Lost Angel (38 page)

‘Are you having a laugh?’ Johnny gazed at her in disbelief.

Back in the spare room, Les had no idea who was at the door. And he didn’t care. He and Cathy hadn’t slept together in years, and the drink had made him horny.

‘
NO!
’ Angel screamed when he slid his hand under the quilt and tried to work his way under the nightie. ‘Leave me alone!’

Johnny heard her. He looked at his mother, and then barged his shoulder against the door, over and over until the flimsy chain snapped.

‘What the fuck . . . ?’ Les yelled, running out into the hall with the tip of his hard-on poking out through the flap in his pyjama bottoms.

‘Les!’ Cathy squawked when she saw it. ‘What the hell are you doing?’

‘If you’ve fucking touched her . . .’ Johnny roared as he rushed Les and knocked him to the floor. ‘I’ll kill you, you cunt!’

‘Daddy,’ Angel sobbed, running out into the hall and throwing herself into Johnny’s arms as he stood over Les.

‘Did he touch you?’ Johnny asked, his breathing heavy.

She shook her head and burst into tears, scared that her father would go crazy if she told him the truth and end up in prison.

‘Go outside,’ Johnny told her, staring down at the man on the floor.

‘I want to stay with you,’ Angel cried, clinging to him.

‘
GO!
’ he ordered.

‘Come on, love,’ Cathy grabbed her hand and tugged her away from her dad.

‘I didn’t do anything,’ Les whimpered, his hands shaking in front of his face.

‘You beat the shit out of me for years,’ Johnny snarled. ‘And you told my mum I was a liar. Now tell her the truth.’

‘I never meant to hurt you,’ Les cried, tears rolling down his fat cheeks as a pool of piss started to spread out on the lino around him. ‘Honest to God, I didn’t. I was just trying to be your dad.’

‘What would an evil cunt like you know about being a dad?’ Johnny spat. ‘And what were you doing to my girl?’

‘I never laid a finger on her,’ Les squeaked. ‘I swear to God.’

‘So what were you doing in that room with her?’ Johnny demanded. ‘And why was she screaming?’

‘She came on to me,’ Les blubbered. ‘I was telling her to leave it out.’

‘Daddy, I didn’t,’ Angel sobbed. ‘I didn’t want him in there. I told him to leave me alone.’

Johnny turned and glared at his mother. ‘Still think I was lying about him?’

Cathy looked back at him mutely and wrung her hands nervously.

A light came on in Johnny’s head.

‘You knew . . .’ he gasped. ‘You fucking
knew
and did nothing about it. And now you’ve let him get at my girl as well.’

‘Johnny, I didn’t,’ Cathy croaked. ‘I love you – I would never have let anyone hurt you.’

‘Save it,’ he hissed, marching over and snatching Angel away from her. ‘And
you
. . .’ He turned back to Les. ‘Come near me or mine again, and you’re dead.’

He pushed Angel out of the door and took her down to the car.

‘I’m sorry, Daddy,’ she cried, clinging to him again when they were safely locked inside. ‘But I swear I didn’t do what he said.’

‘Ssshhh,’ Johnny soothed, holding her close. ‘Everything’s going to be okay. I won’t let anyone hurt you again.’ He swallowed hard now and said, ‘I know you’re scared, darlin’, but I need to know if you were telling the truth back there. Did he – you know?’

Angel shook her head and buried her face in her dad’s chest. She felt dirty and ashamed, but she knew that he would go back if he knew that the horrible man had touched her, so she couldn’t tell him. Not now, not ever.

Johnny exhaled shakily, relieved, and at the same time angry that he had played a part in pushing Angel into the grips of that monster. If Ryan hadn’t mentioned Johnny’s mother tonight, he would never have thought of coming here – and God only knew what Les would have done to the girl. But he had got here in time, so he had to just be thankful for that.

‘Let’s get you home.’ Johnny started the engine. ‘Your mum’s worried sick.’

‘I want to see Ryan,’ Angel sobbed. ‘Please, Daddy. I need to see him and tell him about our baby.’

‘Sweetheart, it’s late,’ Johnny said quietly, setting off. ‘Let’s just leave it till morning and then we’ll sit down and talk about it.’

‘No, you’ll lock me in and make me have an abortion,’ she cried, tears streaming down her cheeks.

‘I won’t,’ he promised. But she didn’t believe him. ‘What are you doing?’ he asked, slamming the brakes on when she started tugging at the door handle.

‘Getting out,’ she wept. ‘I’m going to see Ryan. And if you don’t let me I’ll just run away again.’

