Was that before or after you walked into the door? Kelvin wanted to ask, but she had already gone.
He shook his head and went back into his booth. It wasn’t the first time he’d seen bruises on Amy, and it definitely wouldn’t be the last. But, if she wasn’t careful, she was going to end up like the last girl that Yates had brought here.
Like Amy, that girl had always had a haunted look in her eye and an air of resignation about her. And, like Amy, she had regularly come to work with bruises on her face. But it hadn’t been long before the scars had started to appear; scars that became progressively deeper and nastier, until her pretty face was no longer pretty. And then, one night, she hadn’t turned up – and nobody had seen her since.
Kelvin had three sisters, and his mother had been widowed when he was only nine, so he’d grown up in pretty much an all-girl household. But, annoying as girls could undoubtedly be, he could never imagine a time when he would want to cause them pain. Not only because it would shame his father’s memory, but because it would send his mother into an early grave.
She was so proud of him for holding down a full-time job – a rarity in their neck of the woods. And every time one of the neighbourhood boys succumbed to the evils of drugs or guns, she thanked the Lord for having given her the tools to guide her fatherless boy onto the right path. But Kelvin knew that she wouldn’t be so proud if she ever found out where he worked, so that was one thing he’d never told her.
He personally saw nothing wrong with a girl choosing to sell her body – as long as she was doing it of her own free will. The problem arose when they were forced into it, and he despised the men who abused them in that way. Men like Yates, who dropped them off and picked them up in order to maintain control; and who took all the money they earned, and then beat them for not earning more.
Kelvin had been working at Hawaii for three years now, and he’d seen it all. Girls came and went, and they all had their reasons for doing what they did. Most were addicts who chose this line of work because it was the quickest way to get the money for a fix without putting themselves in danger on the streets. Some did it because they were struggling to feed their kids, having been abandoned by the fathers or getting no help from them. For the odd few, like old Betty, it was simply the only way of life they had ever known. But then there were the ones like Amy, who Kelvin could see from a mile off didn’t really want to be there. And they were the ones that made him question what he was doing here.
The first punter of the night arrived, and Kelvin pushed Amy to the back of his mind. Saturdays were the busiest night of the week, and also the night when trouble was most likely to flare, so he had to stay on his toes at all times.
The night went by quickly and with little incident, but Kelvin’s instincts prickled when a group of lads who didn’t look old enough to shave, never mind have sex, turned up at two in the morning.
‘How much for me mate?’ one of them asked as the others sniggered behind him. ‘It’s his birthday, and he’s a virgin, so we wanna get him laid.’
‘Sorry, lads,’ Kelvin told them through the spyhole. ‘You’re not old enough.’
‘We’ve got fifty quid,’ the lad persisted, holding up the money to show him. ‘Come on, mate. We just wanna give him a good time. The rest of us are just gonna watch.’
‘Sorry,’ Kelvin said again. ‘Come back in a couple of years.’
‘Yo, cunt!’ the lad shouted, hammering his fist on the door when the spyhole slid shut. ‘Who d’ya think you’re talking to? I ain’t one of your homies, you ain’t dissin’ me like that and getting away with it. Come out here if you think you’re a big man – I’ll fuckin’ show you!’
The rest joined in, and Kelvin listened as they started booting the door in unison. Soon the walls were echoing with the sound of missiles being hurled at the door. He wasn’t concerned about that, because he knew they would never get through it. But when he heard the sound of glass smashing up above, he ran up the stairs.
A brick lay in the middle of the staffroom floor, and shards of glass were scattered everywhere. The girls were huddled around Betty, who was sitting shocked in her chair in the corner, blood trickling from a cut on her forehead.
Down below, someone screamed, and Kelvin ran to the broken window and peered out into the darkness. He winced when he saw the gang attacking a man, dragging him down to the floor and kicking him from all sides. Sickened when he saw the one who’d been mouthing off at him leap up into the air and slam his foot down on the poor man’s head, he turned back to the girls.
‘Get dressed. I’m going to have to call the police.’
