The Girls Next Door

by Mel Sherratt

  The teenager wobbled and lost control as it hit the grass verge. It toppled over, tipping the driver off with it. As the scooter went one way, Amy legged him over and Eden got out her cuffs.

  ‘Liam Matson, I’m arresting you for the theft of a mobility scooter.’ Eden’s breath was heavy. ‘You do not have to say anything. But it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something that you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence. Do you understand?’

  ‘You’re hurting me!’ he cried. ‘Police brutality!’

  ‘I intend to hurt you, you selfish little shit.’ Eden pulled him to his feet as Amy came back up the grass verge, pushing the scooter. They reached the road again and Eden put him in the back of her car before radioing through for a uniform to come and pick him up. She might have done the collar, but she sure as hell wasn’t doing the paperwork if she could get away with it.

  ‘What do I do with this, Sarge?’ Amy nodded in the direction of the scooter.

  ‘You’ll look quite fetching on it.’ Eden grinned. ‘You can have the pleasure of driving it back to Mr Percival.’

  Amy’s eyes widened. ‘Why me? Can’t uniform do it when they get here?’

  ‘Call it your initiation test.’

  ‘For what?’ Amy frowned.

  ‘YouTube. The last time I did that it was all over social media by the time I got back to the nick, and I’m not having that again.’

  ‘I thought you were partial to scooters,’ Amy teased. ‘You know, with you owning a Lambretta?’

  ‘I’ll have you know it has to have a flyscreen with sixteen mirrors, chrome work and air horns for me to be interested in it.’ Eden grinned. ‘Now get on and drive. I promise not to take any photos to share.’

  Chapter Two

  Cayden Blackwell pulled up the hood of his jacket as the wind battled with it. It had stopped raining heavily, but it was still spitting the fine stuff. He was going to be soaked through if he didn’t get to Jess’s soon. He checked his watch: 5.30 p.m. He’d better hurry.

  Trust him to say he would call for Jess and bring her back to his house. The only reason he was over that way was because he’d needed to see his friend, and his mum would be suspicious if Travis Barker called at their house. For starters, she’d want to know why he was there, darkening her door, and then what he wanted with Cayden. Then she’d probably tell him to keep out of Travis’s way – or worse, tell Travis to sling his hook.

  Even though Travis Barker was a known troublemaker, Cayden was hoping he’d be his ticket to earning some good cash – not just the odd twenty quid here and there that he was accustomed to. He wanted in with some of the bigger jobs he knew Travis was involved with now.

  With business out of the way, he couldn’t wait to see Jess, especially knowing that his house was empty and they could get it on in peace for once. Last night had been parents’ evening, and as his brother had been doing well in his first year at high school, their mum and dad were taking him out for a pizza. They’d offered to take Cayden too but he’d declined, saying he needed to study for his exams. Well, that would be right if he was studying anatomy.

  All he wanted to do was get his hands on Jess. Tonight there would be no little Lloyd to run in and interrupt them. No Mum to knock on the door with a cup of tea for them both, on the pretext of caring when all she wanted was to make sure they didn’t do anything ‘untoward’ under her roof. No Dad to give them a leery grin and crack wise remarks every time he saw them. It was beyond embarrassing at times.

  Cayden and Jess had started dating a couple of months before her best friend, Katie Trent, had been sent to a secure unit and three of his friends had been placed on remand in a youth offending institution for the murder of Deanna Barker. He’d fancied Jess long before then, but she had been the most popular girl in school and he hadn’t been the most popular boy. She wasn’t a sleep-around. Some had said she was a tough nut to crack, but it hadn’t bothered him. They’d messed around a few times now and while his olds were out, they’d have time to do it again. He felt an unfurling in his groin. Maybe she could do something about that, he smirked, like she had the last time his house had been empty.

  Cayden lived on The Cavendales, a walled estate with over fifty large detached houses. It backed onto fields on the outskirts of Stockleigh. Peppermint Avenue was a small cul-de-sac with only seven houses. His parents ran their own IT business and had moved in when the houses had first been erected in 2003. Last year they had built him and Lloyd a loft room above the double garage. Yet even that hadn’t meant he and Jess could get any peace as his brother often came storming in, purposely. Tonight they would have a good two hours to mess around before anyone was home.

