‘You reckon you could stop me?’ Eddie sneered, looking her up and down.
‘Too right,’ Linda said fiercely. ‘You might think you’re some kind of big man, but you’re nothing to me, mate. I’ve seen hundreds of your sort in my time and you’re all talk, the whole lot of you.’
Eddie had heard enough of her rubbish. ‘Why don’t you do yourself a favour and fuck off before I show you if I’m all talk or not,’ he warned her. ‘I’ve got better things to do than listen to you prattling on about your loser boyfriends.’
‘Don’t threaten my mum,’ Chrissie said, turning over just then and struggling to sit up.
‘Stay put, love,’ Linda said concernedly, rushing to the bedside. ‘Don’t stress yourself – I can handle him.’
‘Nobody’s handling anyone,’ Chrissie said firmly. ‘This is between me and him.’ Glaring at Eddie when he gave her mum a smug look, she said, ‘Don’t bother gloating, ’cos she’s right about everything else. This is your fault.’
‘What is?’ Eddie demanded, pissed off with her now for trying to talk down to him in front of her bitch mother. ‘I wish someone would just fucking tell me what’s going on, ’cos youse are proper doing my head in.’
‘I’ve lost the baby,’ Chrissie told him, gritting her teeth determinedly to keep the tears at bay.
‘What baby?’ Eddie asked, having heard nothing about it before now.
‘Your baby.’ Chrissie stared at him, trying to gauge his reaction to the news. But there didn’t seem to be any, which confirmed what she’d been afraid of: that he wouldn’t have wanted it anyway.
Eddie pursed his lips and looked at Linda who was hovering protectively beside her daughter. ‘Do you think you could just give us a minute?’ he asked, struggling to be polite. ‘There’s some things we need to discuss, and I haven’t got much time.’
‘Really?’ Linda said sarcastically. ‘Got to go, have you? Got better things to do than look after the mother of your dead baby?’
‘Mum, pack it in,’ Chrissie scolded her. ‘I’ll be fine. Just go and have a fag, or something.’
‘Okay,’ Linda agreed. ‘But don’t you go upsetting her, I’m warning you,’ she said to Eddie.
‘Fuck’s her problem?’ Eddie asked when Linda had gone. ‘And why does she think I’ve been hitting you? What’s this shit about a bruise on your back I’m supposed to have given you?’
‘I never told her that,’ Chrissie said wearily. ‘She’s just assuming it was you.’
‘And you didn’t bother setting her straight?’
‘I haven’t had a chance to set anyone straight yet,’ Chrissie told him, giving him a cool, meaningful look.
‘Yeah, well, you’d best just tell me what’s going on, ’cos I need to get moving,’ Eddie said, glancing at his watch.
‘The girls have gone,’ Chrissie informed him tartly.
‘And you didn’t try to stop them?’ Eddie demanded, keeping his voice low in case anyone could hear them. ‘What the fuck are you playing at, you stupid cow? You know what this means, don’t you? It won’t just be me who’s fucked if they grass us up.’
‘I don’t care,’ Chrissie replied icily. ‘I never wanted them there in the first place and I’m glad they’ve gone. But I wouldn’t worry – it didn’t sound like they were in any rush to tell the police anything. They were all too scared of what you’d tell that policeman in their country.’
‘What policeman?’ Eddie asked.
A tiny humourless smile lifted Chrissie’s lips and she shook her head. ‘I knew it was a lie. Shame they didn’t believe me, though, ’cos they could have been well on their way to a refuge by now. But they’ll probably just carry on selling themselves ’cos that’s the only thing they’ve got going for them, thanks to you.’
‘So you’re saying they’re still around?’ Eddie said, seizing on what she’d said and not how she’d said it. He didn’t give a toss what she thought. All that mattered was finding those girls and getting them back under control.
‘You don’t care about me at all, do you?’ Chrissie hissed, her eyes flashing with pain and hatred.
‘Don’t be stupid,’ Eddie said, reminding himself that he would still need her flat if – when – he rounded up the girls.
‘I might have been stupid,’ Chrissie told him, her eyes watering up against her will. ‘But no more. This is the end. I’m giving the flat up and moving back in with my mum.’
