Somewhere to Hide (The Estate, Book 1) (9 page)

‘She’s vulnerable, Rose, not hard-hearted like Jess. I don’t know what life has thrown her way but I suspect something terrible happened to her. I wish she’d open up and let it all out. I think she’d feel better if she could. But then again, that doesn’t always work in my favour, does it?’

‘What happened wasn’t your fault,’ Rose was quick to reassure her. ‘You can’t help everyone, especially the Cheryl Morton’s
of this world.’

Cathy knew Rose was right. Cheryl had been sent to prison for six months for possession of drugs and soliciting. Cathy had tried to help her clean up on numerous occasions. Cheryl would be okay for a few days, weeks sometimes, but the slightest thing would trigger her off and she would go into self-destruct mode. This was her second spell inside, even though she’d insisted that she’d never go back after the first time.

‘I’d rather have her here causing chaos than in a prison cell,’ said Cathy.

 ‘Cheryl is a liability. Some people you just can’t help and she’s one of them. She’ll be out soon anyway. Do you think she’ll come back to see you?’

Cathy shrugged. ‘Part of me would love to see her. Part of me would rue the day. She made me so ill, worrying like that. She’s such a live wire.’

‘She’s wired up, more like,’ said Rose.

‘I know but she’s still a kid.’

‘A kid with a record now.’

‘I warned her so many times.’

‘And it always fell on deaf ears. Stop worrying.’

Cathy knew she should but sometimes she couldn’t help herself. She felt responsible for the girls put in her charge. She didn’t want to let them down.

She smiled then. ‘It’s so good to see you again, Rose. I missed you.’

‘You mean you missed my shoulder to cry on. I don’t know how you do it. It’d drive me batty being everyone’s agony aunt.’

‘You’ve been batty for years, my friend,’ Cathy taunted.

Austin Forrester lit a cigarette and took a deep drag of it. He glanced up and down the road again before checking his watch. Twenty to one: Danny Bradley was late. Still, if it meant a free lift, he’d give him another ten minutes before he left.

It had worked out well for him hooking up with Danny. He’d met him at the dole office as he’d registered for benefits. Danny had been mouthing off while they’d both filled in another set of forms. Austin had liked his attitude enough to start a conversation. Over the past few days, Danny had become his unofficial driver. The more he saw of him, the more he realised that the youth was in awe of him. And why? Because he liked the sound of his background. Danny couldn’t work out the peppered truths from within Austin’s elaborate lies. It was the one thing he enjoyed about sleeping rough. No matter which town he turned up in, he could be whoever he wanted to be.

A car horn peeped. He looked up and Danny flashed the lights on a clapped out Vauxhall Astra. He hid his look of contempt well as he climbed into the passenger seat with a yank of a stiff door handle.

‘All right, mate?’ Danny nodded.

Austin nodded back. ‘Surely you haven’t nicked this?’ Before he got in, he pushed aside empty cigarette cartons, crisp packets and cans of lager so that there was somewhere to put his feet.

Danny patted the steering wheel. ‘This heap is all mine. I use it when I can’t be arsed to get anything else. And I’ve lifted a twenty off the old lady so I’ve filled her up a little. What’s the plan for today?’

Austin frowned, annoyed that Danny expected to spend time with him for the honour of being his driver. He swallowed down the words ready to spew out of his mouth. He needed to keep Danny on side, for a little while at least.

‘No plan,’ he said.

They turned off Alexander Avenue and onto Winston Road. Austin stared at the properties they passed.

‘You robbed any of these?’ he asked.

Danny changed gear noisily before replying. ‘No, don’t tend to shit on my own doorstep. I go on to the private estate – far more for the taking there. I do have a fence on here though, Mick Wilkinson. He takes most things from me.’

Austin made a mental note to find out more about Mick Wilkinson and his outfit. It might be worth his while to get involved with some of the locals, though if everything went to plan he’d have to scarper pretty quickly afterwards.

