by Jane Bidder
Hang on. That’s who the girl reminded her of. She’d changed her hair. That’s why she looked different. “Posy?”
“Tara actually.”
Kayleigh felt a wave of indignation surge through her. “If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t be in this mess now.”
“Serves you bleeding right.” The girl lunged at the food in her hand.
Suddenly Kayleigh was aware of a crowd gathering around them. “Cat fight,” someone whistled excitedly.
“No.” She backed off. “I only came here ’cos I wanted to find out about my mate.” She scanned the faces. “Does anyone know what happened to Marlene? Marlene Smith.”
“Isn’t she the girl that took drugs?” piped up someone.
Kayleigh nodded sadly.
“Got some change now, have you?” whined a voice.
It was the first girl. The one who’d gone to take a crap.
“I bought you some food.” Kayleigh gestured towards Posy. “But she’s taken it.”
There was a laugh. “I don’t want any bleeding food. I want some fucking money.”
To her horror, the dog began to give out a low throaty growl and walked towards her. “I’ve got some. I’ve got some,” spluttered Kayleigh. Desperately pulling the change out of her pocket, it fell on the ground. There was a mad rush for it. But the first girl got there before the others.
“Three bleeding quid,” The girl eyed her furiously. “That’s not going to get me far, is it? Got any more in those jeans of yours? They’ve got a bleeding Ralph Lauren label on them. Bet you’re loaded, really.”
“GET OFF HER.” The voice rose above the yells around her. Stunned, Kayleigh was aware of being pulled out of the crowd and slung over a shoulder.
“Put me down,” she yelled. “Put me down.”
“It’s me, Kayleigh. It’s me.”
Gently, he lowered her to the ground by the back of the Ladies. “Callum?” She stared at him. “But you’re meant to be in prison …”
“Shhh.” He put a hand to her mouth. “I’ve broken my probation.”
Probation? “I didn’t know you’d been let out. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I came back for you, Kayleigh. But Mum said you didn’t live there any more. One of your mates said you hung round here so I’ve been looking for you.”
He’d come to find her! Her big half-brother had come to find her! To look after her …
“I need money. So I can get out of this place. Mum said you’d gone to live with some woman who’s rolling in it but she wouldn’t give me the address. “
He grabbed her hands. She wasn’t sure if they were holding hers in comfort or squeezing them threateningly. The bracelet on his wrist cut into her skin and the thought occurred to her that if he was really broke, he could sell it. But she’d only upset him if she said that.
“You’ve got to help me, Kayleigh. You’ve got to. I’ll meet you here tomorrow at the same time. Got it?”
What was she going to do? Kayleigh’s head whirled. Poor, poor Marlene. And then there was Callum. Breaking his probation when he’d only just got out. But he was right. If he turned himself in, he’d get God knows how many more years. She had to help him. Just as he’d helped her when she’d been little.
Maybe she’d ring Alice. She’d understand. Or would she? Shit. The line was busy. To make it worse, the last bus had gone even though it was still quite early. Alice’s phone was still engaged. Both her mobile and the landline. There was no option. She’d have to walk.
“Want a lift?”
It was the red and black Mini. She could smell the drink on Seb’s breath from outside.
“No thanks.”
“Don’t be daft. Hop in.”
Somehow she found herself doing so. “Had a good time?”
“Not really.”
“Me neither.”
A hand crept onto her knee. Kayleigh knew what to do this time. “Piss off.”
“OK. Don’t freak out.”
“Can you go slower?”
“Getting a bit demanding, aren’t we? My mum says Alice is like that. You never told me. Is she your aunt or something?”
A sharp corner.
A hoot.
“I want to get out.”
“Come on. Don’t be daft. Who are you ringing?”
“Alice.”
“Give it here.”
A sharp corner.
Another loud hoot.
Fucking hell. FUCKING HELL.
Chapter Twenty-five
“Mum,” said the voice. It sounded as though it was coming from a long way away. “Mum.”
