by Gina Blaxill
‘We’ll know soon enough. Chin up, son.’
The hearing had been in session several hours now. After doing my bit I’d been shown to a large waiting room, and Imogen and her mum had joined us. To start with we’d discussed the case, everyone talking over everyone else but all saying the same thing: there was only one way this was going. After a while the parents slipped into the kind of small talk people make to kill time. If I wasn’t so fretful it would have been funny. Under normal circumstances Dad, with his flash suit and slicked hair and loud opinions, would probably have nothing to do with Imogen’s calm and professional mother, who I secretly thought was very like Imogen herself.
‘They need to rewrite their fricking “What happens in court” booklet,’ Imogen muttered to me. ‘This waiting bit wasn’t mentioned. Quite important, yeah?’
‘They don’t mention the “feeling like you’re going to throw up any minute” part either.’
‘Maybe they’re giving Ollie a hard time. A lot of the most important evidence is his.’
‘What about Nadina and her dad? Aren’t they here today?’
‘Yep. Guess they’re elsewhere.’
The tall wooden doors opened. Everyone gave a start; I realized we’d fallen silent. Angie and two other liaison officers came in. They wore funny expressions that didn’t seem to be any one emotion.
‘Would you prefer we spoke to you separately, or are you OK with this?’ Angie asked.
Dad waved his hand impatiently. ‘Put us out of our misery, Ang. What’s the decision?’
Angie cleared her throat. ‘I’m afraid the case has collapsed. The McAllisters have been cleared of all charges.’
IMOGEN
TUESDAY 10 DECEMBER
Everyone stared at Angie. Time stood still. Then I exclaimed, ‘What?’
‘You’re upset. I understand,’ Angie said. ‘I know it’s not what you were expecting—’
‘That’s an understatement!’ Phil, Sam’s dad, interrupted. ‘There’s a video, for goodness sake. Those losers have been identified – there’s no question of what they’ve done. Has everyone gone completely insane?’
‘Hear me out, Mr Costello,’ Angie said quickly. She was a willowy woman with a soft voice. She was clearly struggling to assert herself among so many angry people. ‘As I said, the case collapsed. It’s nothing to do with your evidence—’
‘I should hope not!’ That was Phil again.
‘The case against Josh and Dale McAllister hinged around Osvaldo Moreno identifying them. There’s nothing beyond his statement to suggest the guys who committed these crimes are them – no DNA, no fingerprints, no other conclusive witness statements, and they’ve got rock-solid alibis, at least as far as the court is concerned. Their mother swears the boys were at home with her on the nights of both break-ins, and a family friend backs her up.’
‘Yeah, right!’ I exclaimed. As if lowlifes like Josh and Dale stayed in watching Strictly Come Dancing with their mum on a Saturday night! I wondered if the family friend was Paz, the guy who’d got Ollie into this mess. He hadn’t been part of the robberies, so he’d dodged police attention entirely. ‘She’s lying. That’s obvious!’
‘Unfortunately unless it’s proved otherwise, or there’s more powerful evidence, the court has to believe Mrs McAllister,’ Mum said.
‘Well, that’s stupid! Can’t they use a bit of common sense?’
‘That’s the way the law works.’ Mum gave me a tight smile.
‘So is it a case of Ollie’s word against Mrs McAllister’s, and they believed her over him?’
Angie shook her head. ‘It didn’t come to that.’ She drew a breath. ‘The primary reason that the hearing couldn’t refer the case was that Osvaldo Moreno changed his statement. He withdrew everything in it that implicated Josh and Dale.’
For the second time there was silence as we stared at her. Then we all started up again.
‘Is he allowed to do that?’
‘How does he explain where he was that night?’
‘Who’s he saying did this now?’
‘One at a time!’ Angie cried. ‘Let me speak, guys, please. Yes, anyone is allowed to withdraw or change their statement. Osvaldo’s now saying that he’s never met Josh and Dale, which matches what they say about him. He claims he bumped into the guys who committed the robberies on the Brooke Estate. He’s given names, and the police will be investigating.’
