Taking a Chance

by Deborah Burrows

  ‘And Lily Carter?’

  ‘Told you. I think she’s in Fremantle.’

  He handed her the money. ‘Now push off,’ he said, but not unkindly.

  She ducked into the room and the door shut behind her.

  Johnny looked at the steep flight of stairs and then at me, shaking his head. ‘I can’t do it, Nell. My ankle won’t get me up there.’

  ‘I’ll go. If we leave now and she finds out we’ve been asking for her she might run off and we’ll never find her.’

  He nodded. ‘If a man is with her, don’t say or do anything. Just get out quickly. We’ll figure out what to do.’

  I nodded, and smiled as if I meant it. Actually, I was afraid that I’d open the door on to something I definitely didn’t want to see. I walked up the shabby staircase, trying not to notice the slimy marks on the wall made by the dirty hands of people who had climbed those steps before me.

  It was very quiet at the top, but that horrible, pervasive smell was up there too. The landing was wide and gave on to four doors, all closed. I glanced down at Johnny who was at the foot of the stairs, watching me intently, and I waved at him, getting a tight smile in response. As I was about to knock on the first door to the left, the door to the right opened and a scrawny, tow-haired English sailor emerged, adjusting his shirt. He looked me over and raised an eyebrow.

  ‘You’re a wee bit grand for this dump, lassie,’ he said in a very Scottish accent.

  Not English at all, I thought, feeling slightly hysterical. He moved towards me and, to my horror, took hold of my arm. When I tried to shake him off, he held on tight.

  ‘They call me wee Jock, but I’m not. What say you and me, we have a party, then? You’re a classy-looking lass. I like that.’

  At the hungry look in his eyes, I no longer felt in the least like laughing.

  ‘I’m not one of the girls here,’ I said, shaking my arm again. It was a stupid thing to say, but nothing else came to mind.

  He gripped harder. ‘What’s the matter? I’m not good enough for you?’ Now his mouth was tight and his eyes were angry.

  Heart racing, I considered what to do. I could knee him between the legs, like Danny had told me to, but if I didn’t do it hard enough it might make things worse. I could scream, but then Johnny would try to run up the stairs and he might really damage his ankle.

  ‘Nell? What’s going on?’

  I said to Wee Jock in the most confident voice I could muster, ‘That’s my boyfriend down there. Do you really want him to come up?’

  Wee Jock pulled me towards the top of the stairs and looked down at Johnny, who was standing at the foot.

  ‘Let her go,’ said Johnny. ‘Now.’

  Wee Jock took one look at Johnny, and seemed to deflate. The look on Johnny’s face was enough to deflate anyone, his lips were locked together in a scowl and his eyes were wild. He looked big and tough and scary. I knew that was because Johnny knew he couldn’t do anything; Wee Jock apparently just saw the blind fury in Johnny’s eyes. He let go of my arm.

  ‘I’m only here to collect my sister,’ I said.

  ‘My mistake,’ muttered Wee Jock. He moved carefully down the stairs and edged his way around Johnny, then disappeared.

  I smiled shakily down at Johnny, who was still scowling. ‘Let’s get this over with,’ he said.

  I knocked on the left-hand door. No response. Cautiously I turned the handle, pushed the door open and entered the room.

  At first it seemed that nobody was there. The room smelled musty and it was very cold. There was no carpet, just bare wooden floorboards. The curtains were drawn but it was light enough to make out a shabby packing-case wardrobe, an oak dressing table in the style of the twenties and a big bed. As I stared, a pile of bedclothes in the middle of the sagging mattress lurched, heaved and resolved into a girl of around Evie’s age with curly brown hair and a wary expression. She looked dirty and she’d obviously been crying.

  ‘Hullo,’ I said, with what I hoped was an unthreatening smile. ‘I’m Nell. Are you Susan?’

  She sniffed and ran a hand under her nose. ‘Are you a copper?’ she asked in a low voice.

  ‘No. I’m Nell Fitzgerald. I’m a journalist with the Marvel.’

  She frowned.

  ‘I do the fashion and beauty bit,’ I said.

  ‘My mum says that column is bourgeois stupidity at its worst.’ She sniffed again and sat up, pushing her hair away from her face. ‘I like it though. What are you doing here?’ She stared at me, eyes wide with fear. ‘Are you here about Rick?’

