Two-Faced (32 page)

‘Give it to me,’ Mia demanded, her voice low and menacing.

‘Where did you get it?’ Kim asked, unfazed by Mia’s attempt at acting fierce.

‘None of your business.’

‘Oh, I think you’ll find it is,’ Kim growled, pushing her down onto the couch and standing over her. ‘This is
my
house, and that gives me the right to say what comes into it. And now I’ve got this –’ she waggled the bag in front of Mia’s eyes ‘– I’m going to call the police and tell them all about your drug-pushing boyfriend.’

‘It’s got nothing to do with Steve,’ Mia insisted, terrified of what would happen if the police searched his club or apartment, because he would know for sure that she’d had something to do with it.

Saying, ‘I don’t believe you,’ Kim reached for the phone.

‘Mum,
don’t
!’ Mia cried, tears spurting from her eyes now. ‘You don’t know what he’s like. He’ll come after me.’

‘He won’t be able to if he’s in prison,’ Kim replied firmly, Mia’s obvious fear of the man making her all the more determined to get the scumbag out of her daughter’s life.

‘I’ll do anything you want,’ Mia sobbed, knowing that she’d lost the battle. ‘But please don’t tell the police.’

‘Anything?’ Hesitating with her hand on the phone, Kim peered back at her.

Arms wrapped around her skinny stomach, Mia nodded, rocking backwards and forwards on the edge of her seat.

Shuffling forward, Sammy put an arm around her and pulled her towards him, saying, ‘Everything’s going to be all right, Mia. Trust us. We’ve been behind you all the way because we know you’re worth so much more than this. And, whatever happens, we’ll always be here for you – you know that, don’t you?’

Feeling strangely safe in his big warm arms, Mia nodded.

‘If this is all because we’ve been putting you under too much pressure, then it stops here,’ Sammy went on. ‘Soon as I get back to the office, I’ll cancel the outstanding contracts. You won’t have to do anything but relax and get better.’

‘No!’ Mia spluttered, looking up at him tearfully. ‘I don’t want to give up modelling. I know I’ve messed up, but I
need
it. There must be
some
thing I can do to put things right?’

Heartily relieved that Mia was showing that she still had passion for something other than drugs and her destructive relationship, Sammy said, ‘Your mum and I were talking before you came in, and I think there’s a possibility we could turn this around. But it’ll mean you throwing yourself on the mercy of the press and admitting that you’ve made a mistake. Are you prepared to do that?’

‘Can’t I just say it wasn’t me?’ Mia suggested lamely. ‘They can’t prove it.’

‘Don’t be ridiculous, it’s obvious it’s you,’ Kim said irritably. ‘Christ, you’ve had your picture in the papers often enough lately, anyone with eyes will recognise you from that.’

‘She’s right,’ Sammy said quietly. ‘And someone obviously knew it
was
you or they wouldn’t have bothered following you into the toilets to take those pictures.’

‘I know
exactly
who it was,’ Mia muttered, pure hate in her voice as she remembered the way Stu had been whispering to her so-called friend, obviously setting her up to do what she’d done. ‘It was Laura. She was trying to get me to talk to Darren, and just ’cos I said I wasn’t interested, she went off at me.’

‘
Darren?
’ Kim repeated. ‘That nasty bugger you went out with when you were at school? What were you talking to
him
for?’

‘I just told you, I wasn’t,’ Mia repeated impatiently. ‘But now I know it was her, I’ll deny it. I’ll just say she’s faked the pictures from old ones she already had of me.’

‘They can do tests to prove if they’re fakes,’ Sammy warned her. ‘And there’s CCTV footage at the club for them to go on as well, don’t forget. No. The best bet is the statement.’

‘Would they believe her?’ Kim asked. ‘I mean, she looks bloody awful, so it’s obvious she’s been on it for some time. If
I
saw her in the paper saying it was her first time, I’d be the first to call her a liar.’

Telling her that it was a risk they were just going to have to take, Sammy explained that if Mia denied it and was proved to be lying, the press would make it their mission to dig up whatever dirt they could on her. Likewise if she chose to get away with making no comment when questioned, because then they would label her as arrogant. All bad publicity, which would inevitably lead to clients with whom she had outstanding contracts retracting them, and potential new clients finding ‘cleaner’ models to associate themselves with.

‘To put it bluntly,’ Sammy finished. ‘Mia’s by no means well-known enough to merit anybody turning a blind eye to this. If she’s to stand any chance of turning it around, she’ll have to admit it and promise never to do it again.
And
,’ he added, speaking directly to Mia now, ‘the police may want to question you to find out where you got it.’

