Guts for Garters

by Linda Regan

  ‘You alright?’ Alysha asked Panther, ‘Cos that black fed’s on ’er way over, and we need to square up. We got a chance here to make a killing, so we gonna get in there. You know do the scratch our backs if we scratch hers bit.’

  Panther nodded her head at the mauve nail polish. ‘Yeah, that one’s nice,’ she told Tink.

  Tink turned the lid and pulled the brush.

  ‘They was an all right old couple, I liked them,’ Panther said quietly.

  ‘They was a bit stupid, but they never wanted no trouble,’ Alysha agreed, catching Tink’s eye and mirroring her concerned look.

  ‘An’ they never called us dirty names when we was working the streets,’ Lox put in. ‘They just turned their heads away, and never judged no one,’ she paused and said quietly. ‘I ’ate this fucking estate,’ she said.

  ‘Don’t let them Wilkinses get to yous all,’ Alysha told them. ‘Ain’t no wars ever won without killings. We are changing things round ’ere. It’s gonna get better.’ She rubbed Panther’s large shoulder. ‘We don’t want our kids ’avin to suck cocks or hide rock in their mouths so they can eat every day. That’s the only choices we ’ad. Kids need chances, and we’re gonna give ’em some.’

  Panther shrugged.

  ‘Come on, think of them tinies out there,’ Tink said to her. ‘We were them once, and we never ’ad no one to give us nothing. Right now they ain’t got nothing neither, ’cept cold bones and empty tummies.’

  ‘We know what it feels like to be abused and not wanted,’ Alysha said. ‘But look at us now?’ She looked at Tink and Lox, and then back to Panther. ‘If we want to ’ave kids, we ’ave to make sure they get better than we did. We know how hard it’s been to stay alive.’

  Panther nodded, but kept her head down.

  ‘We’ve done bad things,’ Alysha said to her, ‘but we ’ad no choice. We’re doing all this for the future of this estate, and if that includes people being killed, then that ’as to be, Panth. You ’ave to ’ave casualties in war, don’t ya?’

  ‘She’s right,’ Tink said.

  ‘I’m not ’avin a good day today,’ Panther said. ‘The brother I never really knew was shot two years ago today, and now them old couple.’

  ‘Then make it a reason to fight harder,’ Lox said gravely.

  ‘Yeah,’ Alysha agreed. ‘If we don’t change this estate, no one else will, cos no one else cares, and it’ll get worse. Them feds don’t understand nothing, not who we are, and not what we ‘ave had to do.’

  ‘Panther, we’re your family,’ Lox said. ‘We’re here for you, an’ we won’t let you down.’

  ‘Right on,’ Tink nodded.

  ‘We can’t replace your brother,’ Lox said sincerely, ‘but we are your sisters, OK?’

  ‘OK,’ Panther perked up. ‘So what we gonna say to feds, cause I tell you I’m thinking now that Melek is a worry, she should have phoned us by now, shouldn’t she, and I ’ope she’s all right. We could give them the number for the Alley Cat phone we gave her, we ain’t getting no answer from it but the feds could trace it and find her, and know where she is.’

  ‘Not a bad idea,’ Lox said looking from Alysha to Tink.

  Alysha nodded. ‘We’ll think on that a few minutes,’ she said.

  Lox opened her leopard-print bag and pulled out her pink calculator. She started pushing buttons. ‘Business,’ she said. ‘If that black fed wants more info, then we want the play area sorted. If she won’t pay us enough to do that, then we gotta get a written promise from her to lean on the council out to do it, or we say we won’t help her.’ she looked over to Alysha. ‘Do the feds think Wajdi Ghaziani killed his sister?’ she asked.

  Alysha shrugged. ‘Dunno.’

  ‘He’s an arsehole anyway,’ Tink said. ‘All that family are. Zana was all right, an’ she was Melek’s mate, so we ain’t worried ’bout dropping him in it.’

  ‘He beat up his sister enough times,’ Lox added.

  ‘Where will he be, d’you think?’ Alysha asked looking at Tink for an answer.

  ‘He’ll be in the mosque, praying for Zana’s soul, I’d say for sure,’ Tink told her. ‘They do all that, an’ specially cos the feds ain’t given up what’s left of ’er body for burial.’

  ‘That’ll be worth a lot,’ Lox said. ‘We can’t let ‘er think that info comes cheap.’

