Fall From Grace

by Menon, David

‘I’m sure it will become apparent to you as your career progresses,’ said Hargreaves as he opened her office door. ‘It was a good result, Sara, despite the difficulties. I’m pleased with it and so should you be and Steve Osborne wouldn’t want us to think any different.’

  *

  Paul had been given tranquilisers to get him through the day and sleeping pills to make sure he didn’t lie awake all night reliving the events outside the centre when Jake checked out of this world. The drugs, along with Kelly and Lydia, had held him together through his darkest days. It was a darkness that almost made him feel separate from the world he was living in. There’d been so much death, so much pointless, needless death, so much unnecessary heartache for so many people. He had to try and mend some of it. And he knew where to start. He went down to Rubinstein’s jewellery shop on St. Peter’s Square with the watch his father had given him.

  ‘Mr. Foster,’ Saul Rubinstein said, greeting him warmly, ‘how nice to see you. Please, come through to the back.’

  Paul followed Mr. Rubinstein through to his back office and handed him the watch. ‘This belongs to you and your family, Mr. Rubinstein,’ said Paul. ‘I’ve discovered through an investigation by certain experts that my grandmother had quite a collection of gold and jewellery that has been verified as having been stolen by the Nazi’s. Some of it, I have to say, was given to her by a member of our own royal family, and some of it came into her possession by her own misdeeds both during and after the war. It’s been valued at about a million pounds. I’m planning an auction and the entire proceeds will go to the Simon Wiesenthal centre in Vienna. I hope you think that’s some kind of poetic justice.’

  Saul Rubinstein took hold of Paul’s hand and, tearfully, he said, ‘thank you. You are a big man, Paul Foster and only big men can deliver real justice.’

  ‘Mr. Rubinstein, my family have been involved in some evil things but it’s up to me now to bring an end to it all. I just hope this goes some way to putting things right.’

  ‘From your mouth to God’s ears,’ said Saul.

  TWENTY ONE

  ONE MONTH LATER

  Paul was nervous as he got into his suit. The day had finally dawned and it was going to be good for his soul. A cleansing of the past and the name of a good family restored. He’d been a multi-millionaire for the best part of a month before he’d turned over most of his money to the Wilfred Jenkins foundation that he’d set up. He’d kept some back and he considered he was due something from the old witch. Yet he still felt there was more than enough left over for him to be comfortable for the rest of his life and able to help out his friends whenever they needed it.

  ‘Hi!’ said Lydia as he came into the bedroom, ‘don’t you scrub up well?’

  ‘You’ve seen me in a suit before, Lydia.’

  ‘I know, darling, but today is a special day,’ she smiled Lydia, ‘what’s wrong?’

  ‘My stomach is going round and round like a bloody washing machine.’

  ‘Well some nerves are good,’ said Lydia. ‘It shows you’ve still got a heart beating in there.’

  Paul was perched on the end of his bed and looking down at his folded hands in his lap. Lydia knew there was something more going on than just nerves.

  ‘Come on, what is it?’

  Paul started crying and he wiped his face with his hands. ‘Tiffany came to see me yesterday.’

  ‘And?’

  ‘Little Callum… just days old but he’s the spitting image of his Dad.’

  ‘But what did she do to make you so upset, love?’

  ‘She said… she said that she didn’t want me to have anymore contact with her or Callum.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘She said that it would confuse Callum and make it difficult when she met somebody else.’

  ‘Oh Paul, darling,’ said Lydia. ‘It must’ve broken your heart.’

  ‘It’s like I’ve lost Jake all over again, Lydia,’ said Paul, ‘and breaking my heart doesn’t even come close to it.’ Paul broke down again and wept on Lydia’s shoulder.

  ‘But hang on, love,’ said Lydia. ‘The trust fund you’ve set up for Callum and the monthly allowance you’re giving her? Is she still taking that?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Paul.

  ‘Then she’s taking you for a ride, Paul.’

  ‘Lydia, she’s quite right when she says I’ve got no right to see Callum though,’ said Paul.

