Tough Love (11 page)

Leanne smiled with utter relief. ‘That is such good news.'

‘So, we'll see you again tomorrow, won't we, Kia?'

Kia looked proudly at her picture. ‘Can I put this on the fridge at Nana Tracy's?'

In the car, Leanne was still smiling when her phone rang. Kia dived into her handbag and grabbed
it, as she always did when Leanne was driving. ‘Withheld number, Mum. Shall I answer it?'

‘If you want,' Leanne said, only half paying attention as she steered the car through the Bolingbroke Estate.

‘Hello, my mum's phone,' Kia said. She looked blankly at the handset. ‘They've put the phone down.'

Leanne shrugged. ‘Probably a wrong number,' she said, as she pulled up outside the house. ‘Go and show Nana Tracy what you've done.' She hoped her mother had managed to get out of her dressing-gown. She didn't want Kia to get the impression that swigging whisky till two in the morning and not getting dressed the next day was normal. Although at Tracy's house it always had been, and she wasn't about to change that because Leanne and Kia were lodging there.

Lisa watched the nanny as she changed the baby's nappy and thought she might leave that task entirely to her staff. She wasn't sure she'd be any good at it – and, anyway, what was the point of keeping a dog and barking yourself?

It had been nearly a week since she had drop-called Leanne Crompton, but she knew she needed to speak to her today. Last week she had merely been hedging her bets, she had wanted to frighten Leanne a little, but after today's revelation, courtesy of her press officer, she had to speak to her – and fast. But first, she needed a word with her wayward husband.

She picked up her Vertu phone and scrolled to Jay's number. She liked to pretend to herself that she was past caring about his indiscretions but that wasn't true. The only way she knew how to cope with his behaviour was not to think about it. Some days, and this was one of them, she wondered why
she stayed. There must be someone out there for her, someone better than Jay, but if she ever left him, someone else would jump in and take the spoils that came with being Mrs Leighton – and there was no way Lisa was about to let that happen. But it meant she had to take the downside when it came, as well as the up. And there were plenty of downsides with Jay.

‘Yello,' Jay said.

Lisa hated it when he said that. ‘No, that wasn't the colour I was thinking of,' she said. ‘I was thinking more about brown.'

‘You what?' Jay asked, in his Yorkshire brogue.

‘The colour of shit? The stuff you're up to your neck in? Again?'

‘What?' Jay asked, sounding panicked. ‘What've I done?'

Lisa looked at the notepad in front of her. ‘Some little slag by the name of Catherine York, who apparently is a beauty therapist at Tan Tilisers in Wilmslow, is claiming she gave you more than a back, sack and crack when you went to see her last week.' She waited for him to pretend it hadn't happened, like he usually did. And she always wanted to believe him even though she knew he was
always
on the lookout for sex.

‘She went down on me,' Jay said piteously.

‘You are pathetic!' Lisa shouted. ‘Can't you have a wank like everyone else?'

‘I didn't mean it to happen,' he whined.

‘You never do, do you? Well, I'll tell you something, you'd better sort it out sharpish, because not even Max Clifford could dig you out of this shit.'

‘Why? Has she gone to the papers?' Jay asked, the fear evident in his voice.

‘Gone to them? She's conducting a bidding war! And I know what that means. It means they'll all be sniffing round Leanne Crompton again, asking her if that kid is yours.'

‘She's got a name. It's Kia.'

‘Oh, he cares now!' Lisa said, throwing an arm into the air.

‘Why would Leanne want to say something? She's not interested in trying to ruin us.'

Lisa's jaw set. ‘Really? Well, that's where you're wrong. Leanne is now on her arse, back at home with her skanky family and, so I hear, broke. What better way to make a quick buck than to come after us? It's not like she's going to get her head down and do a real day's work, is it? She gets her tits out for a living, for God's sake. If that avenue of money has dried up, then I fear, my dear, that we are fucked.'

‘No, we're not. Let me talk to her.'

‘No bloody way.' Lisa shook her head, adamant. ‘I do the talking. You just lie low for a while and keep your pants zipped.'

‘Lisa?' Jay said.

