Then, one night, it was the final row. They had just eaten their evening meal when Isaac announced that he was going out, and he turned towards the hallway. The other children were upstairs playing.
‘No, not again!’ said Daisy. ‘And I suppose there’ll be strange women ringing the house again too.’
‘Go to hell, woman! I’m only going out with me friends. Aren’t I allowed some kind of life?’
‘Not when you’re chasing other women.’
‘I’m not chasing any fuckin’ women! I just want a break, that’s all.’
‘You think I believe that, Isaac, when some strange woman is ringing asking for you? And what about my break? I’m the one stuck in this house all day.’
‘How many times do I have to tell you, woman? She was nothing to worry about.’
‘Well why did she have your number then?’
‘She just wanted to buy some stuff that I took round the pub, that’s all. I gotta make me fuckin’ living somehow. Have you any idea what it costs to keep you lot?’
‘Yes, Isaac, I know too well, because I have to manage on my own every time you leave.’
‘Cos you fuckin’ drive me out!’ he yelled. ‘With all your moaning and cursing.’
‘What do you expect me to do, Isaac? Just let you go out the door not knowing when you’ll be back? And me with four children to look after.’
‘Get off me case, woman,’ he said, storming out of the room and into the hallway.
Daisy chased after him with Trina close on her tail, watching nervously from the living room door and wondering what would happen next. She saw her mother grab his arm.
‘Come back, Isaac, or I swear God will strike you down.’
‘There you go again with your cursing. Fuck your God and get your hands off me, woman!’ he raged.
But Daisy wasn’t prepared to let go. She clung onto his arm, trying to pull him back as he made for the front door. To Trina it was as though the scene was being played out in slow motion. She could anticipate her father’s reaction, but she was powerless to stop it. She willed her mother to let go of him, but she didn’t speak. It didn’t pay to get involved when her parents were both angry.
‘How dare you speak to me like that, Isaac! And in front of me daughter, too. You’ve no right to leave me to manage on me own. You need to face your responsibilities and stop chasing after other women.’
‘Do you think I’m fuckin’ stupid, Daisy? I know you only want me for me money. You’ve even turned me kids against me.’
‘You did that all by yourself,’ she shouted, flinging herself in front of him to block his way to the front door. ‘Don’t you dare leave this house, Isaac!’
His voice became a low growl and Trina could tell his anger was escalating. ‘I’m telling you one more time, woman. Now get out of me fuckin’ way or there’ll be trouble!’
‘No, I won’t!’ shouted Daisy.
She didn’t get the chance to say anything else before Isaac raised his mighty fist and brought it down hard, striking an angry blow to her face. Daisy squealed and bent forward, clutching her face in her hands. But she was still barring his way to the door. He grabbed hold of her arms, crushing them between his powerful hands before lifting her, and flinging her down onto the hallway floor behind him.
Trina heard a loud thud and spotted the blood on her mother’s face. But Daisy wasn’t beaten yet. She quickly raised herself from the ground and sped after him, pulling his arms back once more as he struggled to open the front door. Isaac swung his arm back till his elbow impacted painfully with Daisy’s chin. She let out a yell, then he turned back and viciously rained punches down on her face and body.
Forgetting her fear, Trina screamed for him to stop, but he didn’t let up till Daisy lay crumpled on the floor. Then he was back at the door again. As he pulled the front door open and stormed from the house, Daisy remained slumped on the ground, shocked and yelling after him.
‘You’ve hit me. I can’t believe you’ve hit me! Don’t you ever dare to come back here, Isaac Henry.’
Isaac ignored her yells and slammed the door shut after him. As soon as he was on the other side of the door, Trina ran over to her mother, distraught.
‘Mam, Mam. Are you OK?’ she asked, kneeling down beside her, unsure what to do.
She caught sight of her two oldest brothers coming down the stairs, just as her mother heard them approach. ‘Get back up those stairs!’ she yelled. ‘Trina, make them go to their room then you can come and help me,’ she ordered.