“Garth?” she’d whispered disbelievingly.
As she spoke, she looked up at Daniel. His face, black from their argument, now lit up with an almost child-like amazement. Alice felt the distance falling away between them. Forget Monica. Forget Kayleigh. This was their son. Their son.
“Are you all right? Are you still in prison? Are they letting you out?”
Her stream of questions, falling out of her mouth in their eagerness to reach him, were met with a brief silence before Garth replied.
“I’m all right but it’s not great here.”
At least, that’s what she thought he’d said but the line was faint.
“Are they treating you all right?”
“Are they treating you all right?” A parody of her voice echoed back mockingly. The time gap meant her words overlapped with his reply.
It sounded like “Don’t worry.”
And then there was a high pitched whine followed by silence.
“He’s gone.” Alice heard her voice cry out in anguish like a child’s. Knowing she was being unreasonable, she reached out to Daniel. “Can’t you do something? Can’t you bring him back?”
He was already on the phone, holding the mobile close to his ear which Daniel didn’t normally do. He was walking too. Short, furious steps up and down the drawing room by the French windows. Hope fluttered in her chest. Her husband would do something. He had to.
“Brian? It’s Daniel. Look, Garth has just rung us – yes I know – but he didn’t make much sense. The phone line was bad. Say that again?”
There was a short agonising silence as Alice pressed her nails into the palms of her hands, waiting.
“I see.”
“What?”
Alice tugged at her husband’s arm. His eyebrows met with disapproval. Instantly, she was eighteen years ago. Facing her furious mother and disappointed father.
It wasn’t my fault. It wasn’t my fault.
“Don’t, Alice. Please let me finish. Sorry, Brian. My wife is understandably distressed. Yes. I see. Of course. I’ll tell her. We’re very grateful to you. Yes. I’ll make that clear.”
“What is it? What’s happening?”
Alice felt the words stream out of her mouth. Hysterically. Tearfully. The old Alice. The new one too. Still hoping that someone might believe her. Listen. Understand. A flash of Paul Black came into her mind. Don’t be so ridiculous, she told herself fiercely. How could she think of him? At a time like this?
Numbly, she became aware of Daniel leading her to the sofa. Sitting her down. Holding her hand. Mungo jumped up beside her, licking her concernedly. Neither bothered to tell him to get off even though the ‘no dog on the sofa’ rule was normally non-negotiable. “It appears that the authorities allowed Garth to ring you as a gesture of good will.”
“Good will?” she repeated. “I don’t understand. I thought we had a witness. Sheila Harris saw someone putting something in Garth’s rucksack. So why can’t they just let him go now?”
Daniel took his hand away. Instantly, Alice felt a clammy relief. His touch hadn’t been comforting like Paul Black’s the other week when he’d patted her arm. Instead, it had irritated her.
“Brian says it’s not how it works,” continued Daniel in answer to her earlier question. He stood up, moving towards the window again; clearly keen to put distance between them. Mungo jumped up, pawing the glass. �
�These things take time.”
“But they will release Garth?” she said desperately.
Daniel spoke, his back still facing her. “Hopefully. But we’re in the hands of others. You’ve got to remember that.”
A horrible net of powerlessness engulfed her. She needed to do something. Anything. How on earth could she sit here, while her son was in prison; maybe hungry or worse?
Alice sprang to her feet. “I can’t stand this. I’m going for a walk.” Running out of the drawing room, she seized the lead which was hanging in the hall. Mungo didn’t need any bidding. If she didn’t get out of this house, she thought to herself, she might very seriously go mad.
As she jogged out of the drive – pulled along by Mungo who had clearly made a good recovery judging from his energy – Alice spotted a pair of youths sitting in a red car on the other side of the road. Almost immediately, they pulled off, leaving a cloud of dust behind, making her cough.
Frankie’s friends? Or just a pair of passers-by. Maybe she should have made a note of the number; even checked the make of car. She should be worried, in view of what had happened to Mungo. Yet in the scale of things, it came way below her fear over Garth.
