by Susan Lewis
Following her out of the lift and along a quiet corridor, Grace felt Lois move in close to her as though she was about to whisper something, but then Anya was opening a door and gesturing for them to go in ahead of her. They found themselves in a small, dimly lit room with plush seats in cosy nests of four either side of a reception desk, and an enormous soda machine in one corner.
‘Chose whatever you want to drink,’ Anya told Lois, waving her to the machine. ‘Just press the buttons, everything’s free.’ She turned to Grace. ‘Are you ready?’
Startled by the abruptness, Grace couldn’t think what to say. She found herself nodding and glancing at Lois as she allowed Anya to steer her through a heavy studded door. Anya turned and said to Lois, ‘It’s a closed set, so you’ll have to wait here.’
‘Cool,’ Lois replied faintly, looking worried.
The door closed with an airy clunk and Grace blinked at the bright lights, so dazzling that it wasn’t possible to make out what sort of room she was in, though she assumed it must be a studio. She took a glass that was being thrust into her hand.
‘Iced lemonade,’ Anya told her. ‘It’s so hot in here you’ll need it.’
She was right; the heat was overwhelming, and it was so stuffy it wasn’t easy to breathe.
Grace drained the glass, and because it was so refreshing she was happy to take another.
‘Is that Grace?’ a male voice enquired. It was deep and gravelly, the kind of voice her dad used to put on when he was playing a monster.
‘She’s here,’ Anya announced. She gently nudged Grace forward and Grace felt her nerves fray as an enormous man with a balding head and goatee beard stepped into the light. He had a piercing in one nostril and in both ears, and his smile showed the glint of something, maybe another piercing, in his tongue. She couldn’t see his eyes because he was wearing dark glasses, but his skin was the same colour as the shadows behind him. A girl seemed to float out from nowhere and she was so white by contrast, hair, skin, dress, that she almost seemed translucent.
‘Hello Grace,’ she murmured, giving her a little wave, but she wasn’t looking at Grace, she didn’t seem to be looking at anything at all.
‘Grace brought a friend with her,’ Anya stated loudly.
At first the man said nothing and it was impossible to know where he was staring as his eyes were concealed, but Grace felt sure it was at her. ‘Why did you bring a friend, Grace?’ he asked smoothly.
She opened her mouth to answer, but nothing came out. She was feeling woozy, she realized, and it wasn’t easy to stay standing. Dimly she wondered if there had been alcohol in the lemonade, but she didn’t like to ask.
She watched the girl drape herself over a wide chaise longue, and was aware of being steered towards it. As she sat she felt her head loll forward and struggled to keep it up. She put out a hand to steady herself but then someone was lifting her feet, helping her to lie down. She tried again to speak, but her tongue felt so heavy and it was impossible to keep her eyes open. She sensed rather than saw the man come to kneel beside her. ‘You shouldn’t have brought your friend,’ he whispered in her ear. ‘It’s not what you were told to do.’
Lois’s house was in darkness when the car pulled up outside to let her and Grace out into the damp, blustery night. This wasn’t unusual, for the TV room and her parents’ bedroom both overlooked the back garden, but it was so late it was most likely that everyone was already in bed.
Fingers crossed.
‘Are you OK?’ Lois asked Grace, putting an arm around her as the car drove off, red tail lights glowing as it paused before turning left out of the street.
Grace nodded. ‘I think so,’ she croaked. Her throat was so parched she could hardly get the words out, and her head throbbed so badly she was only just managing to register where they were.
‘Come on,’ Lois said, ‘we need to go in, but we have to be quiet in case anyone hears us.’
Understanding, Grace allowed her to lead the way, keeping close behind and tiptoeing through the front door once Lois had managed to open it.
They got as far as the first landing before the lights suddenly went on and Becky, Lois’s mother, was standing in her bedroom doorway glaring at them so fiercely that Lois half slid behind Grace.
