“Tania, you’ve told your Kev about this, haven’t you?” Rachel’s question came from nowhere. It stunned the others, especially the person that it was aimed at.
“No. Don’t be such a fucking idiot! You’d be in the Manchester Evening News by now if I had. Fucks sake Rachel. Why are you saying that?”
“I don’t know. I’ve just got a funny feeling you’ve told him. And if you have, it would just make more sense if he was here, discussing this stuff with us.” Rachel kneeled down on the thick, expensive looking grey rug, and locked her eyes with Tania’s.
“Are you taking the piss? She’s taking the piss, her!” said Tania to Suzanne and Britney, as she grabbed a few more Maltesers off the bowl on the coffee table. “She’s talking a lot of fucking shit tonight, aren’t we love?” Tania put the chocolates in her mouth and laughed dismissively. For Rachel, this angry reaction was the most sincere and candid behaviour that she’d witnessed from Tania, since the very first time they’d met. It made Rachel feel confident that Tania hadn’t said anything to her husband.
“Alright, alright, chill out – no need to get stressed. It’s a fair enough question!” Rachel was trying to be friendly as she spoke, adding a smile, which didn’t seem sincere to anybody, least of all Tania.
“Tell you what though, if Kev was to find out about it, he’d want to be cut in on the money. And I want that money for myself – am I fuck sharing it with that prick!” Tania’s brightly coloured face was turning a shade brighter as the red from her blood pressure fought the marmalade glow of her orange bronzer. Her eyes were popping out of her head and she looked like an absurd cartoon character from the nineteen seventies.
“Alright, it’s fine. I’m just trying to figure out why this copper has come knocking today, that’s all. Keep your wig on Tania.”
“It’s alright, just don’t want anyone having me down as a fucking grass! This is my chance to get rid of that twat once and for all. Swear down.”
“Right, Suzanne – you really need to try and think about if there is anybody left that might be asking about Graham?”
Suzanne looked stumped. They’d been over this a thousand times. Nothing had changed. Graham had very few acquaintances, and those few that did have any interest in the man were convinced that he was in Thailand, as his Facebook posts and photographs of the beach, the horizon and the food were pretty conclusive evidence that he was indeed on the other side of the world. His family, who he had a very limited relationship with were all friends on Facebook, except his father who was living in a nursing home in Old Trafford, and Suzanne had kept up the weekly visits. Graham’s father was in his nineties and suffering from several different conditions that were making his life quite uncomfortable as he reached the end. But Suzanne’s visits were the highlight of his week, and she knew it.
“We’re okay. We’ve got every angle covered,” said Suzanne. “Honestly, Rachel, I truly believe that we have done enough. There is plenty of evidence around that Graham is still around us.”
“Where did you put the body?” Britney’s rather frank question created a stark silence. The adults looked at one another and then down at the floor. “Come on, don’t tell me you’ve forgotten? I watched you all putting it in the car. It was like an episode of The Inbetweeners. God, I don’t know how you haven’t had the police here sooner.”
“Britney, please…” Suzanne was reaching out again, but Britney moved away slightly.
“I rang nine, nine… that night. I couldn’t press the last nine. But I wish I had done. You lot have got yourself in so much shit now. I don’t know why I didn’t just press it!”
“She’s right!” said Tania. “I said this at the time, when I saw them trying to sneak his body out. I said to them, just phone the police, but nobody wanted to. So here we are.”
“Wait, what the fuck has this got to do with you? Why are you here? It’s got fuck all to do with you, you big orange tramp!”
“Britney!” shouted Rachel, genuinely furious with her daughter for the outburst.
“I’ll tell you what it’s got to do with me, you cheeky little bitch….” Snapped Tania, but Suzanne interrupted.
“She’s black-mailing us,” announced Suzanne, very calmly, with no emotion in her voice. “She’s making me sell the house, and she wants half of the money, and for that price, we buy her silence.”
“Well, I’ll tell you what, I’d phone the police myself and go to jail rather than do that Suzanne! I wouldn’t trust her to keep her trap shut. You’re all fucking mad, the lot of you’s. I’m going.” Britney stood up, and the raw anger that she was displaying scared everybody, including her mother.
