Girl Seven

by Hanna Jameson

  ‘Yes, really.’

  ‘I was thinking about what you said... and about your parents and stuff. I didn’t know it was anything to do with anything like that. I didn’t know there was a kid involved, I mean a little kid... I wouldn’t have done it I’d known it was some shit like that.’

  ‘I believe you.’

  ‘And I’m really sorry about your family and... stuff.’

  ‘Thanks.’

  ‘And you promise you’ll sort me out?’

  ‘I promise. You have my number. I promise!’

  He lowered his voice even more, so that it was almost hard for me to hear him. ‘That picture you showed me was this guy who... I thought he was police. He talked like police. You didn’t. He, er... found me through a mate who said I could do some work for him and he offered me a load of nice shit, money, a flat... It’s not like I had a future where I was, it wasn’t like I was gonna go to college or any of that, so I thought... I thought he would sort me out, so he asked me to shoot this kid who I didn’t even know and he told me this kid was a thief and that this kid had done some real bad things so... I did it. I didn’t ask him what this kid had done, really. He wouldn’t have told me anyway.’

  My eyes had filled with tears. I couldn’t speak.

  ‘There was something else though,’ Leo said, talking faster and faster, as if he had been waiting to say this for years. ‘He thought for a little bit that I was gonna have to kill someone else, just one more person, this older guy. Like... twenty or something. But in the end I didn’t have to; he never asked, and then I was nicked so it didn’t make a difference anyway.’

  Jensen McNamara, I thought. I wondered if it was my lies that had saved his life.

  ‘Why...? Why did you phone to tell me this?’ I asked, biting my lip in an effort to control myself.

  ‘I thought... Well, it was what your mate said, your partner or whatever. I thought, he’s not gonna do anything he promised, is he? He’s not gonna sort me out. Someone like me doesn’t mean shit to someone like him.’ He sighed. ‘You guys really shit me up, but you’re real people and everything you told me kinda made sense. You ain’t one of them.’

  I forced the words out around the lump in my throat. ‘... Thank you.’

  ‘And... the kid that I...’

  ‘Nate Williams.’

  ‘Yeah.’ His voice became strained. ‘Look, I didn’t just do it cos I was offered money or whatever. He told me this kid, Nate Williams, had done real bad things. I thought... I was doing in some criminal, you know. I’m not a bad person, I swear I ain’t.’

  ‘It’s OK, I know.’ It was all I could offer him. ‘Thank you, Leo. Thank you so much for calling me, I can’t even say how much it means...’

  ‘That’s fine. I gotta go, but I’m gonna call again.’

  ‘Right, OK. Leo, thanks—’

  The line went dead and I pressed the phone against my forehead.

  ‘I was right.’ I banged the phone against my skull and started laughing as I repeated the words over and over again. ‘I was right.’

  By the time Alexei called and told me they were picking me up for a drive-by, I felt calmer. I’d been psyching myself up for that call at least.

  I wouldn’t need both until the evening, but one dagger was strapped between my shoulder blades underneath my jumper with my homemade harness. I knew almost exactly what I was going to do. If my plan didn’t work, I wouldn’t live to regret it anyway. They’d made their stance on doing away with me and taking back my indulgent share of the money pretty clear when Alexei had been shaking me by my throat.

  This time I sat in the middle of the car, wedged between Alexei and Isaak, while the driver wore sunglasses in the front, even though it wasn’t sunny enough to warrant them.

  I memorized the name of the street we stopped on.

  ‘Over there.’ Alexei pointed in a vague direction, towards some semi-detached houses.

  ‘Who lives there?’

  ‘Neville Hallam. We heard him being discussed on your recorder.’

  I recognized the name, but only a little. ‘And?’

  ‘There is a back door through that gate, where the cat is. But you think you can simply walk through the front, yes?’

  I gave Alexei the most scornful of glances after I’d managed to identify which house he was talking about. ‘Well he’s a man, so I can, yes. You can’t. You won’t be able to come in with me, you’ll attract too much attention. It’s a nice idea, but you know it can’t actually work, right?’

