by Susan Lewis
Angie took out her keys and got into the driver’s seat. ‘So after I left last night, you went on a date?’ she asked, not sure whether she was cross about it or not. More likely jealous, she told herself, thinking of the hours she’d spent trying to imagine she was in some secret hideaway with Steve.
‘It wasn’t a date,’ Emma protested. ‘We just had a drink and a chat, you know, like you do when you’re getting to know someone.’
‘And?’ Angie prompted, sensing there was more.
‘Well, we got along so famously I could have been tempted to break my rule of “never on the first night” but you’ll be happy to hear I didn’t. We did kiss though, and it was pretty amazing.’
‘Are you sure about his marriage breaking up? I mean, it’s a permanent thing, is it? You don’t want to get involved if it’s just a trial separation.’
‘Apparently they’ve already tried that, and moving here was an attempt to get things back on track, but it hasn’t worked out. Anyway, I hope you don’t mind, but I told him about you having to find somewhere to store your furniture and, wait for this, he rang me just now to say that he should be able to find some space for you to use, free of charge. He runs a kitchen company over on the business park,’ Emma explained. ‘Apparently the warehouse is huge, and as soon as the latest orders have gone out, which is due to be the end of next week, he’ll be able to move your things in.’
Pushing past a swell of emotion, Angie said, ‘That’s so kind of him …’
‘You have to email Shalik right away,’ Emma told her, ‘and if he has a problem with waiting, or thinks you’re just stalling, Melvin says he’ll contact him direct to assure him he’s got everything in hand. Can’t see Shalik playing the bully with another man, can you?’
No, Angie couldn’t. After asking Emma to thank Melvin for her, she tapped out a quick email to Shalik on her phone and sent it on its way.
Anya turned out to be really nice, all friendly eyes and neat blonde hair and a smile that made her look more like Rita Ora than Lady Gaga, Grace thought. She was enchanted, especially after all the lovely things Anya had said at the start of their video call about the work her dad had done on Anya’s house in the Garden District – a really posh area of town, so Anya must be minted. She’d asked how her mum was, too. Grace had told her that they still hadn’t been given anywhere else to live yet.
‘Oh no, I’m really sorry to hear that,’ Anya said gently. ‘It must be so hard for you all.’
‘Yes, it is,’ Grace admitted, wondering if Anya might have a house they could rent at a price they could afford. She glanced at Lois, who was next to her, but out of shot so Anya wouldn’t see her, and received an encouraging thumbs up.
‘Well,’ Anya said with a smile, ‘I know how much you want to help her, and I’m pretty sure I’ve come up with a way for you to make a lot of money doing the thing you love most.’
Grace was so excited she could hardly breathe.
‘One of the friends I contacted about you has confirmed to me that he’s going to be shooting a short movie in the area in the next few weeks – and he’s so impressed by your videos on YouTube that he wants to meet you.’
Grace’s hands flew to her face as she gasped with joy, while beside her Lois punched the air.
Anya smiled. ‘I’ll be in touch with a time for you to meet once I’ve spoken to him. Now, before you go, let me have your bank details … Do you have a bank account?’
Grace blinked in surprise. ‘It’s a savings account, but there’s nothing in it.’
Looking sorry about that, Anya said, ‘Well there will be by tomorrow, if you message me the details. I’ll send over fifty pounds as an advance. You can treat yourself to something nice to wear.’
Grace’s heart had begun racing at the mention of fifty pounds. It felt like more than she’d ever had in her account in her life, although it wasn’t, it was simply that it had been empty for so long that it seemed that way. Next to her Lois pressed down hard on her thigh in barely suppressed excitement.
Anya said, ‘I have to go now, but you can get hold of me any time this way, I’ve always got my phone with me.’
‘Thanks,’ Grace whispered.
Anya smiled again. ‘I’m glad to do this for you and your family. Your dad was a good person.’
Grace swallowed noisily. ‘Can I … Should I tell my mum that you’re trying to help us?’ she asked.