‘What the hell time do you call this?’ Becky demanded, her elfin face white with anger. ‘I’ve been calling you for hours. Your mother has been here looking for you, Grace. She’s out of her mind with worry. So where the hell have you been?’
Lois swallowed hard and glanced at Grace as she said, ‘We – we went to a party after dance class. I’m sorry, we should have rung to let you know …’
‘You’re damned right you should have, and what are you doing going to parties on a school night? Where was it?’
‘It … um, it was at someone’s house over … by the garden district.’
Becky peered more closely at Grace. ‘Have you been drinking?’ she wanted to know. ‘Yes, of course you have. Look at the state she’s in. Get her up to bed now and I’ll text her mother to let her know she’s all right. It’s lucky for you, Lois Holbrook, that your father’s away working this week or there would be hell to pay, staying out till gone eleven on a week night and not asking permission – or getting in touch to let anyone know where you were.’
Bundling Grace to the narrow staircase leading to the loft, Lois said quickly to her mother, ‘Please don’t tell Angie about her being drunk. Just say we got carried away dancing or something and didn’t notice the time.’
Becky scowled at her hard. ‘If Angie didn’t already have enough on her plate I wouldn’t lie for you,’ she stated. She inhaled crossly. ‘And Grace had better be OK for school in the morning, because I’m not going to lie for you twice. Once you’ve got her upstairs make sure there’s something next to the bed in case she’s sick. If she is and it goes all over the place you will be the ones cleaning it up.’ She was going back into her room when she stopped and turned round, brow furrowed with confusion. ‘How come she’s drunk and you aren’t?’
‘I just … I didn’t really have anything. I mean, she didn’t either, but what she did have went straight to her head.’
Becky frowned suspiciously and with another meaningful look at them both she closed the door behind her.
Minutes later Grace was sprawled on the small guest bed next to Lois’s larger one, feeling as though she was drifting and pitching. Lois sat cross-legged beside her, checking Grace’s mobile. ‘Shit, there are a ton of calls and texts from your mum,’ she warned. ‘Do you want to let her know you’re all right?’
Grace nodded, but when she tried to reach for the phone her hand simply fell back on the bed.
‘Don’t worry, I’ll do it,’ Lois said. Speaking aloud as she typed, she texted, ‘Mum, I’m really, really sorry. Didn’t mean to worry you, but I’m fine. Just didn’t hear the phone because the music was so loud.’ She stopped and scrolled back through Angie’s messages. ‘Better check to see if there’s anything you should be responding to,’ she explained. She stopped at the earliest text. ‘She’s saying here that she’s got some good news and she wants you to go to your Auntie Em’s for tea so she can tell you.’
Grace groaned and tried to take the phone again.
Lois moved it away and carried on typing. ‘Can’t wait to hear your good news. Too late to call now, but will try you on way to school in the morning. Sorry again. Love you.’ As she put the phone down she looked at Grace helplessly, uncomprehendingly, not sure what to do next. ‘Are you all right?’ she asked. ‘Do you need to be sick?’
Grace shook her head and fleetingly opened her eyes.
‘So what the hell happened?’ Lois whispered urgently. ‘I thought you were never going to come out of there. I was dead scared. Do you realize I was locked in that bloody room? I don’t know if someone did it on purpose, but no one answered when I shouted and knocked on the door. Then I couldn’t get a signal on my phone …’ She broke off as a tear rolled fro
m the corner of Grace’s eye. ‘Oh Grace,’ she whispered frantically, ‘what is it? Tell me what happened.’
‘I don’t know,’ Grace sobbed. ‘I can’t remember anything.’
‘But you must remember something. You have to.’
Grace shook her head. Everything was blank, and her head hurt so much.
‘When you went in,’ Lois prompted, ‘what happened then? Who else was there?’
Grace tried to make herself think. The memory was fuzzy, but after a moment she said, ‘There was a man and a girl in white … I … They gave me a drink and after that …’
Lois’s eyes rounded with horror. ‘Oh God, oh God,’ she muttered, not wanting any of this to be real. ‘Grace, tell me, do you think …? Listen, you’ve heard about those date-rape drugs, they go on about it in school, so is it possible someone might have … you know … spiked your drink and had sex with you?’