‘You’re just overreacting,’ Eddie said, turning on the charm. ‘You and me, we’ve got something special,’ he went on, sitting on the edge of the bed and reaching for her hand. ‘You’re my woman. You belong with me.’
Chrissie’s chin started to wobble but she snatched her hand away, determined to stay strong despite her quickening heartbeat. She could never resist Eddie when he gave her those puppy-dog eyes. But, boy, didn’t he know it.
‘Come on, Chrissie, you know how I feel about you,’ Eddie crooned, gently stroking her hair back off her face. ‘I’m really sorry about the baby, but can we talk about it later? Clive’s driving round looking for the girls on his own right now and there’s more shit going on back at the flats, so I need to go back and make sure everything’s all right. I don’t want you coming home and having to deal with any crap, do I?’
He sounded so sincere, and Chrissie longed to be able to believe that he was truly doing this for her sake. Allowing him to hold her hand, she sighed, and said, ‘All right, go. But you’d best come back tomorrow.’
‘Course I will,’ Eddie assured her, raising her hand to his lips. ‘Just tell your mum to back off, eh?’
‘Don’t worry about her,’ Chrissie murmured. ‘She’s only trying to protect me.’
‘Yeah, well, that’s my job,’ Eddie said possessively. ‘So just tell her to butt out.’
Chrissie nodded. Winking at her, Eddie got up and left.
‘What happened?’ Linda asked, rushing in before the door had closed behind him. ‘Did you tell him you’re coming home with me? How did he take it? He’s not going to try and cause trouble, is he, ’cos I’ve already warned him I’ll—’
‘Mum, it’s okay,’ Chrissie interrupted. ‘Just leave it, eh?’
‘What do you mean, “leave it”?’ Linda frowned. ‘Don’t tell me you’ve let him talk you round? Oh, Chrissie, I knew you were stupid, but not that stupid.’
It was the second time in a matter of minutes that she’d been called stupid and it incensed Chrissie that the people who were supposed to think the most of her obviously thought so little of her.
‘I’m tired,’ she said, feeling a sudden need to be alone with her thoughts. ‘Why don’t you go home? There’s nothing you can do here.’
‘I don’t want to leave you,’ Linda protested.
‘Please,’ Chrissie implored. ‘I’m absolutely fine, honest. And you can come back first thing tomorrow.’
‘Is he going to be here?’ Linda asked.
‘He said he would be, yeah,’ Chrissie admitted.
‘Oh, well, that’s me told, then, isn’t it?’ Linda huffed, snatching her jacket off the chair.
‘Don’t be like that,’ Chrissie said wearily. ‘I know what I’m doing.’
‘We’ll see,’ Linda said tetchily. ‘You know where I am,’ she added, heading for the door.
Chrissie flopped her head back on the pillow and squeezed her eyes shut when her mum had gone. But, hard as she tried, she couldn’t hold back the tears any longer. It was all such a mess and she just couldn’t see a way back to where they had been before. And she still hadn’t had a chance to confront Eddie about the baby he’d supposedly fathered – with the woman he supposedly trusted enough to have stashed all his stuff round at her place.
But would he tell Chrissie the truth when she did confront him? She doubted it, somehow.
22
Katya was sitting on an armchair by the window, with the cat curled up on her knee purring contentedly and the curtains open just enough to let in a slive
r of moonlight. She’d felt like a burglar when she’d let herself in, but she’d had to trust that Joe knew what he was doing because he was the only one who could help her now. She just prayed that he was the genuine man that she had come to believe he was, because if this all turned out to be a game and he brought Eddie here to catch her then she was as good as dead.
That thought was still on Katya’s mind when Joe rang to let her know that he was parking the car and would be on his way up in a couple of minutes. Her legs were shaking wildly when the tap came at the door and she gazed out through the spyhole to make sure that Joe was alone before she let him in. Even then, she backed away from him, her fearful gaze fixed over his shoulder.
‘It’s okay,’ Joe reassured her. ‘I’m alone. I haven’t spoken to anybody on my way here, and nobody saw me coming in.’
Relaxing a little when he locked the door and slid the chain across, Katya headed back into the living room. Following her, Joe smiled when she sat down on the chair and the cat climbed back onto her knee.
