by Lisa Stone
‘Sharon also found a used syringe in your bathroom on New Year’s Eve. She removed it so Leila wouldn’t hurt herself.’
‘She’s fucking lying!’ Kelsey screamed. ‘I’m clean – I haven’t used in ages.’
‘Kelsey, get some sleep and I’ll visit you tomorrow. You will see Leila again before long.’
‘No, I won’t. You and Sharon will find a way to stop me. The pair of you have already made up your minds.’
Cutting the call, Kelsey dropped to her knees and wept. All hope had gone. Sharon was against her. Was Leila in on this too? It seemed likely – the two of them working together to cut her out of their lives forever. What use was she to Leila now she had Sharon? None at all. As Kelsey wept, her thoughts went to New Year’s Eve, when Sharon and Leila had put her to bed. She remembered thinking she’d seen the flash of a camera as she’d passed out. When she’d woken the following morning they’d gone and, unknown to her, they had the evidence of her drunkenness on Sharon’s phone.
But there hadn’t been a syringe in the bathroom. She was sure of that. There were no syringes at all in the flat and there hadn’t been for months. Sharon had lied about that and about other things to paint Kelsey in the worst possible light. But why? What had she ever done to Sharon to deserve this? There’d be no chance of Leila ever being returned to her now. Peter had said how well Leila was settling in with her aunt. The decision had been made. This was the end of the line for Kelsey. She wouldn’t get in their way any more.
She pulled herself to her feet and, wiping her eyes on the sleeve of her cardigan, went into her bedroom. She took the last of Colin Weaver’s money from where she’d hidden it under the bed. There was £180 left. Plenty to buy what she needed: the drugs to send her to oblivion, permanently. She felt a numb acceptance as she tucked the money and her keys into the pocket of her jeans and left her flat.
With the decision made, how simple everything had suddenly become. Jason and Mike should be in their usual place by now, dealing, and she would buy whatever they were selling. It didn’t matter what, as long as it was enough to stop her pain once and for all.
Nothingness beckoned and Kelsey felt relieved. For her, life had been one long struggle, but not for much longer.
The night was bitterly cold and Kelsey dug her hands into her jacket pockets as she made her way towards the play area. She couldn’t see any sign of Mike or Jason; they didn’t appear to be in their usual place. But Kevin Bates was there, loitering with another guy. Undeterred (she had no fear of him now), Kelsey continued towards them.
‘Well, look who it is!’ Bates sneered as she approached. ‘The slag of Hawthorn Estate.’
‘I’m not looking for trouble,’ Kelsey said. ‘I just want some stuff. Where are Jason and Mike?’
‘They had to leave,’ Bates laughed. ‘The police were here again. But my friend Sam can help you. He’s got some good coke.’
The other lad stepped forwards. ‘It’s pure,’ he said, showing her a packet of white powder. ‘Forty quid a gram.’
‘Give me four grams,’ Kelsey said.
‘Wow. You having a gang bang up there?’ Bates guffawed.
‘Just shut the fuck up, will you?’ Kelsey hissed.
‘Oh, someone’s in a bad mood.’
Kelsey ignored him and gave Sam the money. He passed her the four packets of coke. She turned and headed back.
‘How much for a blow job tonight?’ Bates shouted after her.
Clutching the bags of coke, Kelsey continued across the play area and then in through the main door of the flats. Bates couldn’t harm her now. No one could. She was beyond all of that. Four grams would do it. She’d dissolve it in water and drink the mixture since she didn’t have any syringes to inject with. The result would be the same – an overdose, leading to death.
Slowly and heavily, Kelsey climbed the stairs to her landing and was about to round the corner when she heard a movement behind her. She turned. Colin Weaver stepped out of the shadows.
‘What the fuck! You bastard!’ she cried, going for him.
He grabbed her wrists to deflect the blow. ‘I need to talk to you.’
‘Let me go. You’ve done enough damage.’ She pulled away and began towards her flat.
‘No! Wait, please,’ he called after. ‘It’s about Leila.’
She stopped and turned. ‘What about Leila?’
