by Black, Helen
The schoolgirl hits her head against the wall behind her. ‘This is all wrong. Totally fucked.’
She bangs it again and again, getting harder and harder.
Lilly drove through the Clayhill.
‘Do you recognize anything?’ she asked Annabelle.
Annabelle gazed through the windscreen at the row of shops. A Spar, a florist and a Help the Aged were on their left.
‘I remember the café.’ She pointed to an all-night place, the windows misty with steam and grease. ‘Then we went straight on.’
Lilly drove at a crawl, scouring the pavements for any sign of Tanisha. The car behind overtook and hooted at her.
‘There.’ Annabelle indicated to a quad in front of two blocks of flats. ‘We definitely pulled over just there.’
Lilly parked the Mini and they jumped out. The tower blocks loomed over them, grey and uninviting, each floor as ugly and demoralizing as the last. Hopelessness piled upon hopelessness.
‘Do you think Daniel lives here?’ Annabelle asked.
Lilly opened her palms. ‘The police avoid it, so the gangs have a pretty free rein.’
‘It’s horrible.’
Lilly couldn’t argue. ‘Let’s split up. You take the left and I’ll take the right. If either of us finds Tanisha, we grab her.’
Annabelle bobbed her head, zipped up her waterproof and strode to the lift. Lilly turned to the right and headed to the entrance nearest to her, where she read a sign.
Welcome to Clancy Block.
* * *
Sandwiched between a sex shop and a bookies was Skin2Skin, a so-called body art salon.
Jack pushed open the door and entered a reception garlanded in purple drapes. Candles and joss sticks burned on a low table.
‘Yeah?’ a woman with shocking pink hair and a matching vest looked up from a magazine.
Jack flashed his warrant card.
‘What do you want this time?’ The woman’s vest displayed arms covered from knuckles to shoulders in tattoos.
‘I need to speak to Phil Cheney,’ said Jack.
The woman leaned behind Jack to lock the door and jerked her head that he should follow her through a velvet curtain hanging from a pole. The back of her vest gaped and the head of a mermaid inked in ocean greens and blues smiled up at him.
The room behind the curtain was in complete contrast. Tiled floors and walls painted white, lit by spotlights in the ceiling. In the centre was a chair, not unlike one you’d find in a dentist. Cheney was sat in it, his left arm outstretched, the bald and shiny head of the tattooist bent over it.
‘Nice,’ said Jack.
Cheney and the man, tattoo gun still in hand, looked up.
‘Police,’ the woman told them.
‘It’s fine,’ said Cheney. ‘Just work.’
The woman sloped away and the man went back to his design, the gun droning. Cheney flinched as the needle pierced his skin.
‘Why?’ Jack asked.
‘Self-expression,’ Cheney answered. ‘Now what the fuck are you doing here?’
‘I got a message that you’d found something else on the knife.’
Cheney looked down at the picture appearing on his arm. An outline of flowers poking through barbed wire.
‘I found a small amount of blood not belonging to our victim,’ he said. ‘Could be our killer cut themselves during the attack.’
The bald guy looked up from his work, stared first at Cheney, then Jack. His face, too, was hairless, his brow bones smooth and protruding. Cheney twitched his biceps, nudging the guy back to the job in hand.
‘Do you have a match?’ asked Jack, praying it was Tanisha.
‘Nothing on the database,’ said Cheney.
Jack’s heart sank. It was inconclusive, certainly didn’t mean Tanisha was innocent, but it would give the defence another foothold. He could just imagine Lilly spinning her story about some unknown person stealing the knife and committing the crime, how she’d point a jury to the unidentified blood.
‘Could it be Annabelle O’Leary’s?’ Jack asked. ‘It’s her kitchen and her knife. Maybe she cut herself before Tanisha took it.’
‘Perfectly possible. Get me a sample and I’ll rule her in or out,’ said Cheney.
Why the hell were lifts always out of order?
