Hard Girls (37 page)

‘Hayley, I hope you do leave him. And I hope you will feel better soon, love.’

The words were so trite, so banal, but what else were you supposed to say? The truth? Wow, Hayley, he really did the business on you this time, eh?

Miriam smiled at the woman sadly and led Kate from the room. Outside in the corridor Kate sighed with relief. ‘I need your help badly, Miriam.’

Miriam was thrilled to bits. ‘Anything you need, Kate. I’ll do my best to provide you with it.’

Since Kate had visited her in the hospital, she knew that Miriam now classed her as her number one friend. ‘Come to the canteen, and we’ll get a couple of teas and I’ll explain in more detail what I need from you. Is that OK?’

Kate was aware that Miriam was suddenly looking decidedly nervous and grabbing her by the arm she said mischievously, ‘Cheer up, Miriam, you always look so sad.’

Miriam attempted to smile and Kate saw that she was really trying hard to do what she thought was wanted of her. It was sad to see her like this, and Kate wished for a brief moment that the usual Miriam, the heavy-jawed and defensive Miriam, would resurface once more. She actually preferred her, this coquettish lump of a woman seemed so outlandish and she really didn’t know how to deal with her.

Patrick was looking through the safe in his office. He was looking for some papers that Danny Boy needed to sign, and he also needed to make sure that Kate’s jewellery was all ship-shape and sparkling. He wondered why she had not asked for it, after all, he had bought it for her, it was legally hers. But she had not even mentioned it.

He felt a wave of sha black and white. ft. I wantyme once more as he recalled his pettiness towards Kate. He knew he had a lot to make up for, and he also knew that Kate was not a person who would throw his actions in his face at every available opportunity. Whereas he would do exactly that in a heartbeat; he would happily sling anything, however dirty, he could at the person he was arguing with. It was his nature.

As he opened the leather jewellery box he smiled happily. Inside the box was the proof of his love for her. The diamond earrings he had once given her for her birthday, the gold Rolex she was too frightened to wear in case she lost it. The rings and the bracelets that marked their time together, and Pat realised that these presents, all this proof of his love for her, would still be around when he and Kate were long gone. He had never thought about that before, never wondered what would happen to the diamonds, the emeralds and the sapphires.

He picked up an antique ring that had set him back the national debt, it was a seven-carat diamond surrounded by emeralds. It was over two hundred years old. Some other woman had once worn it with pride, some other woman who was now dead and buried, and yet the ring was still here. He decided he liked the thought of some things being constant, and he swore that if Kate let him back into her life for good he would be as constant as the ring he had bought her all that time ago.

Danny came into the room and Patrick turned to him and said happily, ‘All right, son?’

Danny grimaced. ‘Yes and no, Patrick. We have a problem.’

Patrick was immediately all serious faced and prepared for the worst eventuality. ‘What’s up?’

Danny shook his head in absolute consternation. ‘Terry is in Ireland, as you know. He gets back tomorrow.’

‘What is this, Danny Boy? A fucking news update or have you got something serious to say to me?’

Patrick never ceased to amaze Danny. He had gone from being the jovial, happy patriarch to a morose and dangerous villain in less than three minutes. Danny sighed, he was slightly irritated by Patrick’s quick temper. ‘Simone’s been on the blower. It seems our local friendly chief of plods has gone off his trolley. He’s attacked one of the girls and she’s been taken to hospital. He is refusing to get dressed and leave the premises.’

Patrick shook his head in annoyance. ‘That fucking idiot Lionel is a real pain in the arse. Bring the car round, we’ll have to go and sort it.’

Patrick proceeded to put everything back in the safe and, five minutes later, they were on their way. Patrick was fuming now. Lionel Dart was a has-been, an also-ran, he was on his last knockings as a Filth with any kind of clout. To all intents and purposes, it was now open season as far as Pat was concerned. He had been looking forward to this day for a very long time.

‘What I need from you, Miriam, is anything you can remember about the staff from your days at Brookway House. I understand it was your Alec’s first posting as a social worker, at least that’s what Annie says.’