To be honest, she told herself, blowing the whistle that was attached to her key ring in order to recall Mungo, she’d been surprised as well as relieved by Sheila Harris’s phone call. Drug smuggling was just the kind of thing that Garth would do. Thank God that he hadn’t. At least as far as they knew.
Still churning with emotion, Alice opened the little kissing gate at the top of the cliff path. Below, the sea sparkled like a magical hidden pool. How she loved this bay. It was hard to get to – these steep steps deterred many holidaymakers and quite a few locals too. It wasn’t so bad going down but coming back could be a killer.
Just what she needed to clear her head. “Garth is alive,” she sang out into the evening air. It sounded more reassuring than when she just said it in her head. “Brian will get him back.”
He had to. Even Janice, who was always moaning about how hard it was to be married to a lawyer (you never won an argument!) was proud of the number of cases he won. Proof perhaps, that infidelity didn’t have to ruin a marriage.
Mungo was nearly out of sight now, heading round the corner and on to the beach. She followed, picking her way over the pebbles towards the water. It was soothing watching the waves coming in and out. Just like life she thought, not for the first time. You lost things – like the receding wave – and then others came back to take their place.
Was Daniel right, she wondered. Could all this help them make a new start?
Alice didn’t realise, until dusk began to fall, that it was so late. That was the wonderful thing about the summer and living by the sea. It was still light, even at this time.
She glanced at her watch, realising that she must have spent much longer than she realised walking through the shallow waves and then sitting on the beach, throwing a ball for Mungo. But it had calmed her. Made her feel that it was all going to be all right. She’d ignore Monica, she’d decided. She’d try hard to … to get closer to Daniel. And she’d visit Uncle Phil, who’d made such a miraculous recovery (why did the bad ones always last longer?) and tell him exactly what she thought of him. She’d persuade Daniel that they had to provide Kayleigh with a safe base until she sorted out her life. And, most important of all, she’d have faith that Brian would get Garth back.
But as she began the long, slow, climb up the cliff path, Alice felt a sense of apprehension. It began in her chest like a light weight and then, the higher she climbed, the heavier it got.
Even Mungo, who’d been so lively earlier on, was dragging back. Maybe this walk had been too adventurous after his trauma. The vet had said it was fine for him to have ‘gentle’ exercise but, too late, Alice realised she’d probably overdone it in her keenness to get away from the house.
“Won’t be long now,” she said, breaking into a jog as the ground finally levelled out. Along the lane, round the corner, past the park – it now seemed inconceivable that anything had happened there – and up the road towards the house …
Alice’s heart stood still at the sight of a police car outside. Garth. Her chest tightened with terror. Something must have happened. Something after their phone call.
Mungo surged ahead so fiercely that she dropped the lead. Flying after him, she saw with alarm that the front door was open. Then she stopped. Standing in the hall as though waiting for her, was Monica. Monica?
Standing very close to Daniel.
“What’s she doing there?” whispered Alice. “What’s going on?”
Daniel dropped his arm. Monica’s face was swollen, suggesting she’d been crying. Had she come to the house? Had Daniel told her it was all over? That it was his wife, he loved?
But that still didn’t explain the police car outside.
“It’s Kayleigh.”
Alice started at the deep voice. She hadn’t noticed him. Hadn’t spotted Paul Black coming out from the kitchen with a glass of water as though he owned the place.
“Thank you,” whimpered Monica gulping it down.
“She’s had a shock,” said Daniel.
“She’s had a shock?” Alice spluttered. “What do you think it’s been like for me to find out that you’ve been …” She stopped, unable to say the words. “You’ve been seeing her behind my back.”
“Alice.” The deep, dark, rich voice was soothing. So too was the familiarity which, she noticed with some pleasure, had not gone unnoticed by her husband. Or Monica.
Then she felt a hand on her shoulder. Paul Black’s hand. It was only for a second but it scalded her with an emotion she hadn’t felt since she’d been seventeen and Gordon had first kissed her.
