The Forgotten Child

by D. E. White

  Holly, leaving the kids to play, gave her the gist of the conversation, and told her about the possible sighting last night.

  ‘Fucking hell! And I suppose the Nicholls thought they might get a shot of cash if they welcomed Niko on board?’ Cathryn was scowling. The kids yelled and chased each other down the slide.

  ‘I suppose Niko didn’t come and see you?’

  ‘See me? You’re having a laugh?’ Cath was scornful. ‘He hasn’t been near me or his kid since he got out. Why?’

  Holly hadn’t mentioned her conversation with Dev, and she figured that she could hardly tell Cathryn about the Nicholls’ real welcome home party without putting Bailey in danger, but she filled her friend in on Donnie’s plans.

  ‘If Niko allies with your family, then where does that leave the Mancinis, or my dad? They all work for the Nicholls now. It’ll turn nasty like it did before, when your mum died and your dad lost it.’ Cath’s face was pale and worried, and she was twisting a long strand of blonde hair between her fingers.

  ‘Yeah, I know. Jesus, there’s just too much going on, Cath. I know it must all fit somehow but I can’t work out how. Oh, and are you sure you never had a thing with Joey?’ After he’d hinted the other night, and Gareth had just mentioned something on the beach … Holly looked carefully at her friend.

  Angel was whining, and Cathryn busied herself fumbling for a bottle of juice. ‘Here you go, sweets, and you better have a rest now.’ She swung her daughter into the stroller and strapped her in. ‘Holly, you know I love you, but just don’t ask about Joey, okay? Please? It was a massive mistake and a long time ago.’

  Holly watched her as she stroked her daughter’s hair, fussed with her blanket. ‘You slept with Joey?’ When would that have happened? Cath and Jayden got together when they were still at school, around thirteen or so. She and Cath had always been close, but after her mum’s death, the two girls had been inseparable. It was Cath and Dev who had kept her going, kept her fighting … She thought she knew every crush, fling and one-night stand Cath had had.

  ‘Holly!’ Cathryn tried to light a cigarette but the wind whipped it away. ‘Shit, all right. Once, we did it once when I was thirteen, because I thought he was this hot older guy, and I suppose I was flattered he wanted me. Happy? And before you ask it was before I went out with Jay. Now, did Niko say anything else?’

  Holly, still shocked at the revelation, accepted the subject change. ‘Not really.’ But inside she was nauseous. If Cath had been thirteen, then Joey would have been in his twenties … He had a reputation for liking young girls, of course, so she supposed it fitted.

  Cathryn forced a laugh. ‘I can imagine. God, if my family saw Niko in the street outside they’d probably lynch him anyway. You know, it’s so weird, I actually thought he’d be a good dad. He was so excited about having kids, you’d never believe it. He was different to how he is on the outside.’

  ‘I can’t even get my head around the fact you had sex with that bastard,’ Holly told her, pushing back stray strands of black hair, which whipped across her face, making her eyes water. Or with Joey, she added silently to herself. Had Joey forced her? There was something about the way Cath had slammed the subject shut, the fear in her face. Normally she was happy to ramble on for hours about her sex life, and Holly thought she knew every detail of her conquests.

  ‘Probably just as well. You wouldn’t understand.’ Cathryn grinned properly now, colour returning to her face. ‘Word is already around the Seaview that Niko thinks he can just open for business again and go back to how things were. But if he’s playing games with Gareth and Donnie, they’ll find him floating face down somewhere. He obviously hasn’t learnt anything inside.’

  ‘Jesus, Cath, that’s pessimistic.’

  ‘True though.’

  ***

  Back at work after her days off, Holly was seriously struggling to keep her mind off the hassles at home. Kev was on security duty again and he offered her a plate of cakes as she passed. It was a bit early, but Kev was an ace cupcake maker, so she accepted one and tucked it in a napkin for later.

  Ruby and Noah were already making coffee in the tiny kitchenette, as she shoved her dinner in the fridge for later.

  ‘You all right, Holly?’ Ruby asked, adding another cup and passing it over.

  ‘Yeah, just a bit knackered. Ta.’

  ‘I’m wrecked with all this night work. Seriously, how do you cope with this all the time?’ Noah yawned and attacked an energy bar.

