by Mel Sherratt
She was pushed to the side, almost twirling in mid-air before falling heavily to her knees on the grass. As she tried to scramble away, her attacker was on her in seconds. She could see it was a man just before a punch to the face dazed her. Still she tried to fight. He straddled her, his eyes dark with anger. It was all she could see of his features.
In front of her was her parents’ bedroom window, in darkness. Her mum and dad were in there, and if she could just alert them. . .
‘Dad!’ she screamed.
But he covered her mouth.
Then he hit her again.
She stopped screaming when she passed out on the third punch.
Chapter Twelve
The next morning, Eden knocked on the open door to Sean’s office. ‘There’s been another attack, sir,’ she said. ‘Alice Clough, twenty years old. The first statement says she was badly beaten outside her home in Epsom Street.’
‘Sexual assault?’
‘I don’t think so.’
Sean cocked his head to one side. ‘Wanna take Phil with you and go over her statement? Get him out of the office?’
Eden paused. Was it best to take him or leave him at his desk? She thought back to their last conversation when she’d wanted to snap at him over his prejudiced remarks, but it was his first week back. She decided for now not to mention anything to Sean.
She rolled her eyes in a playful manner. ‘If I must.’
Alice Clough lived in the north of the city with her parents. Epsom Street was wide and had a semi-rural feel to it, overlooking a large tree-lined green. The private housing estate had been built around a lake, and Eden could just make it out in the background.
A young woman opened the door, sporting bruising to most of her face and neck. She held on to her stomach as they showed their warrant cards.
‘Hi, Alice?’ Eden introduced herself and Phil. ‘Might we come in and have a few words with you?’
Alice showed them into the living room.
‘Are you alone?’ Eden wondered if her parents would be coming to join them.
‘I insisted my mum and dad went to work. I needed some space.’
Once Alice had lowered herself down on to the settee, Eden sat next to her and opened her notebook. ‘Are you able to go through it all again for me?’ she asked. ‘I know it’s painful but maybe something might come back to you that you haven’t realised yet.’
‘Painful is the broken rib he left me with,’ Alice snipped before nodding. She looked down at her hands in her lap.
Eden watched Phil move to stand in the window. On the dresser, behind a large vase of flowers, she noticed a framed photo. Alice was in the middle of two other women, their smiles wide as she took the selfie. In front of her now was someone who seemed merely a shadow of that young woman. Someone who had been traumatised by her experience. She hoped in time that Alice would be able to move on and not let the creep who had done this ruin her life.
‘I hope you don’t mind us calling,’ Eden started, ‘but it’s often useful for us to talk to victims so that we can cross-reference things. Can you go through what happened last night, please?’
‘I’d just come back from London,’ said Alice.
Eden smiled her encouragement.
‘Me and a few friends had gone down early in the morning and caught the train back. We’d been on a shopping trip, followed by a few drinks in a wine bar. We were slightly loud, I admit, but nothing too much. No one was complaining.’
Eden smiled supportively at her again when she stopped.
‘The trip to London had been my idea. My friend, Lacey, has split up with her boyfriend so I wanted to cheer her up.’
‘How many of you were there?’
‘Four. There was Manda Bridlington and Summer Maddison too.’
‘Do you know if the rest of the girls got home okay?’
‘Yes, they’ve all been sending me messages today.’
Eden saw the bitterness that flashed across Alice’s face as she realised it could have been any of them but she was the unlucky one.
‘So you got back to the station. . .’ she said.
‘Manda and Summer were picked up by Manda’s dad and me and Lacey got a taxi.’
‘Which firm did you use?’
‘I’m not sure. We just got into one on the taxi rank outside.’
‘What time would this be?’ asked Eden, checking over the statement that she’d chased up with uniform.
‘About half past eleven. Lacey lives on Riley Street, two streets back, so we got out on the main road. We chatted for about ten minutes and then we said good night. When I got home, my parents had gone to bed and I couldn’t find my key. That’s when he – he ran up behind me, grabbed my hair and, before I had a chance to turn around, threw me to the ground.’
‘In your front garden?’ Eden couldn’t help sounding shocked. Surely he knew the risks he was taking so close to home? Anyone could have come out of the surrounding houses to help if they had heard anything. It didn’t make sense.
‘Did you scream out, Alice? It doesn’t matter if you froze. I know a lot of people do that.’
‘No, I screamed. I tried to fight for a while until he punched me.’ Alice looked up at her. ‘I realised he was too strong for me when he punched me again. Sorry, I can’t remember anything after that,’ she said through her tears.
Eden gave her an apologetic smile as she continued. ‘Did he have a local accent?’
Alice shrugged. ‘He never said a word.’
‘Did you recognise anything about him? Something that you’d seen on someone else? Or a tattoo maybe? Any distinguishing marks?’
‘There was nothing. It was too dark to see much.’
Eden could see that she wasn’t going to get anything else from her. Bringing it all up again was painful enough. She closed her notebook and stood up.
‘You will catch him soon, won’t you?’ Alice looked up through swollen lids.