  ‘You will make it work.’

  ‘Alexei.’

  The driver’s voice from the front surprised me. It was firmer than usual, a definite slap-down, and Alexei reddened.

  ‘She is right,’ the driver said. ‘We have no reason to deviate from the strategy that worked last time, least of all for your need to control. What do you think she will do, Alexei? She will not be armed sufficiently to restrain the family and then turn on you.’

  His English wasn’t as good as Isaak’s but better than Alexei’s.

  It irked me being discussed in the third person but that wasn’t what prompted me to speak.

  ‘The family?’ I repeated, looking at the house with the cat rolling around on the driveway and the neat row of plants and the bicycle tracks down the front lawn.

  ‘Two children: the daughter is a toddler and the boy a teenager. The older boy may not be there but the mother will be.’ Isaak’s expression didn’t change for a moment when he talked about children, but I saw Alexei purse his lips a little.

  My theory about him having a family of his own was confirmed, which meant that he had something to lose. I wished that I knew enough to attack him through them rather than attacking him directly. It would be easier. It made me think of Mark’s terrifying sing-song voice...

  ‘And what do you expect me do with them?’ I snapped.

  ‘Whatever you need to do.’

  I looked between them. ‘Seriously?’

  ‘Think of it as a test of loyalty,’ Isaak said, his hollow white cheeks appearing even more sunken than usual.

  ‘What, killing a kid? A two-year-old!’

  ‘We never said you’d have to kill them,’ Alexei chimed in. ‘Just that you will have to deal with them. They will be there.’

  Isaak got something out of his pocket and held it near my face.

  It was a passport. The excitement leapt into my face before I remembered to remain stoic.

  ‘If all goes well,’ he said, enunciating every word, ‘you get to take this home.’

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the driver nod.

  I thought back to what had happened with Issa and felt the colour drain from my face. I doubted I’d be able to talk my way into the house with the promise of sex as I had last time. I could talk my way past any man, but not a woman.

  ‘OK, what time do you want to do it?’ I asked the driver.

  ‘Nine.’ Alexei glared at me for having addressed someone else.

  ‘Do you know how hard it’s going to be, getting into a family house at night? They won’t just let anyone in, you know. They have children.’

  ‘Are you saying you will not be of any help?’ he sneered.

  ‘No.’ I sighed. ‘No, I’m not saying that. It’s just going to be harder than last time, that’s all.’

  I searched for Nic’s car but couldn’t find it. He may have been parked nearer the house. I knew he had a silver Audi from all the times I’d seen him pick Daisy up, but maybe he wouldn’t be using his personal car for a stakeout?

  ‘Fine.’ Alexei sat up straighter, trying to brush past the driver’s putdown. ‘We will go in, but after you have taken care of Neville Hallam and the... others. We will give you some time to do what you need to do, then we will enter through the back door, where you will let us in out of view of the road.’

  ‘OK, fine. Permission to bring my bag, like last time?’ I looked down and noticed that Alexei had a white band of skin around his ring finger,
where he had removed a wedding ring.

  ‘We will search you, so do not think of trying anything clever. All weapons are to be kept in the bag until you are inside. No guns.’

  ‘That’s ridiculous, even the pathetic thing you gave me with one round in it will be better than no gun!’

  The driver raised his hand. ‘The Derringer is fine.’

  For a moment I thought Alexei was going to cry. He sank a little lower in his seat and was silent, chewing his gum furiously. I guessed they might have had an argument amongst themselves before coming to pick me up. The atmosphere between the three of them was simmering and it didn’t seem to be anything to do with me.

  Isaak put my passport back in his pocket.

  The driver started the car and reversed out of our space, turning around a little way down the road.

  I stayed as low as I could, out of sight of the windows, but I hadn’t seen any sign of Nic. I just hoped he hadn’t seen any sign of me.

  30

  I typed the name of the street into the GPS on my phone and caught the underground from Mark’s flat when the Russians had left me alone. It took me about forty-five minutes to get there and during the entire journey I was praying: Let Nic be there. It all depended on being able to find Nic. If I couldn’t find him then I was severely lacking any sort of back-up plan.