  ‘I’m trying to find out the truth,’ I said. My heart was pounding with excitement.

  Her face seemed to dissolve into tears and she disappeared under the dirty bedclothes. ‘It’s all Lily’s fault,’ she said in a muffled voice. ‘I never wanted to.’

  ‘Susan,’ I said gently, moving towards the bed. ‘Why don’t you just tell me what really happened? You don’t need to stay in this horrible place. Come downstairs now and I’ll take you somewhere nice and you can have something to eat.’

  A mop of curly brown hair popped up out of the bedclothes. ‘I’m so hungry,’ she said. ‘Willy never feeds us properly, and he says I’m a bad investment so I get less than the others even. But I hate it all so much,’ she wailed. There was a lost, frightened look in her eyes. ‘Willy won’t like it if I go without paying him. I owe him money for food and board.’

  Most of the places like this operated with the tacit complicity of the police, because then they could keep some form of control over them. I wondered if they knew how young the girls were in this house, and I decided to telephone Sergeant Smith about it as soon as I could. I sincerely hoped that Willy would not be in business much longer.

  ‘No need to be scared,’ I said. ‘I’ve got a friend with me, and he’s a tough Yank.’

  She stared at me for a beat or two, and her face became resolute. She nodded. ‘All right,’ she said, climbing out of the bed. She seemed to be wearing only a slip.

  ‘Do you have a dress?’ I asked. ‘And proper underwear?’

  I had tried not to sound shocked, but she gave me a slight pitying smile. Susan had grown up with artists, and she clearly had less reservations about nudity than I did. She went languidly to the wardrobe, opened it and rooted around inside, hidden by the open door. Eventually she reappeared wearing a thin cotton dress.

  ‘What about a coat?’ I said. ‘It’s freezing out there.’ She dived back into the wardrobe and pulled out a cardigan. As she put it on she stepped into a pair of shoes and picked up a battered handbag.

  ‘I’m so hungry,’ she said. ‘I’ll tell you it all once I’ve eaten.’

  I made a mental note to keep her in sight at all times, because I strongly suspected that she’d be off as soon as we fed her.

  Johnny was still standing guard at the foot of the stairs. He looked so worried that my heart lurched, and I smiled at him as we made our way down the nasty staircase.

  ‘This is Susan,’ I said as we joined him in the hallway. ‘She’s going to tell us about Rick Henzell.’

  I gave him a meaningful look, and he raised an eyebrow.

  ‘Hi,’ he said, turning to Susan. ‘I’m Johnny.’

  ‘You’re a Yank,’ she said. ‘I like Yanks.’ There was a nod at me. ‘She said you’d buy me something to eat.’

  ‘Sure we will,’ he said. ‘Let’s get going.’

  As we turned towards the front door, it opened and a man came into the hallway. He was around fifty, a big man whose body was running to fat, and whose broad face had a thin-lipped mouth and small, suspicious eyes. From the way Susan flinched, I knew he was Willy Hanlon.

  ‘What’s going on?’ asked Hanlon, frowning.

  Susan seemed to shrink behind me and I could almost feel her heart thumping.

  ‘We’re just leaving,’ said Johnny, pleasantly enough.

  Hanlon saw Susan, and his frown deepened. ‘Well, you’re not taking her with you. She owes me money.
’

  My heart started to thump too and I felt my face become flushed as fury washed through me. This man was making a living off these young girls, destroying their lives as he did so. I detested him.

  ‘She owes you nothing, you horrible man,’ I said, in an embarrassingly high-pitched sort of shriek. ‘She’s fifteen and she should be home with her parents, not here in this filthy hellhole. Don’t you dare to try to stop us leaving. Don’t you dare!’

  His lips pursed. ‘It’s not filthy,’ he said sullenly. ‘I keep it clean as I can, but the girls won’t lift a finger to help. And she owes me money for board and for food. She was on the streets before she came here, almost starving. I don’t run a charity, you know.’ His voice hardened. ‘She owes me twenty pounds. Five pounds a week for full board for five weeks, less the five pounds she’s paid me already.’

  ‘Twenty pounds?’ I said, hearing my voice rise even further, in indignation this time. ‘Twenty pounds? That’s extortion!’ As part of the war measures, the government had set maximum rates allowed to be charged by boarding houses, and that was a lot less than what he was demanding.

