When the Music's Over (37 page)

“And generous?”

“Yeah, I suppose so. At first.”

“But now you're scared of them?”

“Things change.”

“Didn't you think they were a bit old for you?”

“Did you go out with kids your own age when you were young?”

It was the first time anyone had indicated that they felt that Gerry wasn't young, and it was a strange feeling. Of course she would seem old to Jade. “No,” she said. “I suppose not.” She could have added that there wasn't much choice at her boarding school, and that the choice wasn't only limited in age but also in gender, unless you were foolhardy enough to go for a teacher. But she didn't. Her first real boyfriend, when she was eighteen and at university, had been in his thirties. He had also been a junior lecturer, though at no time was he ever
her
teacher.

“So how did things progress?”

“They treated us good at first, like real ladies. They weren't always groping and fumbling and grabbing your tits.”

“But you did have sex?”

“Oh, yeah. But it wasn't, like, all the time.”

“You enjoyed it?”

“It was OK.”

Gerry thought she heard a sound from the next room and stiffened.

“Rats,” said Jade.

Gerry didn't think she had ever seen a rat, not in the wild, so to speak. She certainly didn't want to start now. “Was there any conflict between the men you were with and the local boys?” she asked. “Albert Moffat, Paul Warner and the others? Weren't they jealous?”

“They didn't know. I certainly never told any of them and I'm pretty sure Mimsy didn't. They might have guessed, but I doubt it. We kept a low profile. And we didn't really hang out with lads like Albert and Paul. They were older and they didn't want anything to do with us. I mean, Albert's Mimsy's big brother and Paul's even older than him, so we did see them sometimes in the mall or wherever. They never came down to the Strip. Not their sort of people. They don't like foreigners. Maybe they were too thick to figure out what was happening. I certainly was.”

“In what way?”

“Do I have to spell it out?”

“Try, Jade. For me.”

Jade turned silent for a moment, then began hesitantly. “Well, it was all right at first, like, being Faisal's girlfriend and all that. I thought he really liked me. He'd tell me I was pretty and stuff. Me! I mean, Mimsy was really sexy and all, but me?”

Gerry realized she had no idea what Jade looked like. All she knew was a husky whisper on the telephone and a silhouette in the dark sitting beside her now. She said nothing.

“Sometimes I'd stay at his flat all night,” Jade went on. “He had a smaller place, like, next door to Sunny's. It was a bit cramped and the wallpaper was peeling, but it was OK. It didn't smell too bad. He even got me a mobile just so he could text me when I was at school and stuff. It was cool. Ismail owned the minicab office next door and we'd go everywhere in taxis, like real ladies. We even went as far as Newcastle once, for a party with some of their mates. Like they'd do anything for us.”

“When did things start to change?”

“Not long. Maybe a month or two since we'd known them. One night I went down and there was just Faisal. It was late, like, after the takeaway had closed. We went up to the flat and there were two other guys there. Faisal said they were cousins of his visiting from Dewsbury. They seemed nice enough. We had a few drinks, like, and I was getting pretty wasted, then Faisal sort of leaned over and said that Namal, that was one of his cousins, liked me. And I could see Namal
looking at me and smiling and stuff. And Faisal said it would be nice if I could show him a good time.”

“How did you react to that?”

“I nearly fell off my fucking chair laughing, didn't I?”

“And what did Faisal say?”

“He said it was OK, it was like a family thing. It was the way families did things where he was from and there was nothing wrong with it. They shared. It was a mark of respect. Everyone did it.”

“Did you believe him?”

“How could I know any different? Besides, I was well wasted. I'd been drinking vodka and taking phets. Then Faisal reminded me of all the stuff he'd given us and said it was just a little thing I could for him, like returning a favor.”

“So what happened?”

“Namal and I went in the bedroom and . . . well . . . you know.” She paused for a few moments, being remarkably coy, Gerry thought, given her experiences. Gerry could hear her breathing. “It was all right at first. It didn't hurt all that much.”

“Then what, Jade?”

“Then the other one, Kerim, he came in . . .”

