Diamond (28 page)

Wryly, she wondered how many had got their shot, and
which one would end up in the sidebar of shame. Not that she cared.

There were even a few stragglers at the police station, and these were the ones whose long wait was rewarded, for they would get a rarer photograph.

She ran up the steps to the front door and hurried to the desk. Annoyingly, there was somebody already there, making a very long meal out of reporting somebody parking over his driveway. The sergeant gave her an apologetic look and pointed towards a side room.

She expected to see Mia. She didn’t get what she expected.

‘Kayley! Hello. What are you doing here?’

Kayley looked sheepish and took a sip out of her cardboard cup of coffee.

‘I’ve come to make a statement,’ she said. ‘But I wanted to talk to you first.’

‘A statement?’ Jenna struggled to overcome her disappointment, but it wasn’t easy. ‘Has there been trouble at the youth club? Something to do with the talent contest?’

‘No, that’s not it. Look, I had no idea about you and Jason. Obviously.’

‘Is this to do with Jason?’ Her heart lurched. She wasn’t sure if it was up or down.

‘Yeah. And before I tell you, I’m sorry. OK? I didn’t know it would work out this way.’

‘I’m all right. Where did you get the coffee?’

‘Vending machine, out in the hall. D’you want one? I’ll get it for you. Least I can do, in the circumstances.’

Jenna watched, nonplussed, as Kayley went out of the room, returning a minute later with another cardboard cup.

‘So,’ said Jenna, taking a sip of the scalding liquid. ‘What’s this all about, then?’

‘I’ve come to tell them that Jason didn’t know anything about what was going on with those drugs.’

‘Have you really?’ Jenna spilled a splash on to her hand. It hurt, and would leave a mark, but she could hardly have cared less. ‘How come? How do you know?’

‘All right, I’m going to go back a bit. I’m Mia’s best friend from school – you met up with Mia yesterday, I heard?’

‘That’s right.’

‘Well, me, Mia and Jase were all the same year at school together. They were the lovebirds of year eleven, and I got left out because they were always together, and I suppose I was jealous. I took against Jason from then. Just in a silly teenage way, I mean. There wasn’t anything serious to it. I just wanted the times Mia and I used to have back. I missed her.’

‘So you and Jason didn’t get on?’

‘No, I wouldn’t say that. I put on a good face. We went to the same parties, socialised with the same people. In the end, I got so lonely I went out and got myself a boyfriend, just so I could do coupley things with Mia and Jase. We did everything together. And I mean everything.’

She gave Jenna a significant, slightly shamed look, and Jenna remembered what Jason had told her about the wild sex lives of the young people on the estate. She didn’t want to know more.

‘So, you know them. Is this what’s going in your statement?’

‘No, this is just the background. I wanted you to know the full story before you … Ah, whatever. Anyway
I ditched the boyfriend, because we had nothing in common, and decided to get a life. Went to college, did my youth work qualification, kept away from the dodgy parties. But I got invited to a different type of dodgy party by a lad on my course – a party up at Harville Hall.’

‘My house!’

‘Yeah, except it was Lawrence Harville’s house, then. I didn’t know it, but it was party central. The place was falling down around him, but you could get anything you wanted there, do anything you wanted, have anyone you wanted. It was a different world. Anyway, Lawrence took a shine to me. I think he liked having a bit of rough. We got together, in a way. I mean, I were never his girlfriend. He wouldn’t have taken me out anywhere nice. But I got a lot of booty calls.’

‘Oh God, I hate him,’ muttered Jenna, unable to contain herself.

‘I brought Mia along to one of the parties, and then he dumped me and went for her. Well, she is pretty. I’d kill for her looks. She got into drugs, big time, and – I don’t know, I didn’t want to know, I never asked – I think she started dealing for him, in the pub. She stopped seeing so much of Jason because he didn’t know anything about it. I stopped seeing Lawrence and going to his parties. It was all starting to look a bit too sick for me. I just wanted a normal life.’

Her voice had a note of plea in it, and Jenna felt sorry for her, despite herself. She knew how easy it was to get sucked into dark places – she’d seen it over and over in LA. Some of her most promising talents were drying out, in psychiatric facilities, right now.

‘Of course,’ she said. ‘And you’ve done well for yourself. You do good work at the Youth Club.’

‘It’s not enough,’ Kayley said, hollowly. ‘I’ve done something horrible and I can’t stay quiet about it any more.’

