Fighting for Survival (The Estate, Book 3) (11 page)

She knocked on the door. ‘Girls, I need to talk to you,’ she said, marching in and turning down the music blaring from the tinny CD player they shared.

Rachel was lying on her bed, reading a magazine. Claire was sitting next to her.

‘Don’t you ever knock?’ Rachel sighed.

‘I have knocked,’ Gina told them. ‘I’ve also had a visit from Josie Mellor yesterday.’

‘Whatever she says, we haven’t done,’ said Claire. ‘She’s always blaming us for everything.’

‘That’s because you’re usually in the thick of things.’

Both girls spoke in unison. ‘No, we’re not.’

Gina sat down on the edge of Claire’s bed. ‘It’s what I want to talk to you about. I need ammunition for when she next comes round asking all sorts of questions. I need to know that you haven’t been involved in any of the incidents she mentioned.’

‘We don’t know anything about Archie Meredith’s car getting bashed up,’ said Rachel.

‘How did you know I was going to ask about that?’

‘I – I just know that you’ll blame us for it anyway. You never stick up for us.’

‘I do!’ said Gina. ‘I get a roasting for it most of the time, too.’

Claire put down her magazine. ‘What do you really want, Mum?’

‘What I
don’t
want is you two going the same way as your brother.’

‘Huh, like we’d ever.’

Rachel nodded in agreement with her sister. ‘We’re far better at getting away with things.’

‘That’s not what I mean! Danny chanced his luck and he got caught last year.’

‘Yeah, well, Danny’s a knob,’ said Rachel. She lay back on the bed and sighed. ‘And an idiot. I mean, he got away with that murder charge when Miles’ factory got done over and then he gets caught nicking stuff from Halford’s. What a comedown he had.’

Claire laughed and turned to Mum. ‘We won’t get caught. We’re far too clever.’

‘You mean getting other girls to do your dirty work for you?’

Both girls glared at her then.

‘You think I don’t know what’s been going on?’

‘Nothing’s been going on,’ snapped Rachel.

‘So when Stacey Hunter gets out, she won’t be bothered by the fact that you seem to have taken over as gang leaders.’

Rachel sat upright. Claire nervously looked her way.

‘You have no idea how hard it is to survive on this estate, Mum,’ said Rachel.

‘
Survive
?’ Gina tried in vain to keep the incredulous tone from her voice. ‘We don’t live in the ghetto.’

‘Dur,’ said Claire. ‘Take a look out of the window. Yes we do.’

‘You’ve been watching too much television.’ Gina shook her head in exasperation. ‘I know living on the Mitchell Estate isn’t exactly a barrel of laughs, but there are worse places.’

‘Where?’

Gina stood up and raised her hands in the air in surrender. ‘I give up with you two,’ she said. ‘Do what you want. But I’m warning you both,’ she pointed at Rachel,’ you, madam, in particular, be very careful what you do. These things have a habit of coming back and biting you. Don’t say you haven’t been warned.’

As soon as Gina left the room, Claire turned to Rachel. ‘Stacey will want to take over, won’t she?’

‘Well, we’re not going to let her.’

Claire looked away. Quite frankly, the thought of Stacey getting out next week was enough to start her worrying about it already.

 Rachel shot forward, grabbed Claire’s chin and yanked her neck round so that she was facing her.

‘We’re not going to let her take over,
are we
?’ she repeated, staring at her intently.

‘No – no,’ Claire managed to say.

Rachel pushed her sister away. ‘Good.’

Claire went to sit on her own bed. She hated it when Rachel got all mouthy with her. And why did she have to cause trouble all of the time?

‘We need to come up with a plan,’ Rachel told her, the leg perched on her knee swinging violently from side to side. ‘Stacey won’t be content with second in command.’

‘I thought I was second in command.’

Rachel ignored her. ‘If she wants to get back on top, she’ll have me to put down first. I’m not letting go of the lead, no way.’

‘I thought I was second in command,’ reiterated Claire.

‘Shut the fuck up. I’m thinking.’