  ‘What did you do before?’ Holly asked.

  ‘My dad’s got a building firm so I used to graft for him. What I really want is to go out on the road as a paramedic, but I don’t have the exam grades to go straight in, so I hope this is a good place to start,’ Noah explained.

  ‘Yeah loads of people do that,’ Holly said, frowning as Sara made her way across the control room, towards the kitchen. She obviously hadn’t spotted them yet and was scurrying along in her usual timid manner. ‘Cath was right, she’s only got the same bag as me!’

  Ruby giggled. ‘Come on, Holly, just be flattered. She doesn’t mean any harm.’

  ‘I’m sure she doesn’t, but it’s just weird.’

  ‘Well, Ruby keeps nicking all my shirts, and I swear she’s borrowed my pants tonight,’ Noah said, his eyes dancing with mischief. ‘Maybe it’s that special mentor relationship.’

  Ruby gave him a slap on the butt. ‘Come on, we’re going to be late. Hi, Sara!’ And she breezed out towards the workstations, dragging a still-grinning Noah with her.

  Not wanting to be left with Sara, Holly mumbled a brief ‘Hallo’ and fled after them. She set up quickly, and when Sara slid into the seat next to her she was ready for the first call. ‘I’ll do a couple to start off and then you can take over for a bit, okay?’

  ‘Okay,’ Sara whispered, clutching her hot cup with both hands. She had dumped her bag, which was a perfect match for Holly’s, under the table next to Ruby’s Tesco carrier and Noah’s green Adidas holdall.

  Holly hit the button on her keyboard. ‘Ambulance service – is the patient breathing?’

  ‘Oh God, you’ve got to send someone. There’s this man just lying on the ground in the car park. He’s got no shoes on and I think he must have jumped from the block of flats. There’s a window open and curtains flying out in the wind three floors up.’

  Holly went through the triage as quickly as possible, passing the information across to the dispatch desk. It was definitely major trauma so the HEMS desk would send helicopter assistance.

  Sara, next to her, was actually shaking. ‘Do you think he’ll make it?’

  Holly muted the sound on her line after delivering care instructions for the patient. ‘I don’t know. He’ll probably have massive internal injuries if he did jump from three floors up, poor bloke.’ She checked the maps. ‘Look, they’ll be with him soon. We can check later and see how he’s doing if you like.’

  Noah was leaning in, watching the moving icons on the map. ‘I definitely need to get out on the road. Maybe they’d let me in the helicopter.’

  ‘Maybe not if you don’t take some exams,’ Ruby told him, finishing her own call and typing up the notes. ‘You said you dropped out of school, didn’t you?’

  Another call came in before they could carry on the conversation. Holly was used to sentences broken off mid-way, stories half-finished and questions unanswered. She switched smoothly back into work mode.

  ‘Ambulance service – is the patient breathing?’

  ***

  There was a lull around two o’clock in the morning. ‘It’s that time when the clubs have just closed, and the patients in the care homes haven’t woken up yet,’ Holly told Sara. ‘I’m going to take a quick break if that’s okay?’

  ‘Yeah … I’ll go last if you like?’ Noah offered. ‘Then it’s nearly time to go home.’

  ‘You wish,’ Ruby said. ‘Hey, Noah’s having a party next week, and we’re all invited.’

  He rol
led his eyes at her. ‘It’s not totally sorted yet but it will be probably Thursday or Friday as we’re all on our days off, still. I’ll text Ruby the invite and she can send it round.’

  ‘Cool. I’ve got to admit these days my nights off usually mean straight into a bubble bath after Milo’s in bed. Instead of putting on make-up and party clothes, I’m locked in the bathroom with a large gin by half eight.’ Holly smiled, just slightly wistfully. God, she felt totally middle-aged and boring compared to this lot, despite the fact Noah and Ruby couldn’t be more than a few years younger than her.

  ‘All the more reason for you to get out, mate. It’ll be fun!’ Ruby told her.

  Holly wandered off to heat up her curry dinner. The darkness outside was punctured by the regular synthetic glow of the lights in the car park, and the wind was howling around the building.

  Out of habit she checked her phone, sighing as Tom’s message flashed up on the screen:

  I’ll fucking get you.