  The pavements were like a ghost town; the only thing out was passing cars. Bright headlights shone in the fading light and rainwater splashed up as tyres hit the puddles that had formed in the past hour.

  Cayden pulled in his collar as he crossed Railton Drive and headed into the cut-through that would take him onto the main road and back to Jess’s house. He wondered whether to call in at Shop&Save for a couple of cans and some chocolate. Residents on The Cavendales had fought against having any kind of shop, for fear of bringing in gangs of youths to hang around and cause trouble. They hadn’t even been able to get a pub, not like on the Mitchell Estate where some of his mates lived. So most of the time, he and Jess hung around away from home.

  Earplugs in, he listened to music on his phone, watching where his feet were treading to avoid the puddles that had collected on the tarmac. He checked through his messages to see if there was anything from Travis about their conversation earlier but there was nothing new.

  Music blaring, he wasn’t able to hear footfall behind him. He felt a crack to the back of his legs and he dropped to the floor, cursing as the knees of his jeans began to soak in the rainwater. He stood up quickly, pulling his earplugs out and hanging them around his neck.

  ‘What the hell is your problem?’ Cayden’s brow furrowed. He’d expected it to be someone he knew fooling around, playing a joke that had gone a little too far. But facing him was what looked like a man, dressed in dark clothes and boots and wearing a balaclava. He had a piece of three-by-two wood raised in the air.

  ‘I don’t want any trouble, mate.’ Cayden held up a hand in surrender.

  The man came towards him again and smashed the wood across the side of his face. Pain shot through Cayden, the blow knocking him off balance once more. He fell backwards onto the path, his phone sliding across the surface of the wet tarmac.

  As the man came at him for the third time, Cayden tried to get up, but the wood was brought down on his shoulder before he could put a knee to the ground. There was nothing for it but to curl up into a ball.

  He pushed himself as close as he could to the chain-link railings that surrounded the community centre to his right. Dazed, he couldn’t do anything to stop the blows raining down on him. He lost count at six when a kick to the stomach had him turning onto his side in agony. A stamp on his hand resulted in a sickly crack.

  ‘No. Please,’ he managed to say, blood filling his mouth where his lip had split.

  But the man didn’t stop. One final hit in the face and Cayden’s nose exploded, blood gushing out of both nostrils before he lost consciousness.

  Chapter Three

  Laura Mountford sighed to herself as she picked up the jacket that was hanging over the bannister at the bottom of the stairs. She hung it up on the coat peg a few feet away, where it should have been.

  ‘Jess, how many times do I have to tell you to put your things away when you come home!’ She sighed as she walked through to the kitchen. ‘It only takes a few seconds longer.’

  ‘I’m going out soon,’ Jess replied. ‘I’ll be putting it back on.’

  ‘I’ve already moved it. You know I can’t stand how untidy it looks.’

  ‘Chill out, Mum. It’s only a jacket.’

  Laura shook her head in frustr
ation. At sixteen, Jess had such a defiant attitude. She’d inherited her father’s quick temper, anger clear to see in her steely blue eyes without the added body language of folded arms and the pout. If only Neil were here to chastise her now, she sighed, resigning herself to handling the situation as best she could.

  ‘Would you like me to make you a cheese sandwich for your supper?’ Sarah, her elder daughter, asked as she buttered herself a slice of toast.

  ‘Please, if you can be quick.’ Laura nodded gratefully. ‘I’m already running late, clearing up after this one.’ She turned to Jess again. ‘The bathroom was a tip too. Why you can’t pick up after yourself is anyone’s guess.’

  Jess stood up so quickly that her chair scraped across the tiled floor with an excruciating screech. ‘Mum! I’ve only just got in from school. I’ve been nagged at all day there too.’

  ‘What for?’ Laura stared at her pointedly. ‘You’re not in trouble again, are you? I told you after the last time—’

  ‘I meant in general! Why do you always think I’m in trouble?’

  ‘Because you usually are,’ Sarah joined in. ‘Mum’s only going by past experience.’