‘I’ve been thinking,’ Caren said to John as they ate their lunch together the following week. ‘I’m going to start working for myself.’

John looked up from his pasta dish with a frown before shoving in another forkful.

Caren held up a hand and waggled her fingers at him. He looked blankly at her.

 ‘Nails, dur! I’m going to set myself up mobile. It might not bring much in but it’ll be a start. And it’ll get me out of the house.’

‘Great.’ John continued to eat.

‘So that only leaves you to fix yourself up now,’ she added.

Yeah, Pete’s been telling me about –’

‘You’re not doing his type of work!’

‘What do you mean by that?’

Caren put down her fork. ‘I know what he gets up to. He’s never earned a decent day’s pay in his life.’

‘He gets by all right. Him and Gina –’

‘It’s nothing legal! He’s a bad influence and knowing you, you’ll get sucked into his way of life. Before you know it, you’ll be doing time for some petty crime or another.’

‘It’s easy money. Besides, I’ve been too busy to start making contacts.’

‘You already have contacts! Some of
them
might have work for you.’ Caren stood up. ‘It’s only pride that stops you. You need to stop being so picky.’

‘So picky?’

‘Yes.’ Caren moved to the sink and shoved the plate into the washing up bowl. ‘There’s work to be had out there with people you already know. Jesus, go and beg if you have to but we need to –’

‘You think it’s so easy, don’t you?’ John said quietly.

Caren turned to him. ‘Of course it isn’t easy, but you have to do it. I’m willing to give it a go too.’

John huffed. ‘Anyone can paint nails for the scabby bitches on this estate. You’ll make a frigging fortune. None of them ever get their hands dirty.’

John stood up quickly, his chair scraping across the tiles. Not bothering to put it back under the table, he marched towards the door.

Caren threw down the dish cloth. ‘Where are you running off to now?’

‘Away from you and your nagging. Maybe my best will never be good enough for you,’ John continued. ‘Maybe I’d be better off on my own.’

‘So you can shirk all your responsibilities?’

‘Like I said, I’m doing my best!’

Caren burst into tears. ‘I hate living like this,’ she cried. ‘We don’t have any money in the bank to call our own – we can hardly afford to pay the bills. And if we weren’t living in this hell hole, we wouldn’t be bickering all the time.’

John stared at her for a moment before walking across and taking her into his arms.

‘What are we going to do?’ she sobbed, his hands soothing her as he rubbed her back. ‘I don’t want to fight all the time but I feel so vulnerable living here.’

‘It won’t be for long.’ John tilted her chin up. ‘I’ll make more of an effort, I promise. If you want to move off here straight away, I’ll start looking for somewhere to live too.’

‘One step at a time,’ Caren sniffed. She smiled through her tears. ‘I don’t want us to break up over this. We’ve come so far through the years. We can’t quit now.’

John continued to stare at her. ‘Who said anything about quitting?’ He kissed her lightly on the tip of her nose.

‘I’m bored,’ Claire said to Rachel as the girls congregated outside Shop&Save that evening. ‘Who can we irritate?’

Rachel took a noisy slurp from her can of lager before replying. ‘I can’t be bothered tonight.’

‘Aw, come on.’ Leanne circled round on her bike in front of them. ‘I fancy some fun too.’

‘Shut up, Leanne,’ said Rachel.

‘What’s with you, you moody cow?’ Leanne snapped back. ‘Anyone would think you were worried about something.’

Rachel glared at her. ‘I said shut it.’

Leanne shrugged and continued to circle them on her bike.

‘Ohmigod,’ squealed Charlie. ‘Looks who’s here.’

Rachel glanced in the direction that Charlie was running to see Stacey Hunter walking towards them.

‘Fuck.’ Claire’s hands gripped the railing they were perched on, twisting and turning quickly.

It didn’t go unnoticed by Rachel. ‘Quit looking scared of her,’ she retorted.

‘I
am
scared of her,’ whispered Claire.

Rachel shook her head. ‘You’d better not be.’