Lilly puffed her way to the fourth floor, leaning against the exit of the stairwell as she tried to catch her breath. She’d never been very fit. A few lessons in martial arts, the odd lunchtime walk, but never any serious exercise.
A woman with a toddler passed, looking Lilly up and down in contempt. As they hit the top of the stairs, she took her son’s hand and whispered to him.
‘Never ever speak to these people, understand. They come here for bad things.’
The little boy nodded and they hurried down.
Lilly wondered what the woman meant, until she realized that in the dark, sweating and heaving, she must have looked like any other junkie after a fix. She stood straight and pushed her hair from her face.
Then she thought about it. The woman had been very quick to assume Lilly was an addict chasing some drugs. The Clayhill was full of them of course, but it was almost as if the woman had expected it.
Lilly looked along the walkway at the flats. The two at the far end were boarded up, metal sheets over their doors and windows. One had a slit cut into it, reminding Lilly of the openings in cell doors. Small enough to pass things through, too small for anyone to fit through. In prison it was to keep people in. On the estates it was to keep the police out.
A drug house.
Was it possible that this place was Daniel Kanio’s? Lilly lifted her chin. There were sixteen more floors. No doubt half a dozen flats would be derelict and taken over by dealers.
She sighed. It was a long shot, but she had to try.
‘Tell me what the fuck she’s doing here.’
The schoolgirl has left the room and is screaming in the hallway. There’s the tell-tale smack of a punch being landed and a groan that makes Jamie shiver. Then the door slams shut.
More voices are raised outside. And there’s more screaming. Something very bad is going on out there, but whatever it is, Jamie knows this is his only chance.
He tries to push himself to his feet, but can’t get enough purchase with his shoulder. He can get his feet flat but can’t get his torso off the ground. He strains with the effort. It’s no use. With his feet and hands tied, it’s impossible.
Instead, he rolls towards Trick like a worm, undulating his body in the fag ends and shards of glass. He feels a sharp sting in his upper arm and gasps. He risks a glance and finds a sliver, three centimetres long sticking out of his sweater. The trickle of blood and the pain tell Jamie it’s caught deep in his flesh.
‘Trick,’ he pants, ‘you’ve got to help me.’
Trick is still babbling to himself, his head rocking from side to side.
‘Listen to me, Trick,’ says Jamie. ‘I need you to concentrate on what I’m saying.’
Trick looks over, but his eyes are unfocused.
‘Trick.’ Gritting his teeth against the burn, Jamie holds out his hands. ‘I need you to move over here and untie me.’
Another thud, followed by a scream, comes from the hallway, making Trick flinch. At least that means he can hear.
‘We have to get out of here.’ Blood falls from the gash in Jamie’s arm.
‘How?’ Trick’s voice is full of wonder.
‘I don’t know,’ Jamie admits, ‘but if you untie me, I’ll think of something.’
Trick laughs as if Jamie’s just told a joke. And Jamie accepts that it is pretty funny. He’s just some schoolkid who doesn’t know anything. He gets up when a bell sounds and eats what’s put in front of him. He does as he’s told, day in, day out. His mum still labels all his clothes and he hasn’t even had the guts to tell her that he’s gay. How the fuck does he think he can overpower a one-eyed mad man and his army of violent drug dealers?
�
��Please, Trick,’ he whispers. ‘Just trust me.’
His friend pauses, looks deep into his eyes, then nods.
As Lilly thumped on the metal sheet, she accepted that this wasn’t her brightest idea.
Even if there was anyone inside, what were the chances of your average drug dealer entering into a civilized conversation?
Is Tanisha McKenzie in there?
Why yes. Shall I send her out for a little chat?
Still, if she had even the slightest suspicion that her client was inside, she’d call in the cavalry. She pulled out her mobile in readiness.
The vent flew open and Lilly peered inside.
‘What?’ said a voice from inside the darkness.
Lilly gulped. ‘I’m looking for someone.’
‘What?’ The voice sounded angry.
Lilly coughed, but before she could repeat her strange request, she heard shouting. From the bowels of the flat, came a scream.
