The Goldsworth Series Box Set

by Davie J Toothill

  The media, she deduced. Of course, they should have expected the papers would turn up, having made such a big deal out of the police investigation that was seemingly getting nowhere, and the fact that yet another young black youth had been murdered on the streets of London.

  As they had entered the church, there were yet more people gathered, wiping away small tears and consoling each other. The service, although no doubt beautifully executed, had passed Aurora by in a whirl of tears and silence.

  As the vicar had started the service, all Aurora could see was the beautifully carved oak coffin with shiny brass handles. It was almost covered entirely by a cascade of white lilies and red roses, and Aurora had remained staring, transfixed, at this sight for the entire service.

  She had only finally stirred from her trance-like state when everybody around her rose to their feet, and the procession out into the graveyard had begun.

  As everybody gathered around the graveside, with its white marker highlighting the plot that Shan would be placed in, Aurora felt tightness in her chest. This was it, she found herself thinking. She really would never see her sister again. Never see her smile, or hear her laugh, or touch her silky smooth hair. This was when Aurora finally began to cry, as the coffin, so beautifully adorned, was lowered into the ground.

  Aurora felt a hand enclose hers and squeeze gently. She looked up and was surprised to see Clint standing beside her. Even as the vicar’s words ended and the crowd began to slowly disperse, Aurora and Clint remained at the graveside, hand in hand.

  Eventually, Aurora knew that it was time to leave her sister to rest. Her mother had gone on ahead to the wake, and Aurora knelt down and put a hand on the soft soil, beneath which her sister lay.

  “I’m ready to go now,” Aurora said softly.

  Clint nodded, “I’ll walk you to the wake, your mum told me where it was.”

  “Thanks.”

  “No problem.”

  As they turned and began walking across the soft grass and amidst the mass of headstones towards the gates, Aurora and Clint both glanced back at the freshly covered grave.

  With her glance, Aurora said a final farewell to her older sister. Clint, with his glance, begged for forgiveness, although he knew that he would never be granted it.

  They reached the gates and Clint rubbed his hands together to keep warm, as a light drizzle began to fall from the sky. Aurora looked back into the graveyard and was surprised by how pretty it looked. The green grass and the soft granite of the church, the large trees, their branches and leaves hanging over the ground as if to protect the people sleeping beneath the ground.

  And Aurora sighed. This was Shaniqua’s final resting place, forever.

  * * *

  On the estate, Troy watched as the young man he’d been following for the past few hours left an abandoned flat, closing the flimsy door with its crumbling red paint shut behind him and set off at a brisk pace across the granite courtyard.

  The man was one of Jayden’s dealers, not one of the top-earners, but it would send a message to Jayden that the Banks brothers’ patience was wearing thin.

  Beside him, Trent watched his brother, and was impressed with his nerve. Although younger, Troy still had his older brother’s nerves of steel and an aggressive nature, and this pleased Trent. Not only did it make him feel like a role model, albeit not the stereotypical do-gooder, but it also meant that Troy would make a good runner for him and Tyrese. Tyrese had first suggested it, he always made the suggestions, and Trent had agreed, as he always did. There was no question as to which of the brothers had the brains, and it wasn’t Trent.

  Troy turned to him, “Do we get him now?”

  “Not yet, bro,” Trent shook his head, “We got to wait ‘til the right moment.”

  “When?”

  “When I say, that’s when,” Trent replied, suddenly slightly worried that bringing Troy along was a mistake. What if he fucked everything up? It had been Tyrese’s idea though, so he wasn’t to blame if it all went tits-up, Trent reassured himself.

  They set off across the courtyard, keeping their distance from the man, as he turned a corner down an alleyway and across a road, slowing down his speed. He was easy enough to spot, wearing a bright blue hoodie, even when the street became busier with people heading to the pub and the shops.

