Blood Rush (Lilly Valentine) (17 page)

When she comes back, the woman is carrying a huge bouquet wrapped in silver and gold paper.

‘This is the largest I’ve got.’

Chika eyes the shiny ribbon tied around the stems. ‘It’ll do.’

‘Seventy-five pounds,’ says the woman.

Demi’s mouth falls open. Seventy-five pounds? Gran doesn’t spend that on her fortnightly trip to Aldi. Chika reaches into her pocket and throws four twenties on to the counter, then she snatches the bouquet.

When she reaches the door, she flicks a disdainful glance back into the shop and snarls, ‘Keep the change.’

Had she done the right thing?

Lilly asked herself the same question over and over as she sped back to Harpenden.

If she had just mentioned the pregnancy, the outcome might have been different. Mr Manchester had been wavering at one point. It might have been enough to tip the balance.

Prison was no place for a kid, least of all a pregnant kid.

When she pulled into Penny’s drive her thoughts were
interrupted
by the sound of a baby screaming. Somewhere inside her friend’s converted barn, Alice was attempting to demolish the cool stone walls with the power of her lungs.

Before Lilly had a chance to ring the bell, the front door swung open. Penny had clearly been waiting for her.

‘Lilly.’ Penny’s voice was slightly hysterical and a blob of
something
white and viscous nestled in her usually sleek hair.

‘Hi.’

She followed her friend down the corridor to the orangery at the back of the house. Lilly loved this peaceful room, bathed in sunlight, a huge table covered with a Cath Kidston cloth. Today the floor was littered with toys and books and paper aeroplanes. Alice lay howling in the corner.

‘So how was court?’ Penny’s tone strained to remain cheerful.

‘Shit.’ Lilly scooped up her daughter. ‘Another child sent to prison.’

‘Anything you can do?’

Lilly thought about Tanisha’s baby.

‘I’m going to visit her first thing tomorrow to try and talk some sense into her.’

She jiggled Alice on her hip and the bawling calmed to an annoying whine. ‘I don’t need to ask how things went at this end.’

‘I don’t know what went wrong.’ Penny let out a false laugh that bounced from wall to wall. ‘I tried every trick in the book.’

‘Don’t worry, it’s not you.’

Penny opened her mouth to speak and then bit her lip.

‘What?’ Lilly asked.

‘Nothing.’

‘Penny, this is me.’

Penny pursed her lips. ‘I’ve just been wondering if Alice is okay. If, you know, everything is okay.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I don’t know. It’s just that she seems so unsettled all the time.’

Lilly ruffled Alice’s hair. ‘She’s just a bloody handful, that’s all.’

 ‘If you’re sure.’ Penny looked doubtful.

‘I am sure.’

It’s almost four o’clock and the light is fading.

Jamie’s been walking for hours, round and round in circles, and he can no longer feel his legs. It’s getting really cold now, a
biting
wind stinging his skin, and he left his coat at the party. He pulls the sleeves of his sweater over his fingers and buries his hands in his armpits.

He hasn’t eaten or drunk anything since last night and his mouth is so dry he can barely swallow. Crusted flecks of blood have gathered in the corners, but he can’t be bothered to pick them off.

It’s time to go home. But he can’t. Images of Tristan’s hand in his lap and the snarl on his lips when he woke up, pound through Jamie’s head. He can still feel the way his cock had throbbed uncontrollably and the raw, violent anger that ran through Tristan’s body.

He doesn’t want to think about what’s going to happen next. How Tristan will tell everyone what happened. By now it will be all over Facebook.

Jamie’s phone makes him start and he fumbles in his pocket. He has a text.

Tears spring into Jamie’s eyes. Mum’s been worrying about him. Surely that means she does care. That if he told her about what was happening she’d listen. He wipes his face with his sleeve. He tries to picture having a proper conversation with Mum. He’s sitting on his bed and she’s in the chair by his desk. She’s put her phone and BlackBerry away, and she’s concentrating on what he’s telling her. Jamie’s temples ache with confusion.

He realizes he’s only ten minutes from home. If he runs he can make it in five. His heart leaps into his mouth and he can almost taste it. He stabs out a reply.

A smile breaks across Jamie’s face. Mum will understand. She’ll help. She’ll sort out this fucking awful mess he’s got himself into.

He points his feet in the right direction when his phone bleeps again. Another text.

Jamie cries out as if he’s in physical pain. It’s like Tristan has punched him in the stomach. The force knocks Jamie sideways. He staggers towards the nearest lamp-post and clings to it as if it were the mast on a sinking ship. A drop of fresh blood falls from his open mouth and splashes on the pavement at his feet.

He is completely alone. Even as a young boy he knew this. In a world crammed with people and crowds, Jamie is utterly separate.

‘Are you all right?’

Jamie looks up to find an old man stood over him. His white hair is neatly cut. His scarf is wrapped around twice.

‘Are you all right?’ he repeats.

Jamie, both hands still holding the lamp-post, opens his mouth to speak. Another drop of blood escapes. The old man’s eye line follows it, until it hits the ground and opens like a flower.

 ‘Are you ill?’ He pulls out a mobile phone. ‘Can I call someone for you?’

Jamie doesn’t answer. Every cell in his body is aching and screaming. But who can he call? Who can help? There’s no one. No one at all.