‘All right, just stop it.’ Johnny grabbed Angel and pulled her into his arms. ‘You can’t go running around in a nightdress at this time of night.’

‘I need to see him,’ Angel wailed.

Johnny sighed. ‘All right, I’ll take you round there,’ he conceded. ‘But we’re only staying a few minutes, then I’m taking you home and you’re going to get some rest. We’ll work out what we’re going to do about this in the morning. Okay?’

Too tired to carry on fighting, Angel nodded.

Johnny drove back into Hulme. The lights were on in Ryan’s house when he pulled up outside, and several of the neighbours were standing on their steps staring at the door. Johnny heard the sound of muffled screaming coming from inside the house when he opened his door, and he told Angel to stay put before running up the path.

He squatted down and lifted the letter-box flap. Ryan was lying on the floor, and his father was standing over him with a baseball bat raised above his head. The boy’s mother was screaming at her husband to leave their son alone, and a small girl was hopping up and down in distress on the stairs, a look of absolute terror on her face.

Johnny kicked the door, and was about to do it again when Zeta yanked it open.

‘Stop him!’ she cried. ‘He’s going to kill h—’

The word died on her tongue when she saw who she was talking to. She’d assumed that it would be the police, or a brave neighbour who’d had enough of the regular disturbances coming from this house and had come to tell them to pack it in.

Johnny saw the shock in her eyes and guessed that she recognised him from earlier, although he’d been pretty sure that she hadn’t seen his face at the time. But there was no time to stop and talk, so he pushed past her and ran down the hall, kicking the man in the back of his knees and sending him crashing down.

The bat flew out of Gary’s hand and went skidding along the lino, coming to rest in the living-room doorway. He groped for it, but Johnny stamped down hard on his hand before kneeling down and ramming the muzzle of the gun against his throat.

‘Don’t fucking move,’ he warned, his voice a hiss. Then, looking back at the woman – who was still standing there, her eyes wide with shock – he jerked his head towards the girl and said, ‘Close the door and take her upstairs.’

‘Do it, Mam,’ Ryan groaned, pulling himself up painfully when she didn’t move. ‘He’s my boss – everything’s cool.’

‘You all right?’ Johnny asked Ryan when the woman snapped out of her trance and hustled the child away.

‘Yeah,’ Ryan gasped as he hauled himself to his feet. ‘I’ve had worse.’

‘Angel’s in the car,’ Johnny told him. ‘Go and sit with her. But try not to get blood on my leather, eh?’

Aware that he was trying to be kind, Ryan gave him a tiny pained smile and hobbled out.

‘I’ve got no argument with you,’ Gary bleated, his scared eyes swivelling up to Johnny. ‘I don’t even know you, so just go, and we’ll forget all about this, yeah?’

Johnny shifted the barrel of the gun slightly and jabbed the muzzle into his flabby cheek. ‘Big man, ain’t you? Kicking the fuck out of a kid.’

‘
You
did it,’ Gary muttered nervously.

‘I had my reasons,’ Johnny replied coolly. ‘But it seems to me that you do it just for kicks. Those black eyes and bust lip your wife’s got – walk into a door, did she?’

‘She winds me up,’ Gary wheezed. ‘Any man’d do the same if they had to put up with her.’

‘You ain’t a man,’ Johnny spat, disgust in his voice. ‘You’re scum and, if you ask me, they’d be better off without you.’

‘You’re not going to shoot me, are you?’ Gary squeaked, panic in his voice and eyes. ‘Please, mate, I ain’t done nothing to you.’

A siren in the near distance broke the spell. Johnny guessed that one of the neighbours had probably called the cops after hearing the commotion. He clicked back the safety catch on the gun.

‘Aw, no . . .’ Tears of terror spurted from Gary’s eyes. ‘I don’t wanna die . . . please don’t kill me.’

‘I wonder how many times your wife and kids have felt exactly the same as you’re feeling right now when you’ve been kicking the shit out of them,’ Johnny mused.

‘I won’t do it again,’ Gary sobbed. ‘I swear on my life!’

Johnny didn’t believe him for one minute, but he didn’t have time to argue about it.

‘If I find out you’ve opened your mouth about this, I’ll be back,’ he warned. ‘And there’ll be no talking next time. Got that?’

Gary nodded his agreement. ‘Yeah . . . anything you say.’

Johnny pushed himself up and went quickly back out to the car. Angel was sitting in the back seat with Ryan. She’d ripped a strip off the bottom of the nightie and was dabbing at the blood on his face.

‘He’s hurt, Daddy. Really hurt.’

‘He’ll be all right,’ Johnny reassured her, setting off smoothly. He turned the corner just as the police car came in at the other end of the road.