“No, Britney!” Rachel leapt up and grabbed her daughter by the arm as she headed for the door.
“Get off me!” shouted the teenager, and it came out very loud.
“No love, just come in here, calm down a bit!”
“Nah, you’re all off your heads. I’m going to sort this out, it’s getting out of hand.” Britney turned and walked out of the lounge, and a couple of seconds later the front door closed loudly.
“Shit!” sobbed Rachel, her eyes were filling with tears. Suzanne stood there, looking at Rachel, the panic on her face was unmistakable.
“She needs a fucking smack, her.” mumbled Tania.
Chapter 28
Britney had been sat on the wall outside the factory gates for over two hours, when her dad finally appeared amongst all the other back-shift workers, just after the bell went at 10pm.
She’d rehearsed what she was going to say a hundred times. She’d adapted it and altered it, and after so many variations, she was finally confident that she would be able to say what she wanted, without chickening out.
“Dad! Dad!” She shouted, as Mick marched out among the swarm of hi-vis wearing workers who were desperate to get home and open a beer, watch some television and have a late supper. Mick looked shocked to see his daughter there, and was concerned by how upset she appeared.
“Shit, that’s our Britney. Right, take care lads, seeya tomoz.” The workers that Mick was walking along with said their goodbyes quietly and carried on walking. Mick stopped dead.
“Alright love, what a nice surprise. That’s made my day that has. Are you alright? What’s up?”
Britney gripped her dad so tightly, he began to feel scared. “What’s up love, y’alright?” He held her closely, and kissed the top of her head. Britney was shaking, and crying, and trying to hug the living daylights out of her dad. “Calm down now, love. Britney, what’s up love. What’s happened?” Mick had a vision of every worse-case scenario flash through his mind. Liam with a drugs overdose, Noel knocked off his bike, Shania choking on a gob-stopper, Rachel falling off a step-ladder. Britney getting pregnant. His heart was banging. “Come on love, tell me, what’s up? You can tell yer dad.”
It took a few minutes until Britney had settled down. Once she had, and had wiped away her tears, and reassured her dad that she was okay, the pair began to walk, slowly, in the direction of home.
“You having trouble with a lad love? Take my advice, they’re all dicks. Be a lesbian or summat, get yourself a nice lass!”
Britney laughed. She hadn’t thought it possible to laugh, or even smile. But her dad had made her laugh within a few minutes of seeing him.
“Come on, lets sit here a minute. I want you to tell me what’s up.”
Mick sat down on the bench in the brightly lit bus stop, and Britney sat down beside her father. It was quiet for a few moments. Mick didn’t want to prompt her, he just sat and waited for Britney to talk.
“Me and mum have had a row.” Britney’s voice filled with emotion.
“What, a serious one?” asked Mick. He didn’t seem too concerned.
“It’s about that man across the road, who mum killed.”
Mick Crossley made a completely involuntary sound. It was as though his stomach had punctured. It was the sound of pure shock. It took him a while to compose himself. Britney gave him the time.
“Wow! Fuck in hell Britney, that was unexpected!” Mick’s heartbeat was thundering, and he wondered if Britney could hear it.
“I watched it. All of it. I just told mum today. And now I’ve found out about everything else, like Tania, and…”
“I thought you did. I wasn’t sure. I couldn’t say anything, but I heard you shut your bedroom door, the night…” Mick placed his head in his hands. He was staring at the pavement, shaking.
“I know, well, I was about to come downstairs and tell you what mum had just done, when she burst in through the front door.”
A few moments passed. The father and daughter relived the surreal moment. It still seemed unreal.
“It’s a mess, love. It’s a total fucking nightmare this to be honest…”
“I know. This is why I’ve fell out with mum. A copper has been round today, to Suzanne’s house, sniffing about.”
