by Gemma Rogers
‘Thanks for this morning, you’ve been amazing.’ I tilted my head to the side and jutted my hip out, seeing his eyes slide to it.
‘That’s okay, wouldn’t be much of an employer if I didn’t look after my staff.’
He made to leave, stopping inches from me when I didn’t move. The atmosphere between us electric. I leaned forward, brushing my lips across his gently, before stepping aside to let him pass. His ears were pink, and I noticed he hadn’t shaved today, a dark shadow ran across his jaw.
‘You’re a nightmare,’ he breathed. He gave the slightest shake of the head and I giggled as I watched a grin emerge. ‘Come on, you must be starving.’
I followed him back to Karla and sat on top of a table to eat. Dan passed us a sandwich, a bag of crisps and a bottle of lemonade. I dove in. We chatted for a while, although Karla didn’t join in much. Agnes said once the initial order was finished, nothing else came in, so it had turned into an unusually quiet day. I knew Karla was shattered, so once I’d eaten, I crept away and called for a taxi. Dan had run us around enough and I didn’t want to bother him again.
‘I’ve got a taxi coming. She’s exhausted, so I’m going to take her home with me,’ I said, out of earshot of the others.
‘I thought you two had a row?’ Dan asked.
‘We did.’ I shrugged and Dan shook his head like he didn’t understand women.
There was no other option but to have Karla stay with me, she had nowhere to go. Not anywhere that was safe anyway. I didn’t want to say that she was fearing for her life. I didn’t want Dan to know, by taking her home with me, what I’d be getting mixed up in.
51
The taxi ride was silent with both of us staring out of opposite windows. When we got home, I paid the driver and helped Karla out of the car. I lifted out the enormous duffel bag from the footwell, that Karla had hidden in the broken locker nobody used, slinging it over my shoulder as I fished for my keys.
‘You’ll have to share the bed with me again,’ I said flatly, pushing open the door and dropping the bag on the carpet.
‘That’s fine. Thank you.’ Karla lowered herself onto my bed, slipping off her trainers and curling her legs up under her. Her usual icy demeanour gone, almost like she’d run out of steam. I had no doubt it was down to the shock of Leon’s attack and not because she’d thawed and we’d suddenly become friends. She needed me and Karla was smart, she did what she had to, to get by.
I checked my phone; it was almost five.
‘Tea?’ I offered and Karla nodded. I didn’t have a lot of milk and would have to pop out later, but for now I wanted to get Karla settled and find out how it all happened. I checked the door was locked, momentarily considering how much danger I was in by having her here?
The ashtray positioned between us, I sat cross-legged facing Karla, each of us sipping our scalding-hot mugs of tea.
‘Who’s Leon?’ I ventured.
‘He’s a dealer, he’s big time, been around for years. He used to sell to my brother.’
The penny slowly dropped.
‘Is that who Eddie was going to see when Ashley asked me for a lift?’
Karla nodded.
‘He was going to buy drugs to sell around the estate?’ I clarified.
‘He wasn’t going to buy. Eddie already had the drugs on tick, he was going to pay Leon.’
‘And Eddie never arrived,’ I said quietly.
‘I had to work off Eddie’s debt.’
I shut my eyes, awash with self-loathing. What did that entail? Selling drugs? Selling herself? I cringed.
‘The money in the car disappeared. Ten grand,’ Karla continued.
‘It was seized by the police as evidence,’ I said, hoping she didn’t assume I’d walked away from the accident with it.
‘I know. Leon lost Eddie and I replaced him. Until I was caught and sent down.’
‘You must have cleared his debt by now?’
‘I have. With the money you gave me,’ she had the good grace to look ashamed of the use of the word gave, ‘but once you’re in, you’re never technically out.’
‘So what was the finger about?’
‘I asked to leave, but apparently I’ve got interest to pay, it’s never-ending.’ Karla sniffed, rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand. I’d heard about these gangs; there was only one way out once you were in. Especially if Karla was a perfect little worker bee, selling drugs for free. ‘That’s why I’ve never been home. I can’t put my parents at risk. He doesn’t know where they live now, as they moved after Eddie died. So I’m on my own.’