“You had sex with both of them?”

“Yes.” It was a small voice. “How did you feel about that?”

“Feel? I don't know what you mean. I didn't
feel
anything. It's life, in'it? You don't get anything for nothing. The day after, Faisal took me shopping in town and bought me some cool trainers. Nikes. Mimsy, too. And Becca, I think. She got a new dress. She must've done something, well, special.”

“Does that mean they'd performed the same service as you?”

“Maybe. Yeah. I don't know. Maybe he just wanted to include them.”

“Did you tell the other girls what you'd done with Faisal's cousins?”

“Mimsy and I talked about it. That's when she said it had been the same with her. Different blokes, of course. They seem to have a lot of
cousins. With her it was some garage owner who'd serviced Ismail's taxis, she said. A service for a service. We just thought it was the way they were, you know. A different sort of culture. Sunny said it wasn't unusual or weird to share where they came from.”

“But they came from Wytherton.”

“You know what I mean. Besides, not all of them did. Faisal wasn't born here. He came over later. Both his parents got killed by suicide bombers. And there were others.”

“Others?”

“It was like some kind of network. I think some of them might have been illegal.”

“Were they all Pakistani, the men?”

“Most of them, but there were one or two white blokes.”

“Here?”

“No. Just all over the northeast and down in West Yorkshire. Mostly Dewsbury. Some in Bradford. Like I said, they were linked up with other blokes and other girls like us.”

“Every night?”

“Most nights.”

“OK. What happened after that time with the two men?”

“After that it got easier. More often. Sometimes Sunny or Faisal needed to pay back a debt or keep someone happy. They'd drive us all over the place. Stockton, Gateshead, Sunderland, Carlisle. Sometimes we had to stay for days and there were lots of blokes, one after the other.”

“How many men?”

“I dunno. Some nights, you know, like . . . you'd stop counting.”

“That must have been unbearable, Jade.”

“I dunno. Maybe it hurts a bit at first, but usually you're so off your face with vodka and weed, or whatever, you don't feel anything.”

“All the girls did this?”

“Eventually. Had to. Yeah.”

“To be with lots of men for sex?”

“Yeah.”

“Always older men?”

“Yeah. Like businessmen and whatever, but some of them were
like, you know, more rough, like they worked in factories or garages and stuff.”

“Did Faisal take money from the men you went with?”

“I didn't ever see him do it, but I'm sure he did.”

“So they were pimping you, renting you out as prostitutes?”

“It didn't seem like that.” Jade's voice was a plaintive wail for acceptance. “It really didn't. They always said how we were welcome to everything they'd given us, and kept on giving us—drinks, food, free taxi rides, jewelry sometimes, mobiles, top-ups, and later some coke and phets and weed. Even money. None of us had, like, jobs, or parents that had any money to give us. Maybe we felt what we did, you know, was like a way of paying for it, doing a favor for a friend. I mean, men wanting sex with me was no big deal. They've been doing it since I was twelve, including my first foster father and my stepbrother. I didn't get a chance to say no to them, either, and they didn't even pay me for it. Didn't even offer me a fucking drink. It was the same with Becca and Kath. And Mimsy always had older blokes around her wanting a feel or a quick wank. Even her psychological counselor from the social fucked her and he was supposed to take care of her.”

“Was that your present foster father who raped you?”

“No. This was in Sunderland. It's better here. They don't touch me at all, not even a pat on the shoulder or a hug.” She snorted. “They hardly even talk to me.”

“So you were just returning a favor for Faisal?” Gerry said.

“That's right. Favors.”

“Is that why you didn't go to the authorities? The social services or the police?”

“Partly. None of us had had an easy time whenever the polis or the social came on the scene. They were bastards. It was like everyone had just given up on us. We knew they'd just blame us, say we're thick, like retards or something, and we're sluts and whores and we were doing it for the drinks and drugs and free meals. What did they call it? A ‘lifestyle choice.' Some fucking lifestyle.”

“Weren't you doing it for the drugs and drink?”