‘If you hurt my baby I will kill you!’
Lilly recognized it instantly and lunged at the vent. ‘Tanisha?’
‘Lilly,’ Tanisha’s voice rang out. ‘Lilly, is that you?’
Lilly scrabbled for her phone. Tried to stab the key pad. But before she could make a call, the metal door swung open and she was dragged inside.
Chapter Fifteen
Lilly flew through the dark space of the hallway and crashed into the far wall, where a pair of firm hands around the throat pinned her. Lilly choked for breath, her tongue lolling. She scratched out at the man’s face leering at her, with a look of rage in one eye, the other quite dead.
He released his hold, so that Lilly fell forwards, gulping down a breath, before he pushed her backwards again. Her head smacked against the wall and the stranglehold began to squeeze the life from her once more.
‘Who is this?’ he shouted.
Behind him was Tanisha, her face aghast. And another girl, younger than Tanisha, wearing a school uniform. She looked so very tired.
‘I said, who the fuck is this?’
Tanisha jumped forward. ‘Put her down Danny, it’s my solicitor.’
‘Your what?’
‘My brief,’ said Tanisha. ‘I’m in all sorts of trouble with the feds, you know that.’
Lilly heard the gagging sound come from her throat and felt the wet splash of saliva on her chin, but the world was becoming blurry around the edges. Her hands could no longer fight the man.
‘What’s she doing here?’ Danny demanded.
‘I don’t know,’ said Tanisha. ‘She must have followed me.’
The man turned slightly so that he could direct his fury at Tanisha. ‘And didn’t it fucking occur to you, that someone could do that when you came over here?’
Lilly began to drift away to the sound of Tanisha crying. This was it, then. Her arms flopped to her sides and her eyes began to roll back in her head. Life and death were but two sides of the same coin. Heads you live, tails you die. No one gets to choose.
Fuck that.
Lilly brought her knee up into Danny’s groin. Hard. With a grunt, he released his grip to protect himself and Lilly took the opportunity to ball her fist and bring it up under Danny’s chin. His teeth crunched together with an audible snap and he fell backwards.
Lilly spluttered as her lungs filled with air, her shoulders heaving. She wanted to rest, let her chest expand, but she knew Danny was about to recover. She couldn’t let that happen. She drew back her foot and kicked him full in the stomach, catapulting him on to the floor. He fell with a howl.
In terror, Lilly checked the hallway. There was only one way back, and that was over Danny. Behind him were the schoolgirl and the man who had answered the door, both shocked and disorientated. But for how long?
A foot away was a side-door. It wouldn’t lead out of the flat, but right now Lilly just needed to put distance between her and Danny. She grabbed Tanisha’s arm and staggered through the door, slamming it behind her when they were both inside.
The room was cavernous. At least twice as big as Lilly expected and empty apart from three old sofas huddled around the remains of a dismantled wooden table. In the far corner were two teenaged boys, skinny and frightened, their fingers entwined. They stared at her in fear and confusion.
‘Help me,’ Lilly screamed and began to push one of the sofas against the wall.
One of the boys didn’t move, but the other vaulted to Lilly and heaved the sofa across the doorway, crashing it into place. Together they threw themselves at it.
‘Trick,’ the boy shrieked, ‘get the other one.’
His companion wiggled his fingers, near his face. Lilly could see his cheeks were pitted with burns and he was evidently in shock.
‘Trick,’ the boy screamed, ‘move the fucking sofa.’
Trick blinked back tears but did as he was told, shoving it across the room to the door.
‘After three,’ Lilly said. ‘One. Two. Three.’
She let the boy take the weight of the door, while she and Trick lifted the second sofa and tried to pile it on top. She cursed as it slipped back down, scraping her foot.
‘Tanisha, don’t just stand there.’ Lilly gestured to the other end with her head.
Tanisha joined Trick at the other end. Together they managed to raise it on its side so that it rested against the top part of the door.
‘This won’t hold.’ Tanisha’s voice was full of panic.