  Alysha looked at Panther. ‘When yous two dressed up as blokes this morning and went an’ put the usual cash in the Wilkins’ door, for the lock-up, didn’t you notice no one around?’

  ‘No, we never saw no one,’ Lox told her.

  ‘Cos, that’s what’s odd, see that black fed said the Wilkins hadn’t been dead long when the feds found ’em.’ Alysha shifted on the sofa and sat up. ‘So, I reckoned they was done in by someone who came on the estate, like early this morning. And it’s unlikely that any South London Rulers could have got on the estate and none of our street girls seen ’em, cos they would have reported it back to us.’

  ‘You thinking SLRs have got soldiers on our estate and we don’t know about them?’ Lox said looking at the other two.

  ‘I think it’s possible.’

  ‘You mean, you think we can’t trust all our street girls, and the lookouts?’ Lox said. ‘One could be double-doing us cos SLRs are givin’ better drugs an’ stuff.’

  ‘Yeah, that’s a poss,’ Alysha said. ‘SLRs are gonna try and get our girls to go over to them. They want this patch, they’ve moved on it already, or they’re fucking trying to, ain’t they?’

  ‘So I gotta look out for a turncoat,’ Panther said.

  ‘Yeah, you ’ave,’ Alysha said.

  ‘What we think ’bout Melek, do we trust her?’ Panther asked,

  Alysha shook her head. ‘Dunno. She should have made a statement by now to the feds, accusing Harisha of raping her, and then she was told to phone us to say done it.’

  ‘Means Harisha won’t stay locked up if she ain’t?’ Tink said.

  ‘I ’ope Harisha ain’t using her as a scape-goat to double cross us,’ Panther said.

  ‘Well if she ain’t answering,’ Alysha said scratching the roots of her hair extensions, and looking from one to another, means either she’s still with that fed Grainger, or she’s in trouble, or she’s working for SLRs.’

  ‘I’ll kill her first,’ Panther said.

  ‘What did the fed say about her?’ Tink asked.

  ‘Said Alison went to meet her, and they can’t contact either of them, an she said she needs us to help find Wajdi Ghaziani, cos they think he’s involved.’

  ‘Let’s get ’im for her, then,’ Tink said. ‘I’ve always hated him. He hurt his sister a lot, an’ we don’t care if he gets done for murder.’

  ‘Yeah, fine by me.’ Alysha shrugged, then shook her head, thoughtfully. ‘I don’t reckon Melek’s bright enough to double cross us,’ she said.

  ‘She is in love with Harisha, it makes you do mad things,’ Tink said. ‘She’ll do what he tells her to, an’ ’e’s a clever, cruel bastard.’

  ‘We gotta give the feds solid information?’ Lox said. ‘Cos we want that playground sorted. An if we can set Harisha Celik up for a long stretch too, then that would be two plans accomplished.’

  ‘What about giving them the whereabouts of the SLR machetes and weapons, the ones we took from the lock-up to the tunnel?’ Tink suggested. ‘A location and a big load of weapons,’ she looked at Lox, ‘that’s gotta be worth a lot.’

  ‘If we give up them, we’ll lose loads of dosh from selling them on to other gangs,’ Lox said.

  ‘But we can ask for a big reward instead, an’ they’ll give it for weapons,’ Tink argued. ‘And Harisha will, most definitely, go down for handling of all that shit. That tunnel’s got loads of his stuff in it. He’ll never wriggle out of that.’

  ‘But we cleaned them till they shone, so they didn’t have none of our DNA on them, an’ that means none of his either, so nothing to prove they are his,’ Lox argued. ‘And, we’ll make so m
uch more selling them on to North London gangs.’

  Alysha put her hand up. ‘Tink got a good point, there, Lox. We’re all on probation,’ she reminded her. ‘If we go for a reward, then we stay clean. But if we sell them on, and we get caught, then we’ll all go down, and then the estate won’t get no better. The kids’ll never get a new play area or a youth centre and we’ll never change this estate to a good place to live on.’

  ‘We won’t have no kids to do it for, if we’re in prison,’ Lox said. ‘You don’t get sex in prison.’

  ‘Exactly,’ Alysha nodded her head and laughed. ‘No sex in prison! I’d rather give the weapons up, and stay clean. We’ll get the reward for the weapons. Even if sellin’ them on would make more, it’s a much better bet, but we’ll hold back on that, an’ give her Wajdi and find the other detective for her first, Who agrees?’