‘No!’ Mia shook her head adamantly. ‘I can’t tell them about Steve. And before you start,’ she said to her mum, ‘this isn’t a game, and you need to stay out of it. If I’ve got to make the stupid statement, I will. But there’s no way I’m dragging Steve into it, or he’ll kill me.’

‘If you tell them what you know, he’ll be in prison,’ Kim pointed out again. ‘He won’t be able to touch you.’

‘Are you stupid?’ Mia shot back. ‘If
he
can’t get to me, somebody else will do it for him. Why do you think I put the bolts on when I came in? Look what he did to me just for
talking
to someone. He’s already going to kick off when he realises I’ve finished with him, but if I grass him up as
well
 . . .’

She left the rest unsaid, but they all knew what she meant.

Michelle had been sitting listening to all this in silence. Clearing her throat now, she said, ‘There is one way we could do this without involving him.’

As one, their heads snapped round to face her, each of them desperate for a solution.

‘You say Mia’s got to make that statement or she’ll probably lose everything . . . What if
I
make it in her place? At least that way they might believe it was her first time, ’cos it’s obvious I’ve never touched drugs.’

‘Oh, ’cos you’re
far
too much of a goody-two-shoes for that,’ Mia sniped, resenting what she took as Michelle having a pop at her.

Saying, ‘Shut your mouth, you,’ Kim slapped her on the shoulder. ‘Go on, Shell.’

‘Don’t tell me to shut up,’ Mia yelled before Michelle had a chance to speak. ‘My career’s on the line here, and after the mess she made the last time she pretended to be me, losing me that TV advert and making me have to work twice as hard to get my credibility back, I’m not having her anywhere near this.’

Kim glared at Mia, but it was too late: Sammy had already picked up on what had been said.

‘Could you just run that by me again?’ he asked quietly. ‘Are you telling me that it was
Michelle
at that Wonder Wax shoot and not
Mia
?’

‘It’s not their fault,’ Michelle blurted out, her cheeks flaming. ‘I’m sorry for lying, Sammy, but Mia was really sick that day with food poisoning, and my mum didn’t want to let you down, so I offered to take her place. I did try, but I’m not like her, and I couldn’t pull it off.’

‘Good lord.’ Sammy shook his head bemusedly. ‘I knew Mia wasn’t herself that day, but I never imagined that she literally
wasn’t
herself. How inventive.’

‘Yeah, well, now you know, so you understand why she can’t take my place again,’ Mia said.

‘It wouldn’t make that much difference anyway,’ Kim said gloomily. ‘If Sammy’s right, the police might still question you about the coke. And if this Steve’s as bad as you say, you can’t tell them about him. So we’re back to square one.’

Casting a sly glance at Michelle, Mia said, ‘What if we say it was
her
in the picture?’

‘Don’t be daft. Everyone knows Shell wouldn’t touch drugs.’

‘
You
didn’t even know
I
was doing it,’ Mia reminded her. ‘And you see me every day. We’re identical, don’t forget. If we say it was her instead of me, they’ll believe it.’

‘Yeah, and then they’ll put the two of you together and see which one looks rough as a dog,’ Kim said bluntly. ‘And, let’s be honest, it ain’t
her
.’

‘But if we swap them round,’ Sammy mused, ‘the
new
Mia would still look healthy, and her career would remain unblemished.’

‘But mine wouldn’t,’ Michelle protested. ‘I could get kicked off my course if they thought I was doing drugs.’

‘Oh, don’t be so selfish,’ Kim scolded. ‘This is Mia’s
career
we’re talking about, and that’s a damn sight more important than a flaming college course. Anyway, everyone knows that students take drugs when they’re under pressure, so it won’t come as any surprise to anyone.’

‘No, Michelle’s right, we’re asking too much of her,’ Sammy murmured guiltily. ‘She’s done nothing wrong, and we can’t expect her to tarnish her own reputation to save Mia’s.’

‘Yes, we can,’ Mia piped up. ‘I’m a
star
– I could be earning millions this time next year.
She
’s only going to be a stupid social worker, and she probably won’t even be able to hack that, ’cos she’s too much of a wuss.’

‘Mia’s got a point,’ Kim said quietly. ‘You know you’re a soft touch, Shell. Think what it’ll be like when they start sending you round to people’s houses to take their kids off ’em and you come up against some gobby bitch like her next door. They’d eat you for breakfast.’