  ‘You can’t charge five pounds a week,’ I said. ‘It’s thirty-five shillings maximum. And how is Susan supposed to get the money to pay you? Answer me that, Mr Hanlon.’ My hands were on my hips and my face was hot with fury. ‘Well, I know how you expect her to get the money. She’s only fifteen and it’s appalling.’

  He closed the door behind him and stood in front of it looking grim and determined.

  ‘I want my money. I fed her and gave her a bed and I didn’t ask any questions. I charge extra for asking no questions.’

  I drew breath to let him have it, but felt Johnny squeeze my arm.

  ‘I’ll give you twelve pounds, for the food and the bed,’ said Johnny in a mild voice.

  I turned to look at him. His smile was as mild as his voice, but his eyes looked hard and his face looked tough. ‘Take it or leave it, Hanlon. That’s still slightly higher than the official government rates.’

  As Hanlon deliberated, Johnny bent to whisper in my ear, so softly that it was just a breath of sound, ‘Leave it, Nell. Let’s just get out of here.’

  I badly wanted to kick the man standing in front of us. Johnny must have realised it, because he kept hold of my arm. He whispered to me again, ‘It’s an Irish spitfire, y’are.’

  Hanlon was now looking at Johnny with a calculating expression.

  ‘Fifteen,’ he said. ‘She’s been here more than a month. I’m not—’

  ‘Yes,’ said Johnny. ‘We know. Not a charity.’ His voice hardened. ‘Twelve American dollars. My last offer, or we walk. And no matter what, we take the girl with us.’

  ‘Done,’ said Hanlon, opening the door. ‘I like dollars.’

  I shook off Johnny’s grip, grabbed Susan’s hand and pulled her past Hanlon. My head was high and my lips held tightly together. I saw him put out his hand as Johnny came up to him. Susan’s hand was trembling in mine as we stepped onto the footpath and I made a vow to myself that I’d never set foot in that disgusting house again. Nor would Susan or any other girl if I had anything to do with it. I’d be calling Sergeant Smith as soon as I could.

  ’m so hungry.’ Susan’s voice was a high-pitched wail as we made our way down the footpath, away from that place. ‘Willy was so mean about the food. I hate him.’

  ‘There’s a sort of cafe on the next corner,’ I said. ‘We’ll go there.’ I still had her firmly by the arm.

  She looked a lot less anxious after a couple of rounds of mutton sandwiches, washed down with strong hot tea. Then she asked about cake. Johnny ordered it from the waitress. When it came he sat back and looked at Susan.

  ‘I reckon that no girl would stay in that place unless she was running away from something,’ he said. ‘What’s the idea, Susan? And you’d better tell us the truth. Tell us about Rick. We might be your only friends so don’t try to play us for saps.’

  Her face seemed to close up, and she gave Johnny a quick look through half-closed eyes before sitting up almost primly and looking down at her hands.

  ‘I wanted to get away from home,’ she said, ‘but I didn’t plan it well and had no money. Willy offered me a bed and board, and so I ended up there. But I hated it – thanks for getting me out.’

  Johnny and I exchanged glances. It was clear that she knew something about Rick’s death. I wondered what we could do to get her to talk.

  ‘We know where Lily is,’ he said. ‘And we’ll ask her what happened. You want her story to be the one that’s believed?’

  Susan’s hands fluttered anxiously, betraying her. Her breathing quickened and her face flushed. ‘She won’t tell you a thing,’ she blurted out. ‘We made a pact.’

  ‘Pacts seem to fade away, in my experience, when the police get involved.’ Johnny’s voice was dry and comfortless.

  The girl’s face collapsed into misery and she moaned. ‘She won’t tell. I can’t tell.’

  I said gently, ‘Susan, you’re only a child. If you did something bad, that will be taken into account. It will also count in your favour if you help us to find out the truth. It can’t be as bad as you think. Even if it is, you can’t spend your life running away, living in horrible places like that, never seeing your parents again.’

  Susan started to cry, her shoulders jerking with each soft little sob. ‘Mum and Dad won’t want to know me now,’ she said. ‘Not after living in Willy’s house and doing those things to get money.’

  ‘Oh Susan, they’re worried sick about you,’ I said quickly. ‘They love you, you’re their daughter. No matter what you’ve done, they won’t stop loving you. Anyway, it’s Willy who is at fault – not you.’