  Well, that was charming. She found the longer it went on, the less power the texts had to hurt her. They still made her bite her lip, but the fear that he could expose secrets was gone. It hadn’t happened. It wasn’t her fault. The relief still overwhelmed her and every time the thought crossed her mind she felt a bit teary. But now Tom had no hold over her, should she tell his secret?

  Despite the bitterness, she had been married to him for nine years, and there was a vestige of something left in her heart, buried deep down. The funny thing was, he had so much more to lose, and yet he was the one who kept bringing up the past. She glanced back over the texts, concentrating, ignoring the ‘ping’ on the microwave. The messages were vile and abusive, but poorly constructed. Tom was a stickler for punctuation, even in a text, and these had none that made sense. There was even the odd misspelled word, probably due to autocorrect. Was he sending these texts when he was drunk?

  ***

  The next morning Lydia was waiting when she got home from the school run, sitting at the kitchen table with a mug of tea and the biscuit tin.

  ‘I thought you would’ve gone home by now,’ Holly told her, surprised.

  Her aunt’s face was minus its usual plastering of thick orange foundation. She’d even left off the lipstick and her eyes were red, as though from lack of sleep. ‘Holly, you know I said there were things I needed to tell you …’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘I should have told you before. When Jayden disappeared the first time, I knew he was okay. But before you say anything, I didn’t know about the kids or the girlfriend.’ Her fists were clenched on the table in front of her, as though preparing herself for battle.

  ‘Fuck.’

  ‘Don’t interrupt and stop bloody swearing. I’ve had another chat with DI Harper, George, and he agrees I should be the one to tell you. He’s already spoken to his colleagues investigating the case.’ She took a deep breath. ‘Your mum was having an affair with George Harper. She was one of his informants, and things got out of hand. He was in love with her, but she felt she couldn’t leave Donnie and you and Jayden. Don’t say anything yet.’ Her aunt held up a hand and Holly shut her mouth again. ‘The affair had been going on for years. She kept breaking it off – going cold turkey, she called it – but she’d always go back to him.’

  ‘Bloody hell, Lydia. It’s okay, I couldn’t string a sentence together if I tried. I can tell there’s more, so hit me with it, before I recover from the last bit.’ Holly felt like she’d been hit in the stomach, blindsided by her own mother. George Harper?

  ‘Right. Yes. Jayden is George Harper’s son, not your dad’s.’

  Holy opened her mouth to speak and closed it again as the room spun round. She rested her head in her hands, rubbing her temples. She wasn’t just being kicked in the gut, she was being trampled by a rugby team. ‘Did my dad know?’

  ‘Not to my knowledge. He’s never given any indication of knowing,’ Lydia said, frowning. ‘Sian was good at keeping secrets. Obviously, George wanted to help when he saw Jayden struggling after your mum’s death …’

  ‘So why didn’t he find out who killed her? If he loved her? If he loved Jay?’ The questions rattled out, and she clutched the edge of the table so hard her knuckles went white. She couldn’t imagine her mum as an informant, let alone being in love with that bastard and to have his child …

  Her aunt laid a gentle hand on her arm. ‘Holly, I’m – we’re – fairly sure one of the Nicholls brothers killed Sian. I’m so sorry, and I know George was desperate to gather enough evidence to prosecute, but there simply wasn’t a shred to tie them to the hit and run.’

  Holly found she couldn’t speak. She ran her tongue round her lips, tried to swallow. ‘Why them? Oh, wait, I get it, she was spilling stuff about their operation?’

  Lydia nodded. ‘When your dad started out, it was just about the drugs, but when he got mixed up with the Nicholls, she really couldn’t cope with the trafficking of young girls. She and I … We didn’t have the best childhood, as you know, and it hit a nerve for her. She went all out to try and stop Donnie from getting involved, and when he didn’t stop, she said she would take down the Nicholls.’

  ‘But she never seemed bothered about any of it! Always told us the police were vermin. Fuck, I sound like my dad. He must have guessed though … Although I suppose not if he’s rolling out the red carpet for Jayden now, and going on about all this family stuff.’

  Lydia shook her head. ‘Your mum cared about the girls, Holly. She hated what was going on. But somehow, the Nicholls found out she was a grass. George is convinced one of them followed her. George always dropped her off in the same place on Beach Road, at the same time, because she insisted on it, he said.’