“You don't know what it was like. At first they just told us not to
tell anyone we were hanging out with them because people wouldn't understand. People didn't like them because they were Pakis. But later they could be nasty if you didn't do what they wanted. They'd push you about a bit. Besides, we couldn't tell anyone by then. We'd done stuff. You couldn't get away because they knew everything you'd done, like the drugs and the drinking, and they told us we were just slags and that's all anyone would think if we tried to tell them about what was happening.” Jade sniffed. The silence felt heavy in the dark musty house. “They'd taken pictures of us, too. You know, videos on their mobiles. With other men and stuff. They said they'd put them on the Internet so everyone would see what kind of sluts we are. They knew how to find out your weaknesses and exploit them. I think Mimsy was terrified of her mother finding out. In the end, like I said, you're in so deep you just get to thinking there's no way out. You give up. It's easier to do what they say. Besides, the presents keep coming. But then Mimsy got killed.”

It seemed odd to Gerry that most of the parents didn't seem to know or care where their daughters were most of the time, or what they were doing, yet Mimsy was terrified of her mother finding out. Things must have been really bad after Sinead found her daughter with that psychological counselor. “What were you most afraid of?” she asked.

She could hear Jade breathing fast. “I don't mind the dark,” she said finally, “but I can't stand being locked up in a small dark place. They had somewhere like that in the back of Hassan's restaurant, an old larder or something. It smelled of bad meat and rancid grease. I'd get panicky there, like I couldn't breathe, and I'd just want to die. It was like when I was little and they locked me up under the stairs if I misbehaved. My stepmother called it the ‘Harry Potter Room.' It always made her laugh, that.”

Gerry let a few seconds pass in silence. “But you're talking to me now,” she said.

“Yeah. Well, I mean, they went too far, didn't they? I'd been wanting out for a while, and I thought this is my chance, with Mimsy getting killed and everything falling apart, and I'd better take it. I thought if you knew who they were you could arrest them and put them in
jail. And make sure you get their mobiles. And their computers. Smash them all. Then we'll be safe.”

She showed a remarkable amount of faith in what the police could do, Gerry thought, given her obvious intelligence, and the fact that the police hadn't done much for her so far. “We'll do our best,” she said. “What about ketamine? Mimsy had been given ketamine.”

“K? Sunny and Faisal didn't like that. It was strictly weed and coke for the most part. They wouldn't have given her it.”

“So who do you think gave it to Mimsy?”

“I don't know. One of the cousins, maybe. They always had different drugs, like E and downers.”

“The same cousins who slept with you?”

“No. Like they all had family in Dewsbury or Bradford or Huddersfield. They called them cousins. I don't know if they were real cousins or not. That's just what we'd call them. It was that network I told you about. They'd visit and we'd chill. Sometimes they'd bring friends.”

“Just you and Mimsy or the other girls, too?”

“The other girls, too. All of us. And the cousins brought girls sometimes. Girls like us from Dewsbury or wherever. They passed us around, drove us all over the place. Then . . . then Mimsy got killed.” Gerry could tell Jade was crying now, rubbing her eyes and nose with the back of her hand. She sniffled.

“Who killed Mimsy, Jade?”

“I don't know. I've told you I don't know. I wasn't there. All I know is that she told me three of Sunny's cousins were coming down from a job in Newcastle on their way back to Dewsbury that evening and they were all going to stop off for something to eat and have a few drinks and chill. They'd made some sort of deal, and Sunny was getting a cut out of it, something to do with bringing booze and fags and migrants over from Calais. I saw him earlier in the day, and he was all excited about it. He wanted Mimsy and me to come over that night and help entertain them. I couldn't go. It was my period, and I got pains something cruel, so I stopped at home in my room. Mimsy went, though. Sunny must have said they could take her to Dewsbury with them in the van to see her mates. Mimsy would have gone for
that. She'd made friends with some of the girls who came up with them sometimes, see. They were a laugh. However it happened, Mimsy wouldn't have gone against Sunny. She wouldn't have dared, temper or not. We'd all learned to do what he said by then. His mood could change, like, quicker than anyone's.”