  ‘I agree,’ Tink said. ‘And Melek will send Harisha down for rape, that’ll be about seven he’ll get for that, and we can get some of the street girls to say he threatened them with machetes and that, and he’ll get another lump for handling and dealing, make about twenty. He’ll be off our back, and we’ll stay squeaky clean.’

  ‘So we’re giving the new mobile number we gave Melek to them, are we? Lox asked. ‘They can trace Melek from it. She’s with Grainger, ain’t she? The other detective.’

  Alysha looked at Panther and Tink. ‘What you think?’

  ‘She should have phoned by now,’ Panther said, raising her voice. ‘Why ain’t she answering? I never wanted her in the gang with us, you know that?’

  ‘She’s a soldier, that’s all she is. Every gang has to have soldiers in it,’ Alysha told her. ‘You are the lieutenants, I’m the queen, and the others are our soldiers.’ She turned her young face to look at Panther, sensing her friend’s insecurity. ‘Listen, mate, we’re sisters, right?’

  Panther nodded. ‘Right.’

  ‘Each other’s family. We’d die for each other, we all know we would. We trust us, but we need more than just us if we’re seriously gonna rebuild this estate as a good place. We’ll ’ave to take on the other gangs, and fight, hard and dirty, till we get the respect.’ She turned to Tink. ‘Other gangs will turn up when we stitch up Harisha, we know that, and we’ll have to fight them too, and protect our territory, and keep it clean. To do that we need corn, and we need soldiers to fight wiv us. South London Rulers are massive. We need Melek right now to help us send Harisha down, and we will get him, I promise, mate. But then someone else will take his place and we ’ave to stay on top of all of the shit if we turn this estate round. We know it ain’t gonna be easy, so we need lots of soldiers and the street girls running with us.’

  ‘She’s right,’ Tink assured Panther.

  ‘The street girls are making dough, it’s their choice, an’ they’re ’appy to do dealin’, when it’s needed. And right now on this territory we need to keep selling, to users, no one else, but only for a bit longer, cos in five years this is gonna be a totally clean estate, and a good place to live and grow up on, not the shithole that it is now, where the only way to make corn is cocksucking or drugs. An’ them changes will be down to us Alley Cats. An’ we will do it.’ She smiled at her friend. ‘We’re blood, us four, family, an together we are gonna make fings better.’

  ‘She’s right,’ Tink said looking up with the mauve nail varnish brush in her hand. ‘We’re gonna win this postcode war, and when we do, an’ all the kids are ’appy cos we’ve built youth clubs an’ fings for them, then I think they’ll probably get our statues carved and put at the front of the estate grounds, like they did for that bloke that won the other war for us.’

  ‘What bloke? Panther asked her.

  ‘The fat bugger, wiv the cigar.’

  ‘What fat bugger?’

  ‘Winston Churchill,’ Lox told her.

  ‘How d’you know ’bout that?’ Panther asked Lox.

  ‘I done him at school before I ran away.’

  ‘What, really done ’im? Tink asked. ‘Like slept wiv ’im?’

  ‘No,’ Lox laughed. ‘He’s long dead. ’Sides, he was a fat bastard. I don’t do fat bastards – well, not any more.’

  ‘So we know what we’re agreein’ then,’ Alysha said, giggling at Lox. ‘Let’s hold off on the weapons in the tunnel for now, we’ll get Wajdi Ghaziani first. Panth, get one of the street girls on it to check out the mosque, see if he’s there. If not, we’re on the case. Let’s find him.’

  ‘Will do,’ Panther said stabbing a number into her mobile.

  ‘I think we should give that fed Melek’s Alley Cat number and let them trace her,’ Tink said. ‘Johnson will pay good for that cos she’s looking for Alison. An we’ll know where Melek is, an if she’s in trouble, we can ’elp her.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Panther agreed. ‘And if she isn’t …’

  ‘She’s in big T,’ Lox nodded. ‘But don’t give the weapons up, not yet,’ she added.

  ‘I’ll go wiv that,’ Alysha said to Tink.

  The girls all looked at each other, nodded, and high-fived in agreement.

  Banham pulled out the chair out without taking his eyes off Harisha Celik. Stephanie turned the CD on, but kept her finger hovering near the switch. She wanted to be ready to click it quickly to off, if Banham lost his temper.

  Banham didn’t waste a second. ‘I haven’t got time to fuck with you,’ he said as soon as she announced the CD was running and over her introducing the people present at the interview. He looked from Harisha to the duty solicitor who was sitting in, as Prezzioni had left the building.

