Behind a Closed Door (The Estate, Book 2) (2 page)

‘Not according to our records.’

‘But he filled the forms in for me!’

Josie raised her eyebrows questioningly.

‘I had my money paid into my own account,’ Kelly snapped. ‘I didn’t have to ask him for it if that’s what you’re getting at!’

‘No, what I’m trying to tell you is that he lived at Patrick Street claiming as a single man. You were – unbeknownst to you, maybe – claiming as a single mother.’

‘But why would he do that?’

‘To get more money. Lots of couples scam that way.’

Kelly shook her head. ‘He wouldn’t do that, not to us.’

‘Oh, he would,’ Josie told her. ‘And he has.’

For a moment, Kelly sat quietly while her brain tried to work out the logistics of the conversation. She wondered how long the eviction process took but didn’t dare ask. Even she realised that the rights must be different when a prison sentence got handed out.

‘Mummy, look at my picture,’ said Emily, thrusting the drawing book at Kelly.

‘It’s very good.’ Kelly glanced at it quickly. ‘Can you do another one while I finish off? There’s a good girl.’ She looked at Josie and spoke quietly. ‘And my other option?’

Josie pointed to another box. ‘You could have your own tenancy. It would have to be another property, though – it couldn’t be Patrick Street because that’s in Mr Johnstone’s name.’

Kelly quickly wrote down her national insurance number. ‘Would Scott be able to move in with me when he gets out?’

‘Yes, but you’ll have to declare it to the benefits agency. No more single living.’

‘
I
didn’t know that I was.’

Josie turned the form over to the back page. ‘If you do decide to have your own tenancy, there are two flats ready to view.’           

Kelly narrowed her eyes. ‘You never said nowt about moving into a flat!’ she hissed.

‘There are only the two of you, and with you being classed as homeless now, you don’t have much of a choice, I’m afraid.’

‘But I'm not homeless – you’re forcing me to leave my house! And there are three of us. You’re forgetting Scott.’

Josie leaned forward, aware how vital it was that she gained Kelly’s trust. ‘I don’t feel good about doing this but Mr Johnstone played things really clever. By keeping your name off any of the household bills, as well as the tenancy agreement, it means that you can’t prove you’ve been living there for the past twelve months. Therefore, you’re not entitled to stay. If he won’t sign the forms, we’ll start eviction proceedings for non-payment of rent. Eventually, the property will come back to us.’

‘But you know how long I’ve been living there!’ Kelly’s eyes pleaded to Josie. ‘You could vouch for me!’

‘It’s not that simple. For all I know, you could have been staying over for a couple of nights whenever I’ve visited.’

Kelly sat back in her chair again and folded her arms. ‘So I’m fucked, whichever way I look at things?’

Josie was used to tenants swearing at her when she told them something they didn’t want to hear. Unlike some of the violent ones who’d come within an inch of her face to do so, she sensed that Kelly wasn’t using it for the benefit of annoying her. Her anger seemed to be directed at the system.

‘The other thing I need to tell you is that both flats are on the top of the estate.’

‘You mean on the ‘hell’? Jesus Christ! It gets fucking worse!’ Kelly kicked the table leg in temper. Emily jumped but with a quick, reassuring smile from her mum, continued to draw.

‘It’s only just off Davy Road,’ explained Josie. ‘Much better than being right at the top. And watch your language, please.’

Kelly could feel herself breaking. The Mitchell Estate was mostly made up of rented accommodation, some properties owned by the local authority and the majority of the remainder belonged to Mitchell Housing Association.
It was split down the middle by a main road. Everyone knew that the top of the estate was the worst place in the city to live. ‘Living on the hell’, it was known as: the bottom of the estate, The Mitch, wasn’t much better, but was definitely the lesser evil of the two.