‘It must like you,’ he said, perching on the edge of the couch. ‘My friend Cheryl reckons he’s a bit vicious. She showed me her arms the other day, and they were covered in scratches.’
‘He’s just old and lonely,’ Katya murmured, gently stroking the cat’s ears. ‘He must be missing his owner very much. This is probably her chair, because he came to me as soon as I sat down.’
‘I still reckon he likes you,’ Joe said. ‘Especially if that is Molly’s chair. Going off what Cheryl said about him, I think he would have had a right go at you for sitting there if he didn’t.’
‘Maybe,’ Katya said quietly.
‘So, you got in okay?’ Joe asked, glancing around the unfamiliar room as his eyes began to adjust to the dark.
‘Nobody saw me,’ Katya told him. ‘But I didn’t enjoy doing it. It doesn’t feel right to go into somebody’s home without their permission.’
‘I don’t think Molly would mind if she knew why you needed to be here,’ Joe said confidently. ‘Have you had a drink, or anything to eat?’ he asked.
‘No, of course not,’ Katya said, as if the thought hadn’t even occurred to her. ‘I would never touch anything that didn’t belong to me. I’m not a thief.’
‘And I’m not calling you one,’ Joe assured her. ‘But I’m sure Molly wouldn’t mind if you helped yourself to a coffee. Although I doubt there’ll be anything in that’s fit for eating, because she’s been gone for a while now. But if you can wait I’ll fetch something up from mine when I get a chance.’
A look of alarm came into Katya’s eyes. ‘Why? How long do you think I’ll be here?’
‘Only until I can work out where else to take you,’ Joe said. ‘You’ll have to sit tight till then, because the last thing we want is anybody seeing you and mentioning you to Eddie. That’s why you can’t come down to mine, because I’ve got people coming in and out all the time.’
‘I should just go,’ Katya murmured guiltily. ‘I’m bringing trouble into your life.’
‘Don’t be daft,’ Joe protested. ‘I told you I’d help you, and I will. You’ve already done the hard part, so now it’s down to me to find somewhere safe for you. I’ve got a few ideas but I need to make some calls. And we’ll have to wait until there’s no chance of anybody seeing us leave. Okay?’
‘Okay,’ Katya agreed, praying again that her instincts about him were correct because she had so much to lose if they weren’t.
Joe’s phone began to ring just then. He took it out of his pocket and tutted when he saw the name on the screen. ‘It’s Eddie.’
‘Oh, no,’ Katya cried. ‘Please don’t tell him I’m here.’
‘Hey, stop panicking,’ Joe said. ‘I’m not even going to answer it. I’ll just let it stop ringing, then I’ll switch it off.’
‘But won’t that just make him suspicious?’
‘Do I look like I care?’ Joe said calmly. Doing as he’d said he would when the phone stopped ringing at last, he stood up.
‘Where are you going?’ Katya asked.
‘You need a drink, so I’m going to see what I can find,’ Joe told her. ‘Please stop worrying. Nothing bad is going to happen.’
Joe went into the kitchen, filled the kettle and felt around in the cupboards until he found the cups. There was no coffee, he discovered, only tea. But there were some biscuits in a tin behind the kettle and they seemed quite fresh when he snapped one. Although the same couldn’t be said for the milk that Cheryl had left in the fridge for the cat, so he decided not to risk that.
‘Hope you don’t mind it black?’ he asked when he carried everything through.
‘No, I don’t mind. Thank you,’ Katya said, grateful for anything wet and warm because her mouth was so dry with fear.
‘Do you feel up to telling me what happened?’ Joe asked, settling back on the couch as she sipped at the tea. ‘You don’t have to if you don’t want to, but it might help.’
Katya shook her head. It was all too raw and confusing. And Eddie calling just now had made her even more nervous because it reminded her of how close he was. How vulnerable she still was. At least Elena and Hanna were safe. But where were they – and how long would they be able to hide before Eddie found them?
‘Hey, what’s wrong?’ Joe asked, coming over to her when he realised that she was crying. He squatted beside the chair and held her hand. ‘You can trust me,’ he told her. ‘I swear on my mother’s life.’
‘Don’t,’ Katya sobbed. ‘Don’t ever say that.’