Grace moaned in despair. ‘I don’t know,’ she choked.
‘How can you not know?’
‘Because I can’t remember.’
Lois hardly knew what to do or say, but somehow she forced herself to think rationally. ‘All right, all right,’ she said, as much to calm herself down as Grace. ‘How do you feel down there?’ she urged. ‘If someone raped you you’d be able to feel it. Does it hurt?’
Grace wriggled a little and shook her head.
‘Are you sure?’
‘Definitely.’
‘OK, that’s good. Do you hurt anywhere?’
‘Just my head … Oh God, I’m scared, Lois. You won’t tell my mum, will you? You won’t ever tell anyone …’
‘Cross my heart and hope to die.’
Grace sobbed into her hands. ‘They could have done anything to me, Lois …’
‘Ssh, ssh, as long as you’re not hurting down there we know you weren’t raped, and that’s what really matters. OK?’
Grace tried to nod.
Lois went into the bathroom, filled a glass with water, grabbed some wet wipes and the plastic waste bin and went back to Grace’s bed. ‘You know what I reckon,’ she said, gently cleansing Grace’s face, ‘I reckon Anya’s the front person for some paedo ring, and me turning up with you ruined everything. You could see how pissed off she was about it … Oh God, Grace, anything could have happened to you.’
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
As Angie indicated to turn out of Emma’s street her mobile was resting on the front passenger seat of the van, switched to speaker, her version of hands-free. ‘Well as long as you’re all right,’ she said to Grace, raising her voice to be heard. ‘You had us all in a terrible state last night worrying about you. It’s not like you, and it’s not like Lois either. So are you sure you’re telling us the whole story?’
Grace’s voice was slightly muffled as she said, ‘Definitely.’
Sceptical, but not wanting to pick a fight on the phone, Angie said, ‘You sound tired, which is hardly surprising given the time Becky says you got in.’
‘I’m fine,’ Grace assured her. ‘Just kind of, you know.’
With a roll of her eyes, Angie said, ‘I’m sure I don’t know. I want you to come home tonight. Something’s happened, something good and I want to share it with you.’
‘Can’t you tell me what it is now?’
Should she? It would deprive her of seeing Grace’s face light up when she explained about the flat, but she sounded pretty low this morning – ashamed of having caused all that fuss last night most likely – so she could probably do with some cheering up. ‘I’ve got a place to stay,’ she announced, experiencing a heady rush of euphoria simply to say the words. ‘And it’s not just any place, it’s lovely. I should be able to move in later today.’
Grace’s tone was still flat as she said, ‘Where is it?’
‘Would you believe, on the Promenade? It actually overlooks the sea. Well, I think it does, I haven’t been in it yet …’
‘Are you saying the council gave you a place on the Promenade?’
Angie laughed. ‘I wish. No, it belongs to a friend. Well, he’s a friend of Dad’s actually, who’s offered to let me stay there until the council can come up with something permanent.’
Grace was silent.
‘Are you still there?’ Angie asked.
‘I don’t think you should take it,’ Grace snapped.
Angie blinked in astonishment. ‘What are you talking about? It’s a very generous offer and …’
‘OK, so what’s his name, this friend of Dad’s?’
Angie was about to tell her, but instead she said, ‘Why? What difference does it make?’
‘None. I’m just asking. Is it someone we know?’
‘Kind of. His name’s Martin Stone. You might have seen signs on building sites for Stone Construction. He and Dad knew each other quite well.’
‘So he’s a builder?’
‘A bit more than that, but essentially yes.’
‘OKaaaay.’ She was sounding slightly less hostile now. ‘So how come he’s letting you have this house?’
‘Flat, and it’s bit of a long story, so I’ll tell you tonight. Are you at school now?’
‘We’ve just got here. Becky dropped us off.’
‘Good. I hope you apologized properly for all the upset you caused last night.’