  Trent glanced around the area as they went. This was out of the estate, but near enough to let Jayden know who was behind the beating. He looked at the other people on the street. Some stepped aside to avoid them as they walked, feeling threatened by the presence of the two youths, but others seemed oblivious to them. Off the main road, the alleyways were quiet and out of sight, it would be the perfect place.

  The man suddenly glanced behind him, catching sight of them. Trent cursed under his breath, realising that the man had sussed out he was being followed. As the man set off at a run, Trent nudged Troy and the two brothers raced after him.

  They banged into people on the street as they ran, but few people protested, they just looked at them with frustration and annoyance, and continued with their journeys. Nobody wanted to get involved in what they were doing, or be a witness to it.

  Troy kept his eye firmly on the man in the blue hoodie, and saw him turn into a side street. By the time they reached the alleyway, the man had turned the corner. Had they lost him? Troy stopped momentarily, but Trent grabbed him and they continued down the alley at a jog, catching sight of the man as he turned down yet another alleyway.

  Trent was slowing down, his years of smoking taking its toll on his endurance, and Troy picked up his pace. He was closing in on the blue hoodie, but then he saw they were nearing another main street. He lunged, tackling the man around the knees and bringing them both crashing to the floor.

  Troy recovered before he could, and clenched his fist tightly, sending it smashing into the man’s face, again and again. The chase had given him a thirst to see blood, pumping the adrenaline around his body.

  By the time Trent got to them, the man’s face was swollen and bloody, and Troy paused and looked up at his brother.

  “What are you stopping for?” Trent asked, landing a heavy kick to the man’s ribs.

  The man tried to curl up into a ball, trying desperately to protect his body, cover his face, anything, as Troy’s punches once again rained down on him, before everything went black.

  * * *

  At the hospital, Jayden Healy stood by his friend’s bedside and grimaced as he looked down at what remained of Kurt’s face. He had been good looking, always with a girl on his arm, never going without any for more than a few days. Now, his face was blue and swollen with bruises, and dark stitches lined his eyebrows and cheeks, darkened by the dried blood the doctors had yet to clean.

  Beside him, Jayden’s brother Corey shuddered. “They broke both his arms, and cracked a good few ribs. That could have easily been us, couldn’t it?”

  Jayden shrugged, “Not us, no mate. But it’s a shame it was Kurt, he’s a good friend.”

  And it was true. Jayden had respected Kurt, they had been friends since school, and although Jayden was the undisputed leader of Blood Brothers, with Corey as his deputy, it was Kurt who helped him make the important decisions, not Corey. Jayden had always worried that Kurt would be at risk because of their close friendship, and had played down Kurt’s role to almost everybody, including Corey, in an attempt to protect Kurt from the police or rivals. That was one plan that had backfired, badly. And it wasn’t the police who had done this to him, that was for sure.

  Jayden had heard of police racism before, hell, he’d experienced it. Being stopped in the street because of his colour, searched on his way to school. Back then, he’d never had anything worth arresting him for, but now times had changed and he made sure he was always clean. That was the point of having drug runners and foot soldiers, so that he could still make money without any of the risk. Now, it seemed, somebody wanted to send him a message. The police wouldn’t have been so brutal, especi
ally with the media so focused on the police’s dealing with black-on-black violence in the capital. No, it was a rival. Trying to warn him to back off, and Jayden had his suspicions over who was responsible.

  “Any idea who done it?” Corey asked.

  Corey, bless him, had never been too bright. He was handsome though, and that was about all he had been blessed with in life. He had a lighter skin tone than Jayden, due to their mother’s dalliance with a Puerto Rican market trader, who had also fathered their younger sister. Corey spent most of his time in the gym, or else with one of his latest flings, and had never really been involved in the running of Blood Brothers, except to take his cut of the earnings, which Jayden allowed him because he was his brother, family. And that was a part of the gang, being a family, even if you didn’t share the same mothers or fathers, you could at least have a share of the money and the glory.

  “I’m not sure yet,” Jayden replied, although he was pretty certain who was behind the attack.