‘The case has been passed to my team, and I work with a good bunch of detectives.’ Eden stared at Phil but he didn’t even look at her. So much for giving him another chance – he hadn’t said a word! She smiled warmly at Alice. ‘As soon as I know more, I’ll let you know. Thanks for speaking to us again today. You’ve been so brave.’
Outside the house, Eden breathed in lungfuls of air. It was all so bloody futile at times, but they would keep at it. If they caught him, it would let Alice sleep well in her bed. That had to be a bonus.
‘You were very quiet in there,’ she said to Phil, once they were in the car.
‘Not much to say, if I can’t speak my mind.’
‘Well you could have asked some questions. I would have—’
‘Don’t tell me what to do. I’ve been on this job for more years than you.’
‘I don’t know how,’ Eden muttered.
‘You have to tolerate certain things in this world. I’m not here to make friends, and working with a team that I only have to be part of for four weeks before I go back to my own job isn’t my idea of fun.’
Eden had been brought up to respect her elders but it took all her strength not to bite back.
‘I’ll go out on my own tomorrow,’ said Phil.
‘I don’t think—’
‘I’m sure I’m capable of more than sitting next to you.’
‘We’ll see.’ Eden started up the car and drove back to the station in silence. Four weeks, Sean had said. Well it seemed both she and Phil were counting down the days already.
Chapter Thirteen
Carla had a meeting with Tanya White booked in for that morning. Tanya hadn’t been to the refuge since Carla had taken up her role so they hadn’t met yet. Usually, anyone new was asked if they would like to have a chat with her. Already she was wondering if Tanya would turn up. She seemed a bit shy, keeping away from the women for most of the time, but then again she had been here several times. Maybe she felt like she shouldn’t be back – or that she shouldn’t have left the refu
ge before. Carla wouldn’t judge anyone for that.
In the small room off the lounge, she caught up on a few notes as she waited for Tanya to arrive. The room was where one-to-one meetings were held with social workers, case workers or the police. It wasn’t an ideal place to chat, but it was the only one available, as all other rooms were needed for women to sleep in.
At the moment, the refuge only had one spare bedroom. One lucky woman could have a roof over her head if she was brave enough to walk out on her violent partner. Although it wasn’t ideal that woman had to suffer abuse to get a space at the refuge, Carla always preferred to have a vacancy than hear that the refuge was full.
A knock at the door and she looked up to see Tanya. They had met earlier when Tanya had first arrived. Mondays at the hostel were always the busiest. Lots of couples had more time to spend arguing over a weekend when the alcohol flowed, as was often the case. Sometimes a woman plucked up the courage to leave first thing Monday morning after a particularly disastrous weekend. Carla hoped to find out more about Tanya during this one-to-one, see if she could help her in any way, or if not perhaps signpost her to someone who could.
She hated the saying ‘people like’ but her gut feeling was that people like Tanya were desperate to get out of their downward spiral of destruction. Tanya’s clothes were clean but seemed two sizes too big. Her long hair, definitely her greatest asset, was tied back from her face in a ponytail that she was twisting around her finger. Green eyes sliced around the room before landing on her, and she tried not to squirm under their scrutiny.
‘Hi, Tanya.’ She smiled and pointed to a chair. When Tanya stayed in the doorway, she beckoned her in again. ‘I don’t bite, and this is voluntary. You don’t have to tell me anything if you so wish, but at least come and have a cup of coffee.’
Tanya gave her a wary smile and walked slowly across the room.
Carla watched her. She had the typical stance of wanting to be invisible, as if she wasn’t worthy of gaining any attention. She felt sad that someone had made her feel that way. Hated that she had let it happen to herself too all those years ago.
She got up to make a drink, pointing to a small machine at her side. ‘What would you like? Espresso? Cappuccino? Hot chocolate?’
‘What are you having?’ Tanya asked, her head swivelling around like a child’s in a sweet shop.
‘Always cappuccino for me.’
‘I’ll have that too. Thanks.’
Carla had bought the coffee machine herself. It had proved a great hit and also meant that a drink was on hand so that she didn’t have to interrupt any session for too long, or leave a client when it was necessary for her to stay nearby. The room was locked when it wasn’t in use, or else she knew it had the chance of going walkabout. But when she moved on, it would stay behind.
The whole process took less than a couple of minutes and soon she was sitting across from Tanya.
‘I have notes on a file here,’ she pressed a hand to a brown folder, ‘but I’d prefer if you told me about yourself.’
Tanya took a sip from her drink, wincing as it was way too hot. ‘Not much to tell that you haven’t already heard a thousand times in this place, I guess.’
‘Humour me.’
‘I’m a recovering drug addict. I’ve been to prison several times for shoplifting in my late teens – nothing lengthier than a six-month reduced to three for good behaviour stretch.’
‘Do you have any family that support you?’
Tanya shook her head. ‘I got pregnant when I was eighteen but after having my first child, who is nineteen now, I went off the rails and destroyed myself completely with heroin.’
Carla said nothing, just nodded as she talked to encourage her to continue.
‘Lee – he’s my eldest – was taken into care when he was six months old. The same thing happened when Latisha and Lenny were born. They’re seventeen and sixteen.’
‘Do you have contact with any of them?’
