“Nice,” said Andrew, thinking he couldn’t imagine anywhere worse for a holiday.
“What can I get you?”
“Nothing actually. I’m here to see you.”
Charlie looked worried, her mind perhaps jumping to conclusions.
Andrew put his hands up to reassure her that he wasn’t after her number or anything else as inappropriate or weird. “I just wanted to ask you a question, that’s all. Nothing big.”
She relaxed a little, her shoulders lowering. “You want to ask about Frankie, don’t you?”
Andrew nodded.
“He came in here last night, right before closing. Ordered fish and chips just like you did. I thought it was a coincidence.”
“It wasn’t,” said Andrew.
Charlie leant forward on the counter and let out a sigh. “I really don’t want to get involved. I told you to be careful.”
Andrew stepped forward. “I know you did, because you’re a nice, caring person. I need you to keep being that way, because this animal is endangering my family.”
Charlie looked up from the counter and made eye contact with him. Her eyes were blue and seemed to shimmer with sadness. “What do you want to know?” she asked.
Andrew scratched at his head. “I don’t know really. How do you know Frankie?”
“Went to school with him.”
“And?”
Charlie shrugged. “And he was a nightmare. Beating other kids up, vandalising anything he could get his hands on, stealing, drinking, shagging. You name it and Frankie Walker did it. Eventually he went down for something or other. Assault I think.”
“He just went to a young offender’s home?”
“Yeah, he was only a kid at the time.”
Andrew laughed. “That’s all he is now. They should have kept him locked up.”
“I agree.”
“So what is he doing around here? I’ve never seen him before recently.”
“He lives around here now,” said Charlie.
Andrew shook his head. “No way. This is a nice area.”
“Used to be. Council brought some of the property around here for social housing. Remember my dad kicking up a big fuss at the time. Got a petition going and everything.”
Andrew leant forward onto the counter and let the weight off his legs. “I can’t believe they would put someone like Frankie in a nice part of town.”
“Where else should they put him? Keep the poor with the poor, right?”
Andrew straightened back up. “No…I don’t know what I think at the moment. I guess I just thought all council houses were grouped together.”
Charlie shrugged. “I think that’s how it used to be. My dad said the Government wanted to space out council properties to avoid creating ghettos. That’s the right word, yeah?”
Andrew nodded. “Yeah, ghetto is right. Except now it seems that we’re all getting a little slice of ghetto to call our own.”
The shop’s door opened behind Andrew. Charlie wore her greeting smile as a customer walked in.
Guess everyone got the smile. Not just him.
“Look,” said Charlie, leaning forwards. “Like I said, I don’t want to get involved. But I can tell you that Frankie lives somewhere on Tanner’s Avenue. I know because a girl who used to be my best friend is now a drugged-up skank, thanks to him. I haven’t spoken to her in months, but that’s where she used to go see him when we were still friends.”
Andrew nodded and said thanks, but the girl was already serving the new customer, acting as though the conversation had never happened. Probably for the best, he thought as he left the shop and headed for home.
So Frankie has a home. Perhaps he has parents there? He’s still just a kid, so someone should be in charge of him. Maybe someone that has a little bit of control over him.
Andrew didn’t hold up much hope, but it was an option. Maybe Frankie would leave him alone if his own family knew of his behaviour. Andrew considered making the journey to Tanner’s lane later this evening.
Maybe I can put a stop to this before anything else happens.
Andrew turned the corner and lost his breath at the sight that met him there. His bright red Mercedes had been modified. Its expensive bodywork was now emblazoned by coarse, black gloss-paint, spelling out words in several places.
The words read: pedo.
Pedo, Pedo, Pedo.
***
Andrew fell back into his armchair in the lounge and stared into space. The sounds of his family’s voices were a distant droning, buzzing in the distance like irritated wasps. He was hearing their words but was unable to assemble them into cognitive meanings. Eventually he had to will his mind to return back to reality.
“…ell are they playing at?”
Andrew looked up at his wife, standing before him and shaking like a leaf. “Huh?”
“I said, what the hell are they playing at? Who behaves like this? Animals!”
Andrew leant his head back against the armchair’s headrest and examined the ceiling. The wind in his lungs seemed to stick in his throat as he let out a breath. “I don’t know. I just don’t know. I still can’t believe any of this has happened.”
“Why you, though, dad?” Bex asked from the sofa. She was holding up well, but Andrew knew that deep down she was just as unnerved as her mother.
Andrew lowered his head and shrugged at his daughter. “Don’t know sweetie. If it wasn’t me then it would have just been someone else.”
“I still don’t understand why you won’t call the police again,” said Pen.
“Because it won’t do any good. Unless someone saw it happen, they will have nothing to go on.”
Pen clicked her fingers at him and motioned for him to get up. “Well bloody well find out if anyone did see. Ask the neighbours.”
Andrew took another moment to stare into space, before eventually nodding his head. “Okay. Maybe someone did see something.”
Andrew stood up and left the room. He was already wearing his shoes – not something he usually did indoors but the carpet was already ruined with chip fat anyway – so he stepped through into the porch and opened the front door. Outside, his eyes again came to rest upon his vandalised vehicle and the disgusting words written all over it. There was no way he could drive to work until it was repainted. That led him to think what exactly he would say when he dropped it off at the garage.