Danny sped up as a young girl tottered across the road in front of them. Austin sniggered. Her shoes were too high for her, unintentionally making her wiggle provocatively.

‘Hey, Becky,’ Danny shouted to her as he drew level. ‘Fancy a ride and I don’t mean of the motor?’

Becky stuck two fingers up to him.

Danny laughed. ‘What a cracker, and so ripe.’

Austin watched in silence as Becky continued on her way. She didn’t look much older than sixteen or so with her blonde hair tied away from her face. When she turned back and saw them still watching, she pulled up the collar of her scruffy denim jacket to conceal her face. Austin frowned: she seemed like she was hiding something – or hiding from someone.

‘I fancy some fun with her,’ Danny added, staring after Becky as well. ‘She’ll most probably be up for it too. She’s the new girl at Cathy Mason’s.’

‘Cathy Mason’s?’

‘She takes in all these homeless girls. Great for us single boys. They’re always gagging for it. Most of them are already hooked on drugs so we get a fair trade off them as well. And if they aren’t hooked, they usually are by the time they leave.’

‘Sounds like a shit place to live.’

‘I reckon it’s okay. Cathy Mason’s a right looker too. I’d give her one anytime. Her old man copped it a few years back. I’ve never seen her out with another bloke since so I bet she’s gagging for it too.’

‘She sounds more like my type.’ Austin was still following Becky’s disappearing form though.

Danny grinned. He papped his horn loud and long and waved as Becky looked back before vanishing around the corner out of view. ‘She’ll do for me. I’ll have her by the end of the week.’

As Danny sped off up the road, Austin remained silent in thought. For now he would let Danny keep Becky warm for him. Then when the timing was right, Becky would be his. She would do just fine.

Sitting on her bed, Liz logged on to her email account and sighed when she saw three more emails from Kevin. None of them had a subject heading but each of them had the same content in the body. She flicked onto the first one and scanned it quickly.
You will come back… I need you here with me… you won’t stop me from seeing my daughter…

She flipped down the lid of her laptop, wondering if he’d eventually get fed up of harassing her. Earlier that morning, she’d been researching domestic violence. This obsession he had with her could go on forever. She couldn’t bear the thought of it. What gave a man the right to do that to a woman? Yet again she wished she’d noticed the signs before she’d married him. What she’d seen as gestures of love and affection were really ways of controlling her, possessing her, making her into his own. From the first day she’d met him, Kevin had been protective. When was it that everything had gone wrong? All she had wanted was to be loved, not controlled. Not bullied, not owned.

As she looked down, she noticed Chloe’s pink Barbie notepad tucked under the mattress. She pulled it out and flicked through the pages, smiling at the handwriting of a child who was trying hard to make it look grown up. There were lots of loops and letters joined together to make it more exciting.

But just as quickly, her smile dropped as she read the words on one particular page:

My dad has found out where me and my mum are living. Cathy, that is the lady whose house we are living in. She hit him with a sport stick. I wish my mum had hit my dad with a sport stick. I wish my dad would leave us alone and let mum be happy again. Mum used to smile and laugh. Now Mum is sad. I hear her when she cries at night. She thinks I am asleep but I am not. I think my mum is very brave. Mrs Johnston at school says that mums and dads are splitting up all the time but she didn’t say that dads hit mums. Mum does not know I have seen mum and dad arguing a lot of times. Dad shouted at Mum all the time. Mum tried to make everything happy but nothing was right for Dad. I hate my dad. I wish he would leave my mum alone. I wish we could stay at Cathy’s house for ever.

It took Liz a long time to stop crying after she had finished reading. She knew without a doubt that her daughter’s words would haunt her forever. What image of marriage could they have caused her to carry through her life? How could they have let their relationship have such an impact on her? There was no way she could go back to Kevin now. She needed to be strong for Chloe’s sake.