The rest of the girls crowded around Stacey as she drew near to the car park. She was a tall girl, with deep-set eyes and a small nose. Brown hair was cut so close to her head that it was hard to tell her gender. Her face was void of any colour, several earrings dangling from an ear. A small tattoo on the back of her right hand spelt out the word ‘sinner.’  

She approached Rachel with assurance. ‘Hi,’ she said.

‘Hi yourself.’

‘How’re tricks?’

‘So, so.’

Stacey thrust her hands deep into her pockets and pulled out a packet of cigarettes. ‘Anyone want one?’

Suddenly she was the star attraction.

‘God, yeah. I could murder a fag,’ said Leanne.

‘Me too,’ Louise pulled one out. ‘Ta.’

Stacey handed them out before addressing the twins.

‘Claire?’ she offered the packet to her.

Claire shrugged, unsure what to do. She looked at Rachel, who with a slight nod of her head, indicated that it was all right for her to take one.

Stacey shoved the packet into Rachel’s chest. ‘Do you want one?’

Rachel purposely took two. She placed one behind her ear and the other one went in her mouth. Charlie lit it for her and she took a drag before looking up again.

Stacey and Rachel stared at each other like a pair of gunslingers ready to duel. The atmosphere turned to one of mixed tensions. Some of the girls couldn’t wait for the showdown: some of them were worried of its outcome. All of them were wondering who to pledge allegiance to once things started to get rough.

It was Stacey who finally broke the silence as she spotted a navy blue BMW driving towards them.

‘Here’s my ride. Thanks for watching over my patch,’ she told Rachel, ‘and my girls, but now I’m out, I’ve come to claim back my turf.’

Rachel glared at her. ‘Over my dead body,’ she replied.

Stacey nodded her head slowly. ‘I’m sure that can be arranged.’

Rachel only had time to fume as Stacey ran towards the car. From where she sat, she could see the driver was Sam Harvey, a well-known trouble maker from the estate. Stacey slid into the passenger seat and he sped off quickly.

Rachel walked off then, kicking over an advertising board outside Shop&Save as she drew level with it.

‘What’s up with you?’ Louise shouted after her. ‘You’re not losing your bottle, are you?’

Rachel stopped in her tracks and turned back. ‘No, I’m not losing my fucking bottle! For your information, I think we need to move on to bigger things – not just nicking stuff from easy targets. It’s a joke. I want everyone to be afraid of the Mitchell Mob; I want everyone talking about us. And for that we need to go up a gear.’

‘What do you mean?’ Louise was the first to challenge. ‘We cause enough mayhem already.’

‘If I get into any more trouble, my olds will ground me,’ Charlie spoke out.

‘Me too,’ said Ashley. ‘I got a backhander after we did Meredith’s car. My olds knew I’d been involved even though I denied it.’

‘Sounds like some of us are getting cold feet about belonging to the Mitchell Mob.’ Rachel folded her arms in defiance.

‘I don’t want to get locked up like Stacey,’ said Louise.

‘You have to take chances in this game to survive, so if we get sent down, we get sent down,’ reiterated Rachel.

Had Rachel noticed the wary looks travelling between the girls, she might have chosen her words better. Instead, to hide how nervous she felt, she went in guns blazing, pointing at them.

‘You lot need to decide your loyalties. I’m not giving in to the likes of Stacey Hunter so things will get tough for a while. She might think she’s hard but I’d smash her face in any day. And none of you need to make me into an enemy, or I’ll start on you too.’

She paused but no one spoke out. Great, just how she liked it; they were quaking in their trainers.

So there was absolutely no need for anyone to know that she was too.

CHAPTER NINE

As Caren tackled a pile of ironing, she thought more about the idea she’d had about going mobile to do nails. When she’d spoken to John about it, he’d said to hold fire and to see what came up for him. But that had been over a week ago and he still hadn’t sorted anything out – although she knew something was going on. She’d hardly seen him for the past couple of days. Every time she asked him what he’d been up to, he’d tap his finger to his nose and smile. She wondered if he was doing a trial for a company, see if he was what they were after.