Liar Liar

by Mel Sherratt

  ‘A man was seen dangling Tyler over the walkway before dropping him,’ she continued.

  ‘And you believe people from Harrison House over the boy’s own mother and father?’ Luke answered. ‘He fell.’

  ‘I’m not—’

  ‘I can’t do this any more.’ Ruby held her head in her hands. ‘We have to tell the truth.’

  Luke threw her a warning glance.

  ‘It all happened so quickly,’ she began. ‘There was a knock on the door. We told Lily to take Tyler into their bedroom but he was hard to catch. Luke answered the door and before we could stop him, Tyler ran outside. There was a man standing on the walkway. He spoke to Tyler and he ran into his arms. We’ve warned him not to go to strangers but he’s only young. The man picked him up and was laughing with him, tickling him and then all of a sudden, before we could stop him, he hung him over the railing.’

  ‘Are you sure this is the truth?’ Grace questioned, wanting to be certain.

  ‘Yes,’ Ruby replied. ‘It’s the truth.’

  Luke sat forwards and ran a hand over his face.

  ‘Did he say who he was, or what he wanted?’ Grace asked, catching Frankie’s fist clenching and unclenching as he sat next to her.

  But Ruby didn’t seem to have heard her as she continued.

  ‘I begged him to leave Tyler alone,’ she sobbed. ‘But then he began to wriggle, and as we argued, he … he slipped out of the man’s grip. Before any of us could grab him, he had fallen.’

  ‘So you don’t think it was intentional?’ Grace probed.

  Ruby shook her head. ‘He didn’t drop him purposely, but it was his fault.’

  ‘Why did he do it? You must have some idea.’

  ‘We don’t know.’

  Grace held in her exasperation. ‘Well, can you tell me what he looked like?’

  ‘Tall, white. He wore a black jacket, hat and gloves, jeans and black boots.’ Furtive glances passed between Luke and Ruby.

  ‘And you didn’t recognise him?’ Grace couldn’t help but frown. ‘Is there anything that you saw on this man that would identify him? Tattoos, scars etc?’

  Ruby shook her head. ‘It all happened so fast.’

  ‘Do either of you know anyone in Stoke who would do that?’

  ‘No.’ They spoke in unison.

  ‘Anyone outside of Stoke?’

  Luke shook his head. Ruby said nothing.

  Grace sighed loudly, unable to hold in her annoyance. Her heart went out to them, she could see they were scared about something, but she needed them to work with her too.

  ‘So some random stranger knocked on your door, picked up your son and held him over the railing for no reason?’

  ‘We don’t know!’ Luke held his head in his hands.

  ‘Why did you both want to put the blame on Lily?’ Frankie asked.

  ‘We didn’t, but it was the only thing we could think of,’ Ruby said. ‘We were so scared that the lie came tumbling out. And the guilt was unbearable. We let someone put our son in danger.’

  ‘But you had us chasing up leads rather than find out who did this,’ Grace said. ‘Why?’

  ‘Because we were scared of what he might do next!’ Ruby’s right foot began to bob up and down as if she couldn’t keep still.

  Grace wasn’t convinced by that at all. She could almost see them cowering when she mentioned certain things. What were they so afraid of? Or who – especially if this had been an accident.

  ‘How well do you know Seth Forrester, Luke?’ She turned her attention to him again.

  ‘He’s a neighbour. I see him around.’ He grimaced. ‘It wasn’t Seth. The man who did this didn’t have a local twang.’

  ‘Do you recognise what accent he had?’

  ‘I’m not sure but it might have been London – Cockney. But he definitely wasn’t a Stokie.’ His voice cracked. ‘We were in a panic. We were more interested in sorting Tyler out.’

  ‘Threatening someone by using their child as bait is an offence that needs investigating, regardless of the outcome. This man could be anywhere by now. What would have happened if Tyler hadn’t survived?’

  Neither Luke nor Ruby replied.

  ‘Tell me his name.’

  ‘We don’t know it!’ Luke cried.

  Grace reeled in her temper, losing all of her empathy entirely. She’d seen it all before, men and women crying. Not for the loss of a loved one, but because they had lied and been found out.