‘I heard you in your flat just now shouting and crying. I know why you’re upset and it’s not your fault.’
Kelsey stared at him. ‘You don’t know anything about me. You took Leila, you sicko, and now I’ve lost her for good. I hope they lock you up and throw away the key.’
‘I did take her and I’m sorry, but it wasn’t my idea. It was your sister Sharon’s idea. She told me to do it.’
‘What are you talking about? You don’t even know my sister.’
‘I do, very well. Or did. She and Doris Goodman persuaded me to take Leila.’
‘Bullshit. You’re lying. The police know it was you.’
‘I’ve admitted my part, but Sharon was involved too. She planned it, although the police don’t believe me.’
‘Neither do I. You’re just trying to get off lightly.’
‘Think what you like about me, but believe me for Leila’s sake.’ He took a step towards her. Kelsey remained where she was. ‘She’s in danger, living with your sister. Sharon is obsessed with keeping Leila. She’d stop at nothing.’
‘Tell me about it!’ Kelsey said dismissively, and she turned and continued towards her flat.
‘You need to believe me!’ he cried down the corridor. ‘You’ll be sorry if you don’t.’
‘Yeah, I’m sorry for a lot of things!’ she shouted back. Letting herself into her flat, she slammed the door shut.
She doubted Weaver knew Sharon, and even if he did, she was beyond caring now. It was no business of hers, and she hoped he got what he deserved. Going to the kitchen, Kelsey filled a glass with warm water and took it, with a teaspoon, into the living room. She sat on the sofa and placed the four bags of coke in a line in front of her. Her phone, on the sofa where she’d left it, now vibrated with an incoming call. She ignored it and opened the first packet. She didn’t have to talk to anyone now or ever again, and this was strangely comforting. She carefully tipped the powder from the first bag into the glass of warm water and stirred. The white particles gradually disappeared, dissolving into the water.
Her phone buzzed again and she turned it over so she could see the caller display. It was from a mobile number her phone didn’t recognize, so the person wasn’t in her contact list. Probably a client, she thought, and carefully opened the second packet. No need for clients now or ever again.
She stirred in the powder. Only once she had dissolved the contents of all four packets would she start drinking the mixture. She’d drink it gradually so she wasn’t sick and her body had time to absorb it. Then it would slowly shut down her organs and eventually stop her heart and that would be the end. No more struggling to get it right and failing. No more worries. Nothing.
The phone buzzed again and she glanced over. It was from the same caller. Someone must be desperate for sex. It could even be Bates, given his remarks about a gang bang. She’d never given him her number, but he could easily have obtained it from a client on the estate, and he knew she was in.
Kelsey concentrated on opening the third packet and tipped the powder into the now-milky-coloured water. Her phone bleeped with a text message. She glanced over and read the display as she stirred. Mum its me Leila pick up i need to talk to you.
Of course it wasn’t Leila. Kelsey continued stirring the mixture. It was someone playing a sick joke. Bates? Leila was with Sharon and didn’t have a phone, because the one Kelsey had bought for her was still in her bedroom here. The only other person who could be playing a joke like this, apart from Bates, was that sick weirdo Weaver. Maybe, having stopped her on the stairs, he was now trying to mess with her brain and frighten he
r. Little did he know she was beyond that.
She opened the last packet and tipped the contents into the glass as her phone bleeped with another text message: Mum its Leila why arent you answering? Then her phone began to vibrate again with a call from the same number. Kelsey’s anger flared and she grabbed the phone.
‘Who the hell is this? What do you want?’
There was silence, then the sound of breathing, and a faint voice, barely audible, said, ‘Mum, it’s me, Leila.’
Kelsey’s heart stopped as she fought to regain control. ‘Leila?’ It couldn’t be.
‘Yes.’
‘Is that you? I can hardly hear you.’
‘I’m whispering so Aunty Sharon doesn’t hear me. I’ve locked myself in her bathroom. I want to come home. I don’t like it here. She’s horrible.’
‘Has she put you up to this?’ Kelsey asked. ‘You haven’t got a phone.’