‘You’re not on your own,’ I said, patting Karla’s knee.
‘I don’t deserve your help.’
‘Maybe not, but I think you need it. I can never make up for taking Eddie’s life, but I’d like to help you get away.’
‘I can’t run, he’ll find me,’ Karla spluttered, terror etched on her face.
If I didn’t do something Karla would end up being left for dead at the side of the road and I’d have another death of the same family on my conscience. ‘How much do you still owe?’
‘Another grand; it goes up every week,’ Karla said miserably.
‘Jesus, how are you ever supposed to pay it at a grand a week?’
‘That’s the point.’ She lit a cigarette and offered me one of hers. I finished my tea and took it, opening the front door to let the air through.
We smoked in silence. How could I get Karla out? Perhaps Dan could help, he’d worked all over the place, maybe he knew somewhere remote she could hide. It all seemed so unreal, these were the problems from movies with drug deals and car chases, but if I’d learnt anything from being inside there were many bad people in the world.
‘I want to show you something – do you have a laptop?’ Karla said.
‘I don’t even own a TV, Karla, let alone a laptop.’ I snorted.
‘Fuck.’ She pulled out a small SD card from an inside pocket of her duffel bag, holding it up for me to see.
‘What’s on it?’
‘It’s from Terry’s hidden camera. It’s where all the footage is stored. When I took it from the office, I pulled out the SD card but couldn’t view it as it’s a micro SD card. It doesn’t fit into a laptop, you see, it’s the wrong size.’ Karla held the tiny card up to the light. ‘I told John I needed to see what was on it and he ordered me this adaptor. He’s quite techy.’ She rummaged in the pocket again, but this time retrieved a larger card that the micro SD slotted neatly into.
‘I don’t understand?’ I said, frowning at it.
‘Most laptops have a standard-sized slot, for an SD card – that’s this one. To view a micro SD card, you have to pop it inside this one, then it’ll fit. Get it?’
I nodded.
‘How did you know about the camera?’ I asked.
‘After the first time he, you know, I said no more. He told me that everything in the office was filmed and my video would go viral if I didn’t play ball. Of course, I told him to prove it and the next day he showed me an image. I knew the camera was somewhere up high from the angle, so I searched for it when he was out. There was only one option really, on top of the filing cabinet.’
‘What did you do with it?’
‘I left it there then, I didn’t want him to know that I knew where it was, but after he kicked the bucket, I took it home and smashed it to smithereens.’
Blood drained from my face. All along I was panicking about the camera and she’d had it! There was proof on that tiny card, proof we’d all been victims of some kind of sexual assault at the hands of our boss. I sighed, fat lot of good it did us now.
‘You should burn that,’ I said flatly.
‘No, I want to see it.’
‘Hiya,’ came a voice from the open door. Stuart stood on the threshold.
‘Hi, Stuart, this is Karla. Karla, this is my landlord, Stuart.’
Karla managed a smile.
‘Hey, just wanted to see if you were
okay, haven’t seen you much.’ His eyes cast around the room as they always did whenever he popped in. Checking I wasn’t trashing the place.
‘I’m fine thanks. Actually, Stuart, you don’t have a laptop I can borrow for an hour or so, do you?’
Stuart scratched his head. ‘Yeah, I’ve got an old one under the stairs. It’s slow though.’
‘Slow is fine,’ I said, smiling.
He went back next door to check and I raised my eyebrows at Karla, who sniggered.
Twenty minutes later, I’d made another cup of tea, using the last of the milk, and we were sat side by side, with Stuart’s laptop resting on my thighs.
‘Are you sure you want to see this?’ I asked, words hollow.
‘Yeah.’ Karla inserted the card and it took a minute or so to register. I double-clicked File Explorer and opened the SD card.