‘Fake names, no doubt.’ Phil said. ‘Don’t the past records of these scumbag brothers come into it? From what I hear, they do this kind of thing for kicks all the time.’
‘I’m afraid without positive identification it doesn’t matter what the twins have or haven’t done before, Phil.’ Mum seemed about the only person in the room keeping her cool. Angie looked a bit relieved to have her help. All her colleagues were doing were standing in the background looking apologetic. ‘The court may have suspicions, but they can only go on what’s presented to them. Ollie isn’t the first kid to withdraw a statement, and he won’t be the last.’
I glanced at Sam. He looked as if he wanted to die. Catching my gaze, he said in a quiet voice, ‘I’ve put you all in danger.’
‘Don’t you dare say that.’ Phil looked like he was going to explode. ‘You did the right thing. It’s not your fault this Ollie kid’s a bloody weak-willed coward!’
‘Hey!’ I was reeling from what had happened, but I wasn’t about to let Sam’s dad disrespect Ollie. ‘We don’t know why he changed his statement. They could have got their mates to threaten him.’
Phil gave me a look. ‘Sorry, kiddo, but the coward comment stands. You and Sam have come under fire, but you’ve stood firm.’
I looked away. ‘So what’s happened to Ollie? Do we know his sentence?’
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Sam shift uncomfortably.
Angie nodded. ‘The good news from his point of view is that the video shows he took no part in the assault that resulted in the death of Hamdi Gul. He’s got off with a community sentence. A long one, and he’ll be closely monitored by liaison officers, but I should imagine he’ll be counting his blessings. All the evidence points to him only being an accessory. He admitted everything, showed remorse and the pre-sentence report testified to a good character. The youth-offending team also reported that he has a difficult family background, coming over here as a refugee. These things all count.’
Someone murmured something about justice being served. Sam’s dad opened his mouth, probably to blast Ollie and the court some more, then closed it. Even he’d clocked that these comments weren’t welcome. Sam must have tipped him off that Ollie had been my boyfriend.
So all that’s happened is that Ollie’s got a criminal record for life and the real rats walk free, I thought, realizing just how angry I was. All we’ve gone through, everything we’ve risked – for this?
Josh and Dale McAllister would have walked by now. I bet they’d been laughing their heads off. They’d made a mockery of justice and knew it. Who would they hurt next?
‘Are we . . . ?’ Sam trailed off. Angie gave him an encouraging smile.
‘Ask me anything, Sam. I’m here for you.’
And that makes us all feel so much better. I rolled my eyes. I was rapidly losing respect for so-called support officers.
Sam said, ‘Are we going to get any kind of protection? I mean, we’re in a pretty bad position now. They might want payback.’
‘Josh and Dale have been acquitted. We can’t continue to treat them like suspects.’
‘Oh.’ Sam looked at his feet.
His dad slapped him on the shoulder. In a businesslike voice he said, ‘Looks like we’re done here, aren’t we? Best go home and batten down the hatches. It’s clear that no one’s on our side here.’
This drama wasn’t helping. Thank goodness Mum was being sensible.
‘They’ll get done for something eventually,’ I whispered to Sam as we all left. ‘This isn’t the end.’
He gave me an unhappy look. It
reminded me for a second of how anxious he’d been that night outside the chicken shop, when all this had begun.
‘You’re right,’ he said. ‘The question is whether they’ll get done before we do.’
SAM
TUESDAY 10 DECEMBER
Dad ranted the entire drive home, about the hearing, how easily scumbags could make a mockery of justice, how the system always fleeced off decent hard-working people like us. I’d heard him say things like this before but only now did I actually understand what he meant. We were nearly home when his mobile rang. Seeing that it was one of the numbers we had saved for the police, he told me to take the call.
‘They’re coming round in about an hour, to talk through how they can help us,’ I said.
‘Help us through the part where we live in fear because we dared to stand up for what’s right?’ Dad practically yelled. ‘Thank God we’re in a well-protected house. I might seriously consider that US transfer.’