Oh, I’m not a pedo. It’s just some of the local kids having fun. Yeah right!
The street was deserted – the vandals come and gone without any remnant of their presence. It seemed unlikely that anyone had witnessed the crime. It was a Tuesday morning and Andrew knew that most of the people on his street had day jobs. The lack of parked cars only reinforced the assumption.
Next door, though – number 16 – was home to an elderly couple. Most likely they would be his best bet as they were both retired. The chance of them being home during the day was a healthy possibility. Andrew pressed their doorbell and waited.
It was a full minute later when he pressed the bell again.
Oh well. There goes my best shot.
He was just about to turn away when he noticed a twitch in the living room curtains. He couldn’t be sure, but it seemed as though there had been someone looking out the window at him. Now they had slunk away, ignoring him.
“Hello,” Andrew shouted, stepping back to try and get a better view of the window. The shifting silhouette confirmed to him that someone was indeed inside. “Excuse me,” he said. “I need to talk to you, if that’s okay?”
Nothing.
Andrew stood motionless, at a loss for what to do. Why wouldn’t they talk to him? Why would a nice elderly couple that had said hello to him for years not want to open the door to him? When he turned around he realised the reason why: the words written on his car.
Pedo, pedo, pedo.
It was becoming clear that whatever happened from now on, no one was going to help him. The panic-inducing power of the
words on his car was enough to turn his neighbours against him. Innocent or not, he would be seen as a deviant in their eyes. No smoke without fire.
They think I’m a paedophile.
***
Tanner’s Avenue was a quiet cul-de-sac of terraced houses, lined on either side by leafless trees that towered above Andrew like judgemental skeletons. One of the homes belonged to Frankie, if what Charlie had told him was correct, but as for which one Andrew had no clue. There were at least twenty identical properties, each with the same drab lawns and featureless facades.
Andrew decided the best thing to do would be to just pick a house at random and ask the occupants if they knew which house was Frankie’s. He chose a house with a green-painted door and a brass number plate: 17.
Upon knocking, it took about fifteen seconds for the door to be opened. A diminutive gentleman, at least in his early sixties, appeared in the doorway. His hair thinned above his delicate round spectacles and he seemed withered and stressed-out.
“Can I help you?” the man asked him in a tone that was in no way friendly.
“Hello there,” said Andrew. “Sorry to bother you, but I was hoping you could tell me if you knew where a young man named Frankie lives.”
The old man’s eyes narrowed and he took a half step backwards.
“You know him?” asked Andrew.
“Who wants to know?”
“I do. He’s been causing problems outside my house and I wanted to speak to his parents.”
“Ha!” the man laughed so hard it sounded like something tore loose in his throat. “Good luck! There’s only his mother to talk to and she’s just as bad as him. Ruined this street that bloody family have. A plague on all our houses.”
“The family?” asked Andrew. “The whole family is a problem?”
The man nodded. “That Frankie is an evil little bleeder, no argument about it, but you’ll hardly blame him when you meet his degenerate mother. Never seen the woman sober the whole time she’s lived here. Even passed out in the middle of the road once. Lucky someone didn’t run her over…more’s the pity.”
Andrew shrugged his shoulders and already felt like the whole thing was a bad idea. It was the only option he had right now, though. “Can you point me to the right house pleae? I have to at least try to speak some sense to them.”
The man sighed. “Like I said, good luck. They live at number 8.”
Andrew thanked the man and moved away from his door. Number 8 was directly behind and he turned and made his way over to it. Reaching the house a moment later, he was surprised he hadn’t realised sooner that it belonged to Frankie. The front door was chipped and dented, the paint peeling away in great chunks, whilst the path leading up to it was overgrown with weeds and discarded beer cans. One of the upper windows of the house was boarded-up while another was emblazoned with a faded England flag. If it were not for the bushes outside of the property, it would have stuck out like a sore thumb; a dilapidated slum amongst a row of far better kept properties.
Here goes nothing, Andrew told himself as he made his way up the path, having to step over what looked like a rotting condom on one of the slabs about half way up. There was no buzzer on the door – no knocker either – so he was forced to rap his knuckles against the sharp splinters of the rotting wood.
No one came to answer, but Andrew could hear commotion from somewhere inside of the house. It was the sound of someone clumsily making their way through the reception hallway, bumping into any nearby furniture en route. He held his breath and suddenly realised that his stomach was deeply unsettled. Having to wait so long for the door to open made the feeling even worse.
It was a full minute later when a dishevelled woman appeared. Her hair was wild on one side, but matted and damp on the other, as if she had been lying in a puddle.
“Wahya wan?” she asked.
Andrew smiled at the woman who, he now noticed, was wearing nothing but a flimsy nightgown that was a size too small. Her shinbones were covered in bruises. “Are you Frankie’s mother?”
She gave Andrew a drilling stare. “Who are ya? Don’t look like yer from the social.”
“That’s because I’m not.”
