‘You had sex with both of them?’
‘Yes.’ It was a small voice.
‘How did you feel about that?’
‘Feel? I don’t know what you mean. I didn’t feel anything. It’s life, in’it? You don’t get anything for nothing. The day after, Faisal took me shopping in town and bought me some cool trainers. Nikes. Mimsy, too. And Becca, I think. She got a new dress. She must’ve done something well special.’
‘Does that mean they’d performed the same service as you?’
‘Maybe. Yeah. I don’t know. Maybe he just wanted to include them.’
‘Did you tell the other girls what you’d done with Faisal’s cousins?’
‘Mimsy and I talked about it. That’s when she said it had been the same with her. Different blokes, of course. They seem to have a lot of cousins. With her it was some garage owner who’d serviced Ismail’s taxis, she said. A service for a service. We just thought it was the way they were, you know. A different sort of culture. Sunny said it wasn’t unusual or weird to share where they came from.’
‘But they came from Wytherton.’
‘You know what I mean. Besides, not all of them did. Faisal wasn’t born here. He came over later. Both his parents got killed by suicide bombers. And there were others.’
‘Others?’
‘It was like some kind of network. I think some of them might have been illegal.’
‘Were they all Pakistani, the men?’
‘Most of them, but there were one or two white blokes.’
‘Here?’
‘No. Just all over the north-east and down in West Yorkshire. Mostly Dewsbury. Some in Bradford. Like I said, they were linked up with other blokes and other girls like us.’
‘Every night?’
‘Most nights.’
‘OK. What happened after that time with the two men?’
‘After that it got easier. More often. Sometimes Sunny or Faisal needed to pay back a debt or keep someone happy. They’d drive us all over the place. Stockton, Gateshead, Sunderland, Carlisle. Sometimes we had to stay for days and there were lots of blokes, one after the other.’
‘How many men?’
‘I dunno. Some nights, you know, like . . . you’d stop counting.’
‘That must have been unbearable, Jade.’
‘I dunno. Maybe it hurts a bit at first, but usually you’re so off your face with vodka and weed, or whatever, you don’t feel anything.’
‘All the girls did this?’
‘Eventually. Had to. Yeah.’
‘To be with lots of men for sex?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Always older men?’
‘Yeah. Like businessmen and whatever, but some of them were like, you know, more rough, like they worked in factories or garages and stuff.’
‘Did Faisal take money from the men you went with?’
‘I didn’t ever see him do it, but I’m sure he did.’
‘So they were pimping you, renting you out as prostitutes?’
‘It didn’t seem like that.’ Jade’s voice was a plaintive wail for acceptance. ‘It really didn’t. They always said how we were welcome to everything they’d given us, and kept on giving us – drinks, food, free taxi rides, jewellery sometimes, mobiles, top-ups, and later some coke and phets and weed. Even money. None of us had, like, jobs, or parents that had any money to give us. Maybe we felt what we did, you know, was like a way of paying for it, doing a favour for a friend. I mean, men wanting sex with me was no big deal. They’ve been doing it since I was twelve, including my first foster-father and my stepbrother. I didn’t get a chance to say no to them, either, and they didn’t even pay me for it. Didn’t even offer me a fucking drink. It was the same with Becca and Kath. And Mimsy always had older blokes around her wanting a feel or a quick wank. Even her psychological counsellor from the social fucked her and he was supposed to take care of her.’
‘Was that your present foster-father who raped you?’
‘No. This was in Sunderland. It’s better here. They don’t touch me at all, not even a pat on the shoulder or a hug.’ She snorted. ‘They hardly even talk to me.’
‘So you were just returning a favour for Faisal?’ Gerry said.
‘That’s right. Favours.’
‘Is that why you didn’t go to the authorities? The social services or the police?’
‘Partly. None of us had had an easy time whenever the polis or the social came on the scene. They were bastards. It was like everyone had just given up on us. We knew they’d just blame us, say we’re thick, like retards or something, and we’re sluts and whores and we were doing it for the drinks and drugs and free meals. What did they call it? A “lifestyle choice”. Some fucking lifestyle.’
‘Weren’t you doing it for the drugs and drink?’