31

Dave and Hannah lived in a neat little semi in a quiet cul-de-sac in Stretford, not too far from Johnny’s place. Johnny had rung on the way, so Dave was waiting, and he opened the door when his friend’s car pulled up behind his in the drive.

Johnny jumped out and went to help Ryan out of the back. ‘Wait there,’ he told Angel. ‘I’ll be back in a minute.’

‘I want to stay with him,’ she sobbed, still distressed about Ryan’s injuries.

‘Darlin’, just trust me on this,’ Johnny insisted. ‘You can see him tomorrow, but I need to get him inside so Hannah can see to him.’

Angel nodded and hugged herself as Johnny took Ryan into the house.

‘Jeezus,’ Dave said quietly when he saw the state of the boy. ‘Tell me you didn’t do this.’

‘Not this time,’ Johnny admitted. ‘This is his dad’s handiwork.’

Hannah came bustling out from the kitchen. A look of pity came into her eyes when she saw Ryan and she beckoned them on in. ‘Bring him in here.’

She was a health visitor, and that was as close to a medical person as Johnny dared to take Ryan right now.

‘He doesn’t reckon anything’s broken,’ he told Hannah as he helped Ryan into the kitchen and sat him down gently in a chair. ‘But there are a few nasty cuts that need looking at.’

‘Leave it to me,’ Hannah said calmly. She was already filling a bowl with warm water.

‘Thanks.’ Johnny kissed her on the cheek. ‘And I’m really sorry to bring this to you, but there was no one else I’d trust to look after him properly.’

‘It’s not a problem,’ Hannah assured him. ‘I’ve got the spare bed ready, so I’ll patch him up and give him something to help him sleep. He’ll be right as rain in the morning.’

Johnny thanked her and told Ryan that he would come back tomorrow.

‘I’m sorry,’ Ryan said sincerely. ‘I didn’t mean for any of this to happen. But I do love her – you’ve got to believe that.’

‘We’ll talk tomorrow,’ Johnny replied quietly, letting him know with a few discreet gestures that he didn’t want him to tell Hannah and Dave anything that they didn’t need to know.

Ryan got the message and nodded.

Johnny went out into the hall and pulled the door to.

‘What’s going on?’ Dave wanted to know.

‘I haven’t got time to explain right now,’ Johnny told him. ‘I just need to get Angel home. Can you do us a favour and stash this somewhere?’ He pulled the gun from his waistband.

Dave looked at it and then back up at Johnny. Disappointment clouded his eyes. The gun had been Frankie’s, and Johnny had said that he was going to get rid of it ages ago. But Dave figured this probably wasn’t the best of times to start having a go at him about it, so he nodded and took the weapon.

‘Are the police likely to come here?’ he asked, sliding it into his dressing-gown pocket.

‘No.’ Johnny shook his head and headed for the door.

He figured that Ryan’s dad was too shit-scared to grass him up. And he doubted whether the mother would say anything after what she’d seen him do to her son. But, just in case, he didn’t need to be caught with the gun.

‘We’ll look after Ryan,’ Dave assured Johnny as he showed him out. ‘You just take it easy, yeah?’

Johnny nodded, waved, and climbed into his car.

Ruth and Rita were sitting in the kitchen when Johnny and Angel walked in a short time later. The ever-present bottle of whisky was on the table between the two women.

‘Oh, so he found you, did he?’ Rita started as soon as she saw her granddaughter. ‘And I hope he gave you what for, you selfish little cow. Have you any idea how worried your mother’s been?’

‘Shut it,’ Johnny snapped, glaring at her. ‘And if you’re going to start’ – he turned on Ruth – ‘don’t, ’cos I’ve had enough shit for one night.’

‘Is everything all right?’ Ruth asked, wisely keeping her own angry words to herself. ‘Where was she?’

‘She’d best not have been with that black boy again,’ Rita said scathingly. ‘You can’t trust them an inch.’

Johnny glared at her and she held up her hands and made a zipping gesture across her mouth before reaching for the whisky to refill her glass.

‘Where was she?’ Ruth asked again. ‘She wasn’t with him, was she?’

‘No, she was at my mother’s,’ Johnny told her.

‘What?’ Ruth gaped at him in confusion. ‘
How
? She’s never even met her. Has she?’ she asked now, suspicion sparking in her eyes. ‘You haven’t been taking her round there behind my back all this time, have you?’

‘Have I hell,’ Johnny snapped. ‘I haven’t seen my mum in years, you know that.’

‘So how did she know where to go?’ Ruth turned to Angel now. ‘Well? How long have you been sneaking round there?’