As Kelly’s head fell into her hands, Josie’s heart went out to her. The application form told her that she was twenty-four and Emily was four. From her appearance, Josie could see that Kelly was capable of looking after herself. She could spot no obvious indications of self-neglect; no dark bags under her eyes, no sallow, spotty skin, so she wasn’t doing drugs – always a good sign. Kelly’s dark brown hair was cut in a short and spiky style, and her iconic elfin face wore just the right amount of make-up to make Josie feel fifty-seven instead of thirty-seven. She wore stylish clothes, all clean and pressed, and her daughter was spotless.

‘Both flats need decorating,’ Josie forged ahead, regardless of Kelly’s silence. ‘Which we will give you an allowance for, but it probably won’t cover the cost of all you’ll need. I take it from your earlier comment that you’ll be claiming benefits?’

Kelly slapped her hand down hard on the table top. ‘Don’t you look down your nose at me, you snotty cow, with your high and mighty attitude! Just because you work here doesn’t mean that you’re better than me. I used to have a job before I had Emily, but Scott wanted me to stay at home with her when she was little. What’s wrong with that? Don’t you think bringing up a kid is worthy of a job title?’

‘You need to calm down, Kelly.’

‘If you must know, I hate living off handouts. It makes me feel like crap.’ She looked up again with a glare. ‘Don’t you think I wish I could get a job again? But it’s been too long – who’d take me on? I’ve got no one to look after Emily. And if I did, I’d get a pittance that won’t be worth getting out of bed for.’

‘Don’t knock yourself too much. You have as much chance as anyone.’

‘But what can I do?’

‘Lots, if you put your mind to it.’

Kelly stared at Josie, ready to protest again, but realised that she wasn’t patronising her.

Josie pointed to the last empty box. ‘You need to sign here as well. I also need to do a property inspection.’

‘But I don’t want to move out!’

‘You don’t have to move out straightaway, but you
will
be evicted and then I won’t be able to help you.’

Kelly’s shoulders drooped even further. ‘I don’t have a choice, do I?’

‘Yes,’ nodded Josie. ‘You could always try and find yourself another property to rent. But you need to decide soon what is right for you – and Emily. I can’t hold the flats for too long. There are other people on the waiting list.’

‘Mummy, can we go now?’ Emily asked. ‘I want to see Nanny.’

Kelly smiled at her. ‘Sure we can, poppet. You get your coat on, I won’t be a minute.’

Josie sighed. Underneath the hard exterior, she could see a frightened young woman. Yes, she lived on a rough estate and mixed with a few rough characters, but this wasn’t the east end of London.

Already she could feel herself warming to Kelly’s plight as she watched her fasten up Emily’s coat. Josie knew she could help her. It would be hard work trying to pierce Kelly’s durable shell, but persistence was her middle name. How many hostile people had she befriended over the years? They hadn’t all been success stories but she had a feeling that Kelly could be one of them.

‘I can help you through this,’ she offered.

‘I don’t need your help,’ Kelly replied curtly. ‘I don’t need anyone’s help. I can manage on my own.’

Hmm, thought Josie, maybe not! Even so, she wasn’t perturbed by the tone of her voice.

‘I’m sure you can,’ she agreed. ‘Now, you need to sign here and we’re done. Then there are the flats to view.’

CHAPTER TWO

‘So who else do you know on the Mitchell Estate?’ Josie asked Kelly later that afternoon, as she walked down the path towards a block of four flats.

Kelly shrugged her shoulders as she followed behind her. ‘I know loads of people but no one I’m close to. I see Lynsey Kirkwell every now and again.’

Lynsey was another of Josie’s tenants. She was twenty-two, with three children each having a different father, and her family was notorious. Josie knew her brothers, too; Michael and Stevie were the elder two of three, Jay being the youngest by ten years.

‘Funny choice of friend.’  

‘I met her in the health centre when I took Emily for her first weigh-in. She was nice to me. Scott’s not keen on me having friends, but Lynsey was okay because he knew her brothers.’