After some thought, Anya replied, ‘It’s probably best you don’t for the moment. Let’s make sure we can really get things going and then we’ll surprise her. How does that sound?’
Grace nodded. ‘It sounds good,’ she agreed.
Moments later the screen cleared and Lois, overcome with elation, flopped back on the bed and kicked her legs up and down in glee. ‘Fifty quid!’ she exclaimed. ‘Grace you’ve found your fairy godmother, no doubt about it.’
Angie was at Hill Lodge when she received a message from Shalik saying Two weeks, not a day more.
Though the leniency surprised her, she wasn’t sure about trusting it; however, for now she’d take it at face value and forward it to Emma, with an additional thank-you to Melvin.
After pressing send she exhaled loudly, as though she’d been holding her breath for days.
‘Everything all right?’ Hamish asked, looking up from the plaster samples of Georgian and Regency cornices that he’d spread out on the kitchen table for her to admire, along with various magazines showing how impressive they were in situ. She was always moved by the pride he took in this house, and perhaps most of all by the fact that he paid for small renovations and even some repairs out of his own pocket.
She smiled. ‘Yes, fine,’ she assured him, and reaching for her cup she grimaced when she found the tea had gone cold.
Getting up to put the kettle on, he said, ‘You know, as a rule I’m not someone to pry, but I am a good listener, and I can tell something’s on your mind. Has been for a while.’
Angie’s eyes flicked to his dear face and went back to her cup as she started to put him off, but all that came out was a ragged sort of sigh. ‘I’ll be fine,’ she assured him. ‘Just a few things to sort out.’
‘Are the children OK?’
She nodded. ‘Yes, they seem to be.’
‘Money issues?’
Managing a wryness she didn’t feel, she said, ‘Same as everyone, these days. But don’t worry, we’ll survive.’
Matching her tone he said, ‘You know what you need, don’t you? You need an Angie in your life. It worked for me, and it’s working for Craig and the others. Even our friend Mark Fields admits he’s living a better life than he was, thanks to the chance you gave him to come here.’
Finding herself alarmingly close to tears, Angie got to her feet to stretch her legs. ‘So it’s working out for him at the building site?’ she said, thinking of Martin, and the holiday he was no doubt already enjoying with his family on ski slopes or in sunny climes.
‘As far as I know,’ Hamish replied.
‘And Craig’s OK?’ she asked. ‘How’s the songwriting going?’
Hamish smiled fondly. ‘Better than you might think – and here’s something else to surprise you: Sasha, his “girlfriend”, is real.’
Angie’s eyes widened with interest. ‘Does that mean you’ve met her?’
‘Only briefly. She waited outside the other evening while Craig came in to fetch something, so I went out to say hello.’
Like a good father would, Angie smiled to herself. ‘And?’
‘She seems a nice enough girl. About his age I’d say, foreign, maybe Polish or Romanian, of course I didn’t ask. I didn’t really get a chance to talk to her, because Craig came out and off they went to watch a band in some pub, apparently, and I didn’t see him again until the next morning.’
‘So he stayed with her?’
‘I guess so.’
Wondering where that might have been, Angie glanced down at her phone as it started to ring, and seeing it was E
mma she clicked on.
‘Great news from Shalik,’ Emma declared.
Deciding everything was relative Angie said, ‘Indeed. Did you thank Melvin for me?’
‘Not yet, but I will. Now, are you planning on coming back to the office today?’
‘I will if you need me to.’
‘I think you should.’
Frowning, Angie said, ‘Is everything OK?’
‘There’s a policeman here. He wants to talk to you – and before you start panicking, it’s not about Liam.’
‘So what is it about?’
‘I don’t know, but I guess we’ll find out when you get here.’
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
As Angie entered the office her eyes darted anxiously between the grey-suited man getting up from her chair, and Emma who was at her desk looking both baffled and vaguely defensive.
‘DC Leo Johnson,’ the detective reminded her. ‘We’ve met before.’
Angie nodded, taking the hand he was offering. ‘What can I do for you?’ she asked.