  ‘Well then she’s got no right to your money.’

  ‘Lydia, I promised and I can’t go back on that now.’

  ‘But she’s taking the piss.’

  ‘I know but I… like I said, I just can’t go back on the promise I made, Lydia but I’ve lost Jake, the only man I’ve ever truly loved and now I’ve lost contact with his son and I’m just getting a little tired of putting on a brave face and pretending everything’s alright when it fucking well isn’t.’

  ‘Now listen,’ said Lydia, taking hold of his shoulders. ‘Lesser men would never have thought of doing what you’re doing today. They’d have just taken the money and run for the hills.’

  ‘Yeah, well I don’t feel very noble.’

  ‘Paul, you didn’t have to do it, you chose to do it.’

  ‘So what are you trying to say?’

  ‘That the pain in your heart about Jake won’t go away for a very long time but that you should feel proud of what you’re doing in the rest of your life. It gives you a reason to go on.’

  ‘It wasn’t him who committed those awful murders, Lydia,’ said Paul, ‘if you’d have seen his eyes in those final moments…’

  ‘…he wasn’t the man that we’d known, love, I know that.’

  ‘How’s Kathy Jenkins doing?’

  ‘She’s downstairs having a cup of tea with your Uncle Leonid,’ said Lydia. ‘I think he’s chatting her up.’

  ‘Good for her,’ said Paul, ‘and good for him. You and Kelly have been so good to Kathy though.’

  ‘She’s a sweetie,’ said Lydia, ‘but I can understand why she didn’t want to move to another flat like you wanted her to. She wasn’t slighting you, Paul.’

  ‘Yeah, I know that,’ said Paul. ‘She’s got her neighbours and she’ll be okay if we keep an eye on her or if Uncle Leonid does. Do you know she’d never even had her hair done until you took her to the hairdressers yesterday? She’d never thought anything about herself at all.’

  ‘Today will help to make up for all that she lost, Paul.’

  ‘I hope so, Lydia. I really do.’

  ‘Well go in the bathroom and wash your face,’ said Lydia. ‘You don’t want people to know you’ve been crying.’

  ‘No,’ said Paul. ‘I’ll see you in a minute. And thanks, Lydia.’

  ‘Me and Kelly are here for you,’ she added, ‘always will be.’

  *

  There’d always been a community centre on the Tatton estate, it’s just that it had never been used. The windows had all been boarded up, there was graffiti on the walls, and most of the residents didn’t even register anymore that it was there. But it was in a prime location at the start of the estate, just off the A6 that ran like a vein through the heart of Salford.

  Kelly drove Lydia, Paul, Kathy Jenkins, and Paul’s Uncle Leonid to the estate and parked in the newly resurfaced car park outside the community centre. Leonid was proud to be there. Paul had promised to use his position to campaign for official recognition of the Holodomor that the Ukrainians went through during the 1920’s and 1930’s. They’d talked a lot recently, mainly about Paul’s father, but Paul had also floated the idea of trying to re-unite Leonid with his family in the Ukraine. Leonid thought it was too late now, too many decades had passed and it should all just be left alone.

  Paul couldn’t believe how many people were there. He’d chosen a Saturday to launch proceedings so that as many of the estate’s residents, including all the children, could take part in the ceremony. But he hadn’t counted on virtually the whole estate turning up. He looked at the expectant
faces. He wanted it all to change for the sake of the children. He had to make it all work for them. Sam Cowley had settled happily into his new foster home over at Eccles with a couple who were giving him the right support to learn that he’d sorely needed for so long. But he couldn’t take them all away. Some of them had to be helped from where they were.

  ‘I hope I can pull this off,’ said Paul.

  ‘Well it’s up to them now,’ said Kelly. ‘You’ve done all you can.’

  As soon as they got out of the car Paul was besieged by the press. He answered their questions carefully and then Anita Cowley managed to get both him and Kathy inside where the leader of the council and the city’s MP, a woman whom Paul had met before and liked for the way she didn’t stand on ceremony, were both waiting for them. So were Superintendent Hargreaves and DCI Hoyland whom Paul had invited to be part of the whole event.