Trina did as she was told, racing up the stairs to intercept her brothers. It wasn’t easy. ‘What’s happened to her? And why can’t we come downstairs?’ asked Ellis.
It only took one word for Trina to explain what had happened. ‘Dad,’ she said.
‘Has he gone?’ asked Ellis.
‘Yes, he’s gone.’
‘Well why can’t we come downstairs then?’ Ellis persisted.
‘Mam doesn’t want you to,’ said Trina and as she looked at her brothers, she saw a look of defiance on Ellis’s face. ‘I swear, Ellis, you’re not to come down. Our mam is really angry and she’ll go mad if you come down.’
Ellis didn’t say anything more; he just turned round and walked back to his room with his shoulders slumped and his two younger brothers following despondently behind.
‘I’ll let you know when it’s alright to come down,’ said Trina.
By the time she went back downstairs her mother was already at the kitchen sink trying to clean herself up. Trina helped her by holding a cold compress to her busted nose and wiping away her tears.
Eventually her mother was calm enough to speak to her. ‘That’s the end of it now, Trina. I won’t put up with it no more.’
Trina nodded solemnly but didn’t react except to ask, ‘Can the boys come downstairs now?’
‘Yes,’ said Daisy. ‘You can tell them I fell over and banged me face by accident. And not a word of this to anyone else, do you hear?’
Trina nodded again and went to speak to her brothers.
*
Isaac did call at the house again but only to collect the things he had brought with him. Trina watched, her stomach growling with fear and annoyance as he lifted the TV, stereo and various other items and walked out of the house without saying another word.
It was the last time Trina saw her father, just a few weeks before her tenth birthday. But she didn’t miss him and the endless rows that accompanied him whenever he returned home. If anything, she was relieved to see him go. In fact, the whole family were much sorrier to lose their TV and stereo than they were to see the back of their bullying husband and father.
5
February 2005
Ruby was sitting in the public gallery at Manchester Crown Court surrounded by the clientele of the Rose and Crown. Prostitutes, pimps, drug dealers and conmen; they were all there. Next to her was her friend, Crystal, who had been tense throughout the trial of her former pimp and lover, Gilly.
As Ruby tried to concentrate on the judge’s summing up of the case, she heard a sniffle and looked over at Crystal. Her friend often looked bedraggled; Ruby put it down to the fact that she worked long hours as well as taking care of her four-year-old daughter, Candice. But today she looked worse than ever.
Crystal’s eyes were red-rimmed through crying, the small pupils and dark rings underneath them demonstrating a lack of sleep. Ruby could see fresh tears, which had smudged Crystal’s mascara and eyeliner, leaving black streaks on top of the dark circles.
Her body language also spoke of her sorrow; her shoulders were hunched, her features strained, and she rung her hands as she waited for the judge to finish speaking so the jury could announce the verdict.
By contrast, Ruby was a woman who looked after herself; that was apparent from her taut muscles and radiant complexion with chestnut-coloured skin as soft and smooth as velvet. Her face was crowned with neat cornrows whose plaits spilt out enticingly onto her broad, honed s
houlders. She was clean-living in relation to her diet, having given up the drugs long ago, unlike Crystal who seemed to rely on a cocktail of toxic substances to get her through the day.
Despite her physical appeal, Ruby was anything but sweet. Her face was beautiful but harsh, her strained features accompanied by a subconscious snarl, sparked by painful memories that haunted her. She appeared formidable, invincible and had a mood to match. But, although Ruby was feisty and sharp-tongued, she was extremely loyal to the people she cared about.
Ruby tutted as she looked at Crystal and whispered, ‘What the fuck you snivelling for? You’re better off without him.’
Ruby’s eyes drifted across to the man in the dock. Gilly. He too looked tense, but he was trying to hide his disquiet behind a look that spoke of pure arrogance; chin jutting forward, eyes narrowed and a painted-on sneer.
For a few seconds Ruby studied him. Today he was smartly dressed for court in a shirt, tie and jacket, an obvious attempt to impress the jury. His hair had also been freshly washed and combed, his natural blond tone shining under the lights of the courtroom.