‘And spit you out for lunch,’ Mia added, smirking as the phrase Bruno had used about
her
not so long ago popped into her head.

Mia’s mobile phone began to ring. Still holding it, Kim’s face paled when she glanced at the screen. ‘It’s him!’ she hissed, as if he could hear her.

‘I can’t talk to him,’ Mia squawked.

His mind whirring into action, Sammy said, ‘Pass it to me.’

‘Why, what you gonna do?’ Kim asked, doing as she was told.

Motioning at her to be quiet, Sammy took a deep breath and, cupping his hand around the mouthpiece as if he didn’t want anybody to hear him, answered the call in a hushed, pompous tone.

‘Mr Dawson, please don’t hang up . . . My name is Leonard Golborne, and I am Miss Delaney’s solicitor. I’m sure you’re aware by now of the story in today’s newspaper concerning Miss Delaney. We’re currently awaiting interview at the police station, and I was about to call you because she was concerned that you may be feeling – shall we say –
apprehensive
about the matter. She wishes me to assure you that you need
not
be concerned, but requests that you do not try to contact her again after today, as she doesn’t wish for you to become the focus of any of the media interest or police investigations which will undoubtedly arise from this unfortunate incident . . .’

‘Finished?’ Steve said quietly when Sammy finally stopped talking. ‘Right, well, pass my regards to
Miss Delaney
for a speedy recovery, and thank her for her consideration. But give her a message from me, yeah? Tell her foolish talk costs lives . . . You got that?’

A rare flash of anger sparking in his eyes at the blatant threat behind the softly spoken words, Sammy said, ‘She’s an intelligent girl, Mr Dawson, and I’m sure that she won’t say anything which she may later regret. As she herself told me, she got herself into this mess, so she’s just going to hold her hands up and accept the consequences – alone.’

Gaping at him in disbelief when he disconnected the call, Mia said, ‘Oh, my God, you’re such a major
liar
!’

‘Never mind liar,’ Kim chipped in, laughing with amazement. ‘You should be a flaming actor. You didn’t sound anything like yourself.’

‘Good,’ Sammy said, exhaling nervously as he pulled his handkerchief out of his pocket and mopped his sweaty head. ‘I’d hate to bump into him down some dark alley one day and have him recognise my voice. That was
not
a pleasant experience, and I hope never to have to do anything like that again.’

Relaying what Steve had said to him, he gave Kim a worried look. ‘I don’t know about you, but I’m thinking it might be a good idea if the three of you stayed somewhere else for the next few days. And the sooner we get that statement drafted and presented to the press the better. Once Dawson sees it and realises that she’s not implicating him, he might be more inclined to disassociate himself from her.’

‘Whatever that means,’ Kim muttered, wishing that he’d speak in plain English.

‘It means he’ll leave her alone when he knows she hasn’t grassed him up,’ Michelle explained. ‘Because he won’t want to risk being seen with her if she’s being watched by the police.’

‘Exactly,’ Sammy said, giving her a respectful smile. It was refreshing in his line of work to meet a young, beautiful, obviously intelligent girl who was neither vain nor arrogant. Mia had come a long way in the two years he’d known her, but she’d be a damn sight further ahead by now if she’d possessed a little of her sister’s composure, he was sure.

‘So, what you’re saying is that we need to stay somewhere else for a bit,’ Kim said, getting it straight in her own mind. ‘Because he might be a danger till he knows she’s kept him out of it? But Mia still has to give a statement that could wreck her career and get her in trouble with the police – while he gets off scot-free?’

‘Either that, or risk him coming after her,’ Sammy replied. ‘And, after speaking to him just now, I’d have to say that I think Mia’s probably right about him.’

‘I am right,’ Mia said adamantly. ‘He’s okay most of the time, but when he turns, he’s a psycho.’

Quietly mulling everything over as they talked, Michelle came to a decision. While she vehemently disagreed that her chosen career was any less important than Mia’s, it was true that she had far less to lose by taking the blame for Mia’s latest mess. The most that would probably happen to her would be a lecture about the stupidity of letting herself and the college down, followed by a couple of counselling sessions. But as she wasn’t actually in a bad state of health either physically or mentally, it wouldn’t take long to persuade her tutors that she had learned her lesson and was fit to resume her training. And while it would be a major embarrassment to have people whom she respected think that she was a drug user, that was a lot less damaging than the consequences to Mia. Even if it didn’t destroy her career, she would carry the stigma for the rest of her life, and the press would bring it up again whenever anything newsworthy happened to her.