“Eh?” The look of terror on her father’s face scared Britney. She’d never seen him looking scared. She hadn’t even considered that it was possible for her father to be scared. She began to cry, but she tried her very best to be silent, so that her dad wouldn’t know. Britney was also facing the floor, with her head buried in her arms.
“It’s game over then,” he said.
“What’s game over?” asked Britney, struggling to conceal the upset in her voice.
“It’s over, love. We’re all going to jail. This was such a shit idea, God, how the fuck…”
Britney began sobbing, and her reaction made Mick cry too. They both sat on the bus stop bench crying, as the odd car and motorbike went past. Eventually, Britney spoke. “Right, so you and mum are getting sent down for this?”
“Probably, yeah, well, definitely yeah!”
“But if you didn’t kill him, how long, I mean, what will you get?” Britney grabbed her dad’s hand. It made him smile, and a tear plopped and landed on his hi-visibility jacket, glistening like a diamond under the bus shelter lights. Mick had to think about the question for quite a long time.
“I’m not sure. Your mum was on about it, something to do with assistance of a crime, or concealing crime. I don’t know, its all them big words your mum comes out with. But what she meant was, even if you didn’t do the actual crime, you’re still up shit creek if you helped the person who did do it.” Mick looked confused. He knew what he meant, he was just struggling to articulate his knowledge of evading the law to his fifteen year old daughter.
“I can’t believe you have got this deep into it. If you’d have just rung the dibble when it happened, right, mum would have got away with it. She was helping her friend, she was protecting her friend. I’m telling you dad, you should have rung it in. It’s your fucking fault this. You could have stopped it all dad. And now you’re both going to jail. I can’t believe it dad. I can’t.” Britney got up and stood before her father. She didn’t recognise the man. Mick Crossley was bent double, crying and whimpering like an infant. “Look at you!” she shouted, although she didn’t mean to. The tears were streaming down her face, and she wiped them aggressively. “I thought you were mint. I did! My dad… no-one messes with my dad. My dad is hard, you don’t mess with him. But look at you, you’re nothing. You’re like a big girl, crying and feeling sorry for yourself. You should feel ashamed of yourself mate. You’re fucking pathetic.”
Britney walked away, sobbing as she went. The sight of her dad looking so hopeless, so defeated really did offend her eyes.
“Britney, hee yar love, come back. Britney.”
Britney walked away from her dad. She felt lost, stunned by the way her dad had reacted to her announcement, and disappointed by the lack of any fight in him. There was nothing there, not an ounce of anything. He was pathetic.
Britney had anticipated a lot more from him. The strong, dependable, cock-sure of himself man that she had always known, and loved, and respected. She had absolutely no idea who this feeble, hopeless, stupid man was. As she walked briskly away, to shouts of “come back love!” and “let’s sort it out!” she knew that she was walking into a haze of darkness and uncertainty. All that she had come here for was reassurance, to be told that everything’s going to be okay. That she was safe.
But today, she realised that her greatest fear was true. Neither of her parents had a clue what they were doing, and they were going to prison. The rest of the family, her brothers and little sister will be put in care. As Britney headed towards home, she couldn’t stop the anger and frustration that was bubbling up within herself.
“Why didn’t I press that last nine?” she asked herself, over and over, between long, sad, heavy sobs.
*****
“Who’s that?” shouted Rachel from the landing when she heard the front door close.
“It’s me.” Said Mick, pulling his work-boots off at the matt. He sounded thoroughly pissed off.
“Have you seen our Britney?” asked Rachel quietly as she walked down the stairs towards the front door, the sadness and desperation in her voice was unmistakable.
“Yeah, she came and met me after work. Said you’d had a row. She’s really upset Rach, with both of us.”
“Where is she?”
“I don’t know love, she shot off, I kept shouting her back, but she was on one.” Mick hung up his luminous yellow coat on the stand by the door. Rachel collapsed on the bottom step, crying and making a weird, sad noise.
“She told me, you know, about everything. I can’t believe it.” Mick started walking towards Rachel. Her head shot up and she placed a finger over her lip, and pointed up the stairs.
“What’s for tea? I’m starving!” said Mick, realising that he needed to change the subject. He sounded like a wooden radio actor.