‘Yes, of course. Can we forget it now?’
With a sigh, Angie said, ‘Just as long as it doesn’t happen again. You know how I worry if I can’t get hold of you.’ She didn’t add that it reminded her too much of how it had been with Liam, Grace would know that anyway. ‘I’ll send you a text as soon as I know what’s happening later.’
‘OK. Love you.’
‘Love you too.’
As she rang off Angie pulled up at traffic lights and quickly checked the texts that had come bundling in while she was on the phone. There was one from an outreach worker asking if she could fill in for her on Saturday night serving drinks at the bingo; and another from one of the volunteers at the women’s shelter hoping Angie could cover her pizza-delivery shift on Friday. They were both offering to pay her in cash, and ordinarily she’d have jumped at it, but now she had to consider her new position with Stone Construction. It was possible she’d be required to work late one or two evenings a week, and there were also the deliveries she was expected to make between the house, the main offices and the several building sites, plus, of course, her duties at BtG.
To her great relief, she’d been able to cancel her job at the recycling plant. It might not have been as bad as she feared, but on the other hand it might have, and anyway, she really, really didn’t want to sort through other people’s rubbish.
The third text was from Hamish letting her know that there was a leak in the bathroom at Hill Lodge, but not to worry, he’d fix it himself. Don’t want to be running up bills where we don’t have to, he added. She quickly messaged back to thank him and clicked on to the final text. It was from Martha, containing the name and number of a debt consolidation adviser whose services were apparently free of charge.
Feeling a surge of gratitude all mixed up in fear and humiliation, Angie put the van into gear and drove on along the coast road. Martha – and Martin – must surely wonder why she hadn’t found this information out for herself by now, but she had known these debt services existed. She just hadn’t been able to face the shame of confessing what a terrible mess she was in. She didn’t want to now, she was going to hate every minute of it, but she’d come to accept in the last twenty-four hours that she couldn’t expect others to help her like this if she wasn’t prepared to help herself.
Right now she was on her way to meet with the lawyer Martha had texted her about at eight this morning – she was an early bird. Apparently he was going to talk to her about her court appearance next week.
An actual lawyer was going to help her with a hearing for non-payment of a TV licence. It felt like a fantasy.
Martha had texted: Himself says not to worry about how much it’s goi
ng to cost because the lawyer owes him plenty of favours.
They really did come from different worlds, Angie thought, and how lucky she was to have been invited into his, at least for a while. ‘Thanks, Steve,’ she whispered, ‘because I know it’s you making this happen.’
Later in the day Angie called Hamish from the BtG office to check everything was OK at Hill House.
‘Leaky bathroom sorted,’ he told her in a brief but satisfied way. ‘Just needed a new washer. The bloke at B & Q was very helpful, explained what I had to do. I didn’t tell him I already knew – it would have spoiled the fun of showing off for him.’
Angie had to smile; Hamish was nothing if not generous.
‘No word from Mark Fields,’ he went on, ‘not that I expected any, but I’ve had quite a long chat with Craig’s girlfriend, Sasha. She’s Romanian, by the way, and it turns out she’s managed to escape from a very unfortunate situation over on the Temple Fields estate where she was being held against her will and forced to do things … Well, I’m sure you’re following me. We all know what goes on in certain properties over there. Poor thing’s terrified of them finding her again and she’s got no money to go back to her country or papers which might qualify her for aid. She holing up in one of the scrap caravans on the dumping ground behind the station, and that’s where Craig stays when he’s not here. So, I hope you don’t mind, but I’ve told her she can come here for something to eat and to get warm now and again. She seems like a good girl and the others know not to act up around her, or they’ll have you to answer to.’
Angie smiled, even as she felt deep pity for the girl. Thank goodness Sasha had Hamish and Craig for the moment. Just like she had Martin. ‘It’s good you’ve done that,’ she told Hamish. ‘She needs to feel safe, so we’ll see if we can think of somewhere a bit more comfortable for her to stay for a while.’