‘You don’t know what it was like. At first they just told us not to tell anyone we were hanging out with them because people wouldn’t understand. People didn’t like them because they were Pakis. But later they could be nasty if you didn’t do what they wanted. They’d push you about a bit. Besides, we couldn’t tell anyone by then. We’d done stuff. You couldn’t get away because they knew everything you’d done, like the drugs and the drinking, and they told us we were just slags and that’s all anyone would think if we tried to tell them about what was happening.’ Jade sniffed. The silence felt heavy is the dark musty house. ‘They’d taken pictures of us, too. You know, videos on their mobiles. With other men and stuff. They said they’d put them on the Internet so everyone would see what kind of sluts we are. They knew how to find out your weaknesses and exploit them. I think Mimsy was terrified of her mother finding out. In the end, like I said, you’re in so deep you just get to thinking there’s no way out. You give up. It’s easier to do what they say. Besides, the presents keep coming. But then Mimsy got killed.’
It seemed odd to Gerry that most of the parents didn’t seem to know or care where their daughters were most of the time, or what they were doing, yet Mimsy was terrified of her mother finding out. Things must have been really bad after Sinead found her daughter with that psychological counsellor. ‘What were you most afraid of?’ she asked.
She could hear Jade breathing fast. ‘I don’t mind the dark,’ she said finally, ‘but I can’t stand being locked up in a small dark place. They had somewhere like that in the back of Hassan’s restaurant, an old larder or something. It smelled of bad meat and rancid grease. I’d get panicky there, like I couldn’t breathe, and I’d just want to die. It was like when I was little and they locked me up under the stairs if I misbehaved. My stepmother called it the “Harry Potter Room”. It always made her laugh, that.’
Gerry let a few seconds pass in silence. ‘But you’re talking to me now,’ she said.
‘Yeah. Well, I mean, they went too far, didn’t they? I’d been wanting out for a while, and I thought this is my chance, with Mimsy getting killed and everything falling apart, and I’d better take it. I thought if you knew who they were you could arrest them and put them in jail. And make sure you get their mobiles. And their computers. Smash them all. Then we’ll be safe.’
She showed a remarkable amount of faith in what the police could do, Gerry thought, given her obvious intelligence, and the fact that the police hadn’t done much for her so far. ‘We’ll do our best,’ she said. ‘What about ketamine? Mimsy had been given ketamine.’
‘K? Sunny and Faisal didn’t like that. It was strictly weed and coke for the most part. They wouldn’t have given her it.’
‘So who do you think gave it to Mimsy?’
‘I don’t know. One of the cousins, maybe. They always had different drugs, like E and downers.’
‘The same cousins who slept with you?’
‘No. Like they all had family in Dewsbury or Bradford or Huddersfield. They called them cousins. I don’t know if they were real cousins or not. That’s just what we’d call them. It was that network I told you about. They’d visit and we’d chill.
Sometimes they’d bring friends.’
‘Just you and Mimsy or the other girls, too?’
‘The other girls, too. All of us. And the cousins brought girls sometimes. Girls like us from Dewsbury or wherever. They passed us around, drove us all over the place. Then . . . then Mimsy got killed.’ Gerry could tell Jade was crying now, rubbing her eyes and nose with the back of her hand. She sniffled.
‘Who killed Mimsy, Jade?’
‘I don’t know. I’ve told you I don’t know. I wasn’t there. All I know is that she told me three of Sunny’s cousins were coming down from a job in Newcastle on their way back to Dewsbury that evening and they were all going to stop off for something to eat and have a few drinks and chill. They’d made some sort of deal, and Sunny was getting a cut out of it, something to do with bringing booze and fags and migrants over from Calais. I saw him earlier in the day, and he was all excited about it. He wanted Mimsy and me to come over that night and help entertain them. I couldn’t go. It was my period, and I got pains something cruel, so I stopped at home in my room. Mimsy went, though. Sunny must have said they could take her to Dewsbury with them in the van to see her mates. Mimsy would have gone for that. She’d made friends with some of the girls who came up with them sometimes, see. They were a laugh. However it happened, Mimsy wouldn’t have gone against Sunny. She wouldn’t have dared, temper or not. We’d all learned to do what he said by then. His mood could change, like, quicker than anyone’s.’