  ‘Okay …’ Holly was thinking it was a good thing she hadn’t known this before her recent conversations with Joey and Gareth, or she would have been tempted to smash their faces in. ‘And Jayden? Does he know who his real father is?’

  ‘Yes. Sian always said that if anything happened to her, she wanted her son to know the truth. Harper told him after your mum’s funeral. You know your brother went off the rails a bit, but later he knew Harper was his best chance of getting out of here. Jayden asked George for help to get away with Larissa and his family. George agreed to put him in touch with a contact who could get them a new identity, and a place to live. For a price.’

  ‘Hang on, DI Harper, sorry, George, knew Jay had two kids but he never told you?’

  ‘Yes. The money Jay took from me was for the new identities. George was able to pull some strings with a mate in Witness Protection and get them. The night of the murders, the final payment was due. George had no idea of course. He’d done his bit and stepped back. He made Jay promise to keep in touch, and that was it.’

  ‘The money wasn’t for drugs? Or for Niko?’

  ‘No. It was for his family.’

  Holly stared blindly at her aunt, tears cascading down her cheeks.

  ‘I told you, he was due to leave the day after Larissa was murdered, which is why he was desperate to get the money together and collect the new identities,’ Lydia said. Her shoulders drooped and she sagged in her chair, exhausted by the revelations.

  ‘And I told him to fuck off. Why didn’t he tell me?’ Holly whispered. She’d made the wrong decision. Again. She’d failed the little family and Larissa and the baby had been murdered. ‘If I’d got the money when he first asked me it might have made a difference. He’d have gone before the Balintas found out where they were.’

  Chapter 23

  Dear Mum,

  Isn’t it funny how I can see you more clearly when I close my eyes? I’ve been doing that a lot and keeping really quiet since we got here, because just between us, I don’t trust Dad’s friend.

  It’s been just you, me and him for so long that I couldn’t see how he let someone else in. But Dad’s clever so maybe he has another plan that he hasn’t told me about yet. I’m sorry we can’t make a new wall for you, but we’re moving around a l
ot.

  I’ve got my book though, and I’ve got loads of your pictures on my phone now. I’ve wanted a phone for ages but Dad said I was too young. Now we’ve moved he’s been so focused on the plan that he isn’t noticing what I’ve been doing so much.

  Once we’ve finished with the plan and it’s all over, we’ll be moving again. Dad says we’ll be living on a boat for a while, and just sailing around.

  Dad’s friend wasn’t part of our plan, but now he seems to be tagging along the whole time. He’s always nice to me, and buys me chocolates, laughs at my jokes, but I can’t tell what he really wants.

  One thing I do know for sure is that Dad will kill him if he screws with the plan.

  I love you, Mum x

  Chapter 24

  After Lydia had left, Holly made herself sit down and get all the bills out. She needed something to focus on, to distract her from the questions whirling in her head. But it made depressing reading, and she was going to have to admit defeat on the mortgage repayments unless Tom helped out. Which he had already made clear he wouldn’t. At least he was paying child support, but it was a tiny amount compared to what it took to keep this house. Perhaps she should move to another part of the country? Or even go to Spain with Lydia after all, and start again …

  The news that Jayden was DI Harper’s son still made her feel ill whenever she thought about it. How had her mum done that? Maybe Donnie had found out after she’d died, and that was why he took to the bottle?

  Niko could go to hell, with his stupid threats. She knew he had been shocked at her suggestion that Jayden might have come back to settle the score. She had seen the fear in his eyes. Once, Niko – backed by his brothers, and well in with the Nicholls – could have relied on a whole gang of people to protect him. Now, with his skinny, pale body hunched into the red jacket, he seemed kind of ridiculous. But she couldn’t write off the Nicholls as easily. Had Gareth or Joey really been responsible for her mum’s death?

  Her thoughts spun back to Jayden. He was clearly good at hiding, so much so that he and Larissa had lived just a few miles away for over a year before it had all kicked off again. With a new identity they could have been anywhere. A headache nudged at the base of her skull and she rubbed her sore eyes. She remembered how terrified she had been at the trial, and before during the endless police interviews. Everyone asking where Jayden was …