‘But she’s so untidy!’ Josie screwed up her face. She wanted to say ‘filthy’, but knew where her professional boundary lay. Lynsey had been one of her failures. She thought back to the last visit she’d made to her flat; wallpaper on most of the walls had been torn, crayon drawings and swear words prominent over the bottom half. The furniture and appliances were up-to-date and brand new but there wasn’t really a need for the top-notch carpeting as there had been nowhere to stand without treading on someone’s clothes. The smell of body odour and chip fat stayed with Josie for hours afterwards, clinging to her coat, no matter how much body spray she squirted on it.

‘Is Emily with your parents?’ she asked next.

‘None of your business.’

Josie chose to ignore the hostility in Kelly’s voice. ‘Let’s look at this flat first and the other one is further down.’

Kelly watched as Josie struggled to undo the frozen padlock on the steel door that covered the front entrance. ‘Why are there so many boarded-up properties around here?’ she asked.

‘It’s called vandaglaze.’ The door gave out an almighty groan. ‘It means the buggers can’t damage it. It saves us thousands. You should see what they do to these places if they get in. Mind the step, now.’

Kelly waited for Josie to kick away the colossal mountain of junk mail and final demands. Then she followed her down a narrow, dark passageway. She wrinkled up her nose at the smell that assaulted her nostrils.

‘New plaster,’ Josie explained when she noticed. ‘It smells like pee, doesn’t it? But it’ll go when the property has been ventilated.’ She ushered her into a fair sized room. ‘Bedroom one. Needs a lick of paint and swift removal of the ghastly seventies swirls.’

One step to the right.

‘Bedroom two… Emily’s, maybe?’

Kelly dragged heavy feet behind her as she walked across to inspect the cupboard in the corner of the room. She tugged at a piece of stray wallpaper around the doorway. It fell onto the manky cord carpeting that had been left behind. She shook her head in dismay. How could this woman standing beside her think that
this
room was good enough for her daughter?

Josie sighed in irritation as they moved through into the living room. She could clearly see the damage caused by Mrs Corden’s five dogs – which had been removed by the RSPCA – claw marks on both doors, teeth marks on the doorframe. The room hadn’t been decorated in a good many years, the paintwork yellow and peeling. Even the UPVC windows had stains of nicotine imprinted in them.

Kelly went through the door leading into the small kitchen. Another overpowering odour emerged when she opened a cupboard door.

‘It’s due to have a re-fit next year,’ Josie explained when she saw Kelly pull back her head. ‘You’ll be able to choose from three styles and colours.’

‘Do people really live like this?’ Kelly eventually found her voice. She kept her back towards Josie while her eyes flitted around in revulsion. ‘I don’t know how you do this job. It’s gross in here.’

‘This is nothing compared to some of the places I visit. This estate has a large number of social housing properties but, fortunately for me, the city council owns most of them. Mitchell Housing Association is a drop in the ocean. Besides, showing people around empty properties is the better part of my work. I much prefer it to when people have been there for a while and made their mark, if you know what I mean.’

People were often confused with Josie’s role of housing officer, especially the tenants, who thought she pushed her nose in where it didn’t belong. For work purposes, the estate had been split into patches and she and Ray had 600 properties each to look after, no matter what the complaint. One appointment could find Josie holding someone’s hand as they cried for the loss of a loved one while she sorted out their benefits, the next she could be laying down the law with a noisy family hell bent on causing chaos for the rest of their street. She could be sorting out an alleged dog barking complaint just as easily as reporting a dead cat run over on the main road, a mound of rubbish being dumped on the odd patch of grass or having a cup of tea with a new tenant. On the odd occasion, Josie had to evict someone for anti-social behaviour, it was usually followed by showing a desperate family around a scratty property they’d have to make their home from now on, due to theirs being repossessed.

‘Most of my tenants live respectfully,’ she added, after Kelly had gone quiet again. ‘We do have the odd ones who won’t help themselves. That’s why the property is in such a mess. There’s only the bathroom left, do you want to see it?’

Kelly shuddered as she turned back to face her. ‘I’m not looking in there after seeing the state of everywhere else.’