  Although he loved his brother with all his heart, Jayden was still sceptical about sharing his information and his thoughts with Corey. Not only because Corey was a bit dim, and therefore not a useful source of advice, but because Corey had boasted of his gang connections in the past, in order to big-himself up in front of his friends, or else to get a woman into bed. This, while understandable, was nevertheless a dangerous thing, and Jayden didn’t want anyone to know what he was thinking right now.

  “I’ll tell you one thing,” Jayden said, lowering his voice and checking that the room was empty apart from his brother and his unconscious friend, “They won’t get away with this.”

  “So what we going to do?” Corey asked, “I reckon baseball bats for this.”

  “Baseball bats?” Jayden asked, his voice rising, along with his temper, “Fucking baseball bats? They done too much damage, we need something more.”

  “Knife?” Corey inquired.

  “No, too risky,” Jayden countered, “Half the police squad are out looking for knifes after that girl got stabbed down on the Goldsworth. Nah, we need to get our hands on some guns.”

  “Guns?” Corey repeated, stunned, “You sure, I mean that could be dangerous.”

  “Of course it’s going to be fucking dangerous, for whoever did this anyway.”

  “You want me to call Shaun? He’ll know where to get some.”

  “Yeah, I’ll just stay here with Kurt for a bit, make sure he’s alright.”

  Corey nodded and patted his brother on the arm, before pulling out his mobile and leaving the room. Jayden waited for the door to close behind him, then pulled up a chair and sat down beside Kurt. The drugs they’d put him on were working, it seemed, because Kurt had been knocked out since he’d arrived at the hospital. A bag of his clothes was on the other chair, all coated in blood, the blue hoodie now black with dried blood.

  Jayden sighed in frustration, at how this could have happened. But he also felt invigorated, at the thought of getting his revenge. He knew that the Banks brothers were responsible, that much was obvious, to him at least. It was a message to warn them off dealing on their patch.

  Kurt had always been unnerved at the thought of starting to encroach upon the Banks brothers patch, knowing their notorious reputation for violence, both tactical and mindless. It had been Jayden who had pushed the issue and eventually given the go-ahead, without Kurt’s full backing, and this was what had happened.

  Don’t worry, Jayden thought as he patted Kurt’s bandaged hand gently, I will get revenge for this.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Tuesday passed Aurora by uneventfully; she spent the day with Sasha, who was now her closest friend and confidante. Although Brandy and Zoe sometimes accompanied them, walking quietly behind them, Aurora had grown increasingly suspicious of them. They rarely spoke to her directly, and if they did, it was awkward and uncomfortable for them all. Sasha claimed that she didn’t know what was wrong with them, and Aurora believed her; she had seen how frustrated Sasha had gotten with them both recently.

  Even Clint had seemed distracted on the walk to and from school, barely talking and smoking more than usual. Aurora had wanted to question him, find out what was bothering him, but she stopped herself, because she didn’t want to seem suspicious, and she figured it was probably something to do with his dad being back.

  So when Aurora walked into her flat after school, she was feeling frustrated at what had been, to her, a miserable day. She caught sight of her mother lying on the sofa, snoring loudly, an empty glass beside her. These days, Aurora thought, it was rare for her mum not to have a glass beside her.

  When she’d gone through to her bedroom and dropped her bag onto Shan‘s bed, she sat down heavily on her own, and looked back over the funeral yesterday. It had been tough, but Aurora couldn’t shake the feeling that her grief was being overtaken by another feeling. Feelings, to be exact, and they were for Clint. She had been surprised when he’d turned up at the graveside, but she’d also been secretly pleased as he’d walked her down the road to the pub, arm-in-arm. He’d been awkward at times, mumbling and looking on edge, but that was what funerals did to some people.

  “Aurora, are you home?” Marlena’s voice interrupted her thoughts. She must have woken up then, or regained consciousness.

  “I’m in my room.”

  It was funny, Aurora thought, not for the first time, how quickly she’d begun to say ‘my’ room, rather than ‘our’ room as she’d always referred to it when she had shared with Shaniqua. The human mind was able to adapt to change so quickly, even when it had endured so much heartache and grief.