‘I’m using an old phone of Sharon’s. I found it in a drawer in her bedroom. I wasn’t supposed to be in there.’
Kelsey hesitated. Her throat had gone dry and her heart was racing. Was this a trick? ‘How do I know you’re telling the truth? Peter Harris told me you liked Sharon and you were getting on well.’
‘No, I had to pretend when he came here. Just like I had to pretend to the police. Sharon told me to say nice things about her or she would be angry. She made up lots of bad things about you and now I can’t see you any more.’ Kelsey heard her whimper.
Was Leila telling the truth? She desperately wanted to believe her. She stared at the glass of dissolved coke she’d been about to drink.
‘Did you know Sharon took a photograph of me on New Year’s Eve after I’d passed out?’ Kelsey asked. ‘Were you in on it?’
‘No, honestly, Mum, I saw it today for the first time when she showed Peter. I tried to tell him it wasn’t your fault and Sharon got you drunk, but he didn’t believe me. He said I was being loyal to you. She’s made up other things too.’
‘I know.’
‘She won’t let me speak to you on her mobile and she’s unplugged the phone in the living room so you can’t call. You know how we were so late arriving on New Year’s Eve?’
‘Yes.’
‘That was her fault. She said you’d be so stressed by the time we arrived you’d be more than ready for a drink.’
‘But why is she doing this?’
‘To make sure I stay here. She said she doesn’t need Colin Weaver any more.’
Kelsey’s stomach contracted. ‘Sharon knows Weaver?’
‘Yes. I heard her talking to Mrs Goodman about him. That’s how I knew she had another phone. I listened outside her bedroom door. I think Sharon had something to do with Colin taking me. I don’t want to stay here, Mum. I don’t trust her. You need to help me.’
‘Yes, I’m trying to think how.’ Kelsey’s thoughts churned as she struggled to make sense of what was going on and formulate a plan. Who was going to believe her over a social worker and her respectable sister?
‘You need to do something quickly, Mum,’ Leila whispered. ‘She’s coming. I have to go.’
Kelsey heard a loud knock on the bathroom door together with Sharon’s voice, hard and demanding, talking to Leila in a tone Kelsey had never heard her use. ‘What are you doing in there? Come out now!’
The line went dead.
Kelsey’s hand trembled as she stared at her phone and felt sick with fear. She couldn’t call Leila back to make sure she was all right. If what she said was true then Sharon was sure to hear. Had Leila had time to hide the phone before letting her aunt into the bathroom? Would Sharon notice the phone was missing before Leila could return it? Would she check the call log? She had to believe Leila and act fast.
With all thoughts of suicide now gone, Kelsey stood and stared distractedly around the room. What to do for the best? Colin Weaver had said Sharon was in on Leila’s abduction and Leila was in danger. She hadn’t believed him, but now it seemed as if he was telling the truth. Leila needed help, rescuing, but it was an hour in a car to Sharon’s house even if she had the money to pay for a taxi, which she didn’t. She’d spent the last of the money on coke. Her only option, she quickly decided, was to call the police and pray they believed her. With her hand trembling uncontrollably, she pressed 999.
‘Which service do you require: ambulance, fire, police or coastguard?’ the call handler asked.
‘Police and quickly.’
‘I’m putting you through.’
‘My daughter is at her aunt’s house and is in danger,’ Kelsey cried as soon as the call was connected. ‘She needs rescuing now.’
‘Calm down, please,’ the officer said. ‘What’s the name and age of your daughter?’
‘Leila Smith. Eight years old.’
A second’s pause, then, ‘Is this the same child who was missing last month?’
‘Yes. She’s living with her aunt – my sister – but I’ve just found out she was involved in Leila’s abduction.’
‘And the aunt’s name?’
‘Sharon Kern.’
‘The address where the child is?’
‘Eighty-six Park Road, LE31 5ZX.’
‘And what makes you think your daughter is in danger?’
‘She phoned just now, scared stiff. She’d locked herself in the bathroom to get away from her aunt.’
‘All right, try not to worry. I’ll send someone to look into it.’
‘Thank you. Please hurry before it’s too late.’