But Ruby saw through his innocent disguise. She knew the real Gilly. The scruffy one. The nasty one. The violent pimp and drug addict. And his smart appearance couldn’t hide the badness that she knew was within him. Neither could it hide his pale, scabby face, a result of his drug abuse, which Ruby assumed had increased since he’d been charged with GBH the previous year. Although he’d been held on remand ever since, Ruby guessed that he was having no difficulty getting hold of drugs on the inside.
He caught her eye and she quickly shifted her gaze – not that she was afraid of him, but she didn’t want him to think he merited more than a fleeting glance. As she looked away her mind drifted back to that day when she’d found Crystal, almost a year before.
Ruby had known there was something amiss. She’d seen Gilly and Crystal leave the Rose and Crown and it was obvious to her, and the other girls she was sitting with, that he was angry with Crystal about something. When he’d told Crystal he wanted a word, Ruby suspected he might be having more than a word with her.
She’d left it ten minutes, but when they still didn’t come back to the pub she grew concerned and went to find out what had happened. There was no sign of Crystal or Gilly outside the Rose and Crown or in the street that led down the side of the pub, so Ruby had carried on along the street on her way to work.
But something had stopped her. She’d spotted somebody slumped against a bin in an alleyway and was ready to dismiss it as another of Manchester’s down and outs. Until she saw the blood trail. Then she realised that that person was her friend, Crystal.
Ruby panicked when she first reached Crystal. There was no sign of movement and she’d thought she was dead, especially when she noticed all the blood. Crystal’s face was a mess and it was obvious she’d been battered. Ruby instinctively knew who was responsible. That bastard Gilly!
Ruby still recalled the surge of emotion on seeing her friend in that state. But she’d managed to hold it together while she’d dialled 999 and asked the operator to get someone there as quickly as possible. Thank God she had found her when she did or who knew what might have happened.
Prior to the attack on Crystal, Ruby had also been one of his girls, working as a prostitute on the streets of Manchester. But after he had done that, she had vowed to go it alone, and had done so for the past year. She’d never liked working for him in the first place and didn’t want another pimp pocketing a big share of her earnings. Anyway, Ruby knew she no longer needed a pimp’s protection; she was more than capable of handling any problems herself.
Ruby had become so immersed in her own thoughts that she almost missed the verdict coming in. She felt a sharp nudge from Crystal who nodded towards the jury. Ruby looked across the courtroom and noticed that the judge had finished his summing up and the foreman of the jury was now on his feet ready to give the verdict.
The judge asked, ‘Foreman of the jury, do you find the defendant guilty or not guilty of grievous bodily harm?’ to which the foreman responded straightaway.
‘Guilty!’
‘Yay!’ shouted Ruby, standing up and waving her fist in the air.
She caught Gilly’s eye as he was led from court and he glowered at her. It was a look so full of hatred that it sent a chill right through her. Despite Ruby’s relief that he had been found guilty she was already dreading the day he was released. Ruby didn’t scare easily but she knew Gilly was a dangerous man. Nevertheless, she had stood her ground in helping to bring him to trial. There was no way she was going to let him get away with what he had done to Crystal. But she knew that once he was released, he would want his revenge.
There were mixed reactions around the rest of the courtroom and Ruby noticed that most of the public gallery didn’t share her jubilation. Like Crystal, many of the other girls were afraid of crossing Gilly and even the male customers of the Rose and Crown were wary of him.
But by far the worst reaction came from Crystal who had broken down, wailing and sobbing his name. Ruby was about to say something, but she knew many of Gilly’s cohorts were watching her so she took Crystal’s arm and pulled her gently from her seat.
‘Come on, let’s get you out of here,’ she said.
Crystal’s unwavering love and respect for Gilly both baffled and incensed Ruby. Crystal should have been as glad to see the back of him as she was. But Ruby wasn’t going to share her thoughts in front of this lot. No, she had to get Crystal alone first. Then she’d really let her know what she thought.