“Alice,” he repeated again. “There’s been an accident. Kayleigh was in a car, driven by Seb. Monica’s son.”
This didn’t make sense. “Kayleigh,” she repeated. “Why was she in the car with Seb?”
“You tell me,” spluttered Monica.
Daniel was still close; as though this interloper was more in need of comforting than she was.
Alice turned to Paul Black. “Are they all right?” she asked, as though the others weren’t even in the room. “Are they all right? Please. Tell me.”
Chapter Twenty-six
It had all happened so quickly. The other car had looked as though it was coming towards them and then shot past. There’d been a screeching of brakes and a terrific crunching noise. Kayleigh had felt herself being thrown forwards so that the seat belt cut into her. She put out her hands in an automatic reflex reaction just as the car came to a halt. It seemed to be dipping downwards.
In front of her, the windscreen was covered in little cracks, rather like a picture she’d seen once as school. A tessellation, the teacher had called it. She’d only remembered because she liked the sound of the word.
“Are you all right?” croaked a voice next to her.
Seb! For a moment, she’d been too stunned to remember that there was anyone else in the car.
Kayleigh nodded. Or at least she thought she did. Everything seemed so vague and unreal. “Are you?”
“My arm hurts like fuck.” Turning round awkwardly – the seat belt had got twisted – she saw Seb’s arm hanging at a strange angle. There was a big swelling on his right eye too. “Hit the bloody wheel. Don’t know what happened to the sodding airbag.”
Kayleigh wasn’t sure what that was, but from Seb’s tone, it sounded important. Still, the main thing was that they were all right. “What are you doing?” she asked as he picked up his mobile which had fallen on the floor beneath his seat.
“Ringing the police, of course.”
Kayleigh began to panic. “Don’t do that. They might send me back to care.” She tried to wrestle the phone out of his hand. “They’ll think Alice isn’t looking after me …”
“What are you talking about?” He gave her a weird look. “We’ve been in an accident. It’s a
gainst the law not to report it. Besides, how are we going to get out of here? We’re stuck in a sodding ditch.” He reached for his mobile with his good arm. “Police, please. Maybe ambulance too.”
Shit. Everyone knew you didn’t call the police. Not for anything. They weren’t on your side. Not when you came from her kind of world, anyway. She could just see it now. That social worker with the swinging earrings would send her back to weirdo Marc with the wife with bruised arms. Or maybe someone worse. She’d never see Alice again. Never have the chance to live in a normal house where people sat up at tables to eat and cared about you.
And it was all her fault for getting into a car with a boy who was driving too fast.
Desperately, she wriggled out from the seat belt. Fuck. The door wouldn’t open.
“Kayleigh, come back!”
Ignoring him, she flung herself into the back seat. Yes. The door opened. Flinging off her shoes – it would be easier to run without them – she shot across the road. Which way was Alice’s? If she could get back there quickly, she could pretend that she was never with Seb in the first place.
Shit. There was a siren. Flashing lights. An ambulance, followed by a police car. That was quick. They never normally came this fast when there were fights on the estate.
A man was striding towards her in uniform. With a sinking heart, Kayleigh recognised him. It was the policeman from before. The one at Alice’s house.
“Don’t they have more than one of you?” she started to say but the words came tumbling out in the wrong order.
“This one’s concussed.” The policeman turned round to the figures running out of the ambulance in fluorescent jackets. He took her arm and gently sat her down on the verge. Then he looked down on her with those blue eyes that had been so keen on Alice the other day. “I recognise you, don’t I? Kayleigh, isn’t it?”
She was going to deny it but then the eyes softened. “It’s all right. You’re in safe hands now.”
“Alice,” she managed to croak. “She’ll be worried.”
“Don’t worry about that,” said another voice. A woman’s this time. “Someone will contact your nearest of kin but in the meantime, let’s get you to hospital, shall we?”