As the girls ran to their rooms to retrieve their clothes, Kelvin squatted down in front of Betty. ‘You okay, sweetheart?’
‘It’s just a nick,’ she told him, sounding as old as her actual years for once. ‘I’ll just go and have a lie-down. I’ll be right as rain in a minute.’
Kelvin frowned. The cut was a good inch long, and the skin around it had already swelled so much that it was splitting apart even more as he looked. But it was the ashen paleness of her face that he was particularly worried about, and her breathing sounded unhealthily shallow.
‘I think we need to get you looked at,’ he said decisively. ‘Just stay there – I’ll call an ambulance.’
As he stood up, he spotted Amy huddled in the corner, and asked, ‘Are you all right?’
She nodded and hugged herself. She wasn’t all right at all. In fact, she was far from it. Already withdrawing when she’d arrived tonight, her body now felt battered, and her head was hurting so much that it felt like it was going to explode. And her skin was raw and crawling with invisible insects.
‘Can you keep an eye on Betty?’ Kelvin asked. ‘I won’t be a minute.’
Amy nodded again, dragged herself up off her seat and hobbled over to Betty.
‘Sit down,’ Betty said quietly, patting the seat beside hers. ‘You look worse than me.’
After calling the police and ambulance, Kelvin let the girls out through the secret door that separated Hawaii from Mani’s cash and carry down below. Watching through the broken window as the police arrived and tackled the gang, he waved for Amy to help Betty up when the ambulance finally arrived.
‘You’ll have to go to the hospital with her,’ he said as they helped the old lady down the stairs. ‘I’ll have to stay here till Mani shows up.’
Amy flicked him a worried look and shook her head. ‘I can’t.’
‘Don’t worry, I’ll tell him what’s happened,’ said Kelvin, guessing that she was concerned about Yates. ‘He can’t blame you for this, can he?’
Amy wasn’t so sure about that. But Betty was clinging to her hand so tightly that she didn’t have the heart to make her go to the hospital by herself.
Yates wasn’t amused when he turned up to collect Amy at five only to be told that she had gone to the hospital a few hours earlier. It was getting light by then, so he could clearly see the dents in the door, the broken window up above, and the bricks and other debris strewn all around the yard. He even had to sidestep the pool of blood that had congealed at the gate from where the innocent passer-by had been attacked. But none of that made any difference. Amy should have been here waiting, and the fact that he would now have to drive to the other side of town to get her infuriated him.
Amy’s nerves were jangling like live wires as she sat in the hospital waiting room. The cut on Betty’s forehead had been glued together when they first got here, but just as they had been about to release her, she’d had a heart attack. Scared out of her wits when the crash team had leapt into action, Amy had sat back down to wait for news.
Still sitting there when the door opened and Yates appeared, she almost jumped out of her skin.
‘Out,’ he hissed, jerking his thumb at her.
The receptionist had told Amy that she would let her know as soon as she had any news about Betty, and Amy flicked her a guilty glance as she slid quietly off her chair and went
to Yates.
‘I’m sorry,’ she mumbled when she reached him. ‘B-Betty had a h-heart attack.’
‘I don’t give a fuck about Betty,’ Yates snarled, dragging her out and marching her towards his car. ‘You know how much you’ve just cost me in petrol, making me drive all the way over here? And who said you could go fuckin’ walkabout anyhow?’
‘I had no choice,’ Amy protested, banging her head on the door as he shoved her roughly into the passenger seat.
Yates jumped into the driver’s side and slammed his door shut. ‘You ever fuck me about like this again, you’re dead!’ he bellowed, slamming his fist into her face.
Amy screamed in pain when her lip exploded. But Yates was more concerned about the blood that had sprayed out onto the dashboard.
‘Now look what you’ve fuckin’ done!’ he roared, grabbing her by the back of her head and smashing her face against the instrument panel. ‘Wreck my fuckin’ car, will you? Wreck my fuckin’ car?’
‘Stop it!’ Amy squawked, her body convulsing when he grabbed her wrist and bent it right over. ‘You’re hurting me!’
‘I’ll do more than fuckin’ hurt you,’ Yates hissed, applying even more pressure.
