Broke

by Mandasue Heller

  25

  Yates scowled at the desk sergeant who opened the holding cell door the following morning. ‘Letting me go, are you? Realised you’ve got nothing on me?’

  ‘Come and get your stuff,’ the sergeant said coolly.

  Yates followed him out to the reception desk with a cocky swagger in his step, complaining all the way: ‘My girl’s been in hospital all night on her own thanks to you lot, so I hope youse are fuckin’ pleased with yourselves. And I’m gonna sue youse for locking me up, an’ all. I’m an innocent man, and this is an infringement of my civil liberties, this.’

  Unfazed, the sergeant pushed the clear plastic bag containing Yates’s belt, wallet, watch, loose change, cigarettes and lighter across the counter. ‘Check it and make sure it’s all there, then sign this.’ He slapped down a form.

  Yates tore the bag open and rifled through it. ‘Where’s me coke?’

  ‘Very funny,’ the sergeant drawled, disappointed that no drugs had been found on Yates, because he’d have taken great pleasure in charging the scrote had there been the slightest trace.

  ‘You’re a joke, mate,’ sneered Yates. ‘A total fuckin’ joke, the lot of you.’

  ‘If you say so.’ The sergeant smiled and nodded towards the door. ‘Off you go, there’s a good boy. But make sure you behave yourself, because we’ll be watching you.’

  ‘For what?’ Yates glowered at him. ‘You ain’t got nothing on me, or you wouldn’t be letting me go.’

  The sergeant leaned forward and clasped his hands together on the counter. ‘We all know you did it, and it’s only a matter of time before we prove it, so I’d watch my back if I was you.’

  ‘You’re the one who needs to watch your back,’ Yates retorted with a smirk. ‘’Cos if I see any of your lot following me, I’ll be doing you for harassment.’

  The sergeant held his gaze for several long moments, then smiled again and turned his back.

  Yates sucked his teeth and strolled out, shouldering past a PC who was on his way in.

  Marnie was sitting on a bench outside. She was smoking a cigarette, but she dropped it when she saw him and ran up the path.

  ‘Are you okay? Did they treat you all right? What did they say?’

  ‘Not now, I’m tired,’ Yates muttered, eyeballing the occupants of a panda car that was driving slowly past. ‘What you doing here?’

  ‘I wanted to see you,’ said Marnie, linking her arm through his. ‘I couldn’t sleep, I was too worried.’

  ‘You ain’t been sat out here all night, have you?’

  ‘No, your friend Keith came round to pick your car up, and he gave me a lift. He’s waiting round the corner. Have you heard anything from the hospital?’

  ‘No, but I’m gonna go up there now. I’ll drop you at home and give you a call when I know what’s going on.’

  ‘I’ll come with you, if you want?’ Marnie offered.

  Yates shook his head. ‘I need to see her on my own. Find out what she’s been saying about me.’

  ‘What could she have said? You weren’t even there.’

  ‘They think I did it,’ muttered Yates, nodding hello to Keith as they neared the car. ‘She was smacked out of her head when I went round there last night, and I walked out on her. You know what she’s like. She could have said anything to get back at me.’

  ‘Yeah, well, she’ll have me to deal with if she tells any lies about you,’ Marnie said indignantly. ‘Gemma saw you going out well before the fire started, so we all know you weren’t there. And if she says different, I’ll knock her out.’

  ‘You’ll go home and keep your mouth shut,’ said Yates, grinning as he stroked her stomach. ‘You’ve got Junior to think about now, so there’ll be no scrapping or arguing. You just leave all that to me.’

  Marnie smiled and climbed into the back of the car. It wouldn’t be long now before everyone knew their news, and she couldn’t wait. Lenny had tried his best, but even he would have to admit now that Amy was beyond help. If the drugs and the prostitution hadn’t been enough to make him see sense, surely Amy setting the house on fire would. She hadn’t been right in the head since Mark walked out on her, but instead of getting better she’d been getting progressively worse, and now she was an actual danger to herself. And God only knew what would have happened if the fire had spread to Marnie’s house.

  That didn’t bear thinking about, and Marnie was determined to make sure that the bitch was never allowed to move back in after the council fixed the house up. She had her baby to think about now, and she would kill Amy before she would let her put it in danger.