She gazed around the bedroom. It had been a week since they’d arrived and despite the lack of space, it had become comfortable to her already. She felt safe here. When she had been with Kevin, there was nowhere to hide. Here she could deal with it. As long as he couldn’t get his hands on her, maybe she would grow stronger every day.

Maybe he would get fed up of hanging around for her. And if he didn’t then she would move to somewhere else. Chloe was her future, just as her future plans needed to be for Chloe.

Liz wiped her eyes and prayed that she could follow through with her thoughts. Despite feeling safe, she also knew they’d have to move out soon. Josie Mellor said that she’d find her something as quickly as she could and indeed she was grateful for that. Chloe needed stability after what had happened recently. That essay certainly said as much. She read the words again before slipping the notebook back into its place. Then she thought about what to do next.

Should she confront Chloe? She wondered if maybe she’d wanted her to find it. It would make sense that she’d want to talk about it. But Liz had tried to talk to her about things last night and she’d said she was tired and wanted to go to sleep. She ran her hand through her hair, recalling how secretive she’d been as a child. It might do more harm than good if she were to admit to reading it.

She decided not to do anything for now. She’d concentrate on dealing with Kevin as quickly as possible. At least she hadn’t had to dodge him on her way back this morning. For the past few days, Liz had hidden behind anyone she could so that Kevin couldn’t see her, or if he did, she would be with someone else to stop him threatening her.

Secretly she wished, hoped and prayed that he’d get tired of hanging around the school gates. And as long as she didn’t give him the chance to get her alone, she would be okay.

And the longer she stayed away, the stronger she would become.

Wouldn’t she?

She stood up and wiped away her tears. She would go and visit Josie at the community house – see what help she could offer. And maybe now was the time to start joining some of the courses they were running.

CHAPTER NINE

It didn’t take long before Becky found the courage to venture out again after her recent visit to Shop&Save went without incident. As she began to explore her new surroundings, it was obvious now, even to her, that she hadn’t killed Uncle James as she’d originally thought – or if she had, her father must have buried him in the garden and said nothing, which was even more unlikely. Yet it was really weird that she hadn’t heard anything.

She wondered if her dad was missing her. It had been nearly a month since she’d legged it that night. In the next breath she doubted that very much, but she still liked to think he would. Because, funnily enough, she still missed him. No matter what he did – or didn’t do – he would always be her flesh and blood. But then too, so was Uncle James. She shivered. Maybe it was best not to think about either of them.

After yesterday’s mission to the shops and back, Becky headed across there again. She walked along Davy Road for a few minutes and then across the grass and down the steps, through the middle of two blocks of flats and past the community house out onto Vincent Square. Thankfully she noticed when she walked into Shop&Save that she didn’t know any of the women who were working that shift. By the time she came out, her bag had a few edible goodies inside it that she’d lifted. She was getting quite a dab hand at it now.

‘Excuse me, Miss,’ a voice said from behind. ‘May I check your bag?’

Becky froze for a second. Oh no! Then she ran.

‘Hey, wait up, you daft cow! I’m only messing.’

She turned to see Danny Bradley grinning at her. He looked cool in a Bench T-shirt and narrow grey jeans and, despite what Jess had said about her making a fool of herself the other night, his eyes lit up as if he was pleased to see her.

‘God, you mad fool.’ She pressed a hand to her chest. ‘You nearly gave me a heart attack.’

‘You should be more careful.’ Danny gave her a smile. ‘I couldn’t take my eyes off you in there. With a face like that, you’re not going to go unnoticed. Where’s your loopy mate?’

‘She’s not my mate.’ Becky assumed he was referring to Jess. ‘I haven’t seen her this morning. I’m sorry about the other night. I didn’t mean to sick up over the seat of your car.’

‘That’s okay. It wasn’t my car anyway, remember? You’re not the only one that’s good at nicking things. Where are you off to?’ Danny took her hand and walked on with her. ‘Anywhere exciting?’