‘Doesn’t need to,’ said Lilly. ‘As soon as Annabelle realizes I’m gone, she’ll call the police.’
‘How long will that be?’
‘Not long,’ Lilly replied, with more confidence than she felt.
Jack swore as he punched in Annabelle’s number. Because he was using Carla’s mobile, he had to dial by hand, reading the number from a scrap of paper, pressing each key individually.
‘Hello?’ Annabelle sounded nervous.
‘I’ve tried Lilly’s number and it’s dead,’ he said. ‘And I’ve tried your land line and it’s going straight to answer machine. Tell me you haven’t left the house.’
‘Sorry,’ she muttered.
Damn it. When would he learn that Lilly never did what she was supposed to do?
‘Where is she?’ he asked.
Annabelle gave a small cough. ‘I’m not sure.’
‘What do you mean, you’re not sure? Isn’t she with you?’
‘We’re looking for Tanisha on the Clayhill Estate,’ she said. ‘Lilly thought it would save time if we split up.’
Of course she had.
‘Where are you now?’ he demanded.
‘Outside Clancy Block,’ she said.
‘Right. Don’t move.’
Demi has no idea who the white woman is.
She’s pretty old, nothing special, like somebody’s mum or something.
Yet she singlehandedly fought off Danny. You’ve got to give respect for that. One minute, he had her pushed against the wall, his hands around her throat and she was making an awful noise. Then bam. It was like a film or something, in slow motion. She kicked him and punched him, and dived out of the hallway with Tanisha.
They’re in the other room now, the door barricaded, and Danny is going completely off his head.
‘I am going to fuck you up.’ He kicks out at the door, the wood splintering. ‘Do you hear me? You are going to wish you never messed with me.’
He takes a step back, lets out a howl and charges at the door with his shoulder. Screams come from inside, but the door holds.
Demi is rooted to the spot. She has no doubt that if he gets in, he will kill them all. The junkie with the burns over his face will wish he was still lying on the floor, getting the treatment. As for the woman …
‘Tanisha, you hear me now,’ he shouts, ‘you better let me in or, God help you, I will cut that baby out of your stomach.’
Demi can hear crying from inside. As soon as she saw Tanisha and Danny together she knew it was his child. It was the way she looked at him, all pl
eading. And she knew that Danny wouldn’t help her. Tanisha is just another girl. Like Malaya, and Chika and JC. None of this means anything to Danny. They’re all disposable.
Which means everything she’s done is pointless.
Danny reaches into his waistband and pulls out a gun. It’s the one Demi brought to him.
‘Motherfuckers.’ He points it at the door. ‘I will cap you all.’
He aims and his finger begins to squeeze the trigger.
‘Boss.’ Rocky’s voice comes from the end of the hallway, near the front door. ‘We gotta get out of here, man, before the five-oh, arrive.’
Danny frowns at him. Demi can see Rocky is frightened too, but the fear of being banged up outweighs his fear of Danny.
‘Serious, boss, we need to go now.’
Danny’s nostrils flare. Then he nods and goes to move away. Almost as an afterthought he fires into the door. More screaming from inside. He fires again.
‘Quick, boss.’ Rocky is unlocking the front door, his hands fumbling in his hurry.
Danny gives the door to the sitting room a last violent kick, then makes after Rocky. As he passes the kitchen he pauses. The meth factory is still bubbling away. He takes aim again and shoots. The sound of glass exploding fills the air. Then the whoosh of fire taking hold.
As they leave, they don’t even look back at Demi. She is nothing.
She runs to the kitchen. The table is already engulfed in flames, chemical bottles shattering, throwing their contents over the walls where they instantly set alight. She glances at the gas canisters, the toxic smoke already making her chest crack.
She heads for the front door, her hand over her mouth, leaving the others inside.
Jamie cradles Trick in his arms, whispering his name, trying to ignore the red stain spreading across his chest. There’s a gurgling noise in his throat and a line of blood spills from the corner of his mouth.
‘Everyone stay down,’ the woman tells them.