US transfer? This was the first I’d heard of that, but what was the point of planning a future here with the McAllisters breathing down my neck? My imagination was full of the horrible things they might do to me, and I couldn’t even tell myself I was being melodramatic. They’d tried to kill me already. You didn’t get worse than that.
When we got in Tamsin met us in the hall and Dad filled her in. Jessie ran down the stairs, tail wagging. I knelt down and buried my face in her warm neck, closing my eyes and trying to pretend this wasn’t happening.
‘I’m calling my solicitor,’ Dad said, striding towards the room he used as an office. ‘And the press! Someone must be able to help.’
‘Let him burn off his rage,’ Tamsin said as the door slammed. She brushed the back of my head. ‘He’s not mad at you.’
I got up, letting Jessie go. In a small voice I said, ‘My worst nightmare was my life going back to how it was the week after I saw the attack. Not wanting to go outside, looking over my shoulder. But that’s reality now.’
Tamsin folded her arms, looking pained. ‘It might not be that way, Sam . . .’
‘Life was finally getting better. It’s not fair.’ My voice was a whisper.
‘I know.’ Tamsin’s voice was wobbly too. Probably thinking of what this means for the baby, I thought, hoping that this would be over by the time my little brother or sister came into the world. ‘But look at it this way: the case is done and dusted, and it can’t go to a retrial unless new evidence comes to light, so you and the others are no longer a threat to these yobs. The only reason for them to come after you is revenge, and that’s more of a TV drama thing than something that happens in real life.’
I wasn’t so sure. ‘Seems like a pretty good reason to me.’
‘These boys know they got away with murder. They’ll be keeping their heads down – they won’t want to attract attention. At least, that’s what I’d do if I was them.’ Tamsin gave me a reassuring look. Unfortunately her words were far from reassuring, though it was nice of her to try. Imogen had said that Josh and Dale McAllister had walked from youth court three times before this. They wouldn’t see the police as any kind of threat now. Or anyone else, for that matter. I didn’t know how they’d got Ollie to change his statement, but I was sure they had. When you could control what people said and did like that, you were never, ever going to get anything nailed on you.
They’re invincible, I realized. Nothing can touch them. Josh and Dale can do what they want. Worse, they know it.
IMOGEN
TUESDAY 10 DECEMBER
Mum said something that surprised me when we got home. I’d asked her if she thought the McAllister twins would ever change. Perfectly calmly she said, ‘I believe there’s hope for most of us, but I also believe that some people are just evil. They will continue to wreck lives for as long as they have the freedom to do so because they’ve become inhuman.’
I watched her put the kettle on. It felt I’d spent a lot of time with her in our tiny kitchen recently. Dad knew what was going on too and had drifted in and out of our discussions, but he didn’t seem to grasp the full implications of what was going on as well as Mum did.
‘I don’t suppose you’ll want me to come to court with you too,’ he’d said a few days earlier. ‘I can be there, but I’m not sure I’ll be very helpful.’
Thanks for the half-hearted offer, I thought. I told Dad not to bother. He didn’t look surprised.
Mum hadn’t complained about the time she’d taken out of work, though she must have resented it. Perhaps she was trying to make up for not being there for me. Perhaps she’d been shaken to discover how little trust there was between us.
A little later a police officer visited us. Dad and Benno were home by then. Benno joined us without being asked, and that made me feel sad. My kid brother knew that this involved him now.
‘Where’s Dad?’ I asked.
‘Upstairs. We can fill him in later,’ Mum said, as though Dad wasn’t important.
‘Oh, so he’s not part of this family? What is he then? Some dude who just happens to live with us?’
Mum shot me a disapproving look, nodding her head at the police officer. Suddenly we were back to old Mum, the parent who cared so much about appearances.
As it turned out, all the police could do was provide a special number for us to call if we suspected we might be in danger. As Angie had warned, the officer wasn’t really in a position to admit that there might be a revenge attack.
Can’t admit that the youth court got it wrong even though everyone with half a brain knows the score, I thought scornfully. My mood was rapidly turning from bad to worse. All the officer would say was that the McAllisters were among a number of young people the police kept a close eye on.