  ‘Don’t you start, Goodie Two-Shoes, or else I’m going out right now.’

  ‘Less of the cheek, young lady.’ Laura gnawed at her bottom lip. She sounded like her late mother. Young lady was as patronising as she could get.

  ‘It’s funny how you’ll listen to teenagers on CrisisChat, but when it comes down to your own daughters, you haven’t got time for us.’

  Laura recoiled at the harshness in Jess’s voice. ‘Of course I have time for you!’

  ‘You’re never here.’

  ‘That’s not fair,’ she snapped.

  ‘It’s not true either,’ noted Sarah.

  ‘My job pays the bills,’ Laura added. ‘It pays for you to have treats.’

  ‘Not many,’ Jess muttered before storming out of the room with a bang of the door. Laura jumped, startled at the noise. Little minx.

  Sarah rolled her eyes. ‘She’ll calm down eventually. I don’t know what’s wrong with her.’

  ‘It’s probably because Deanna Barker’s trial is coming up next week. It’s all everyone is talking about. It’s going to be a tough few weeks, I guess.’

  ‘I know. I went into a shop during my lunch break and heard the shopkeeper talking about it. Two women on the bus home were chatting about it. It’s going to be the centre of everyone’s world for a while.’

  ‘Don’t remind me,’ said Laura.

  It had been a dreadful blow when Deanna had been murdered. Even now Laura realised how lucky Jess was not to be in a secure unit with her friend Katie, waiting for her trial to begin on Monday. If Jess hadn’t been ill, who knows what might have happened.

  She looked out of the kitchen window. Already it was dark, the stormy weather blowing the trees about, making leaving the house even less appealing.

  ‘I can’t believe she’s going out in this weather at all,’ Laura added. ‘What are you doing this evening?’

  ‘Brad is finishing at seven so he’s coming round straight from work.’

  Brad was Sarah’s boyfriend, and at twenty-one was two years older than her. They’d been together for just over a year, and Laura really liked him. He worked hard as a trainee manager at an insurance brokers. Friday was his late night and the office didn’t close until 7 p.m. as they called up customers for prospective sales. Most times he’d call round with a takeaway and a bottle of wine for the two of them. Laura knew that Sarah always looked forward to it, and it was good that they got to share a little time alone. They were saving up for their own home – something she knew would take a long time with the way house prices had risen in the area lately. Still, she wasn’t in any hurry to see her firstborn leave the nest yet.

  Upstairs, she could hear Jess stomping around. She turned to leave the room, but decided to stay with Sarah a while longer. It was peaceful here, just the two of them.

  In truth, Laura couldn’t have had two more different daughters if she’d tried. The only similarity between them was their blonde hair and tall, lithe figures. Where Sarah was shy and good to talk to, clever and methodical, Jess was wild, outgoing and a worry every time she went out of the door.

  Although, to be fair, though Laura and her sister, Eden, looked similar, they too had very different personalities. They both had jobs that involved caring, both listening to people’s troubles and dealing with life’s dramas. But Eden had a tough streak about her too. She needed it for her job in the police force, and anyone could see that she loved nothing more than wrestling someone to the ground whenever necessary. Laura would run a mile if anything kicked off in front of her. Just like Sarah would. Whereas Jess would probably stay and fight.

  For the past few months, Jess had hooked up with a boy from school, Cayden Blackwell. The Blackwells lived a few streets away, on an estate that the Mountfords used to live on. Over the course of the summer, Laura had got to know Cayden but even now was unsure about him. He seemed too cocky for her liking, but that could be because he was only sixteen.

  Knowing that her daughter was changing from a sulky schoolgirl into a young and confident woman, she’d tried having the mother–daughter conversation several times, but Jess had always stormed off. Jess had said that she found the whole thing embarrassing, and talking to her mum was the last thing she wanted to do. Mainly if Laura wanted to say anything to Jess, she had to use Sarah as chief negotiator and peacemaker.

  ‘Sorry to leave her with you like this.’ Laura touched her daughter’s arm.

  Sarah shrugged. ‘She’ll be fine when you’re gone and there’s just the two of us. I don’t know why she had a mood on her just then. She was okay when she came in from school. I know she misses you being around.’