‘Actually, it’s more what you can do for us,’ he replied with the ghost of a smile. ‘There was a mugging during the early hours of Monday morning, close to the station …’
Angie froze.
‘… and CCTV footage shows your van in the station car park around the time it happened.’
Angie’s mouth dried as Emma looked at her in confusion. Brenda Crompton’s place was the other side of town.
‘So I’m here,’ Johnson continued, ‘to ask if you saw anything that might help us.’
Angie could feel a painful heat spreading over her cheeks. ‘I-I don’t think so,’ she stammered. ‘W-what time did it happen?’
‘Around 3 a.m. The videotape shows you parking the van just after ten thirty and …’
Realizing he was about to say that it didn’t show her getting out of it, or driving off, any time before the mugging, Angie jumped in quickly. ‘I can promise you I didn’t see anything or anyone suspicious.’
Apparently surprised by the speed of her response, Johnson frowned.
Flustered, Angie looked from him to Emma and back again.
‘She wouldn’t have been there then,’ Emma told him. ‘Not if you say it happened at three o’clock.’
Realizing from the change in Emma’s tone that she’d guessed more than Angie wanted her to, Angie kept her eyes fixed on Johnson as she said, ‘I’m sorry, I wish I could help, but there was no one around when I parked.’ That at least was the truth.
Emma said, ‘I hope you’re not thinking it has anything to do with my nephew, Liam.’
As Angie started, Johnson said, ‘He’s not who we’re looking for,’ and reaching into his pocket he pulled out a card and put it on the desk. ‘If anything comes to mind,’ he said, ‘you can reach me on either of these numbers.’
Emma waited only until the door had closed behind him before rounding on Angie. ‘What the heck’s going on?’ she demanded angrily. ‘Why was the van in the station car park at any time, never mind at 3 a.m.? Brenda Crompton lives at least an hour’s walk from there, and as far as I’m aware there’s on-street parking outside her house.’
Angie swallowed dryly.
Emma stared at her hard challenging her to answer, until with an agonized groan she clasped her hands to her head. ‘Please tell me you’re not sleeping in the van,’ she implored. ‘Please, please.’
‘I’m not,’ Angie assured her.
Emma lowered her hands.
‘Not any more,’ Angie added.
As Emma’s eyes closed she said, ‘I knew something wasn’t right. I could tell … I should have … For God’s sake, why didn’t you go to Brenda’s?’
‘Because she doesn’t have room, and anyway I didn’t want her to know my problems.’
Emma threw out her hands in exasperation and disbelief. ‘She’s a kind woman, Angie, she’d have …’
‘Gossiped, you know that. She always does. OK, perhaps not maliciously, but she can’t keep things to herself.’
‘Then why not ask someone else? There are plenty of people who’d take you in. Good God, if I’d known you were in the van I’d have made you stay at mine and to hell with Amy Cutler.’
Angie simply looked at her; her actions could only be justified by misery and pride, and she didn’t want to admit either.
‘Where are you staying now?’ Emma wanted to know. ‘You implied you’re not in the van any more. So where?’
After a beat, Angie’s eyes slid towards the wall that divided them from the storeroom.
It took only a moment for Emma to catch on. She started to speak, but lost her words.
‘It’s dry, more or less, and safe,’ Angie explained, ‘and it won’t be for much longer. I’m sure they’ll give me a place soon, and please, whatever you do, don’t tell the children.’
Emma snapped, ‘Of course I won’t tell them, but you can’t go on sleeping there, I hope you realize that. I have to ask because you’ve clearly lost your mind.’
Inwardly wincing, Angie said, ‘I can’t risk coming to yours …’
‘You’ll have to …’
‘I won’t, but if you don’t mind me having a bath or shower every couple of days … Oh Em, please don’t cry. Please. It’s not so bad, really …’
Emma shouted, ‘Yes it is bad, Angie. It’s about as bad as it gets and I’m trying to think of how to get you out of it, but I can’t and I feel so useless, and when I see what happens to people in your position, those that sleep rough …’
‘Stop,’ Angie begged. ‘Please just stop. We’re going to work this out, Em, I promise you.’