6
February 2005
Ruby and Crystal were sitting inside the Rose and Crown, a run-down pub behind Piccadilly, on the other side of the city centre from the courts. It was their regular, which they had frequented since their early days of prostitution when they were both still teenagers. There weren’t many customers in the pub at the moment and Ruby guessed that most of the regulars had gone to one of the pubs near to the Crown Court after Gilly’s trial.
Ruby was becoming exasperated with Crystal’s whining. It seemed that no matter what she said, she just couldn’t get through to her. ‘What the fuck have I just told you, Crystal? I’ve been working on my own ever since Gilly was arrested for doing that to you, and it’s working out fine for me.’
‘I know that, Ruby, but I’ll still miss him. It felt better somehow knowing he was there to step in if I had any trouble.’
‘But he wasn’t always there though, was he, even before he went inside? When you get in a car with a stranger, you’re on your fuckin’ own, girl. A pimp might be able to give a client a good beating after he’s abused you, but it’s too fuckin’ late by then, isn’t it? The damage has already been done. And talk about trouble, he was worse than the fuckin’ clients. He treated you like shit so I don’t know why you’re so upset about him. He got what he deserved.’
‘How can you be so horrible about the man I loved, Ruby?’ said Crystal who was once again on the verge of tears. ‘Don’t forget, he’s not only my lover, but he’s Candice’s father too.’
When Ruby saw how upset Crystal was, she regretted being so hard on her. She was also sympathetic about the fact that Gilly was the father of Crystal’s child as it was something he’d always vehemently denied. But she knew she was right about Crystal. She had to learn to stand on her own two feet instead of keep letting men take advantage.
‘OK, sorry I was a bit over the top, but you should think about things seriously, Crystal. Don’t go rushing into anything with another pimp. Think about how much better off you’ve been since Gilly was arrested.’
‘I know. But I just felt safer knowing he was around, that’s all.’
‘Listen, girl, there’s ways of keeping yourself safe, y’know.’
‘What? You mean…?’ Ruby nodded, knowing Crystal was referring to the knife she carried. ‘Jesus, Ruby! I couldn’t do that. I’d be frightened to death of using it.’
‘You’d be amazed what
you can do when it comes to the crunch, Crystal. You don’t have to do any major damage. Just the sight of the blade is enough to send some of the cowardly fuckers running.’
Crystal didn’t say anything more, but Ruby noticed her shiver slightly when she mentioned the blade. Maybe she had been a bit tough on her, especially considering her so-called lover had just been sentenced to ten years imprisonment. She and Crystal were two different people and Ruby appreciated that she couldn’t always expect her friend to see things from her point of view. Forcing a smile, she picked up her glass and finished her drink.
‘Look, it’s time for me to go, Crystal. But, whatever you decide to do, just remember that I’ll always have your back.’
Crystal smiled, tears still in her eyes, and Ruby leant over and gave her a hug before leaving with a few parting words, ‘Don’t forget, I’m always at the end of the phone.’
Then she patted Crystal affectionately on the back and was gone.
*
Ruby drew up in the car park of the large Victorian house where her flat was located, and stepped out of her gleaming silver BMW. She was glad to get home. The meeting with Crystal had been emotionally draining. But, at the end of the day, she was a good friend, and Ruby cared about her. She hoped that eventually Crystal would get Gilly out of her system. It was a strange relationship and Ruby knew that it wasn’t just about being lovers; as well as sharing a daughter they had also indulged in drugs together.
When Ruby got inside her flat her mood soon lifted. She loved the way she had transformed the place over the years, making the most of the building’s original features; the ornate ceiling roses, decorative cornices and fireplaces. Every room had benefitted from her style and enthusiasm with oak doors, polished natural wood flooring, and expensive rugs forming a centrepiece in the lounge and bedroom. She had also had a modern bathroom and kitchen installed. The décor was tasteful throughout with colours carefully selected and complemented by plush furnishings.
Ruby Page 3