  It took me a while to find the house; the houses on suburban roads like this were all too similar. But the cat was still wandering about the driveway and the lawn still had tyre tracks across it.

  I stopped outside Neville Hallam’s house and couldn’t see any sign of a silver Audi parked in the road. Crouching down to pet the cat, I tried to spot Nic in the front windows of any of the surrounding cars.

  The little black and white ball of fluff wound itself around my fingers.

  ‘Come on, where the fuck are you?’

  I stood up and carried on down the street, in the opposite direction to where we had parked earlier, and that was when I saw it. Nic wasn’t parked in the road. A silver Audi was parked in someone else’s driveway, almost obscured from view by a garden hedge, but not quite.

  Taking a deep breath, I made my way over, rehearsing my story.

  I’d gone through all the questions he was likely to ask me and I had an answer for them all. But still, there was no way of being certain.

  I knew he must have already spotted me when I’d paused outside Neville Hallam’s house. When I was close enough to see the shadow of a figure through the windscreen I gave him a small wave. When I was close enough to see his face Nic got out of the car, looking left and right down the road. He was wearing dark jeans and a hoodie that didn’t suit him. He also looked as though he hadn’t slept properly for days.

  ‘Er... what are you doing here?’ he said, not bothering to conceal his annoyance or surprise.

  ‘I need to talk to you. It’s urgent.’

  Standing behind his open door, guarded. ‘How did you know I was here?’

  ‘Noel told me.’

  ‘Why would he tell you?’

  I blushed, or at least I tried to look as though I was blushing. ‘We’re pretty close, you know. I don’t know if Mark would have mentioned it but... Noel tells me things. He said you were watching Neville’s house because of what happened last time.’

  Nic glanced up and down the road, looking deeply unhappy with the idea of speaking to me about this. ‘Look, Seven... It is Seven, right? Get in. You’ll draw attention.’

  I did as he said, and opened the passenger door.

  ‘In the back,’ he said, sounding paranoid, probably thinking I’d been followed.

  I got into the back seat and Nic did the same, rubbing his eyes. On the floor there were a couple of sandwich wrappers and several empty cans of Red Bull. I picked up a pile of crumpled newspapers from under me and shoved them into the back of the seat in front.

  ‘Thanks for the drawing, by the way,’ I said, checking on my phone that I still had a good few hours left to get back to the flat. ‘It really helped.’

  ‘Er, you’re welcome. What’s urgent?’

  I glanced over my shoulder for dramatic effect. ‘This house you’re watching is going to be robbed tonight.’

  His eyes narrowed and I started to sweat.

  ‘OK, you’ve got to understand that I’m quite surprised here so... one, how the fuck do you know about that? And two, how do you know it’s gonna be tonight? Also just... how the fuck do you know about that?’

  I wanted to sit on my hands to stop them from trembling and giving me away, but the best I could do was clench them together tight. ‘I was working in the club last night and I heard a group of Russian men, youngish guys, talking about it. They thought no one could understand them because they were all speaking in Russian but I know Russian, I learnt it when my dad said I had to learn another language. I already had an advantage what with speaking two different languages fluently anyway—’

  ‘OK, OK, I get it, you know Russian.’ He cut me off, gesturing for me to hurry it up. ‘What did they say? Did you get their names?’

  ‘Um, no. Sorry. I think one of them was called Alexei – maybe. They were laughing because they were talking about robbing Noel and Ronnie while in their own club and neither of them would know. But they definitely said it was tomorrow night... Well, they said it was going to be tonight.’ I was doing my best to come across as young and as nervous as possible. ‘I knew you were going to be here because Noel told me you’d be watching.’

  Nic stroked the stubble on his chin, unconvinced. ‘You and Noel are close?’

  I nodded. ‘I know he’s married and... I’m not proud of it but he does talk to me. He talks to me about a lot of things. I know they lost a load of money recently and that it was stolen and someone died.’

  ‘It’s OK, I’m not judging you.’ Nic pulled a face he must have thought was reassuring. ‘I’ve been there and done the married thing and it didn’t work out very well for me.’