“I’ve not done you nowt. We’ll have to have a walk down to the chippy.” Rachel stood up and walked into the front room where Liam was sprawled out on the settee watching television. “Liam, keep an ear out for them two will you love? If either of them come downstairs you can clothes-line them and sit on them ‘til we get back. We’ll be ten minutes, love, alright.”
“Yeah, alright mum. In a bit dad!”
“Alright mate, see you in a bit, just going up the chippy to get some scran. Won’t be long,” said Mick, reaching his head round into the lounge. “Do you want out?” he mouthed silently, so that Noel and Shania wouldn’t hear from upstairs. Liam placed his thumb up and smiled.
“Legend!” he whispered back to his dad.
“Right, see you in a bit. And don’t forget what mum said, if either of them two come downstairs…”
“Alright, see ya in a bit, yeah?” Liam pressed the remote so that the TV started playing again.
Rachel held the front door open as Mick put his trainers on, then closed it quietly behind them both.
“The chippy is miles away Rach, a proper mooch!” said Mick as they got outside.
“We need to talk. Let’s just get off this fucking horrible close and then we can.” Rachel had set off walking at quite a speed, and Mick was struggling to keep up.
“Slow down love, fuckin’ hell, I’ve been on me feet all day.” Mick usually liked to flop out on the settee with a beer after work. This exercise was a complete shock to the system and Mick was finding it hard to keep up. “Slow down Rach, or I’m not coming. Seriously love.”
“Mick, I just want to run. Honestly, I’m so wound up, so stressed, I can’t think of anything I want to do more than just run, proper run, get some of this stress out of my system.”
“Well, tell you what, why don’t you run down the chippy, and I’ll see you at home when you get back?” Mick was still trailing behind Rachel, trying his best to stay with her, but she really was power walking and he was getting out of breath.
“Shut up Mick, whingeing. My heads about to pop, I’m going to have an aneurism, I can feel it.”
“Right, well, I can’t talk to you when you’re zooming off like this, come on, lets go and sit on the park a minute. We can talk there.”
Rachel crossed the road and headed into the small play area. She sat down on one of the swings and looked around. It was too close to the surrounding houses.
“Nah, not here,” she said as she jumped up off the swing, just as Mick caught her up. “We’ll be overheard. Let’s just get off the estate and we’ll sit on a bench or summat. But we need to talk Mick. Seriously, the shit is going to hit the pan.”
“I know, Britney told me. Summat about a copper coming round today?” Mick was once again trying to keep up with Rachel as she stormed up the road that all of the various avenues, closes and walks that made up the Haughton Park development branched off from.
“Sshhh, you fucking knob!” said Rachel and put her finger up against her mouth. As the pair gradually found a mutually agreeable walking pace, Rachel told Mick the full story, about the policeman, the fake car crash story, the phoney visit where the policeman didn’t press the doorbell. Then she told Mick about Britney’s extraordinary announcement at tea-time. And after all of this news - most of which Mick had gathered anyway from his brief conversation with Britney - Rachel told him all about the conversation at Suzanne’s house, and how Britney had called them all idiots and stormed off.
“And now I don’t know where she is, Mick.” Rachel was more angry than upset. She could feel that her tight grip of control was slipping on what had seemed to be a pretty safe alibi regarding Graham’s whereabouts.
“Well, for what it’s worth,” said Mick, “I think she went in a lot harder on me, from what you are saying…”
“Why, what?”
“Oh, she was saying all sorts to me, about me being pathetic and weak. She said I’m like a big girl. She’s right though Rach. I am, I’m lost with all this shit. We’re in too deep love. We’ve fucked up, and we need to forget all this plan A bullshit about pretending that Graham is abroad, and that everyone will just forget about him eventually. It’s a fucking stupid idea.”
“It’s the only idea we’ve had, Mick. It’s not stupid, it’s all we had at the time. Don’t start talking like that to me now.”
Neighbours From Hell : DCI Miller 2: The gripping Manchester thriller with a killer twist Page 21