‘So what’s the horrible thing?’ asked Jenna, but she was starting to see the picture.

‘I kept away from Mia, Jase, Lawrence, everyone, for a couple of years. I heard on the grapevine that Mia was getting more and more involved, and Jason was getting more and more pissed off with her. In the end, I think Lawrence just decided to get him out of the way. He turned up at my flat one night, and asked me to give him my rucksack.’

‘Harville?’

‘Yeah. I was surprised to see him – it’d been a while – and I asked him what the hell he wanted my rucksack for, and he got nasty. Brought out a load of photographs of me, off my face, and naked and whatnot at his parties. Send he’d send them to the Youth Service, and the local paper, unless I just handed it over, no questions asked and nothing to be said about it ever again. If the police asked me, I was to say I’d lent it to Jason, and didn’t know any more than that. And then I was to get off the estate for the night and stay with a friend until morning.’

‘Oh, God. You’re the friend of Mia’s.’

‘Yeah, but I didn’t know what was happening. Nobody told me, until I saw Mia the next day.’

‘Lawrence took a lot of trouble to cover his tracks.’

‘He used my rucksack, then got Mia to give it to Jason to deliver to the house – he’d had a tip-off that it was going to be raided, so he thought he might as well take
Jason down, since he was going to lose a lot of stock.’

‘Whose was the house?’

‘Just one of his goons. A pathetic druggie called Blister. He’d got him to take the full rap for it, promised him a better crib when he got out of prison, if he kept schtum about his suppliers and higher-ups.’

‘And you knew all this, but you never said anything?’

‘I couldn’t. Lawrence had those photos. Plus he knows some bad people in Nottingham. Hitmen, even. I didn’t dare.’

‘But now?’

‘I could keep my trap shut when it was just Jason on the hook. But you? You really don’t deserve it. When I saw those stories in the newspapers, I felt like scum. I’d rather go down myself than let you go down for me.’

‘Jason doesn’t deserve it either,’ Jenna said, still angry, but moved by Kayley’s open and sincere confession. ‘He has a life to live, and an amazing talent to give the world. You nearly deprived us of that.’

‘I know. Believe me, I can’t feel any worse than I do. If I could turn back the clock—’

‘I know, I know. Everyone has regrets, but these are serious ones.’

‘I had no idea you and he …’ She gave Jenna a quizzical look.

‘I found him in my attic. Can you believe that?’

‘I can’t believe you didn’t scream the place down, then call the police.’ Kayley smiled, weakly.

‘I almost did. I’m very glad I didn’t.’

‘So is there, like, you know, you and him …?’

Jenna bit her lip and nodded slowly.

‘Wow. That’s romantic. Like a story.’

‘It’s romantic, right up to the point where he gets arrested for a crime he didn’t commit.’

‘And that’s where I come in,’ said Kayley, drawing a deep breath. She stood and went to the door. ‘Shall we?’

Jenna could only wait in reception while Kayley was taken to an interview room. Time dragged, and stretched, and did everything it could to elongate itself. Jenna drank three cups of vending machine coffee, before realising that it wasn’t really helping.

Her idea of looking at the news sites on her mobile phone proved to be unwise – in the hurly-burly, she had forgotten that she, herself, was front page news. She was shocked to see a headline ROUGH DIAMOND with a picture of herself and Jason, in the front garden, at the time of his arrest.

She wondered how supportive Deano would be feeling now.

She didn’t have to wait long to find out.

A text came through and, seeing that it was from him, she didn’t ignore it, as she had been doing all the others.

She opened it.

‘U were shaggin him!’

Oh, dear. Outrage. She sighed, and deleted it unanswered.

A door opened somewhere in the hinterland behind the front desk. She pricked up her ears. Kayley?

She came to the front desk, winked at Jenna, then had to go through a number of forms with the sergeant before she could speak to her.

‘What’s happening?’ asked Jenna breathlessly.

‘I’ve been arrested and charged,’ she said, as cheerfully as if she’d been telling her about a holiday booking. ‘I
should be devastated, but I feel really like a weight’s been lifted. I feel
good
.’

‘I knew that you would, babe.’ Jenna quoted the old song, smiling back at her. ‘So, what’s the score now, with Jason?’

‘They’ve got to look into it, of course. For all they know, I could be lying to save someone else’s skin. And they need to get hold of Harville and Mia.’

‘What have you been charged with?’