  She looked first at Ruby who seemed fit to burst, wringing her hands as her eyes flitted everywhere but towards Grace. Then she glared at Luke who sat back now with his eyes momentarily closed. She wanted so much to help them, to believe in them, but she’d had enough.

  ‘You can both come to the station with us. We need to clarify a few things, get you to look at some photos and see if we can identify this man.’

  She and Frankie were almost out of the front door when there was a shout from Ruby.

  ‘Wait. I do know who it is.’ She looked at Grace with a pained expression. ‘His name is Finn Ridley.’

  2012

  The night after Dane had threatened her at home, Ruby was watching TV with Finn, cuddled up next to him on the settee. Lily had been asleep for half an hour, giving them time to relax. Yet they were both on edge, unsure if Dane would come at Finn again. She placed her arm across his torso and gave him a squeeze.

  ‘Things will work out okay,’ she told him as he did the same to her shoulder. ‘Dane will get fed up of hounding you eventually, won’t he? Especially now we’re going.’

  ‘I’m not so sure, but at least we’ll be out of here soon.’

  They were still planning to go on Friday. Even though it was Wednesday, they didn’t want to pack anything until the last minute. Ruby would be sorry to leave some things behind; they could only take what they could carry in the car, now fixed after its recent attack. But she wouldn’t miss living in constant fear of a knock on the door, or a visit by Dane or one of his cronies. Or Finn coming home covered in bruises.

  They sat in silence with their own thoughts for a while. Ruby sensed Finn’s apprehension but she couldn’t wait to leave.

  ‘We’ll be fine as long as we have each other,’ she said, trying to convince herself as much as him.

  Twenty minutes later, there was a bang in the hallway. Ruby knew instantly that someone had kicked the door in and got into the flat.

  They both leapt into the air and Finn pushed her towards the armchair. She jumped over and hid behind it. She could hear Lily screaming in her cot but she couldn’t do anything. She had to stay still, so that they thought she wasn’t there.

  ‘You owe me, Ridley. The only way you’ll leave here is in a body bag.’

  ‘No, Dane,’ Luke cried. ‘Please!’

  Ruby heard the sounds of fists and feet, groans coming from Finn. Covering her mouth with her hand in case she cried out, tears poured down her face as Finn took hit after hit.

  And then it went quiet. She waited as long seconds turned into a minute, listening to the cries of her daughter and yet not daring to move. Finn had sounded terrified and it had been torture to hear it happening. But she had to make sure they were gone.

  After a few seconds, she heard Finn groaning her name. Hopeful that Dane had left, she scrambled over to him.

  ‘Finn! I heard Dane’s voice. Look what they did to you.’

  ‘I’m hurting.’ He held up his hand and groaned. ‘Stomach.’

  ‘I’ll get help.’

  She had to lean close to him to hear his voice. ‘Knife.’

  With his blood pooling as it leaked out, Ruby reached for her phone. Her hands were shaking as she called the emergency services.

  ‘Police. Ambulance. We need help!’ she yelled. ‘Someone help us!’

  THIRTY-THREE

  ‘Go on,’ Grace urged Ruby.

  ‘Finn is Lily’s father,’ Ruby told her. ‘We met just before my sixteenth birthday.’

  ‘You knew who he wa
s?’ Luke balked.

  ‘Keep talking,’ Grace said when Ruby had been quiet for a moment.

  ‘He was okay when I first met him but then he started pushing me around. A slap here and there. The odd verbal abuse, then the shouting and the swearing and the beating down with attitude. He acted as if he owned me. He worked as a bouncer at a nightclub and I hardly ever saw him. I was glad of that in the end because he was really cruel. He wasn’t good for me but I got pregnant with Lily when I was seventeen.’

  Ruby stopped for a moment to catch a breath.

  ‘I was always wary of how he would be when he came home,’ she went on. ‘One minute he was the loving person he should be; the next he was an uncontrollable beast. In the end, I began to dread seeing him more than I looked forward to it.’

  ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ Luke asked.

  ‘I couldn’t tell anyone.’ Ruby’s eyes glistened with tears.