  ‘This is all going mental,’ said Anita, ‘even me Mum is here.’

  It had been difficult getting Lorraine Cowley to see a future for herself after what had happened to Michaela. She’d blamed herself but with the right kind of counselling she was now coming through it and had finally settled into her reading and writing classes after going sick for the first three. Michaela, like the rest of the girls who’d been rescued from the Cheshire farmhouse, was still in a psychiatric unit working through the trauma she’d endured. But the doctors were hopeful and every day she was making progress according to Anita.

  ‘I’ve had to keep the front doors locked to keep them out,’ said Anita.

  ‘Well you’re the estate manager, Anita,’ said Paul. ‘So it’s your decision.’

  Anita pulled a frightened face. ‘Right,’ she said, ‘look, Paul, do you really think I can do this?’

  ‘Yes I do,’ said Paul ‘You know the estate inside out and you know the people here. I didn’t want to get anyone in from outside who didn’t have the first idea about how life works on an estate like this. I’ve every confidence in you. I believe in you. You’ve got to believe in yourself.’

  ‘I’m bricking it today, Paul.’

  ‘You and me both, kid.’

  She kissed him.

  ‘What was that for?’ He asked.

  ‘For all of this,’ said Anita, ‘for giving me this chance.’

  Film crews from both the BBC Northwest and ITV Granada filmed the whole ceremony, from Anita’s faltering start before she found her groove and got stuck in, through the congratulations received from the leader of the council and the praise from the MP who said it was just the direction that communities should take in owning their regeneration, to the tearful expressions of thanks from Kathy. Paul then wrapped things up with his own speech.

  ‘…Ladies and gentlemen, I’m delighted to be able to launch the Wilfred Jenkins foundation, a non-profit trust that will begin its work with the purchase of all the properties of the Tatton estate. The purpose of the foundation is two-fold. One, it is a way of restoring the good name of Wilfred Jenkins who was wrongfully hanged for murder back in 1940 on the false evidence of the real perpetrator of the crime, my grandmother, Lady Eleanor Harding. We’ve also now applied for a posthumous pardon for Wilfred and I’m proud to make this announcement in the presence of his daughter, Kathy.’ He waved his hand in Kathy’s direction and she blushed as she took her applause. ‘Kathy, I wish to publicly apologise for the terrible crime inflicted on your family by mine and I hope that today will be the start of putting all that sorrow behind us.’

  Paul didn’t know if it was the applause he got for his remarks but he was starting to feel quite emotional. He took a few deep breaths before carrying on.

  ‘…and that’s not the only apology I have to make. More than twenty girls were taken from their homes and put through hell by evil men and the whole plan had been masterminded by an evil woman, my grandmother. So I say to them and to the children who were bought from their families during the Second World War… I say to them all that on behalf of my family I am truly sorry. But friends, criminal charges against my grandparents were dropped because the police were ordered to drop them. The powerful should no longer be able to use their connections to escape the law in this day and age so I urge everyone to join our campaign to remove all the privileges of the establishment once and for all. Only then could we say that a truly fair society is within our reach.

  ‘But now to the working remit of the foundation which will be to invest in the kind of social projects that will be of benefit to people who’ve never shared in the wealth of our society. The people of the Tatton need a new start and the Wilfred Jenkins foundation is going to provide them with it. People all over the world are waking up to the power they have and we’re bringing that dynamic to the Tatton and to all the other estates we’ll be taking over in the next few months.’

  Once the speeches were over the crowds dispersed and Paul was whisked into a side room by Marius Van Urk for an ‘exclusive’ interview.

  ‘Paul,’ Marius began, ‘you inherited millions when your grandmother signed over her estate to you but now you’ve given over most of it to the Wilfred Jenkins foundation that you’ve created and which you head. Why did you do that?’