‘What?'

‘I love you,' he said pathetically.

Lisa snapped the phone off. The thing that hurt most was that she knew a bit of Jay did love her. When they had first started dating, she had only just begun presenting a late-night TV show called
Think You're It?
and Jay had worked his way up to the first team at Manchester Rovers. He had been so shy when he asked her out; he couldn't even look her in the eye. He wasn't the smouldering, confident man he was today, the man who stared out from billboards the world over. He was just a lad from Leeds. They soon got engaged and Lisa quickly became the girl to envy as Jay grew from boy to man. She had also been responsible for prising him out of his uniform of tracksuit and trainers and making him the style icon he had become.

Over the years, though, the lifestyle and adulation had simply gone to Jay's head. He knew that generally he could have any woman he wanted and this in itself seemed to act as an aphrodisiac. It had sent Lisa the other way: knowing that everyone fancied her husband, and that he knew it, actually put her off him. She couldn't remember the last time they'd had anything other than mechanical sex. She sometimes wanted to try to get back to how they had been with one another when they'd
first got together, making love and meaning it. But she had long ago resigned herself to the fact that that was in the past, and that after ten years together they couldn't expect to be swinging from the chandeliers.

She threw back her head and covered her eyes.
I am not going to cry!

‘Are you OK, Mrs Leighton?' The nanny, Jeanine, asked.

‘I'm fine. Just fine.'

‘Would you like a cup of tea?'

Jeanine was about her mum's age, Lisa thought, which was great because it meant that hopefully she wouldn't try to leap on Jay, and she had come with brilliant references. There was something about her that just seemed kind. It was a long time since Lisa had been around a person who wanted genuinely to help and not just to be connected with her for the kudos it brought.

‘Tell you what,' she said, ‘you sit down and I'll make it. Give me something to do while I'm making this phone call.'

‘Don't be silly!' Jeanine looked shocked.

‘I said sit down!' Lisa said, pretending to be annoyed. Jeanine smiled and did as she was told.

Lisa wandered into her vast kitchen and put the kettle on. She looked at the number she had for Leanne, then steeled herself and pressed dial.

Leanne picked up.

‘Leanne. It's Lisa Leighton.' She did her best not to let on that her heart was trying to thump its way out of her chest.

‘What do you want?' Leanne said, sounding alarmed.

‘I want to meet. Me and you. Iron out a few things.'

‘I don't have anything to say to you.' She sounded choked now.

‘Well, I've got a few things I'd like to say to you.'

‘What – like you did when you sent that thug to my house?'

Lisa bit her lip. She didn't know whether to deny that she had had any involvement in Leanne's being warned not to talk to anyone about Kia's father. Then she decided she was better off telling the truth. ‘That's one of the things I was going to talk to you about.' She swallowed hard. ‘I wanted to apologise.'

‘Right,' Leanne said.

She wasn't giving much away, Lisa noticed.

‘I want to see you face to face and make things right between us.' Leanne didn't reply so Lisa ploughed on. ‘I'll come to you. You name the place and the day. Somewhere we won't get papped.'

‘We won't get papped unless you ring them,' Leanne said.

Lisa bit back a stinging response. ‘I'll be on my own in an unmarked car. Don't worry.'

‘But I am worried, Lisa. You don't do anything that doesn't benefit you directly,' Leanne said coldly.

‘Well, take it from me that this will benefit both of us, right?' Lisa wasn't about to beg the little tramp.

‘OK, meet me at the playing-fields near St Blaise School in Bradington at twelve tomorrow. You'll find it on sat nav. I'll be on the bench near the gates. We can go for a walk.'

‘Fine. I'll be there.' Lisa hung up.

She turned to find Jeanine standing in the doorway. ‘I haven't really time for a brew, Mrs Leighton.' She smiled. ‘I really should be getting home now.'

‘Are you sure?' Lisa asked; she'd almost made it. Jeanine nodded. ‘What time does Carmella get here?' Until they could find a full-time live-in nanny, Lisa was making do with a day shift and an evening shift from the nearby agency.

‘She's just pulled up outside.' Jeanine was putting her coat on.