‘Perversion,’ she said grinning. ‘It sounds so bad, doesn’t it?’

‘Not accessory?’

‘No, because I didn’t know what they wanted my bag for – though I could have guessed. And I was blackmailed into it. They might charge me later if they decide not to believe me, though. That might depend on Harville.’

She looked glum.

‘I don’t like the idea of everything depending on Harville,’ said Jenna.

‘Neither do I.’

‘Mia, though?’

‘Mia would fess up, I’m sure she would. She’s all right, underneath it all. I don’t think she’s happy about Jason going down, either.’

‘So, are you free to go?’

‘Yeah. They’ll send me the court details when they get a clearer picture of who else will be in the dock with me. Ugh. In the dock. I expect I’ll lose my job now. Mum’ll kill me.’

‘You can work for me,’ said Jenna without thinking twice.

‘Oh, get away. I’m not a showbizzy type.’

‘You don’t have to be. I could find a place for you.’

‘Could you, really?’

‘Leave it with me. First of all, we need to pin down Lawrence Harville and Mia, make sure the police can get hold of them. We don’t want them going to ground.’

‘I think they were going to look for them straight away. Mia’s easy – she’ll still be in her pit, at the pub.’

‘Yes, I bet you’re right. As for Lawrence – well, I think I can deal with him. Will you come back to the house with me for back-up?’

‘Oh, is this a covert operation?’ Kayley was thrilled. ‘Sign me up. I always fancied myself as a spy.’

‘Excellent. What are we waiting for, then? Let’s get going.’

They were allowed out through the back door, again, and hurried to the car, Kayley making sure she pulled the brow of her baseball cap down over her face in trademark shifty-villain style.

‘There’s press all over the front of the house,’ Jenna warned her. ‘I’m going to go in first, and you can wait in the car ten minutes, then come to the door. Tell them you’re my financial advisor, if they ask.’

Kayley laughed out loud. ‘I look so like one,’ she said, looking down at her jogging pants and tattooed arms.

‘That’ll give them something to gossip about while we’re working, then,’ said Jenna.

The throng had not thinned while Jenna had been out – if anything, it was worse. Jenna had to elbow her way through them, keeping her head low and her mouth sealed.

Once in the house, she took out her phone and called Harville.

‘Jenna.’ He sounded surprised.

‘Lawrence. I’ve been thinking things over, and I think you’re right. I can’t stay in Bledburn. There’s no point hanging on to the Hall.’

‘Right. Good. Well, how about a private sale, then? Get your lawyer to call my lawyer …’

‘Can’t we do things a little less formally? I’m up to my eyes in legal shit as it is. Why don’t you come round? I’ll give you the keys and get the hell out of here. I’ll stay in a hotel, till the trial is over.’

There was a silence. He was bound to suspect trickery, she thought, but she mustn’t start to beg or sound desperate, because that would be the biggest giveaway of all.

‘Very reasonable,’ he said, at last, ‘for a woman who was completely
un
reasonable yesterday. Do you have something up your sleeve? Something like a kitchen knife, for instance?’

‘Lawrence, I’m sorry about that. I was stressed. Can I wave the white flag? I’d like to make it up to you.’

She had put just enough subtle promise in her voice to hook him, it seemed, because he changed his tone straight away.

‘Well, in that case, OK.’

‘If you’re nervous, you can bring a friend.’

‘Oh, I don’t think so. I don’t think that would be appropriate, do you?’ He chuckled softly then hung up.

Jenna punched the air.

A few minutes later, Kayley knocked and was admitted.

‘He’s coming,’ said Jenna eagerly.

‘Shit,’ said Kayley. ‘What do you want me to do then?’

‘I want you to – have you got a phone? Good. I want you to go up to the attic and lurk there. As soon as you
hear a knock at the door, call the police. Tell them Harville is here. The rest should be easy enough.’

Kayley did a mock salute. ‘Yes, partner,’ she said. ‘Gorgeous house, isn’t it? Shame Lawrence let it go to rack and ruin. You’ve got your work cut out for you.’

‘I know. But I’ll get there. Quickly, then – I have no idea when he’ll get here. He’s out and about a lot, is our Lawrence.’

Kayley bounded up the stairs, apparently given a new lease of life by her new criminal status. Jenna paced around the ground floor, trying to get her thoughts straight and her courage up. The idea that this could go horribly wrong insisted on inserting itself into her mind, filleting through her resolve.