  ‘I had to wash the money clean,’ said Paul, ‘it struck me that this was an opportunity to do something positive that could affect the lives of a lot of people as well as doing something to right the wrong that had been done against the Jenkins family. That’s why I decided to set up the foundation in Wilfred Jenkins’ name. We need to start a revolution from the bottom up and show people who’ve never believed in themselves that they can make it to wherever they want to go. I take my inspiration from the Reverend Jesse Jackson in the United States who tells disadvantaged people to keep believing that they are somebody despite their current circumstances and that they do have a right to a better future. But of course, they themselves have also to put in the effort too. That’s where the tough love comes in.’

  ‘And you’ve turned over the ownership of Gatley Hall to the foundation?’

  ‘Well it’s now been re-named Clarissa Harding Hall.’

  ‘After your mother?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘She’d have been proud.’

  ‘I hope so,’ said Paul. ‘The hall will become the headquarters of the Wilfred Jenkins foundation and the rest will become a conference and events centre under a separate management team. We’ve managed to secure all the jobs of those who work there now and we’ll be looking to recruit more people too. I’ll keep my own private apartment there and I’ll be the Chair of the foundation.’

  ‘Well coming back to the work of the Wilfred Jenkins foundation,’ said Marius. ‘The tenancies of the residents of the Tatton estate have been re-written by the foundation after it took them over. Tell us more about that?’

  ‘Well, it is a condition now of the tenancy that nobody borrows money from doorstep lenders. We know that loan sharks have been targeting estates like the Tatton, playing on the vulnerability of residents who can’t be part of the normal loan market, and charging them ludicrous amounts of interest for the privilege. We’ve set up a credit union for residents of the estate where they’ll be able to borrow money at much lower and more affordable rates and which will be a community initiative that nobody profits from.’

  ‘But there is one aspect of the new tenancy agreements that is somewhat controversial?’

  ‘Well, yes, we’ve said that we have the right to instruct social services to take children into care at the earliest sign of abuse,’ said Paul. ‘There have been far too many cases recently of little kids ending up dead because those who could’ve rescued them didn’t. We’ve been too timid to condemn bad parenting. That’s something we won’t be timid of at the foundation. Also, if any child on the estate is accused of a crime then we will call the parents in and ask them to explain how the situation could’ve arisen. Parents have to take an interest in what their children are up to.’

  ‘You’ve also set up a nursery in this community
centre, what’s the intention there?’

  ‘It’s a full-on children’s centre that takes care of all aspects of children’s welfare and is linked to the social services centre that I manage just up the road in Broughton. It’s about giving people the support they need whilst also allowing them to take advantage of opportunities with regard to finding a job. One of the problems on the estate is the absence of a culture of work but the children growing up here need to see that going to work is about earning money to live. The Benefits system is there to help support people on low incomes. It shouldn’t be seen as a lifestyle choice.’

  ‘And are the residents buying into all that?’

  ‘The job of the foundation will be to assist the residents in that process.’

  ‘You’ve also been on the receiving end of some sharp criticism from people who say you’re basically taking control of the residents, taking away their free choices and their liberties. What do you say to that?’

  ‘Well, the people who say that are mostly middle class sitting around their tables in nice leafy suburbs and who’ve never been anywhere near the Tatton and certainly never spoken to anyone living here. Look, I’m a social revolutionary. I don’t accept that things can never change. I adopt a tough love approach because here on the Tatton there are problems that require it.’

  ‘Such as?’

  ‘There are too many children having children for a start,’ said Paul. ‘We have fathers and mothers who can’t get a job because they can’t read and write, people who are becoming grandparents at the age of thirty without ever having worked. Now people in the wider community who work hard are growing tired of subsidising that kind of behaviour. What we need is realism and honesty instead of softly, softly kid gloves. And also, it’s about the waste of human potential which is a crime in itself in this day and age. Unless someone takes firm leadership of the situation then all of the people on these estates will remain at the bottom of the heap and I don’t think that’s good enough for them or for the wider community. You see, it’s not just about the gap between rich and poor in society although that is important. But it’s also about realising the value of education. If people in developing countries can see education as the means to get out of poverty then why can’t our people here?’