  After dropping Marnie off, Yates drove straight over to the MRI. Furious to hear that Amy had discharged herself just ten minutes before he got there, he jumped back into the car and set off for Stretford, sure that she must have gone to her parents’ place.

  ‘Go easy,’ Keith cautioned when they stopped a few doors down from the house. ‘If she’s told them anything, they’ll be straight on the blower to the pigs when they see you.’

  ‘They’ve got nothing on me,’ Yates reminded him. ‘Anyway, it’d look a bit odd if I didn’t call round to check on her, wouldn’t it?’

  ‘I suppose so,’ Keith conceded. ‘Just don’t go kicking off if it doesn’t go your way.’

  ‘I’m cool,’ said Yates, smiling as he got out of the car.

  He had no intention of kicking off and giving the fuckers ammunition to throw at him. He just needed to see the bitch, find out what she’d been saying – and make sure she didn’t say anything else.

  Sonia Clark was weeding in the back garden when she heard the doorbell. She peeled her gloves off and walked down the path to the side gate. ‘Can I help you?’ She peered out at Yates through the bars.

  ‘Oh, hello, love, sorry to disturb you.’ Yates stepped around the wheelie bin and smiled at her. ‘I’m a friend of your Amy’s. The hospital said she’d been discharged, so I figured she’d probably come here, what with the house still being taped off, and that.’

  ‘Sorry?’ Sonia frowned. ‘What are you talking about?’

  Yates immediately knew that she hadn’t heard from Amy, and held up his hands. ‘My apologies. I presumed you knew.’

  ‘About what?’ Sonia demanded. ‘Has something happened to Amy?’

  ‘There was a fire,’ Yates told her. ‘But it’s okay, she wasn’t hurt. They just kept her in overnight to keep an eye on her. I was in London and I couldn’t get back till this morning, but she’d already left by the time I got there.’

  A little less alarmed now that she knew Amy wasn’t hurt, Sonia said, ‘Who did you say you are?’

  ‘Just a friend.’

  ‘And you say there was a fire? At Amy’s house?’

  ‘Yeah. The police reckon it started in her bedroom. They think she might have fell asleep with a lit fag, or something.’

  A spark of disapproval glinted in Sonia’s eyes, and she muttered, ‘More like she fell asleep smoking drugs.’

  ‘Wouldn’t know anything about that, love.’ Yates gazed innocently back at her. ‘Anyhow, sorry for worrying you, but I’ve got an idea where she might have gone, so I’ll get off. Shall I give her your love when I see her?’

  ‘Thank you for telling me,’ said Sonia, sidestepping his question.

  Yates smirked when she went back to her gardening. No wonder Amy was so fucked up with a mother as cold as that. But attention-starved girls were a godsend for a man like Yates, because he could do whatever he liked to them safe in the knowledge that nobody cared enough to stop him.

  ‘What did she say?’ Keith asked when Yates climbed back into the car. ‘Is she there?’

  ‘No, they haven’t seen her.’

  ‘So what now?’

  ‘Got three gees of white in the boot, so we’re going back to yours for a few lines,’ said Yates, throwing the car into gear. ‘Then, when me head’s clear, I’m going to track her down.’

  ‘Don’t you think it’s time to knock this on the
head?’ Keith suggested as they set off. ‘You nearly killed her last night – ain’t that enough?’

  ‘Is it fuck.’

  ‘So what you gonna do when you find her? Finish the job? ’Cos you know the pigs are gonna come after you if anything happens to her now, don’t you? They already think you battered her and started the fire.’

  ‘Thinking it and proving it are two different things.’

  ‘And what about that other bird’s baby?’

  ‘What about it?’

  ‘How you gonna be a dad to it if you’re banged up?’

  ‘I ain’t gonna get banged up,’ snapped Yates. ‘Now shut the fuck up – you’re starting to do my head in.’

  Keith shook his head in despair and gazed out of the window. There was no point trying to reason with Yates, because he never took any notice. He’d treated girls badly in the past and got away with it, but even Keith didn’t know the full extent of what he’d done to them – or where they went to when they suddenly disappeared.