  ‘You were married?’

  ‘No! Fuck no!’ He laughed, ruffling his overgrown hair. ‘Daisy would crack up if she heard that... No, I wasn’t married, I, er... got involved with this woman and she was married and it was... a bit fucked up. So, no, I’m not judging you, don’t worry. I’m just asking questions.’

  I knew I was thinking about Caroline too much, but she sprang into my mind again unbidden. ‘Did her husband find out?’

  He might have seen the guilt on my face. That might have been what caused him to share such an intimate detail. I wondered just how much of my shame was visible to the world.

  ‘Yes, he did. I suppose they always do, in the end. Like I said, it was fucked up...’ For a moment he trailed off, staring ahead into space, but then he shook himself out of it. ‘So, why come to me? Why not Noel, if you guys are so close?’

  ‘Of course I couldn’t just go to Noel.’ I imitated being offended. ‘His wife has just left him and he’s already turned into a borderline alcoholic over this. I couldn’t exactly take this shit to him and stress him out even more. Also, I figured it’s not like there’s anything he’d be able to do that you wouldn’t be doing already.’

  Nic ran a hand over his face again and gave himself a small slap, blinking hard. ‘Right. OK... How many were there in the club? These Russians.’

  ‘Three.’ I frowned, picking at my nails. ‘Look, I also didn’t want Noel to do something stupid and get hurt. That’s why I didn’t go to him. I don’t want them to hurt him.’

  He gave me a smile. ‘That’s fine; I wouldn’t have mentioned it myself. Best not to with these things, until they’re over. People get stupid and think they can go all maverick. Thanks for telling me.’

  ‘Look, I know he has kids. The guy who lives here, Neville Hallam... I wanna go warn them.’

  Nic shook his head. ‘Absolutely not.’

  ‘But they have to know!’

  ‘You know the saying what they don’t know, won’t hurt them?’

  ‘That’s bullshit
! They have kids – you can’t just let them be oblivious!’

  ‘Nothing is going to happen to their kids, Seven. How shit at my job do you think I am?’ He raised his eyebrows at me. ‘I’m not just here to look after the money, you know. I’m here to look after them too. If it was a choice between their lives and the money, obviously we’d choose them. You know Noel, he’s not a monster... and neither am I.’

  I couldn’t imagine Nic doing things like Mark, like I’d seen in the videos. But then I hadn’t been able to imagine Mark doing them either, until I’d seen it with my own eyes.

  ‘Sorry. I’ll go now. That’s all I wanted to tell you.’ I let myself out of the car and paused, shivering in the open air. ‘Um... don’t tell Noel I was here, if that’s OK. He won’t like that I didn’t tell him and that I came to you. I mean... he’d be really pissed.’

  ‘Don’t worry. As far as I’m concerned, you weren’t here.’ Nic smiled at me awkwardly. ‘Thanks for this.’

  ‘No problem.’ I sighed. ‘I want to believe you, about caring about them more than the money, but... you’re right, I know Noel, and if he really cared about them and their kids more than the money, he’d be looking after it himself, in his flat, or at the club or something. He wouldn’t have let it go into a family house after the last guy died.’

  Nic knew I was right. He couldn’t argue with me.

  ‘No harm is going to come to anyone in that house,’ he said.

  ‘Right...’

  I shut the door and walked down the driveway and on to the road, past Neville Hallam’s house and back in the direction of the tube station.

  When I was far enough away from Nic I stopped and leant against a wall to let myself gasp for breath, overwhelmed with relief. He’d believed me. Thank God, he’d believed me. Nic Caruana wasn’t stupid, but he was tired, and there was no reason for him to think I would be lying. I was just a girl, after all. Just a girl.

  31

  Everything looked different at night. Even though I’d seen the street and the house twice I had trouble finding it from where the driver parked around a far corner. It was a ten-minute walk but it took nearer fifteen I was so disoriented. I knew Nic would see me as soon as I got close and was conscious of every movement: whether I was walking too purposefully, looked too confident or too poised... I had to look scared.