  ‘You think so?’ Laura sighed. ‘She has a funny way of showing it.’

  ‘It’s the digs about the helpline that give it away for me, and she’s always talking about Andrea, Cayden’s mum. You know what teenagers are like. They think everyone else’s mum is cool.’ Sarah wiped her hands of toast crumbs and got up to put the plate in the dishwasher.

  ‘If we saw more of each other, the house would be a battle ground,’ Laura remarked. ‘We’re too alike to get on.’

  ‘Maybe,’ Sarah agreed. ‘But I was used to you working at CrisisChat every night, and I know I’m no trouble. It’s a shame you can’t change your shifts now so that you’re at home for some evenings at least. I’d like to have you around too. Sometimes I feel like my sister’s mother and father rolled into one.’

  ‘I’m sorry.’ Laura stood up and gave her a hug. ‘I know how hard it is for you, but I have to work. I can’t change my hours – you know how many times I’ve tried. And you know how long it took me to get this job. I was out of work for months when I was made redundant, and it wasn’t nice. At least this way we get to have some treats.’

  Sarah hugged her back. ‘And we both love you for it.’

  Laura gave her a faint smile. She tried her best, and yet sometimes she knew it wasn’t enough. Just lately, Jess had been giving her lip, hanging around with the wrong people and coming and going a lot more than Laura felt comfortable with. Laura knew it was typical teenage behaviour, pushing the boundaries, trying to see how far she could go. At times Laura met her halfway, but at others Jess would grind her down and she’d give in too easily. She did ground her if she didn’t do as she was told. Trouble was, that didn’t work when Laura wasn’t around in the evenings to see that Jess stayed in.

  She picked up the sandwich that Sarah had wrapped in silver foil and put it in her bag. Two chocolate biscuits from the barrel and she was ready to face her shift.

  Hesitating in the hallway, she dashed upstairs and knocked on Jess’s bedroom door.

  ‘What?’ came her daughter’s dulcet tones.

  She pushed the door open. The room, decorated in pale pastel colours, was moderately tidy after the previous night, when Laura had mo
aned at Jess until she had shifted the mess from the floor. There was another pile of clothes at the bottom of the bed, and she could see several pairs of discarded shoes. Knowing Jess, she would change her clothes at least twice more before she decided on what she was wearing that evening. The rest would be either slung to the floor or shoved in her wardrobe out of sight.

  ‘Are you okay now?’ she asked, not wanting to step inside the room and crowd her.

  ‘I’m fine.’

  ‘All I ask is that you keep the place tidy. I have to go to work. I can’t be there for you all the time and you have to help your sister.’

  Silence followed. Laura changed tactics.

  ‘It’s still horrible outside. Wear your beanie hat to stop your hair from frizzing.’

  That brought a smile to Jess’s lips. Jess lived in her beanie hat whenever she could and Laura was always telling her to remove it. She’d bought her two new ones last Christmas – a purple, black and white stripy one and a grey one – but she still wore the one that had belonged to her father, even though it was a little on the big side for her.

  ‘If you’ll be at Cayden’s house, you can stay out until eleven as long as he walks you home.’

  ‘Okay.’

  ‘And there’s a fiver tucked behind the bread bin if you want to get you and Cayden something to eat.’

  ‘Thanks, Mum! We can grab chips later.’

  Laura smiled. She despaired of herself at times for being a pushover, but she needed Jess to know that she cared. It was hard being a single parent now that she was a widow, but she did her best to provide for her girls, and if she had to give in every now and then it didn’t make her a bad parent. It probably made her more use in her job to parents in a similar situation.

  Children had to grow up some day and be trusted.

  Chapter Four

  Jess had indeed changed her top three times before settling on the outfit she was wearing now. She loved fashion and even though she didn’t like to be a sheep, she always wore the latest styles. That’s why she and Cayden had started to work for Travis Barker. Earning a little money here and there enabled her to have clothes she wouldn’t be able to afford if she had to ask her mum all the time. Even if her mum had money to spare, she would insist on Jess getting cheaper versions of the same designs. She just didn’t seem to understand how hard it was to keep up with peer pressure to look good.