Terry was organised, there were folders for each month, and dated files within each folder. For January and February, the files were unnamed.
‘Perhaps the camera dumped all the files here automatically and Terry chose what to keep?’
‘Maybe,’ I said, steering back, over two years’ worth of folders.
Steeling myself, I clicked on the second to last file, which opened in a full-screen window. The day Terry died began to play out.
52
The video was weird, and it took a second for us to work it out. The image was good-quality and in colour, unlike the printouts Karla had sent, but it seemed to jump, as though scenes had been cut and pasted together. Some were long, some barely more than a few seconds. We watched snippets of what looked like an average day. Terry coming in, hanging up his coat, logging on to the computer. Then, after he’d left his office, a second later he was back, carrying a cup of tea. I frowned at Karla.
‘Must have been on a sensor, only recording when there’s movement in the office. Makes sense, I guess.’ She seemed to know more than I did.
As the day crept towards the afternoon, we cringed through Terry shovelling in a bulging foot-long subway that made my stomach roll.
Karla dragged the cursor forward and suddenly I was in the office, on my knees and Terry was undoing his belt. She clicked pause and there we were, frozen. I swallowed bile which rose in my throat and forced myself not to turn away. My hand trembled and Karla gripped it.
‘We’ll skip it,’ she said, going to move the cursor forward.
‘No, I need to see it.’
Relenting, Karla hit play and we both concentrated on the screen.
It seemed to happen within a few seconds, Terry forcing himself on me, me biting and him slapping my head away. He clutched his arm and hit the deck. Karla gasped; she obviously hadn’t seen it all the way through.
‘Did you see him hit his head?’ I asked.
‘Yeah.’
‘I told you. He collapsed; I didn’t do anything!’
‘Looks like a heart attack,’ Karla agreed.
We watched the morbid video, speeded up, us two running around, clearing up. Heaving him into the chair and securing him with tape.
Karla was still holding my hand as the video ended and I breathed a heavy sigh. Seeing it played out on screen, watching Terry fall, his death a natural one, I felt a strange release. I’d almost convinced myself I’d been wrong, that he couldn’t have just dropped dead. It didn’t change the fact that we’d committed a crime even if it wasn’t a murder.
‘There’s another file,’ I said, going back to the folder.
‘Definitely motion sensor, look at the dates, nothing over the weekend as no one was in. The last file is on the Monday.’
Karla double-clicked and we watched.
‘Who’s that?’ she asked as two figures appeared.
‘Dan and Terry’s wife, Kim,’ I replied as they entered the office and started looking around. Kim was going through the drawers and cupboards, riffling through paperwork. She looked like a woman possessed. What did she think she’d find? ‘Is there no sound on this thing?’ I asked, as Dan came back in and a conversation broke out, Kim gesticulating wildly, pointed a red-nailed finger at him.
‘Nope, just images,’ Karla replied.
I rubbed the back of my neck. It was infuriating not being able to hear them.
We skipped forward, watching Dan and Kim come and go. Then Barry entered, looking over his shoulder as he came into the office. Everything about him was suspicious but particularly the way he moved. He rounded the desk, looking through the contents, as Kim had. His hand moved fast, glancing up at the door every few seconds, to make sure the coast was clear.
‘Looking for his money,’ Karla said flatly. That much was obvious.
Barry stood to his full height and put his hands on his hips. As though receiving a flash of inspiration, he spun around and reached out to the Kelly Brook calendar. Whipping it off the wall, he revealed a small dark grey panel.
‘What’s that?’ I pointed at the screen and we both squinted.
‘A safe. Look, there’s the dial.’
We watched as Barry moved the disc backwards and forwards, trying a variety of combinations, eventually getting frustrated and slamming his fist on the metal door. He left soon after, only to be replaced by Karla moving swiftly in, standing on Terry’s chair and reaching up to feel around for the camera. A hand closed over the lens and the video ended.
‘Terry had another safe hidden in his office. Do you think Dan knows?’
‘No idea.’