‘Where were those “close eyes” when they tried to run Sam down and when they beat me up?’ I said when the officer had gone. ‘Never mind when they were robbing the shops.’
Mum shrugged. ‘They know as well as we do that those two did it. But without enough evidence they couldn’t prove anything. They’ll want to get something else on them as soon as possible.’
Benno was hunched opposite the couch on his beanbag. Before the meeting he’d looked serious and curious. Now he looked plain scared. Feeling sorry for him, I made him shove up so I could sit next to him.
‘Sorry, soldier,’ I said, slinging an arm round his shoulder.
‘They’re worse than school bullies, right?’ Benno muttered.
I grimaced. ‘’Fraid so.’
‘We should decide on precautions,’ said Mum. ‘I know it’s a pain, but we’ve got to be smart about this. Particularly you, Immy.’
I felt anger boil inside but I knew she was right. Reluctantly, I said, ‘I’ll keep to public areas when I’m out, even when it means going a longer way round. And I’ll avoid streets and estates we know are dodgeville.’
‘Parks too,’ Mum said. ‘It’s so easy for someone to hide in the bushes. When you run I’d be much happier if you stuck to open spaces like the green, and went in daylight.’
That would mean I’d have to do my running immediately after sixth form. If only it was summer, when the light lasted longer.
‘Should Imogen be going out at all?’ a voice from the doorway asked.
‘So nice of you to join us, Dad,’ I said, laying on the sarcasm thickly. ‘I was beginning to think you didn’t care. For your information, I am not becoming a hermit because of this. I need a life. OK?’
Dad gave a pathetic sort of shrug. I rolled my eyes.
Rather sharply Mum said, ‘Don’t take it out on your dad. It’s not his fault we’re in this situation.’
The words stung. Up until this point, Mum had been acting so cool. I’d begun to remember the things I liked about her. ‘Don’t push guilt at me! I just think Dad ought to have been here earlier.’
‘Rather rich coming from the girl who wouldn’t tell her parents she was being threatened. You didn’t want us involved then.’
The sarcasm in Mum’
s voice reminded me of myself. I pressed my lips together and looked away.
‘Nothing to say?’ Mum demanded.
‘There’s nothing to say!’
‘Imogen, come on. There’s something you’re not telling us. I haven’t pushed you until now, but this is everyone’s safety on the line, and there can’t be secrets. Not now.’
I got to my feet. But when I reached the door and saw that Dad was still hovering there like a guest in his own house it suddenly seemed so unfair.
‘How about you tell me something,’ I heard myself say coldly. ‘Why did Dad go away for those months when we lived in Kent? Why did the police come to our house?’
For a second the shock on Mum’s face was almost satisfying. When I glanced at Dad my satisfaction died. He was staring miserably at the floor.
‘That’s not something anyone wants to talk about,’ Mum said quietly. ‘We’ve all moved on.’
‘What about me? What if I want to talk about it? We were a normal family until that happened! And let me tell you, we’re not normal now. Know why I didn’t tell anyone I was being threatened? They said they’d hurt Benno. And I knew I had to look after him because there’s a fat chance anyone else here will!’
The colour fell from Mum’s face. ‘That isn’t fair! We love you. We work night and day to provide for you—’
‘Yeah, and that’s the problem. You’re never around. And you wonder why I didn’t trust you enough to tell you everything!’
Mum was staring at me as though I was a stranger. I tried to push past Dad, but he placed a hand on my shoulder. With a pained look on his face he said, ‘I love you, Immy. Do you know that?’
That threw me. I backed away. It was starting to feel as if I was a ball in a pinball machine, being bounced from one point to another.
‘I don’t know what we’ve become as a family.’ I was horrified to hear that my voice sounded cracked. ‘But I don’t like it. I don’t want this for Benno. I don’t want him to grow up feeling as alone as I did.’
I wasn’t making sense. Everything I’d bottled up was a jumble. It felt like I was naked all of a sudden. Mum said something to Benno about going upstairs. I shook my head.