A sharp snapping sound rang out, and Amy’s eyes bulged with shock and pain. Aware that he’d broken her wrist, Yates threw the car into gear and reversed out of the parking space.
‘Shut up and keep still,’ he ordered as he drove out onto Oxford Road and spotted the patrol car parked up on the opposite side. ‘I’m warning you. If you draw attention to us and he pulls me, I’m gonna shoot the pair of you.’
When he slid the gun out of his pocket and rested it on his thigh, Amy forced herself to stop squirming and screaming.
‘I’ll give you a fix as soon as we get back,’ Yates told her, driving on.
‘What’s happened?’ Marnie asked when Yates went round to hers after dropping Amy off and sorting her out. ‘Where’s all that blood come from?’
‘Amy’s been in a fight,’ he told her, flopping down on her couch. ‘I had to split it up and calm her down.’
‘Who was she fighting with?’ Marnie asked, rushing to get him a drink. ‘Another prostitute?’ She spat out the last word, her face already contorting into a sneer of disdain.
‘Yeah.’ Yates sighed. ‘Ripping chunks out of each other when I got there, they were. Think she might have bust her wrist.’
‘Serves her right,’ said Marnie, sitting beside him.
‘I don’t know what I’m gonna do with her,’ Yates went on wearily. ‘I’ve tried, I really have, but there’s just no reasoning with her.’
‘I know how hard you’ve tried,’ said Marnie supportively. ‘God knows why, though, when she keeps throwing it back in your face.’
Yates shrugged, and took a sip of his drink. ‘She needs me. What am I supposed to do? Turn my back on her, like the rest of them have?’
‘Hon, I know your heart’s in the right place, but you’ve done more than your fair share,’ Marnie said softly. ‘She’s brought it all on herself, and you can’t keep trying to rescue her.’
‘I hear what you’re saying, but I can’t just abandon her,’ Yates replied. ‘Suppose I’ll just have to try a bit of tough love.’
‘How?’ Marnie asked. ‘You can’t tie her up and keep her prisoner.’
‘No, but I can try and stop her going out, at least till her wrist’s healed,’ said Yates. ‘She wouldn’t go to hospital, she just wanted a fix.’
‘And you gave in and let her have one?’ Marnie shook her head. ‘You’re too soft for your own good, Lenny Yates. She’ll be the death of you if you don’t watch yourself.’
Yates grinned and reached for her hand. ‘Good job I’ve got you to keep me sane, then, eh?’ he said, placing it on the bulge in his pants.
Marnie smiled as she unzipped his fly. ‘What would you do without me?’
Yates put his arms behind his head when she sucked his cock into her mouth, and he watched as her head bobbed up and down. Women were all the same. Wouldn’t give you the time of day when you were single, but let them think they were scoring points at the expense of their mates and they couldn’t get enough of you. Throw a bit of cash into the equation and the sky was the limit to what they would do for you. Marnie was a pretty enough bird, and her body was half decent, but he’d got her number from the second they met. She was a slapper who liked to think she was in control. But he was the only one in control around here – and if she ever stepped out of line, she would learn that the hard way.
23
Kelvin had guessed from the expression on Yates’s face when he’d arrived to pick Amy up that he was pissed off with her for leaving work without his permission, and he’d spent the rest of the night worrying about her.
Betty was still in a bad way when he called in at the hospital on his way home, so he hadn’t stayed long. Before he left, he asked if Amy had got home okay, only for Betty to tell him what one of the nurses had told her: that a man had dragged her out of the waiting room and into a car.
Already concerned about that, Kelvin was even more worried when Amy didn’t turn up for work the next night. So he pulled Ella aside and asked if she knew Amy’s address.
‘I’ve never been there, but I think it’s off City Road,’ she told him. ‘Round the back of The Mancunian, I think she said. Might be Ford Road. Why?’
‘No reason,’ Kelvin lied. ‘Just thought I saw her round by mine this morning, but it must have been someone else.’