  Yates was his best mate, and Keith would always have his back, but he had a bad feeling about this one. When it had first started, Keith had thought it was just about the money, but he’d soon realised that Yates was more interested in the girl herself. Unfortunately, she hadn’t been interested in him, so it hadn’t been long before Yates had turned nasty and started pimping her out. And now he’d escalated to actually trying to kill her. But instead of thanking his lucky stars that he hadn’t succeeded and leaving well enough alone, Yates was determined to find her and push his luck even further by doing God only knew what.

  Keith just hoped that the girl had had the sense to go somewhere far, far away – for Yates’s sake as well as her own.

  26

  Kelvin had been horrified when Amy told him what had happened, but he hadn’t been overly surprised to hear that Yates had upped his violence to a murderous degree. He didn’t know the man on a personal level, but he knew the type all too well, and they were never satisfied until they had crushed everyone around them into submission. And those they couldn’t crush they tried to destroy instead.

  Unable to leave work at the time he received the call, and aware that there was nothing he could actually do then anyway, Kelvin had struggled through the rest of his shift with a set smile on his lips, determined not to give anything away to Mani and to the other girls. One tiny seed of suspicion would be all that Yates needed to put two and two together, and if Kelvin was to stand any chance of helping Amy to escape he would have to carry on as normal and fool everybody into thinking that he knew nothing.

  Already nervous when he picked Amy up from the hospital this morning, he kept an eye out for Yates as he helped her into the back of a black cab.

  Amy was silent on the ten-minute ride, but when they pulled up outside a semi-detached house in a nice part of Fallowfield she gave Kelvin a curious look. ‘I thought you said you lived in a flat?’

  ‘I do.’ Kelvin paid the driver and reached for her hand to help her out. ‘This is my mom’s place. I thought it would be better if I brought you round here for something to eat before we decide what to do next.’

  The front door opened, and an elderly woman appeared on the step. Kelvin smiled and ushered Amy up the path. ‘Mom, this is my friend Amy. She’s just come out of hospital. Got anything nice in the pot to help her get better?’

  Claudine Brown’s grey eyebrows puckered together as she gave the girl the once-over. Her son had dated a few nice girls in the past, and one or two that Claudine had seriously disapproved of. But this one looked the worst of the lot. Still, she could hardly shut the door in her own son’s face, so she stepped back and waved them in.

  ‘Tek off your shoes,’ she ordered Amy when she’d shown her into the lounge. ‘Do you want some soup? I’ll get you some soup.’

  ‘No, I’m fine,’ said Amy, her stomach turning at the thought of eating. ‘Please don’t put yourself out.’

  ‘She’ll have some.’ Kelvin overruled her. ‘I’ll come and help you.’

  ‘Shoes,’ Claudine barked over her shoulder as her son hustled her out of the room.

  Amy slipped her shoes off, perched on the couch and gazed around, awed by the spotlessness of the room and the enormous array of gleaming ornaments. Everywhere she looked there was a china figurine, a vase filled with artificial flowers, or a framed photograph. It was a massive contrast to the squalor of her own home, and it made her feel even dirtier than she already knew she was.

  In the kitchen, Kelvin had briefly explained the situation to his mother, and she wasn’t impressed.

  ‘It’s not your problem,’ she said, frowning as she ladled soup out of the enormous pot on the cooker top into a bowl. ‘Why you gettin’ involved?’

  ‘She’s a nice girl,’ Kelvin told her. ‘I want to help her.’

  Claudine gave him a piercing look. ‘You an’ she up to no good, boy?’

  ‘No, course not. It’s not like that.’

  ‘So where you meet her?’

  ‘At work.’

  ‘She work?’ Claudine’s eyebrows shot up in disbelief.

  ‘Well, she did, but I doubt she’ll be going back after this,’ said Kelvin. ‘Look, don’t worry about it, Mom. It’s not going to affect me in the slightest, I promise. I just want to make sure she’s safe while she gets better.’

  ‘And how long that gon’ take?’ Claudine wiped her hands on her apron and placed the bowl on a tray.

  ‘I don’t know.’ Kelvin shrugged. ‘She’s got a broken wrist, and . . .’ He managed to catch himself before he let slip about the drugs. His mother was already concerned, but the mention of heroin would send her fleeing to the pastor for spiritual intervention. ‘She needs to rest,’ he said instead.