  ‘So why didn’t you leave him? You could have done that at any time.’

  ‘No, I couldn’t. You don’t know what it was like. I left and went home to my dad once, but Finn threatened to hurt him if I didn’t leave with him. I believed him; he was so nasty to me. When I did go back, he kept saying that he’d change. He was all right for a few days and then he’d revert to normal.’

  Grace knew very well what it would have been like for a young woman with a baby and a coercive controlling partner. She would have had no choice, felt trapped, isolated, out of control. Unloved.

  It reminded her of her own mother, stuck in a relationship with a maniac who used everything in his power to make her life a misery.

  ‘How long did you stay with him?’ she asked.

  ‘Until Lily was two years old. I was only nineteen and I was so scared of him. I didn’t think I’d ever dare to leave. When I found out I was pregnant with her, I thought he’d calm down to some extent but I knew what I was in for once the baby was born. I was trapped. After a beating one night, I’d had enough. I packed our things up the next day and left London. There was a bus in the station and I just jumped on that.’

  The room was in silence again. Ruby wouldn’t move her eyes from the floor and Luke was staring at her, clearly hoping she’d make eye contact. Grace felt sorry for him all of a sudden. It seemed he was in the dark as much as they were.

  ‘Where did you go then?’ she wanted to know.

  ‘Manchester. I was put up in a B&B and then a women’s hostel for a few months until Finn found me and I had to leave. That’s when I went to Sheffield. I’ve been on the run from him ever since.’

  ‘So you knew who it was all along who hurt Tyler?’ Frankie echoed Luke’s earlier question, his face dark.

  ‘I was scared! I panicked. You don’t know him like I do. He’s evil, and he’s dangerous.’

  ‘You’re certain it was Finn Ridley?’ Grace questioned. ‘You haven’t seen him for a few years.’

  Ruby nodded.

  Grace stood for a moment, contemplating what to do next. She was tempted to let them stew while she did more digging into Ridley and his whereabouts. But she couldn’t.

  ‘I want you to come to the station to make a statement,’ she said.

  ‘Lily will need picking up from school soon.’

  ‘I’ll fetch her,’ Luke said.

  ‘You have to provide a statement too.’

  ‘But what about Tyler?’ Ruby cried. ‘I have to go to my son.’

  ‘I understand that but I want you in the station within the hour. I won’t keep you long but it’s imperative we do this properly. Do I make myself clear that if you don’t arrive there, I will have to come and get you and you may be arrested for wasting police time?’

  ‘I’ll see if Norma can fetch her and mind her until we’re done.’ Ruby looked at her with watery eyes. ‘I’m so sorry.’

  Grace said nothing. She was finding it hard to swallow at the moment. But as soon as they were out of the flat and out of hearing range, she turned to Frankie.

  ‘How could Ruby not tell us the truth?’ She stopped to look around them and rested her hands on the railing. Looking down she could see where Tyler had landed after his fall. To think that it had been done deliberately was beyond her comprehension. ‘She should have trusted us.’

  Frankie shoved his notebook in his pocket. ‘The world gets a little more tainted every day. I hope we never have to police anything like it again.’

  ‘At least the boy is safe.’

  ‘You don’t think they’d harm their kids, do you?’

  ‘Not at all.’ She shook her head. ‘But Ruby’s clearly on the run from someone who might.’

  As soon as the police had gone, Ruby grabbed her keys and marched to the front door. She knew Luke was going to be as mad as hell and she wanted to get away. She also needed to think about what to do, and say, next.

  ‘Where are you going?’ He stopped her at the door.

  ‘To ask Norma if she will collect Lily. I want her home and safe.’

  ‘It seems like no one will ever be that again as far as you’re concerned. Why didn’t you tell me about him?’

  Ruby placed her hand on his cheek and looked at him. She loved him so much but she had lied to him too.

  ‘I’m so sorry.’

  ‘You blamed me when all along you knew who he was!’

  ‘I didn’t know what else to do.’

  ‘Couldn’t you have talked to him, told him not to do anything?’

  He’s dangerous, don’t you get it?’