‘Okay, I’m sorry, that was wrong,’ Joe admitted, mentally kicking himself. ‘I just want you to know that I would never do anything to hurt you. I want to help you, and I thought it might be easier if I knew what I was dealing with, that’s all. But you don’t have to tell me anything.’
‘It’s not you,’ Katya sniffled. ‘I’m just so scared of what will happen if Eddie finds us. Tasha was the one who hurt Chrissie but he’ll blame all of us, I know he will.’
‘Chrissie got hurt?’ Joe prompted gently.
‘I – I think she might have lost her baby,’ Katya told him tearfully. ‘Tasha pushed her and she hit the table quite hard. I knew she was hurt, so I came back after the others had gone. She was bleeding, so I made her let me call an ambulance.’
‘When did all this happen?’ Joe asked, wondering if Eddie knew about it.
‘Not long before I called you,’ Katya told him. ‘Elena and Tasha had been fighting, and Chrissie came to warn them to stop because Eddie was on his way home. But we’d heard him going out and knew that he wasn’t coming back, so Tasha called her a liar. And then she told her about the other woman who already had Eddie’s baby and Chrissie got mad about it.’
‘Eddie’s got a baby?’ Joe interrupted, thinking that it was the first he’d heard about it.
‘That’s what Tasha said,’ Katya told him. ‘She said the woman had been angry with him, because she’d been looking after his drugs and his gun but he hadn’t looked after her and their baby as he’d promised he would.’
‘Any idea who she was?’
‘We didn’t hear that conversation,’ Katya said, sliding her hand free to dab at her nose. ‘And if Tasha heard her name she didn’t tell us.’
‘Did Chrissie look like she knew who it was?’
‘I don’t think so. She called Tasha a liar and said that Eddie didn’t have any children, but I think she might have believed her. Then Tasha said that she was going to take her place with Eddie, so Chrissie told her that he had no money because he had gambled it all away and spent so much on drugs.’
‘That’s true,’ Joe affirmed.
‘Well, Tasha changed her mind after that,’ Katya went on. ‘And that was when Chrissie told us all to get out. She said that Eddie had lied to us and that he couldn’t get us into trouble with the man because he doesn’t know anybody outside of this country. Tasha left then but we didn’t want to risk it. But Chrissie told us that it was her flat, not Eddie’s,
and that she would call the police if we didn’t go. And there were already so many policemen outside – Elena said that we had no choice.’
Joe went back to the couch and mulled all this over for several minutes.
‘This man you say you thought Eddie could get you into trouble with,’ he said. ‘Who is he?’
Katya was wary of telling him but she had already placed her faith in him to an irreversible degree, so she figured that she might as well just get it over with.
‘Wow,’ Joe murmured when she’d finished. ‘I guessed that you weren’t doing this work out of choice, but I had no idea of the kind of hold that Eddie had over you. You must have been terrified.’
‘We are,’ Katya affirmed, using the present tense to emphasise that the fear was still every bit as paralysing as it had ever been. They might have escaped but that didn’t mean that this was over. For all they knew, Chrissie could have been the one who was lying – and their families could be being murdered in their beds right now.
‘If it helps,’ Joe said quietly, ‘I agree with Chrissie. Eddie hasn’t got that kind of power. And he stays in his own territory – because this is where he feels safest – so there’s no way he’s been linking up with anyone in your country.’
‘But how did he find us if he doesn’t know the man?’ Katya asked.
‘Someone probably approached him in the pub,’ Joe said scathingly. ‘Trust me, that’s how these sleazeballs usually find each other. Pub, internet, mate of a mate – the usual anonymous ways to conduct shady business.’
Katya was looking at him with a strange expression on her face.
‘What are you thinking?’ he asked.
‘Just that you seem too nice to know such things and such people,’ she told him. ‘You are a million miles away from him in atmosphere. Do you understand what I mean by that?’
‘Yeah, I think so,’ Joe said, smiling because he guessed that it was a compliment. ‘But you don’t have to be involved in that kind of business to know how it works,’ he added. ‘Anyway, I suppose I’d best go and make those calls,’ he said now. ‘You’ll be okay while I’m gone, won’t you? You won’t do anything daft like try to go it alone?’
The Driver Page 21
