Broke (31 page)

It sounded plausible, and Marnie exhaled loudly to release the tension. Then, giving him an apologetic smile, she said, ‘Sorry for jumping to conclusions. Want a brew?’

‘I’d love one.’ Yates smiled back, but the smile slipped as soon as Marnie left the room and he turned his attention back to the TV. It was too early for the police to have released any details yet, but he didn’t want to miss it when they did, because he couldn’t do anything until he knew if he was on the run or not.

‘Amy . . .
Amy
. . .?’

Evangeline had been dozing, but she sat bolt upright when she heard Kelvin’s voice and grasped his hand.

‘Kel, it’s me – Evie. Are you awake?’

Kelvin swallowed dryly and opened his eyes. ‘Where’s Amy?’

‘Never mind her,’ Evangeline said dismissively. ‘How do you feel?’

‘Not too good,’ said Kelvin, wincing when he tried to move his other hand and the drip feed dragged against his skin. He gazed around, confused by the monitors. ‘What happened? Why am I here?’

‘You got shot coming out of work,’ Evangeline told him quietly. ‘Don’t you remember?’

Kelvin shook his head. He could see blurry images of a scuffle in his mind’s eye and guessed that Yates must have caught up with him, but he couldn’t recall any of the details.

‘I’ll get the nurse.’ Evangeline stood up.

‘Wait!’ Kelvin held on to her hand. ‘I need to know if Amy’s okay. Will you check on her for me?’

‘No, I won’t,’ Evangeline told him firmly. ‘I don’t know what you’ve got yourself involved in, Kel, but I know it’s got something to do with her, and she can rot in hell as far as I’m concerned.’

‘It’s not her fault,’ Kelvin insisted, pain flaring in his eyes as he struggled to speak. ‘There’s a man—’

‘I know, she said,’ Evangeline interrupted. ‘But she wouldn’t tell me his name, so she’s obviously covering for him. Shows how much she cares about you.’

‘It’s not like that. Please, Eve. For me.’

‘Look, Mommy already wants to tell the police, so I don’t think it’s a very good idea for me to—’

‘No!’ Kelvin shook his head from side to side. ‘Don’t let her. It’s too dangerous.’

‘Don’t worry, I sussed that something was going down and told her not to say anything,’ Evangeline assured him. ‘And I kicked your so-called friend out, so she won’t be showing her face again any time soon. Now you just forget about her and concentrate on getting better, and then we’ll talk. Okay?’

Kelvin sighed and closed his eyes. He knew his sister inside out and there was no point trying to persuade her to look for Amy now she’d convinced herself that this was Amy’s fault. If he’d been able, he’d have got up and done it himself. But he wasn’t, so he couldn’t do a thing apart from pray that Amy was strong enough to look after herself until he got out of here.

Evangeline gazed down at her brother and, thinking that he’d gone back to sleep, kissed him on the cheek. Then, tiptoeing out of the room, she told the nurse that he’d come round. Then she called her mother to let her know the good news.

Over on the other side of Manchester, Amy had just been woken by the sound of children playing outside the derelict gatehouse of the park where she’d spent the night.

She had hidden in the takeaway yard for hours after her run-in with Kelvin’s sister – and might still have been there if the rats hadn’t come out to play. It was said that people were never more than a few feet away from a rat at any given time, but Amy had never believed it until she experienced it for herself. As soon as it had got dark the yard had seemed to come alive with them, and she’d been frozen with fear as the nasty hunchbacked creatures had scuttled around her. It had been terrifying to hear them fighting and scavenging in the bins, but when one of the filthy things brushed against her she’d been on her feet and out of there in a flash.

Cold and hungry, she peered out through the broken window to make sure that no one was nearby, then climbed out and, hood pulled low, set off for her mum and dad’s house. It had been months since she had seen them, and she doubted she’d get a rapturous welcome because her mum had made it quite clear at the custody-court hearing that she blamed Amy for losing the kids. But if they realised that she was clean of the drugs now and desperate to make amends, they might find it in their hearts to help her.

Please God.

An alarm was going off in the distance when Amy turned the corner onto her parents’ road, and she hesitated when she saw a police car parked across from their house. For a moment, she thought that Kelvin’s sister had reported her for knowing who had shot Kelvin. But she reminded herself that, apart from Yates, none of the people she’d met since this nightmare began knew her maiden name, much less her mum and dad’s address.