  Well, some human minds, Aurora mused as her mother appeared in the doorway. She had aged in the week since Shan’s death, that was for sure. Lines had begun appearing under her eyes, and her eyes had lost whatever sparkle had remained. She was like a zombie now, Aurora often found herself thinking, resembling a human but feeling no emotions and numb from any more pain.

  At times, Aurora felt guilty for not supporting her mother as well as she perhaps should have done. But then Aurora reasoned that she had had to cope with her grief on her own as well, and surely if she’d had to cope with her mother’s grief as well as her own, she would have suffered a break down of some kind.

  “How was school?” Marlena asked, her voice cracked.

  “It was fine,” Aurora lied, as there was no point telling her mum anything else, “How was your day?”

  “It was okay.”

  There was an awkward silence. They both knew that Marlena had drunk herself into a stupor in the morning and crashed out on the sofa until a few moments ago. Still, there was no point in asking her mother about it, because Aurora knew that she would simply deny having a drinking problem, and then go and take some more antidepressants.

  “I’m feeling tired,” Marlena said eventually, “I’m off to bed.”

  She gave a small smile, almost a grimace, and then disappeared from the doorway and Aurora heard her mother’s bedroom door shut a few seconds later. No doubt she had some vodka stashed in there already.

  * * *

  The next day, Aurora was unexcited about school. If it was anything like yesterday, she might as well stay home and watch some daytime television, she thought dryly. But that would mean spending time with her mother, and that was becoming an increasingly tedious, and rare, occasion.

  When she opened her front door, she saw Clint standing by the wall, looking down over the courtyard below. He turned around when the door closed, and smiled when he saw her. Maybe Sasha was right, Aurora thought hopefully. Perhaps Clint did like her the same way she liked him.

  “Morning,” she said brightly, already feeling more upbeat.

  Clint grinned, “Morning. How are you today?”

  “I’m alright,” Aurora shrugged, “You?”

  “Been better, I guess, but at least my dad hasn’t been out of bed since the other day, so I guess that’s something.”

  Aurora giggled and they walked down the stairs
, making idle chit-chat. Normally, Aurora didn’t bother with discussing the small things, but with Clint, she didn’t mind. No, she liked it. That was the affect he had on her, and she didn’t mind it one bit.

  When they reached the bottom of the stairs and began crossing the courtyard, Sasha bounded out from her flat and rushed over to them.

  “I have some good news,” she called out.

  “What is it?” Aurora asked.

  “My gran is ill.”

  “And that’s good?” Clint asked, bemused.

  “It means my parents are going down to see her, and I have the flat to myself for the weekend.”

  “House party?” Clint asked.

  “Exactly!” Sasha beamed, “Saturday night, and you’re both invited.”

  Clint grinned, and Sasha winked at Aurora conspiratorially. Aurora was bewildered, but then she began to understand the implications of the party. If both she and Clint were there, and there was alcohol involved, then the chances were high that this was when she found out whether he really did like her or if they would just remain friends.

  As Sasha sauntered off to meet Brandy and Zoe, Aurora and Clint carried on across the courtyard, both secretly smiling at the thought of what could happen on Saturday night.

  * * *

  At the bottom of the stairs, Sasha waited impatiently for Zoe and Brandy to arrive so she could tell them about her house party plans. For the past week, they’d both been later than usual, and Sasha knew that something was going on. When she’d seen them arguing in the school yard a few days ago, her suspicions had been confirmed, but she still hadn’t managed to find out what was going on. She felt worried for them both, they were obviously in some sort of trouble, but she also felt an overwhelming sense of isolation.

  They were supposed to be her best friends, and they had, until the start of last week, shared everything together, their secrets and their problems. Now, Sasha was feeling left out and was beginning to wonder whether she would be better cutting her losses and ditching Zoe and Brandy, and focussing on her blossoming friendship with Aurora.