‘How do you know it happened that way?’
‘I don’t. Not for sure. I only . . . I mean, I went in the van once with the some blokes when Faisal asked me to. It was probably the same as with Mimsy.’
Gerry’s heart seemed to shrivel in her chest. She almost didn’t want to ask any more questions, but she had to push herself on. ‘What happened?’
‘Not a lot, really. I didn’t want to go, but Faisal got really nasty about it. He grabbed my shirt by the neck and shook me and said after all they’d done for us. He didn’t hit me, but he said things would get nasty if I didn’t do what I was told. Said it was very important. So I went in the van. There was a mattress in the back. A bit old and dirty, but it did the trick.’
‘So you had sex with the three men?’
‘I don’t know if it was the same three Mimsy was with. I stopped in Dewsbury that night and the next day one of them gave me the money to get a train home.’
‘So what went wrong with Mimsy’s trip?’
‘One of them must have given her the K, like you said. It can make you crazy, that stuff. I only tried it once and I’d never touch it again. Maybe she did something to piss them off. She was beautiful and all, but she could be really gobby, could Mimsy, and they didn’t like that. She was getting worse and all. She was struggling. She said she wouldn’t bring in any more girls. We used to talk about leaving, me and Mimsy. She wanted out, like me, wanted to move on, but she was trapped, just like the rest of us. It was almost like she’d found something else, somewhere else to go, something to do . . . I don’t know, but she was different.’
‘Did she say anything about this to Sunny?’
‘Maybe. Like I said, she had a mouth on her, did Mimsy. She might have told him she wanted out.’
‘Could he have told the men in the van to punish her? Teach her a lesson?’
‘Maybe. It’d be just like him to get someone else to do it.’
‘Jade, what might the men in the van have done that set Mimsy off?’
‘They’ve might’ve . . . they liked it, you know, from behind.’
Gerry remembered from the post-mortem that Dr Glendenning had found semen in all Mimsy’s orifices. ‘You mean anal sex?’
‘Mimsy didn’t like that. I mean, nobody likes it, do they, but she really didn’t. Even worse than blow jobs. She told me. She said Sunny tried it once and it hurt like hell. It was one thing she’d never do again.’
‘And these men liked to do that?’
‘The ones I was with did. But like I said, I don’t know if it was the same ones.’
‘Do you know their names?’
‘No. I can’t remember. And I mean I really can’t remember. I don’t even remember if I ever knew.’
Gerry paused. She didn’t want to give away too much information but felt that if she gave a little she might get more out of Jade. ‘As far as we can gather,’ she said, ‘Mimsy was alive when they threw her out of the van on Bradham Lane. Now, maybe it’s as you say and she started acting up, causing trouble when they wanted to do something she didn’t like, and they got angry with her and chucked her out naked on the roadside. But she was still alive after that. She walked back up the road. Not very far, but she walked for about ten or fifteen minutes. She was hurt, but she was alive. Then someone else came from the same direction and . . . Well, that was where we found her body. Not where they chucked her out of the van, but where the second vehicle stopped. Who do you think was in that vehicle, Jade?’
‘I don’t know!’ said Jade. ‘It could’ve been Sunny, I suppose, if she’d told him she was leaving. Or one of the others. Faisal. Hassan. Ismail. One of the young lads, even. I mean, Ismail’s got all those minicabs. Maybe Sunny told the cousins just to kick her out of the van on a quiet lane when they’d done with her.’
That was a point, Gerry realised. The minicabs. Go over the CCTV footage again – limited as it was to major roads some distance from Bradham Lane – and see if one of Ismail’s minicabs had been cruising there at the right time. They hadn’t spotted one yet, but it was worth another look. ‘But why?’ she asked. ‘Why kill Mimsy? After all, Sunny was the one who sent her in the van to start with.’ Which also meant, Gerry realised, that Sunny knew where she was, who she was with and where she was going.
‘If they thought she was going to talk, maybe,’ Jade said. ‘Like I said, she’d been bitchy a lot lately, mouthy, rebellious, talking back, like she didn’t have to do what they said and they should give her a bit more respect. Sunny didn’t like that. He was always clocking her one.’
‘But you said they didn’t care if you talked, that they thought nobody would believe you, that the police or the social would just think you asked for it.’