FORTY-SIX
‘You little cow!’ Sharon cried, grabbing Leila by the arm and pushing her back into the bathroom. ‘I heard you. Where’s my phone?’
Leila stared at her, petrified, then watched as her aunt began searching the bathroom, still holding her arm tightly so she couldn’t get away. There weren’t many places to hide things in the bathroom and within seconds Sharon had opened the small wall cabinet and spotted the phone concealed behind the shower gel.
‘You need to learn to do as you’re told,’ she said, shaking Leila. ‘Who were you talking to?’
‘No one,’ Leila said, her voice slight.
‘Liar. I heard you.’
Slamming the bathroom door closed behind her, Sharon stood in front of it, blocking Leila’s escape, and checked her phone. ‘You called your mother! What did you tell her?’ she demanded.
‘Nothing,’ Leila said, trembling.
‘I don’t believe you. But it won’t do you any good. No one will believe a crackhead like her over me.’
‘I hate you!’ Leila shouted, made brave by defending her mother.
‘You’re just like her,’ Sharon cried, her eyes blazing. ‘You should be grateful I’m looking after you. No one else would.’
‘I’m not grateful!’ Leila retaliated. ‘I love my mum. I hate you. I’m going home.’
‘Over my dead body!’ She glared at Leila, her face ugly from anger.
‘Why are you being horrible and making up things about my mother?’ Leila asked. ‘She hasn’t done anything to you.’
Sharon paused for a moment as though a connection had been made, a fuse lit, then, lowering her voice, she said, ‘I’ll tell you if you really want to know. You’re old enough. It’s time you understood. It goes back to when your mother and I were children. We were happy then, but our father died and our mother remarried quickly because she couldn’t stand being alone. The man she married was evil and abused your mother in ways you don’t want to know. He would have started on me too if it hadn’t been for her. She was two years older than me and she kept him away from me by sacrificing herself.’ Pain shot across Sharon’s face and she stared distractedly around the room, which made Leila more afraid than ever.
‘We told our mother what he was doing, but she didn’t believe us,’ Sharon continued. ‘Kelsey could have left when she was sixteen, but she stayed to protect me. As soon as I turned sixteen, we both left, but the damage was done. Your mother married a thug and then took to drink a
nd drugs to try to blot out the pain. I buried myself in respectability – a steady job, a house of my own, church on Sundays. But it was there in the background for both of us, gnawing away. Even though our stepfather hadn’t abused me, knowing how your mother had sacrificed herself and suffered all those years was torture for me. I made the decision that I couldn’t risk having children in case what happened to us happened to them. But your mother had children and I had to stand by and watch her lose them all. It wasn’t fair. The abuse ruined both our lives – you see that, don’t you?’
Scared further by her aunt’s manic passion, Leila gave a small nod.
‘I did what I could to help your mother keep you and so did Doris Goodman, even though your mother resented it. Doris is a good woman. Don’t ever say anything bad about her, whatever happens. Do you understand?’
Leila nodded again.
‘One day Colin Weaver approached me as I was leaving your flat. He said he was going to phone the social services with evidence that showed how badly you were being neglected. I knew you’d be taken into care and adopted so I’d never see you again like your brothers and sisters. I felt I’d failed, so I hit upon a plan to rescue you and get me the child I deserved but had been denied. I realized you’d be hard work because of the life you’d led, but I was prepared for that. Raising you would be like a penance to repay the debt I owed your mother for protecting me from our stepfather for all those years. The weight of that debt was bringing me down.
‘It didn’t take long before Colin Weaver was willing to do whatever I wanted,’ Sharon continued with a smile that turned Leila cold. ‘He was in love with me and thought we were going to start a new life together – the three of us. As if! I knew your mother would never have agreed to you coming to live with me had she not been pushed into a corner. Once you were missing and the social services had taken out a care order, though, it would be easier.’ She paused again as if remembering.
‘Did you love Colin Weaver?’ Leila asked, trying to distract her. Sharon had been so absorbed in telling her story, she’d dropped her guard and moved slightly away from the door.