Miriam nodded, her dead eyes suddenly animated. ‘Oh my, that’s a blast from the past as they say. I was very happy there, we both were. But what has this got to do with anything?’

‘I think there’s a link between the dead girls. They were all, at one time or another, at Brookway House. It seems odd to me that they all came to work in Grantley, and that every one of them ended up being tortured and murdered.’ Little discrepancies arellBT-T { font-size: 1lt d

Miriam was sitting opposite Kate, and her jaw was hanging open with the shock. ‘No, that has to be a coincidence, surely? I mean, you know what these girls are like.’

Kate knew exactly what the girls were like, but this wasn’t about how they acted, it was about how they had all started out at Brookway House, and ended up in Grantley as dead as doornails.

‘You worked there with Alec. Who do you remember?’

Miriam thought for a few minutes before saying seriously, ‘There was an older man there, he was called David Floyd. He was very, very overfamiliar with the girls, I mentioned it to Alec on more than one occasion. He was the team leader as they were called in those days. He was there all the time that we worked there. In fact, he was still there when we left.’

Kate wrote the name down in her notebook. ‘Can you recall anyone who might have been in a position to give the girls information on working the flats in Grantley? Was there anyone you can remember who might have been around the girls who could have met up with them at a later date? I mean, they must have attracted boyfriends. I know it was a place for females only, but I’m sure they would have attracted plenty of interest from the young lads around and about, all those girls together. Surely you must have noticed something, Miriam?’

Miriam just sat there, staring at Kate as if she was unable to comprehend what she was saying to her. It occurred to Kate that Miriam had probably not looked much different then to how she looked now. She was one of those ageless people who seemed to stay exactly the same from eighteen years old onwards. She probably looked old then, and she looked old now. She was not interested in fashion or clothes, she wasn’t bothered about getting a decent cut so her hair looked nice. She didn’t attempt to control her intake of food, she was always eating something, and she was not a person who valued hygiene. Her teeth were her best feature and she obviously looked after them although her breath could be overpowering at close quarters because of her love of garlic. Yet she still managed to do what she could for people she saw in need of help and somehow the people she helped liked her and depended on her. It would never cease to amaze Kate how the world seemed to work.

‘Were
you
working there when some of the girls were there?’

Miriam smiled. ‘Yes.’

‘Why didn’t you tell us that?’

‘I felt that the girls were entitled to their privacy. I wasn’t to know that they had
all
spent time there, though it doesn’t surprise me.’

Kate heard the hardness creeping into Miriam’s voice and she was staring once more. She could do that, she could just sit motionless and stare, it could be quite unnerving.

‘Drink your tea, Miriam, you haven’t touched it.’

Miriam shook her head then and smiled. She was suddenly almost her old self again. ‘I don’t really like the tea here. It’s like the tea at the station house, overly strong and bitter.’

‘So who were the girls in residence when you were at Brookway House?’

Miriam thought for a few seconds before saying dismissively, ‘It’s all closed down now. What does it matter?’

Kate was getting slightly irritated now. She leaned across the table to Little discrepancies arellBT-T { font-size: 1lt d answer Miriam’s question and it was obvious that she was losing patience fast.

‘It
matters
a great deal, Miriam. We are in the process of getting all the relevant information about Brookway House, but these things can take time, as I am sure you know. Social Services are always worried they’ll be stuffed with a criminal accusation and the way things are with the care system at the moment, who can blame them? But as you were there for some time, I thought you
might
be able to help us get a heads-up.’

Miriam shrugged again. Kate could tell she was getting rattled about it for some reason. In fact she was getting the feeling that Miriam knew a lot more than she was letting on about Brookway House.

‘Which girls were there at the same time as you?’

Miriam was staring again. Eventually she said dismissively, ‘To the best of my recollection they were Janie Moore and Danielle Crosby. You must understand, Kate, these girls must be allowed their privacy. They were there because they were not long out of the care system or, in some cases, they had just left prison. You also need to remember that they were all basically transients. No one wanted them, you see, and if you read the files on some of them, you can see why.’