‘What if Barry never got into it? It could have more money in it?’
‘I doubt that.’
‘We’ve got to get into the safe!’ Karla’s eyes came alive, like she was a pirate searching for treasure.
‘Yeah, good luck,’ I scoffed, getting up from the bed as pins and needles ravished my legs. I didn’t want any part of it. ‘I’m going to pop out for some milk and cigarettes. Want me to grab anything?’
Karla shook her head, her concentration fixed on the screen.
‘I’ll be back in a minute, don’t break the laptop and don’t steal anything!’
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ Karla frowned.
‘It means I don’t bloody trust you,’ I snapped as I closed the door, letting fresh air wash over me as I strode to the local shop. I scratched my wrists, agitated about leaving Karla alone in the bedsit. I had to be as quick as I could. After all, it wasn’t the first time she’d stolen from me and even if we were now allies to a certain extent, it didn’t mean she wouldn’t stab me in the back the first chance she got.
The shopkeeper, Ali, was Turkish and always smiling, greeting every customer. I smiled as I came through the door and began filling up my basket: bread, milk, crisps and chocolate before heading to the counter to ask for cigarettes.
On the way back, I called Ashley, asking if she remembered a guy called Leon. She was quiet for a second, although I could still hear the chatter of people around her.
‘He’s bad news, Jess. If Karla’s mixed up with Leon you need to stay well away,’ Ashley whispered down the phone.
‘He cut her finger off,’ I said and heard Ashley suck in a breath.
‘Fuck, ditch her, Jess. She’s not your problem.’
‘I can’t. She needs help to get away from him,’ I said through gritted teeth.
‘Why do you always have to play the hero? She doesn’t need rescuing, Karla made her bed, she has to lay in it,’ she blurted.
‘I have to go,’ I said and hung up, doubling over like I’d been punched in the gut. Did Ashley think I had a hero complex? I’d saved her, hadn’t I, saved her from that violent prick Eddie, kept my mouth shut and spent four years in prison while she had her reputation still intact. I clenched my jaw, teeth knitted tightly together until they ached.
The phone rang repeatedly, and a text message came through with an apology, but I didn’t reply. I hurried back to the bedsit, pushing my anger down and chain-smoking my annoyance away.
‘Look, look.’ Karla was on her knees as I ca
me back in and unloaded my bag of shopping. She was like a kid, desperate to show me a new toy.
‘What?’ I said, still irritated by Ashley’s words.
‘I’ve got the combination; well, I think I have. I’ve spent the past half an hour looking back through all the videos until I found Terry putting something in the safe. I’ve zoomed in as close as I can, and I think I can just about make it out. About a week before he died, he put in a large envelope. Three days later, he opens it again, takes some money out, puts it in a jiffy bag and leaves it on his desk.’
‘And that’s the packet we found on his desk?’
‘Yes! Which means there’s still money in the safe!’
53
‘We don’t know that. Barry could have been in since, or Dan even. There’s no video to show otherwise,’ I said.
‘We have to try!’
I turned around, leaning against the counter to give Karla my full attention. ‘I’m not a thief, Karla. It wasn’t so bad stealing from that pig Terry, but he’s gone. We’d be stealing from Dan and I’m not okay with that.’
Karla slumped back on the bed, deflated. ‘It could be my ticket out of here,’ she said, holding up her bandaged hand.
‘Let me think about it.’
‘I can do it; I don’t need you!’ she huffed.
‘Oh really? What one-handed? How long is your bandage on for, Karla, a couple of weeks? Is there any point in you going to Bright’s in the meantime?’
Karla tutted and closed the laptop lid.
I made tea and beans on toast for both of us before taking the laptop back to Stuart. He kept me chatting for ten minutes about his plans with Helen this coming weekend and did I know if she liked ice skating? He seemed perplexed when I told him he probably knew her better than I did.
‘My sister has always been a mystery to me,’ I said by way of explanation. He frowned but accepted it, telling me to have a good evening with my friend.