“So wahya wan then?” The woman was shouting now, her words coming out in aggressive slurs and bad breath – alcohol and smoke. “Wahya wan with my Frankie?”
“So you are his mother? I was hoping you could have a word with him for me?”
“Talk to im about wah?”
Andrew took a deep breath and tried not to let the woman’s inability to have a polite conversation deter him. He still believed that everyone had the capacity for rationality – it was just deeply buried in some people. Especially when they were drunk and possibly stoned.
“He’s been causing me some problems,” Andrew explained. “He broke into my home last night and today he vandalised my car.”
The woman snorted back a nose full of snot. “Got proof?”
“Do I need it?” asked Andrew. “I’m simply asking you to talk to him. I don’t wish to cause any trouble for you, ma’am. I just want Frankie to leave my family and me alone.”
The woman huffed. “He don’t listen to me, mate. Does wah he wans, that boy.”
“But you’re his mother.”
“Don’t mean a thing. Speak to im ya’self.”
Before Andrew had chance to stop her, the drunken woman was shouting up the stairs, yelling for Frankie to come down. Andrew felt his skin tighten as he anticipated another encounter with the young thug.
Frankie appeared behind his mother only a moment later, wearing nothing but a pair of black boxer shorts. She turned to look at him as he arrived. “Man says you been botherin’ him.”
Frankie looked at Andrew and his face lit up with recognition, but all he gave was a smirk. “Dunno what the bloke’s on about. Never seen him before.”
Frankie’s mother shrugged her shoulders at Andrew. The motion made her nightdress ride inappropriately high. “Never seen ya in his life, he sez.”
“With all due respect,” said Andrew, “that’s a lie.”
Frankie pushed past his mother and stood in the doorway. “Who you calling a fuckin’ liar?”
Andrew sighed. He wasn’t going to get drawn into an argument. “Frankie, can we please just stop this? I have done nothing to you.”
“I think you need a lie down, mate, cus I ain’t got a clue what you’re on about. Like I said, I ain’t never seen you before.”
Andrew clenched his fists, but then willed them to open again. Losing his cool would not help the situation. “Frankie, the police know all about you and what you’ve been doing. If you don’t stop now you’ll end up in trouble.”
“I don’t see how,” said a young girl appearing in the doorway beside Frankie’s mother, the same one who’d been with Frankie’s group the night everything started – the one who had called Andrew a perv. She wore only a skimpy pair of pink shorts and a bra.
“He’s been with me,” she said. “Last couple of days we ain’t left the bedroom, except to eat.”
“See, yer wrong.” Frankie’s mother slurred at Andrew. “Want to watch who ya start accusin’, mate.”
“I am not wrong,” Andrew stated firmly. “This young lady has been just as much involved in what’s been going on as he has.”
The girl laughed at him mockingly. “You must be stoned, mate. I would remember an old perv like you. You’re talking a load of shit.”
“You’re Charlie’s friend, aren’t you?” Andrew said.
A spark of confusion flittered through the girl’s eyes and, for a moment, her mocking contempt was completely diluted. A moment later it was back in full force. “Don’t know a Charlie, mate. Who is he?”
Andrew finally lost his temper. “Look, you evil little shits. If you come near my family again, you’ll regret it, okay? You’ve had your fun, but now it’s time to move on. No more games.”
Frankie leapt out of the doorway and shoved Andrew back alon
g the path. “You think you can come down my manor and threaten me? You must be trippin’.”
“Yeah,” added Frankie’s mother. “Get away from my house before I call the police.”
“You’ll call the police. That’s bloody rich.” Andrew was about to say more but realised it was pointless. He put his palms in the air and backed away. “Fine, have it your way, but this is going to stop one way or another.”
“Just fuck off,” Frankie shouted. “You come here again and you’re a dead man.”
Andrew sneered. “Same goes for you, my friend.”
“He ain’t your fuckin’ friend,” said the girl.
Andrew turned his back and walked away. He couldn’t help wondering if he had just made things worse. The walk home was a long one.
Chapter Six
Davie had watched Frankie’s altercation from the top step. It wasn’t the first time he’d seen his brother in a argument and it would no doubt not be the last. Their mother getting involved and making things worse wasn’t particularly unusual either.
The man at the door had been middle-aged, older than the usual type of person Frankie had misdealings with. Davie assumed the man was the same one his brother had delivered a beat down to recently. Frankie hadn’t mentioned it himself directly, but Dom and Jordan had been laughing about it at last night’s party. The man had come to the door angry, but seemed more desperate than anything else – like he just wanted to call a truce.
Frankie was coming up the stairs now, casually, as if nothing had happened. Michelle was with him, both of them laughing.
“Hey,” Davie said. “Who was that?”
“Fuck knows,” said Frankie, “but the guy has a death wish to get all up in my face like he did.”
Davie shook his head. “Don’t shit me. Who was it?”
“Just some perv,” answered Michelle. “Don’t worry about it, D.”
“My name is Davie. How did he know where we live?”
Frankie shrugged. Michelle answered again. “Stupid bitch, Charlie, must have told him. He knew we used to be friends so she obviously spoke to him at the chippy or summin’.”
“Okay,” said Davie, “so what did he want?”
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