  The duty solicitor pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose, and looked up nervously.

  ‘Where is Melek Yismaz?’ Banham asked Harisha.

  ‘Don’t know what you’re on about.’

  ‘We know you do.’ Stephanie said, hoping Banham would keep his temper.

  Celik scratched his neck, shook his head, and looked at Banham. ‘Whatever she’s said, she’s lying. I don’t know nothing.’

  ‘She hasn’t said anything,’ Banham retorted quickly, ‘reason being, she is now missing, as is one of my detectives, who was last seen going to meet her. Melek’s mobile has now been found, in the dustbin outside your flat, which tells me you know a lot about her whereabouts.’ He raised his voice and his words became clipped. Stephanie sensed he was fighting not to let his personal anxiety show. ‘Abduction and kidnap is very serious and carries a heavy custodial sentence, heavier when it involves a police officer. Do you want me to tell you what kind of a sentence you are looking at, or do you want to start talking to me?’

  Harisha looked at the duty solicitor and shook his head. The solicitor leaned forward and cleared his throat. ‘My client has already told …’

  ‘Your client is lying,’ Banham told him. He turned back to Harisha and raised his voice. ‘When was the last time you spoke to Melek?’

  Harisha slowly leaned back in his chair, and folded his arms. ‘I’m saying nothing.’

  ‘Help us, and you help yourself,’ Stephanie said making a quick decision to play good cop, bad cop.

  ‘You’re accusing me of kidnap. I ain’t done nothing.’

  She decided to change tactics. ‘Where can we find Wajdi Ghaziani? She asked him.

  ‘Oh, now you’ve got it right,’ he said, his thin mouth curling at one side. ‘He’s just killed his sister, right?’

  ‘Where will we find him?’ Stephanie pushed.

  ‘I ain’t a grass, an’ you’re accusing me of rape and kidnap, so if you’re so fucking clever, which I can assure you, you ain’t, then you fucking find him yourself.’

  Banham stood up suddenly, pushing his chair away with such force that it hit the wall behind him. ‘Lock him up,’ he barked to Stephanie.

  ‘Temper, temper,’ Harisha laughed.

  Banham swung back immediately and raised his voice at the same time as Stephanie hurriedly told the tape that the interview was terminated.

  ‘If anything happens
to my officer and I prove you were in any way responsible, which I will,’ Banham barked at him. ‘You will be charged not only with rape and kidnap, but with cold-blooded murder. Because whatever it takes, Mr Celik, I will find those women.’ He leaned down and into Harisha. ‘And I am looking forward to putting you away for a very, very long time. He paused and held Celik’s cold – though now slightly nervous – look.

  Celik held Banham’s eyes for a mere second longer and then turned to the brief. ‘Fuck’s ’e on about. I don’t know nothing, and I didn’t rape no one.’

  ‘Let me know when your memory comes back,’ Banham said as he marched out of the room, slamming the door hard just as Stephanie had got up to follow.

  Five minutes later Stephanie settled into the chair beside Banham, who was still red-faced with anger, opposite Mrs Ghaziani in Interview Room B.

  ‘I’ll come straight to the point,’ he said, again barely giving Stephanie the time to switch the recorder on, let alone announce who was present and the time of interview. ‘Your son seems to have disappeared and we need to talk to him, urgently, in connection with your daughter’s murder. We now have reason to believe he could have been involved in the murder of an old couple earlier today. One of our officers arrived to pay him a visit at his shop, and she, too, is missing. We are not charging your son with anything, yet, but it would be a lot better for him if we could find him and eliminate him from all our enquiries, so you need to help us.’

  Mrs Ghaziani’s eyes pierced into Banham, but she didn’t speak.

  Banham lowered his gaze and took a deep breath. ‘I’ll make myself very clear, Mrs Ghaziani,’ his now a little louder. ‘I suspect you know your son’s whereabouts and …’

  ‘Why would …’

  ‘And, if I find out that you do,’ he said speaking over the woman, ‘and have chosen to withhold the information from me, I will charge you with conspiracy and withholding vital information, which carries a heavy custodial sentence.’ He gave her less than a second to digest that before asking, ‘Now, where can I find your son?’

  ‘I do not know where he is. He is his own person,’ she said, lowering her gaze. She then brought them up again and looked straight at Banham. ‘I want, and demand, my daughter back so we may bury her, as is right and decent, but you care nothing for my request, so I care nothing for yours.’