Reassured, she put her head down and walked quickly down the road. But just as she was passing the next-door neighbour’s gate, the front door opened and Phil Nolan stepped out. He spotted her and said something to the policeman who was right behind him, and Amy squeezed her eyes shut when the copper called, ‘Just a minute, miss. Can I have a word?’

Her first instinct was to run, but she knew she’d stand no chance of getting away. So she turned and gave him a questioning smile. ‘Yes?’

‘I believe this is your mum and dad’s place?’ the officer asked, nodding towards the house. ‘Don’t suppose you’ve got a key?’

Amy shook her head. ‘No, sorry, I haven’t lived here for years. Why, what’s up?’

‘That!’ Phil pointed at the flashing alarm box on the wall. ‘It’s been going off all flaming morning, but this lot reckon it’s got to have been going off for twenty-four hours before they can authorise entry.’

Amy stared at the box. She hadn’t realised that the alarm was coming from her parents’ house until now, and she felt her stomach flip with dread. ‘What happened?’ she asked. ‘Where are they?’

‘Oh, don’t worry about them,’ Phil said with a scathing edge to his voice. ‘They’re off on their jollies in Torquay, them. Won’t be back till Wednesday.’

‘Oh.’ Amy’s heart sank.

‘Sorry.’ The officer gave Phil an apologetic shrug. ‘Nothing else I can do.’

‘Yeah, I know.’ Phil sighed. ‘Thanks for coming, anyway, son.’

He waved the officer off, then turned back to Amy and gave her an exasperated look. ‘I could bloody throttle your mam and dad. I’ve been trying to ring them all morning to see if they’ve left a spare key anywhere, but it keeps going to voicemail. It’s driving me and Fran round the flaming bend.’

‘Do you know what set it off?’

‘Yeah, some little bastard tried to jemmy the back window this morning. I heard it and called the cops, but the bugger legged it when he heard the sirens. That’s what you get for blabbing your business to all and sundry. I told your mam. I said, if you advertise that your house is going to be empty, you’re asking to be burgled. But she just had to let everyone know they could afford a nice holiday.’

Amy couldn’t argue with that. That was her mum all over: always showing off, always bragging.

‘Oh, well.’ Phil shrugged in a gesture of defeat. ‘Nowt I can do about it, so I suppose I’ll just have to keep the telly turned up to drown it out. Bye, love.’

Amy bit her lip when he turned to go back into his house. Then, blushing deeply, she called, ‘Phil . . . you couldn’t lend us a couple of quid, could you? My money hasn’t gone in yet, and I’ve got an interview in town. I’m going to be late if I don’t go now.’

Phil sighed, reached into his pocket and tossed her a fiver.

‘Thanks,’ she murmured shamefacedly. ‘I’ll drop it round later.’

‘Forget it,’ he said, pushing his door open. ‘I’ll get it off your dad when he comes back – along with compo for putting up with this flaming racket.’

When he’d gone inside, Amy shoved the money into her pocket and walked away quickly. Phil hadn’t given her a description of the man he’d seen trying to break in, but she would bet her life that it was Yates. In which case, the police obviously hadn’t connected him to Kelvin’s shooting, and he was still free to hunt her down – so she was still in serious danger.

She stopped at a shop and bought an
Evening News
, some cigarettes and matches, and a couple of packets of crisps. Then, using her last fifty pence, she called the hospital. But they wouldn’t tell her anything, so she went back to the gatehouse and scoured the paper for news of Kelvin.

There was no mention of the shooting at all, and she hoped that meant he was still alive. She wished she could see him, to thank him for everything he’d done – and apologise for the trouble she’d brought to his door. But she decided that the best thing she could do for him now was leave him well alone.

32

Too scared to go out into the open again, Amy hid in the gatehouse for the next three days. She had intended to stay there until Wednesday, and then sneak out and make a reverse-charge call to her mum and dad. But by Saturday she felt so weak and sick that she was afraid she might die if she didn’t get out of there.

The crisps were long gone by then, and her stomach was growling continuously. There had been plenty of times in the past when she’d gone without food so the kids could eat, so she wasn’t bothered about that. It was the lack of sleep she couldn’t handle. And only one thing would help: heroin.

