and his boys. It’s not human.’ Dev’s eyes were glittering now and his breathing had quickened. ‘So you see, Holly, I came down to get a story on Jay, and now I’m pretty keen to finally get enough evidence to shut down Nicholls Transport. Bailey will get a good sum to tide him over, and he gets to cut ties and run with his family.’

  Bailey was nodding, pulling his coat around him, clipping a lead on the little dog. ‘That’s it. I’ve got the video, and I’ve taken screenshots of as much stuff as I can without going into the portacabin and going through the paperwork in there. I reckon another week or ten days and I’m good to go. It’ll take a bit longer to get myself set up. My wife’s not keen on moving and for her sake I don’t want to tell her all of it. She’s got family in Poland so that’s where we’ll go.’

  Holly, feeling Dev tense and angry beside her, remembered him before a fight, getting ready, putting his pads on, psyching himself up. It was the same now, except he would be scrawling words on a page instead of punching an opponent. She got it, and the evil that came through from his description of the party was enough to make anyone want to hang the Nicholls out to dry.

  Chapter 17

  Dear Mum,

  Dad says we’re ready to start working on the last bit of the plan now. Is it wrong that I’m a bit scared?

  When I knew that he’d got everything organised, I had one thing to do before we left. It took a different kind of planning, but I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out. They might figure out it was me, but by that time, we’ll be miles away and they’ll never catch us.

  Dad has been really cool about training me up for our plan, and I’m a pretty good shot now. Ice cold, Dad says! He still won’t tell me exactly what the plan is, but you know, I’m sure he will soon. He’ll have to because he’s always saying I’m an important part of it!

  We still spend time at your wall every evening, and that’s the only time I feel calm. The rest of the time, I have this rawness beneath my skin. It’s almost like I don’t have any skin, because every sound, every taste and touch makes me wince. It hurts really bad unless I’m in ‘warrior mode’. Dad taught me this one, too. When he says I need to get into warrior mode, nothing can touch me, and I’m back to the crack-shot, ice-cold kid.

  Dad’s been a lot better lately, and he even got me an iPod and a phone. I’m not sure where he got them, but I don’t care because now I feel like I’ve got this link to the outside world. I can stay up all night playing games online, and I’ve joined chat forums under different names. Finally, I can be someone different and nobody can see the truth.

  So Kyle Wilson trains with the team every Thursday night after school, and they run a few circuits of the field, play some football, before he heads home through the woods on his bike. I had to take a chance that he’d be alone. I watched for a couple of weeks and mostly he went home by himself and met the boys and his girlfriend later on.

  The day before we were due to leave, with our stuff all packed, and all the precious things from your wall in a flowered box, I snuck out with my gun. Dad came home with a gun for each of us a few months ago. He said we needed to keep them hidden, but that we’d need them for the plan.

  It was over very quickly. Kyle came pounding down the ride, scattering leaves as he skidded to a halt, dismounted and pushed it up the steep hill towards me. I stepped out, hood pulled down around my face and he stopped, properly scared. He even dropped his precious bike in the mud. I loved that he was so scared, raising his hands, and muttering that I should calm down. I was totally calm.

  I smiled at him and I could feel you near me. Did you even touch my face? I think so. I lifted the gun and aimed a shot above his head. I wasn’t aiming to kill, or even hurt him – I just wanted him properly terrified. And it worked, although I think he started to say something, like he couldn’t believe what was happening.

  Is it like that when you die suddenly? Did you cry out? Did you know what was happening? I suppose maybe you did.

  Anyway, Kyle freaked and ran off. I suppose he would’ve called the police, but who cares? I got back to the flat with my gun, and we made it safely away. After years of training, we’ve finally started on the plan. It feels like my whole life has been leading up to this. Dad says he’s super proud of the way my training has gone and I kind of hope you’ll be proud of me.

  We’re doing it for you and Dad’s even sworn off the booze. It’s a new start.

  I love you, Mum x

  Chapter 18

  ‘Is that Holly?’

  Oh God, she recognised that voice, despite the fact that her screen had populated with an unfamiliar set of details. Holly shivered. Her stalker had got himself another phone number. Great. She raised a hand to get her team leader’s attention and carried on talking into her headset. ‘What’s the reason for your call?’

  ‘It is Holly, isn’t it?’

  ‘Do you need an emergency ambulance?’

  ‘I need you, Holly, and I know you want me too. You’re the only person who can help me. I want you to come over here and …’ His voice was high-pitched and his nasal whine carried traces of a London accent. His breathing grew heavier.

  ‘Sorry, I’m ending this call now. This is the emergency line and I find your comments inappropriate.’ Holly ended the call and typed up her notes, her hands shaking slightly.

  Gavin was her team leader tonight and he gave her the thumbs-up. ‘Logged it and reported it. Well done.’

  ‘He freaks me out every time. It’s that weird voice. It almost sounds like he’s using one of those voice distorter things. Milo had one for Christmas, and wh
en you speak into it makes your voice sound like Darth Vader. But why bother? We know who he is,’ Holly said unwrapping an energy bar.

  Sara, perched next to her, was looking worried too, as she still did on each of her training shifts. ‘Does that happen often? How does he know it was you?’

  ‘I took a call from him a few months ago. He is known to police and social services, and he’s logged as a frequent caller by us. Anyway, sometimes, if people ask, I tell them my name. It helps create a bit more empathy. Unfortunately now every time he calls he asks for me. Very occasionally he gets me. We get a few who think that 999 is a phone sex chat line, but he’s pretty persistent,’ Holly explained.

  Ruby was explaining a CPR call to her mentee, but she chipped in, ‘His name is Earl Brown if you ever get him. So far he’s just been a timewaster, but there is nothing we can do. Social services are so short-staffed and the police can’t do anything. Just make sure you look in the call history whenever you can. That’s where we log all the information on that address or phone number.’

  Sara was still looked slightly terrified, but Ruby’s trainee grinned. ‘It’s never going to be boring, is it?’ He really was very good-looking, with dark hair and skin, and amber eyes. No wonder Ruby had offered to train him.

  ‘Not when you’re with me, love,’ Ruby told him before she turned back to Holly. ‘Noah’s going to rock this job. He already did a CPR call and got a ROSC yesterday.’

  ‘Hi, Noah, and cool, well done,’ Holly said to him, noting his leg touching Ruby’s under the desk. Rubes was always a fast worker and Noah didn’t seem to be in any hurry to dissuade her. She grinned to herself.

  ‘What’s a ROSC?’ Sara asked, picking up her SlimFast shake.

  ‘Why are you drinking that? You’re almost as skinny as Cathryn,’ Ruby said.

  ‘Oh, well, you know I like to be healthy,’ Sara said, anxiously, eyes darting from one person to the other, clearly afraid she was doing the wrong thing.

  ‘You look fine to me,’ Noah told her kindly, but with a sparkle of mischief in his eyes.