Kate was puzzled. Miriam was normally the champion of these poor girls, why would she say something like that now?

‘What was in their files, Miriam?’

Miriam shrugged again, a slight smirk on her face. ‘What do you think would be in there?’

Kate was unsure where this was going, and she said quietly, ‘I don’t know, that’s why I am asking you. After all, you read them. I didn’t.’

Miriam sighed heavily, ‘Listen to me, Kate. These girls are all damaged somehow, they were all the product of unwanted pregnancies or were born to people who quite frankly should not have been allowed a dog, let alone a child. It’s always amazed me that, at one time, you had to have a licence before you could purchase a puppy, but anyone could have a child. Still can. These girls are all capable of anything if they think it will get them what they want. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to get back to Hayley. She really
is
an innocent victim.’

As she bustled away, Kate watched her warily. They had most of the files from Brookway House, Margaret had accessed almost all of them. They were now awaiting the personnel files on the people who had worked there. She now felt that there was something more to Miriam’s time at Brookway House. Alec Salter had been a social worker there and she wondered if his files might be worth looking at. She looked down at her notebook and saw David Floyd’s name. She wondered just what he was doing now. Well, she would soon find out.

‘Lionel is naked and drunk out of his head, Kate. He’s locked in a room at a local house and with him is a terrified young girl. So could you please call me when you get this message?’

Simone was fuming, she was also very frightened. Lionel was unhinged, he was really out of control. She knew that he had snapped for some reason. He had always been a very uptight man, she knew all the signs. He was a verbal bully, but a coward at heart. But the ruckus he was causing would soon bring the police and if the neighbours heard any of his raging they would wonder what the fuck was happening. They would call the police, as any good citizen would do. This was publicity they could well do to the point of emaciationevBT-T { font-size: 1lt d without, especially with Terrence O’Leary in Ireland and Patrick Kelly on the premises.

As she poured them all a coffee she saw Peter Bates come in through the back entrance and, rolling her eyes to the ceiling, she thought that this was all they needed. Another bloody man to add to the mix.

‘Come out, Lionel, or we’ll kick the door in.’ Patrick banged on the door.

‘Fuck off to hell, Kelly, and take that fucking whore Burrows with you.’

The words were followed by another crash and the terrified screaming of the young girl locked in the room with him.

Danny shook his head in consternation. ‘The door’s solid wood, we’ll need a battering ram to get through it. How about the window? We can get up there with a ladder.’

Patrick nodded. ‘Let me try and calm him down first. All we need is that mad bastard throwing a table at us, or the poor girl, come to that.’

Lionel was bashing at the door again, demanding their attention. ‘She was always out to get me, your fucking Kate, she was a fucking leech. I wanted her out but
they
overruled me. They let her stay on as a fucking
consultant
. Her, a consultant,
her
. Living with the biggest villain since Al Capone!’

Patrick sighed in annoyance, his face was screwed up with anger and hatred for what Dart was saying about him and his Kate.

Danny put his hands on Patrick’s shoulders and said in a whisper, ‘Don’t retaliate, Pat, that’s what he wants. Listen to him. He is unhinged. He’s also drunk as a skunk.

‘Look, Lionel, this is Danny Foster. Remember me from the casino? I used to deliver your envelope of money every week, remember? I’m asking you nicely,
let the girl go
. Just let her leave the room. Let’s face it, you are in enough trouble as it is. And if you don’t stop all this now, we’ll have no option but to call the police, and none of us want that, do we? Least of all you.’

Lionel was laughing now, a loud, deep laugh. ‘I am the fucking police, remember? I am the Chief Superintendent of Grantley Police Station. Until next week, of course, and then I am fucking no one. And why is that? Because of that cunt, Kate Burrows. How the fuck is she still around? She was supposed to have fucking retired. After all this fucking time, she is still here and I am out.
Out
,
finished
, my career is over. She even had the gall to come to the hospital. My wife had an accident, a simple accident, and she even turned up there. Is nowhere safe from her? Is she going to go to fucking Iraq next and stick her beak in there as well?’