She tried to resist, but the craving took hold and before she knew it she had climbed out of the window and walked into town. Sick to her stomach at the thought of what she was about to do, she stood on the corner of a dark backstreet and waited. Less than ten minutes later a car pulled alongside her. A vision of Kelvin’s smiling face flashed into her mind as she climbed into the passenger side and her heart wept, because she knew how disappointed he would be if he could see her. But she pushed the thought aside, telling herself that he couldn’t see her – and never would again.

The punter drove her to a parking lot at the rear of a derelict factory on the outskirts of Ancoats. He switched off the engine, lowered his seat, unzipped his fly and lay back with his arms behind his head.

‘Start with a hand job and a quick suck, then get on top. I’ll give you fifty for the lot.’

Amy swallowed sickly. His penis was already erect, and it would be so easy to just do it and get it over with. But her hand refused to move. She’d done this a thousand times before, but never when she was straight, and never of her own free will.

‘I’m sorry,’ she cried, scrambling to open the door.

‘What you playing at?’ The punter jerked up in his seat.

‘I can’t do it,’ Amy told him tearfully. ‘I thought I could, but I can’t. I’m really sorry. Please let me out.’

The man raised his hands into the air, and Amy winced, sure that he was going to hit her. But he just slapped his fists down on his thighs, and then zipped his fly back up before releasing the central locking.

‘Get out. But don’t let me see you out there again, or I won’t be so fuckin’ nice next time.’

Muttering, ‘Don’t worry, you won’t,’ Amy jumped out and ran.

Stopping when she reached town, she swiped at her tears and gazed at a tramp sitting in a doorway up ahead, swigging from a bottle of cider. There was a paper cup on the floor in front of him, and it gave her an idea. If she couldn’t get money the other way, she would beg instead.

She walked further into town, to a street that was busy with nightclubs, and stood in the shadows of a doorway. Before too long, a couple came around the corner. They were sharing a bag of chips and her stomach growled when the scent of hot vinegar reached her.

‘Excuse me . . .’ She stepped out as they passed. ‘You couldn’t spare a bit of change, could you?’

‘Fuck off!’ The man glared at her with disgust in his eyes.

‘Aw, don’t be mean, she’s only a kid,’ the woman scolded, reaching into her jacket pocket. ‘Here you go, sweetheart. Don’t spend it all at once.’

Pride almost made Amy refuse the pound coin, but she took it and mumbled ‘Thank you’ before rushing away.

Absolutely mortified at having been forced to sink so low, she rushed around the corner. But her shame quickly turned to fear when a group of singing women stumbled out of a karaoke bar and started walking towards her arm in arm. The one in the middle stopped singing when their stares met, and then she stopped walking, too.

‘Come on.’ One of the others tugged on her arm. ‘I need a kebab.’

‘You go,’ Marnie said quietly. ‘I’ll catch up with you in a minute.’

When her friends staggered away, she stuffed her hands into her pockets and gave Amy an uncertain smile. ‘All right?’

Shaking like a leaf, her gaze flicking every which way in dread of Yates being close behind, Amy said, ‘Yeah. You?’

‘Not bad.’ Marnie gave a little shrug.

Neither of them spoke again for a few seconds, and Marnie felt awkward. They had fallen out way before she stole Lenny off Amy, and she’d convinced herself that she had done nothing wrong. But now, face to face with the girl who had once been her closest friend, she couldn’t help but feel a little guilty.

‘You know I never meant to hurt you, don’t you?’ she said quietly. ‘Me and Lenny . . .’ She paused and sighed before continuing. ‘Well, you can’t help who you fall in love with, can you?’

‘
Love?
’ Amy nearly choked on the word. ‘You think he loves you?’

‘I know it’s been hard for you,’ Marnie went on. ‘But you’ve got to admit that you and Lenny weren’t right for each other. It’s different with me, we understand each other. And we’re going to be a family now,’ she added proudly, ‘so I hope you can let it go and get on with your own life.’

Amy’s gaze dropped to Marnie’s stomach and she felt sick all over again when she saw the bump. ‘Oh, God,’ she moaned. ‘Not with him . . . please not with him.’

‘Oi, Marn, what’s taking you?’ one of the women from the group called out before Marnie could answer. ‘We’ve got a cab!’

Marnie looked at Amy with pain in her eyes. Things had been pretty toxic between them towards the end, but that didn’t mean she hated her or wished her ill.

‘Oh, Amy, why are you doing this to yourself?’ she asked. ‘You look terrible.’