‘They cared if we talked because it would put an end to what they had going. That’s all. They weren’t worried about getting arrested or going to jail or anything. They told us all that just so we’d know it wouldn’t do us any good. But it would do them some harm. Spoil their nice little party. And it has.’
‘Did the police know what was going on? Do you think they helped Sunny and the others, or turned a blind eye?’
‘The polis? No way. They hate the Pakis. They’re just scared of being called racists.’
‘So you never had anything to do with policemen on the Strip?’
‘No way.’
‘Nobody ever asked you to have sex with them, or anything?’
‘Like, yuk, no.’
‘OK. So you think Sunny or his mates followed their cousins towards Dewsbury and when Mimsy got kicked out, they killed her?’
‘It must’ve been like that.’
‘Maybe,’ said Gerry. ‘But how did they know the men were going to throw Mimsy out of the van? How did they know she was going to give them so much aggro they’d want to do that?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Jade. ‘Maybe they’d arranged it all in advance with Sunny? The route, throwing Mimsy out. I don’t know. I’ve told you what I know. You’re the copper, you work it out.’
‘Jade, will you come back to Eastvale with me and tell my boss what you’ve just told me?’
But Gerry could sense Jade stiffening and withdrawing into herself. ‘No way,’ she said. ‘No. It’s not safe.’
‘But surely it’s safer than staying around here? We can help you.’
‘As long as they don’t know about this I’ll be fine. Like I said, they’ve shut down shop for now, and I know how to keep my head down. I told you, I’m leaving Wytherton for good. Don’t worry. It m
ight not seem like it, but I can take care of myself.’
‘Where will you go?’
‘I’ve been thinking. I’ve got a brother fostered out down in Leicester. I don’t hardly know him, but it’s flesh and blood, isn’t it?’
‘Yes,’ Gerry said. ‘You’re right about that. It’s flesh and blood.’
‘Look,’ said Jade, ‘I’m sorry to ask and all, but I’m in a jam and I don’t have any money. Do you think you could let us have a few quid, like for food and the train and stuff?’
Gerry didn’t have much, but she examined the contents of her purse with the light from her phone and pulled out three twenty-pound notes. ‘Will that do? Is that OK?’ She turned off the light again.
‘Thanks,’ said Jade, and shoved the notes in her jeans pocket. ‘You’ve got to go now.’
‘Aren’t you coming out with me?’
‘I can’t risk being seen with you. I’ll wait here till you’re gone and leave through one of the other houses. I’ll be fine. Now go.’
‘You’ve got my number?’
Gerry’s eyes had adjusted enough to see Jade nod in the dark, her eyes big and shining in the pale child’s face. She hated to leave her like this, but what Jade had said made sense. Jade was too scared to go public with what she knew, but with what she had told Gerry tonight, what Gerry had recorded on her mobile, they could start to take Sunny and his grooming network down first thing in the morning, or perhaps as soon as she got to her car and phoned DI Cabbot. She knew she had broken protocol and the recording might be useless in court, if it ever came to that, but it was enough to get them started, to show them where to look and who to question. Someone would break. It had to be better than nothing. They could have a go at Sunny and Faisal and the others, for a start. Find the other victims, Becca and the rest. Then they could bring the Dewsbury police in on the action. She gave Jade a friendly pat on the shoulder, then got to her feet and made her way down the creaking stairs.
Gerry felt uneasy about leaving Jade alone in the condemned house, even though the girl had far more street smarts than she did. She moved the board aside and slipped through into the deserted road. Somewhere in the distance a dog barked, and she could hear the sound of a television set a bit closer to hand, no doubt blaring through an open window. Not far away, glass smashed, and Gerry realised it was most likely kids playing around in the derelict factory. Fences and barbed wire wouldn’t stop them finding a way in for very long. Her car was about a hundred yards away, around the corner past the broken playground. She found herself walking fast, head down, holding on to the strap of her shoulder bag tightly, even though there seemed to be nobody around. It was that kind of street. If she’d been wearing high heels, her footsteps would have clicked on the pavement and echoed, but she was wearing trainers, so she moved silently.
When the Music's Over: The 23rd DCI Banks Mystery Page 33