  ‘If you ask me you is headin’ for trouble,’ Claudine intoned grimly, reading between the lines. ‘You may t’ink she a good girl, but just remember the devil can smile like a h’angel when he huntin’ soul.’

  Amused, Kelvin leaned down and kissed her on the cheek. ‘Don’t worry, my soul is safe.’

  ‘Me hope so, son,’ Claudine said quietly, picking up the tray.

  Amy sat bolt upright when the door opened and Kelvin’s mother came in. ‘Thank you,’ she murmured when the tray was laid on her lap. ‘It smells lovely.’

  ‘Eat it while it hot,’ ordered Claudine, going over to the chair beside the fire.

  Amy dipped the spoon into the soup and prayed that she wouldn’t throw up when it touched her tongue.

  ‘How would you feel about staying here for a while?’ Kelvin asked, perching on the end of the couch and watching as Amy toyed with the soup. ‘I don’t think you should be on your own just now, and my mom and my sister would be able to look after you while I’m at work.’

  Amy’s head shot up. So that was why he had brought her here instead of to his flat? He was trying to palm her off.

  ‘No.’ She shook her head. ‘I’ll go to my mum and dad’s.’

  ‘I thought they weren’t talking to you?’

  ‘They’ll be okay when they see me. Anyway, I’m not your mum’s problem. It’s too much to expect her to look after me.’

  ‘She doesn’t mind,’ Kelvin insisted. ‘Do you, Mom?’

  Claudine jerked her chin up in a gesture that could have meant anything. Sensing that it was negative, Amy shook her head again.

  ‘No, really, it wouldn’t feel right. And you’ve done enough for me already.’

  ‘All I’ve done is pick you up from the hospital and bring you to my mom’s for something to eat,’ Kelvin said softly. ‘That’s nothing.’

  ‘That’s more than enough,’ said Amy, meaning it sincerely. He barely knew her, and yet he’d already shown her more concern and compassion than anybody else had done in a long time.

  The doorbell rang, and Claudine arched her neck to peer out through the window. ‘Sister Hampson.’ She hauled herself to her feet. ‘Stay here while me see what she want.’

  As soon as she had left the ro
om, Amy whispered, ‘Please don’t think I’m being rude, Kelvin. Your mum’s lovely, but she doesn’t want me here, and I don’t blame her. Look at this place and then look at me. She must think I’m a total tramp.’

  ‘She’s a good Christian woman,’ Kelvin whispered back. ‘She’d never turn anyone away if they needed help.’

  ‘I don’t want to stay,’ Amy insisted, tears flooding her eyes. ‘I’m not fit to be around good people. If you don’t want me at your place, I’ll just—’

  ‘Hey, settle down,’ Kelvin interrupted softly. ‘I only suggested it because I thought it’d be better if someone was looking after you. Course you can stay with me. But it’s probably best if we don’t tell my mom, so I’ll say I’m taking you to your parents – okay?’

  ‘Thank you.’ Amy sighed. ‘And, don’t worry, I won’t stay too long. I’ll ring the council first thing, see if they can put me in a hostel.’

  ‘You can stay as long as you like,’ Kelvin assured her, reaching for the spoon. It was obvious that she didn’t want to eat the soup, and his mother would be more offended to come back and find the bowl full than by the thought of Amy’s dirty feet and greasy hair touching her nice clean carpet and sofa.

  The door opened while he was eating, and a girl strode in wearing a dressing gown, her hair wrapped in a towel. She stopped in her tracks when she saw him, and drew her head back.

  ‘What are you doing here so early?’

  ‘Just picked my friend up from the hospital.’ Kelvin nodded towards Amy. ‘Her house was set on fire last night. Amy, this is my sister Eve.’

  ‘Evangeline,’ the girl corrected him tartly, looking Amy up and down as she spoke. ‘What you playing at, bringing ragamuffins into Mommy’s house?’

  ‘Hey, Amy’s my friend!’ Kelvin scolded. ‘Have some respect.’

  ‘Say ’gain?’ His sister jutted her jaw out and gaped at him in disbelief.