After leaving work that morning, he took the bus into Hulme. Yates’s car was parked outside a house halfway along Ford Road. Aware that he couldn’t go round there while Yates was in because it would make things ten times worse for Amy, Kelvin clocked the house number and went home.
The car was nowhere in sight when he went back a few hours later, so he walked up to the door and knocked.
Yates had left the house at noon. He’d given Amy a fix before he went, and had left a wrap for her to smoke throughout the day to ease the pain. She was spaced out now, but nowhere near as much as she would have been if her wrist hadn’t been throbbing so painfully. It had ballooned to twice its normal size, and was purple all the way around and halfway up her arm.
Afraid of jolting it, she hadn’t dared to move off the couch all day, and had no intention of getting up to answer the door when someone knocked on it now. But she quickly changed her mind when the letter box flapped open, and a familiar voice called, ‘Amy . . . are you there? I was worried about you, so I just wanted to check you’re okay.’
Terrified that someone would see him, she leapt up and, grimacing as the agonising pain shot up her arm, hobbled to the door.
‘Oh, my God,’ Kelvin groaned, taking in the bruised eyes, the split lip, and the clearly broken wrist she was cradling. ‘What the hell has he done to you, girl?’
‘It’s none of your business,’ Amy retorted shakily. ‘Now, just go away before someone sees you. Please.’
‘I can’t leave you like this,’ he protested. ‘You need to go to hospital. I’ll take you. And if you’re worried about Yates, he needn’t even know I’ve been here.’
‘Are you crazy?’ Amy gasped. ‘Of course he’ll know. He knows everything.’
Kelvin gazed at her, his dark eyes gleaming with concern and pity. ‘Jeezus, he’s really done a job on you, hasn’t he?’
‘Kelvin, just go,’ Amy pleaded. ‘You’re just going to make everything worse. Please, I’m begging you.’
Reluctant to leave her like this, Kelvin reached into his back pocket and pulled out a ten-pound note.
‘There’s a café on Deansgate called Orange,’ he told her, shoving the money into her undamaged hand. ‘I’ll be waiting there for you. Get a cab.’
‘I can’t,’ she hissed.
‘Half an hour,’ Kelvin said firmly. ‘If you don’t come, I’m coming back. And this time I’ll be bringing the police.’
‘Don’t be stupid,’ Amy squawked, but h
e was already walking away.
She closed the door and paced up and down the hall in a state of panic. Kelvin meant well, but all it would take was for one person to have seen him and say something to Yates and they were both as good as dead.
Amy didn’t want to meet up with him, but he’d been deadly serious about the police – she’d seen it in his eyes. And if they got involved, everything was going to explode and nobody would be safe. There was only one thing for it. She would have to go and talk to Kelvin, try to persuade him to back off.
Kelvin had already drunk two cups of tea and had begun to think that Amy wasn’t going to show when she walked in. Her face was ashen, and she’d wrapped a dirty old bandage around her arm, but he could tell by the way she was holding it that she was in serious pain.
He stood up as she approached his table and pulled out a chair for her. ‘Sit down. I’ll get you a drink. Tea or coffee?’
‘I don’t want anything,’ she said. ‘I’m not staying. I only came to tell you to leave me alone.’
‘How can I do that?’ Kelvin asked quietly, sitting back down and peering at her across the table. ‘Look at you.’
‘You’ve got the wrong end of the stick,’ Amy lied. ‘Lenny didn’t do this. I fell over.’
‘That’s what you said the other night about the bruise on your cheek, but this is way worse. Can’t you see what he’s doing?’
‘No, all I can see is you sticking your nose in where it isn’t wanted and causing trouble. Now just back off and stay out of my business.’
‘Leave him,’ Kelvin blurted out when she started to walk away. ‘I’ve got a spare room – come and stay with me. I’ll look after you, get you back on your feet.’
Amy turned and gave him an incredulous look. ‘Christ, Kelvin, you must have some whacked-out kind of marriage if you think your wife won’t mind you bringing a junkie prostitute home.’
‘I’m not married.’
‘Yes, you are.’ Amy pointed at the ring on his third finger. ‘Forget to take it off, did you?’
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