  Her sobs increased, and I handed her a hankie.

  ‘What happened, Susan? How are you and Lily involved in Rick’s death?’ I tried to sound calm, but my voice was shrill.

  Susan was biting her lip and casting furtive glances at the door.

  ‘What happened, Susan?’ Johnny repeated.

  She raised her head, sniffed, wiped her nose and looked at him. Her eyes were red and her face blotchy.

  ‘I didn’t mean to do anything wrong. It was Lily’s idea.’ Susan watched us with frightened eyes. ‘We were both really mad at Rick for getting Molly into trouble. Lily said it would just make him – oh, it seems so stupid now. It was meant to be a joke against him.’ Her face seemed to crumple with horror. ‘But he died. He died! Oh, God,’ she whispered. She looked down at the table with a dead, frightened expression.

  ‘Tell us,’ said Johnny.

  She darted a quick look at me then her gaze went straight back to Johnny. Her eyes were wide and dark and terrified. She remained silent.

  ‘Susan,’ Johnny’s voice was very low and very patient, ‘you can’t just hope that this will all go away if you ignore it. If you tell us what happened then we can help you. We can talk to the police for you and get you a good lawyer if that is necessary.’ His voice hardened. ‘But even if you don’t tell us a thing we’re taking you to the police.’

  The girl turned her eyes up to Johnny’s. ‘It was a joke,’ she said again, in a low voice that throbbed with fear. ‘We wanted to make him embarrassed, and we wanted to annoy him. He was always so full of himself – always flirting with the girls, even the young ones like us. He kissed Lily once. She said.’ Susan moved her shoulders in a small shrug. ‘He lived with Lena and she was really pretty, but he still got Molly into trouble and she’s not much older than us.’ A line appeared between her eyebrows. ‘So we made a stupid plan to put a lot of Coloseptic into his tea.’

  Johnny looked at me, perplexed.

  ‘It’s a popular form of laxative,’ I said. ‘You dissolve a teaspoonful of the powder in a glass of liquid. It’s certainly not poisonous.’

  Susan nodded vigorously. ‘It’s not poisonous. Mum’s given it to me and she and Dad use it too. Rick shouldn’t have – you know – died.’

  ‘Where did you
get the, er, Coloseptic, from?’ Johnny’s voice was mild, friendly.

  Susan shuddered, and played with the piece of cake on her plate, tearing it into yellow crumbs.

  ‘Lily brought a tin that her mother had in the house. It was definitely Coloseptic. I saw the tin.’ She nodded firmly, to emphasise the point. ‘We went to Rick’s cottage and waited. No one noticed us,’ she said sullenly. ‘No one ever noticed us. They called it a commune, but the people there were always arguing. I hated it.’ Now her voice was vicious.

  ‘What happened, Susan?’ said Johnny.

  She hung her head and I saw the dampness on her lashes. ‘We thought it would be easy, because Lena had moved out. She’d moved into Mr Kauffman’s house when Rick told her about Molly. But she was there with him and they were arguing. Then they stopped yelling and she made a pot of tea.’ Susan’s voice became so soft that I had to strain to hear it. ‘They were drinking the tea on the verandah and arguing really loudly, then Lena went inside and he followed her. Lily leaned over the railing and put three teaspoons of the Coloseptic into Rick’s big mug, and she stirred it in.’

  Now the tears were on her cheeks. ‘We were hiding behind some bushes. Rick came back out and drank it down really quickly, then yelled out to Lena that it tasted horrible, so they had another argument. That made us really giggle.’ Her voice dropped. ‘Then we heard the screaming and we ran away back to Lily’s place.’

  She swallowed convulsively. ‘The police came around the next day, but we said we had both been at Lily’s all morning. Mrs Carter is completely nutty, and she wouldn’t know whether we were there or not. But we got scared that the police would ask us questions, and Lily said it would be best to run away for a while. So I came up to Perth on the train with Lily the next day and we both wrote postcards back home to say we were all right, just like Gwennie Burns did when she ran away from home. But then we had a huge row and split up. I’ve been living with Willy and the girls ever since.’

  Her eyes were red-rimmed and teary now. ‘Willy was kind at first, but then he said I owed him money and I had to earn it somehow to pay him back. So I started to—’