‘But how?’
‘OK, we can’t see the answers right now, but that’s because we’re in the middle of it. Once I get my own place, and find a way to make more money, it’ll all start coming good again.’ There was no point telling Emma that she couldn’t see a way of ever paying off the amount she owed, that it was only going to get worse; it would get them nowhere, at least not today.
In the end Emma said, ‘OK, if you won’t stay with me and you feel you have to sleep in there,’ she didn’t even glance towards the storeroom, ‘then we have to make sure you’re comfortable and that you’ve got everything you need.’
Touched by how hard she was struggling to do her best, Angie said, ‘I’ve already taken care of it. I’ve got a sleeping bag and a small duvet, the she-pee Steve gave me …’
Emma flinched. ‘For God’s sake …’
Angie put up a hand. ‘It’s fine, it’s just the showering and keeping warm that’s a problem, but there’s an electric heater in there that might work if we can find a plug. And if you’re happy for me to use your bathroom, I’ll pay you for the hot water and …’
Emma exploded, ‘It’s not about money anymore,’ she cried furiously. ‘It’s about you and what’s happening to you and that bloody son of yours, because if it weren’t for him Steve would still be alive and you wouldn’t be in this horrendous position.’
Silence ticked on as the truth of Emma’s words weighted the air between them, and filled them both with a grief that was too raw and painful to touch with any more words.
In the end Emma said hoarsely, ‘I’m sorry. That was mean and unhelpful and the last thing you needed.’
Angie didn’t deny it, just glanced at her phone as it rang and let the call go to messages.
‘I don’t suppose you’ve had any more texts about him?’ Emma asked. ‘No, you’d have told me if you had.’
‘This isn’t about Liam,’ Angie said quietly. ‘It’s about how truly sorry I am for what all this is doing to you, because I know how much you care and you don’t deserve all the stress …’
‘I’m not the one we need to worry about,’ Emma broke in quickly. ‘It’s you we have to take care of, but I can’t bear to think of you in that awful storeroom.’
‘It’s better than the van, and maybe I can come to stay with you at the weekend. There’s nothing to say you’re
not allowed visitors, and if Amy Cutler decides to make a fuss we’ll just tell her I’m babysitting while …’
‘We’ll tell her to sod off, is what we’ll do.’
‘… you’re out on your date with Melvin, but of course we won’t tell her that bit.’
Emma wasn’t distracted. ‘We’ve got to find a way out of this,’ she stated forcefully, as if a way really could be found. ‘I know you’re trying, and I know you’re going to say that it’s still early days in comparison to what some people go through, but we can’t let this go on happening to you, Angie. I’m sorry, but we really can’t.’
Hi Grace, Still waiting to hear back from the director, he’s always very busy, but meantime, I’m sure you know that all actors have portfolios. I thought we should get one together so I’m sending some links to the kind of shots I think would work for you.
Grace clicked on the first one, teeth chattering from the cold as she and Lois, tucked in behind the sports hall, watched the small screen revealing the kind of fashion shots they were used to seeing in their teen magazines. Grace’s heart turned over with excitement. There was a girl with perfect make-up, hands either side of her face, eyes closed and amazing red lips pouting towards the lens. Another showed a girl with a radical blonde boy cut glancing back over her shoulder, a mischievous look in her eyes as if daring someone to follow her. A third was a seriously skinny girl leaning against a wall, hair in pigtails, school uniform dishevelled as she scowled down at her phone. The fourth showed two girls in floaty dresses seeming to dance on a beach.
Grace felt a dizzy sort of thrill as she imagined having a portfolio and an Instagram page showing herself like any one of these.
Don’t worry about clothes or make-up at this stage, just see if you can strike some of the expressions and poses. Practise in front of a mirror, and if you can, take some shots and send them over. Did you receive the money transfer? A
Grace had received it, she’d checked using her app during morning break. It had made her feel all weird again, as if this was happening to someone else and she was just watching.