Tanya shook her head, her ponytail swishing around. She began to play with it again. ‘I wasn’t capable of looking after myself back then, never mind my kids. They were better off without me.’
‘And now?’
Tanya looked away for a moment, then back at Carla. ‘Do you have children?’
A part of Carla hidden deep inside her made her stomach lurch as she thought about Chloe. Her life had to stay a secret. She shook her head in reply, but as much to rid herself of the pain that would no doubt follow. ‘How long have you been with your current partner?’
‘Have you never wanted kids?’
Carla ignored her. She wouldn’t be swayed to reply. Aiming questions at her was often a diversionary tactic yet, if she wasn’t careful, it could lead to her showing Tanya that talking about her past was incredibly painful too.
The room dropped into silence. A door slammed outside in the corridor, making them both jump. They smiled at each other. Another layer seemed to be removed as Tanya opened up again.
‘I’ve been with Vic for twenty years. I met him when I was seventeen. He’s the father of all my kids, the love of my life and the evil bastard that got me hooked on drugs, dependent on him and then ruled the house with his fists. I don’t know why I love him, but I do.’
Carla nodded. ‘Does he know that you’re here?’
Tanya’s shoulders rose up and down again. ‘This is the fifth time I’ve done a runner so he’ll come looking for me soon. He always does. Only the once, mind. He’ll kick up a fuss and then he’ll leave me alone.’
‘Is that a good sign?’
Tanya shook her head and sighed loudly. ‘Because then I miss him and he gets under my skin again. And I’ll leave here, go back to him thinking everything will be hunky-dory, and it will be for the first couple of weeks.’
‘And then?’ Carla probed as Tanya stopped.
‘Slowly everything will start going back to how it was before. The beatings, the late nights out drinking with his mates, the lack of money and food, the drugs to take to block it all out.’ Tanya twirled her ponytail round her finger at an alarming rate. ‘It’s a vicious circle, isn’t it? Like circling the drain forever.’
Carla’s heart went out to the woman. She wanted to tell her that she knew exactly how she felt, that she had been in the same position once. But how could she give Tanya hope after what Ryan had done to her before he left? She wasn’t brave like the Tanyas of this world.
‘Look, I can’t help you to stay away from Vic,’ she said. ‘That needs to come from you. But maybe we can work on helping you to feel strong enough to cope without him. So that you won’t go back to him. There’s no sugar-coating I can offer you, but we can help if you’ll let us.’
They chatted a bit more before the session ended, and Carla was pleased when Tanya agreed to see her again the following week. As they stood up, she hid her surprise when the woman gave her a hug.
‘I hope that, one day, I won’t go to bed so scared that I don’t want to wake up in the morning.’
‘I hope so too.’ Carla hugged her back, holding in her tears at the thought that someone else had lived a life similar to hers.
‘I bet you’ve never been that terrified.’ Tanya stared at her for a moment too long. It made Carla uncomfortable until she gave a sad smile.
Tanya’s words hung in the room long after she had gone. Of course, Carla hadn’t replied. But she had wanted to say, yes, she had been that terrified. She had been lucky to come out with her life. And now Carla was thankful for every day she got to spend before Ryan found her again.
Chapter Fourteen
Christina Spencer searched for her car keys in her handbag. She’d just finished an eight-hour shift at the petrol station she worked at.
‘You in tomorrow?’ her friend, Sam, asked as she popped an overall over her head before getting up on to the stool behind the till.
‘Yes, I’m a glutton for punishment.’ Christina rolled her eyes. ‘I can’t believe I’m working all weekend ag
ain. I’ll miss my Sunday dinner.’
‘Well, I’ll see you tomorrow, as I’m in too.’
Christina held the door open for a man as she came out on to the garage forecourt. Her car was parked in the multi-storey car park next to it. She’d managed to squeeze it into a space on the second floor today. Much better than the sixth and having to use the lift. She hated lifts with a passion, often taking the stairs when she was on the higher floors.
Market Street was busy as she crossed over to the car park. It was Saturday evening and lots of people were heading into Stockleigh for a night out before she had even finished for the day. She remembered being one of them a few years back, when she was young and carefree. Now she was married and planning a family, there was no extra money, as they were spending every penny on their new home.
She took the stairs to the second floor. In the distance, she could hear the noise of the traffic, but in the stairwell it was quiet. Christina relished the silence after the noise of the petrol station. On the second floor, she pushed the door and walked towards her car. Her keys jangled in her hand as she hummed a tune she’d heard not long ago on the radio.
From behind, an arm came around her neck. As she cried out, her hands shot up to protect herself and the keys were forced from her grip. Someone pressed the key fob, covering her mouth with their free hand. A few metres away, the lights flashed on her white Ford Fiesta. They shuffled towards it. The door was opened and she was pushed down on to the back seat.
The man wore a scarf covering most of his face, and she clawed at it, hoping to reveal his identity.
‘Let go of me, you bastard!’ she screamed as she slapped at his hands.
He punched her in the side of her head, but still she fought back. He punched her again, this time dazing her. Quickly, he slipped a hand up inside her skirt and pulled at her knickers. She tried to kick out but he was too strong, almost ripping off her underwear.