‘Well, thanks for your help today. I'm sure I'll get the hang of having a kid one day!' Lisa said, laughing.

‘People don't realise how much work it is having a baby. See you tomorrow.' Jeanine smiled and left her.

‘See you tomorrow,' Lisa echoed.

She walked into the dining-room with her mug of tea and saw the notepad on which she had scribbled Jay's latest misdemeanours. A burst of adrenalin shot through her. The pad had been moved. She automatically looked over her shoulder and watched Jeanine's car pull away.
God, Lisa, chill out!
She had to stop being so paranoid. Just because lots of women wanted to make a quick buck off her husband's unwillingness to keep his pants up didn't mean that everyone did. Lisa shook her head at her silliness. Sometimes she was her own worst enemy.

Leanne put the phone down, her hand shaking.

‘What's up wi' you? Look like you've seen a ghost,' Tracy said.

‘Nothing. I'm just off out.'

‘Where you going?' Tracy asked.

Leanne could see it was killing her mum to know what her conversation had been about. Tracy knew her so well that she must have worked out it had tipped her over the edge.

‘Markie's.' She grabbed her coat.

Her brother had moved into an apartment in town. As soon as the wedding furore had died down, he had left Tracy's, as Leanne had known he would. He needed his own space. Going from Strangeways to Tracy's was like jumping into the fire because the frying pan was becoming tiresome.

Markie was battling with Mandy about their old place, which was his but she was saying he'd have to burn it down before she'd move out. He didn't
want to get heavy with her but if she didn't clear out soon he knew he'd have to do something about it. He had told Leanne that he had an associate sitting outside the apartment, waiting for Mandy to step outside. The man was going to let himself in, throw her stuff out and change the locks. Leanne knew that Markie was trying to keep his head with Mandy, but there was only so far she could push him before he exploded.

She hopped into her car and started the engine. It was only one o'clock, so she had plenty of time to seek Markie's advice before she had to pick up Kia. She'd been thinking about her car. It was her prized possession and she knew that at the end of the month she'd have to give it back and rely on Bradington's finest bus service to get her from A to B. Leanne had been feeling increasingly that her time in the limelight had been a dream – until she'd had the call from Lisa Leighton, asking for a clandestine meeting. At that point, she'd known for sure that she wasn't dreaming.

She drove out of Bolingbroke and along the tree-lined streets leading to the city centre. She had never really looked at Bradington before. She knew the streets like the back of her hand, and had she been asked to describe Bradington she would probably have said, ‘It's full of roundabouts.' But it wasn't as bad as she remembered it. A lot of the grotty shop-fronts had been replaced
and the old Victorian houses along the main road had had a face lift so the place was almost presentable.

Markie had given Leanne the address of his flat in Little Venice. She had laughed. ‘Give me a break! Venice in Bradington?' But as she pulled the car up alongside the old mill at the side of the canal, she understood why the place had acquired its name. It looked almost Italian. Markie was standing on his balcony. ‘Park anywhere,' he shouted, waving at a couple of empty spaces.

A few minutes later she was stepping out of the lift to find her brother waiting for her. ‘Shit here, innit?' he said, giving his sister a hug.

‘Yeah, rubbish.' She giggled.

Markie led her through to the duplex apartment. There was hardly a stick of furniture. ‘You can have the chair.' He pointed to the only one in the room.

‘Mandy really has cleared you out.'

‘She can have it, the deranged bint, clinging on to some shit bits of furniture like that's going to make me go back to her.' Markie shrugged, clearly not interested in talking about his ex.

‘Is she still doing a sit-in at your old place?'

‘Course she is. She'll get sick of it, though. I know her. She'll lose her rag, and when she moves out, the lads'll go in.'

Leanne rolled her eyes. ‘Nothing's ever simple, is it?'

‘Not if your surname's Crompton. So, what's up with you?'

Leanne took a deep breath. ‘I've got to meet someone tomorrow and I want your advice.'

‘Go on.' Markie said.

‘It's Lisa Leighton.' Leanne bit her lip.

Markie whistled. ‘Bloody hell! And do I need to know what you're meeting her about?'