  ‘So you let our son go through all that, all the while knowing the man who attacked him? And then you didn’t say anything.’

  ‘I couldn’t tell you because—’

  ‘You don’t trust me enough?’

  ‘No. It’s because I’ve always been afraid that no one will believe me.’

  Ruby could sense that Luke was ready to explode and she didn’t blame him. But what else could she have done? She had to protect him – and Lily and Tyler – from the danger she had put them in.

  He was still watching them. He would harm them all if he didn’t get what he’d come for. She didn’t want to do anything that might endanger them further.

  ‘What does he want?’ Luke said. ‘Do you know that too?’

  She shook her head as she lied again.

  ‘That’s just great. So we’ll have to wait and see, won’t we? Tyler will be home soon. He’ll probably come back and finish off the job.’

  ‘Don’t say that! He won’t find us if we keep moving.’

  ‘We’re in the middle of a police investigation. Do you think they’re just going to forget everything now? They’ll get Children’s Services on to us for putting our kids at risk. You should have told me.’

  ‘Don’t you dare blame me for all of this.’ She prodded him in the chest. ‘You lied too.’

  Luke stepped back, momentarily stunned.

  ‘You borrowed money again. If I hadn’t found out this morning, would you have told me about it?’

  ‘That’s different.’

  ‘It’s exactly the same. You were trying to protect me. So don’t have a go at me for keeping something from you.’

  There were inches between them as they stood breathless glaring at each other. Ruby was cornered, her back literally against the wall. She had nowhere to go, no one to turn to and now she had lied to the police again. No one would ever believe a word she said in the future if she kept covering up the truth all the time.

  ‘He’s dangerous,’ she said. ‘And I’ve always felt safe with you.’

  ‘Yet you couldn’t tell me.’

  ‘I’ve been living on the edge for years.’ She burst into tears. ‘Scared for my life, for my children’s lives and for yours too.’

  It was a moment before Luke took her in his arms, but it gave her time to realise that she should have trusted him. He should have been honest with her too. They were both to blame. But right now, it had to be all about keeping their family together.

  ‘Have you to
ld me everything, Ruby?’ he asked as he held on to her.

  She nodded, knowing that she could never do that. It was too much of a risk. And she hated herself for it.

  But she hated herself even more for lying about Finn.

  THIRTY-FOUR

  Mary pulled the front door shut and popped her keys into the pocket of her coat. She began the walk towards the stairs that would take her to ground level. Even though it was just before five p.m., everywhere was shrouded in a cloak of darkness.

  She’d thought it best to go out later in the day. There was less chance of her being seen, even though the lamplight on the side path would keep her illuminated. It would mean she would feel safe, though, and in full view of other people. It would also take her to the main road.

  After the accident with Tyler Douglas, the police presence was less now, almost non-existent. She was still worried that there might be repercussions because she’d handed the money back, and although she’d rather avoid Seth altogether, she needed a few provisions – milk, bread and coffee.

  She hadn’t slept well for the past two nights. She’d sat indoors for ages thinking about everything, but she was glad she’d spoken out. It was the right thing to do and her conscience was clear. She’d hated herself last night though, for not doing it earlier. She had been scared, but having that money had made her fear him even more.

  After shuffling down to the end of the walkway, she pushed on the door that led to the stairs. At the halfway point, she stopped to catch her breath on the concrete landing, holding on to the rail for support before taking the next flight of steps.

  As she moved forward again, she saw someone up above. It was a man, his face covered with a hat and a scarf. Fearful as she held on to the rail, she pushed her feet down onto each step gingerly. The man jogged down the steps, stopping behind her. There was ample room for him to pass her but he didn’t.

  She dared take another step down. Another one and she wondered if he had gone back upstairs rather than come down. She hazarded a quick glance round to see. But he was still there.

  ‘Do you want to go past?’ she asked him. ‘Your legs are a lot younger than mine.’

  Before she realised what was happening, he punched her full in the face. She stumbled backwards with its power. Her hand grappled for the rail but she missed it in her panic. Her head took the full force of the concrete steps and she flipped on her side as she fell. The wall in front came crashing towards her, and she banged her head again. Her vision began to blur.