The old man frowns. ‘Do you need anything?’

Need? He pushes himself up the lamp-post and straightens his back.

‘I need to get out of here,’ he tells the old man. ‘I need to get to Luton.’

Lilly beat together sugar and butter with a wooden spoon. The repeated circling of her wrist was soothing. She cracked three eggs on the side of the bowl and let them slip into the mixture. Alice sat in her high chair, mimicking her mother with a plastic plate and a breadstick.

After the disastrous morning in court, Lilly had been baking. The air in the kitchen was a chocolatey fug she could almost bite.

Sam poked his head around the door and sniffed. His eyes widened at a plate of muffins cooling next to the oven.

‘They’re still hot,’ Lilly told him.

He shrugged and helped himself to two. Lilly chuckled
indulgently
and reached for a cup of melted chocolate, dark and glossy. As she poured it in with the other ingredients, the door bell rang.

‘I’ll get it,’ Sam offered, his mouth full.

‘Blimey,’ said Lilly, ‘those muffins must be bloody good.’

He wrinkled his nose at her but left to answer the door. While he was gone, Lilly dipped her finger into the cake mixture and held it to Alice’s mouth. The baby licked it off with a wet smack of her lips.

‘See,’ Lilly muttered to herself, ‘there’s nothing wrong with you at all is there?’

When Sam returned he was scowling. ‘There’s some man here for you.’

‘Who?’

Sam shrugged.

Lilly shook her head in despair and made her way out to the front door, her flour-covered hands held out in front of her like a sleep walker. It was Karol.

He glanced down at her old jogging bottoms and flowered apron. ‘Am I interrupting?’

‘Not at all.’ Lilly pushed the hair out of her eyes with her
forearm
. ‘Come through to the kitchen.’

She cringed as he followed her through the sitting room, the sofa piled high with case papers. In the kitchen, he smiled at the dozens of bowls and utensils that littered the surfaces.

‘I’m baking.’ She laughed and kicked a cupboard door shut with her bare foot.

‘It smells great.’

There was an uncomfortable pause where Lilly noticed how muscular his arms were and how badly her toenails needed
cutting
. Sam glared at them both.

‘This is my son,’ Lilly said at last.

Karol held out a hand. ‘I work for your mum.’

Sam’s didn’t take his hand. ‘What as?’

‘I answer the phone and do the administration.’ Karol leaned over and stage whispered. ‘Have you seen the state of her office?’

‘Crap job.’ Sam’s face relaxed slightly.

Karol threw his head back and laughed. ‘Someone has to do it.’

‘Suppose.’ Sam gave a half smile and reached for another muffin before heading back to his room.

‘Nice boy,’ said Karol.

‘If you like moody unreasonable teenagers,’ Lilly answered.

‘Fortunately, I do.’

There was another pause before Lilly coughed back her embarrassment.

‘So what brings you to Casa Valentine?’

Karol pressed his lips together and took a breath through his nose. ‘I spoke with Penny and she told me you were upset by the court case this morning. I wondered if I could do anything to help.’

Lilly sighed. ‘How long have you got?

The plate in front of Karol contained nothing more than a few left over crumbs, which he chased with his finger.

‘You are a very good cook, Lilly.’

Lilly smiled. ‘I find refuge in my kitchen.’

‘And what are you hiding from, may I ask?’ Karol cocked his head to one side.

There were so many, many things. The situation with Jack. Sam’s moods. Alice being Alice. But Lilly was sure Karol would not want to hear her long list of personal difficulties.

‘Work can be very stressful,’ she conceded.

‘The McKenzie case?’

She nodded. ‘I promised I wouldn’t represent any more kids. I swore to everyone that I was done.’

‘So why did you take Tanisha on?’

Guilt? Concern? Sheer bloody-mindedness?

‘Because she needs my help,’ said Lilly.

Karol leaned back in his chair. It creaked slightly under his weight. ‘Then you have done the right thing.’

‘I wish it were that simple.’

‘When someone stretches out a hand to us, we can ask a
hundred
questions and listen to the opinions of a thousand people. We can tie ourselves up in knots.’ He opened his palms. ‘Or we can take that hand in our own.’

Lilly smiled. Karol was right. She reached for a muffin and took a bite.

‘The problem now is that Tanisha’s been sent to prison.’

‘What?’

‘She didn’t get bail,’ Lilly said. ‘And the one thing that might help her get out of there, she won’t let me use.’

Karol considered for a moment.

‘She is a child, so you must decide for her,’ he said.

‘She told me this information in confidence,’ Lilly replied.

‘You said yourself that she asked for your help,’ Karol held Lilly’s gaze. ‘It is you who must decide how best to give it.’

It’s a cold evening. Chika and the other girls take it in turns to stand under the lamp-post in an alleyway on Clayhill. A tower block looms on either side reaching up into the black sky. Demi blows on her hands to warm them and puts up her hood.

Earlier, at the hospital, Gran had told her that it made her look like a ‘hooligan’. Demi sighed and pushed it back, but Gran still wasn’t satisfied, glaring at Chika until she left the room. She hadn’t even been pleased with the flowers.

‘Where did you get the money for those?’ she demanded.

Honestly, it’s like she wants them to be poor or something.

And Malaya wasn’t much better. She didn’t even look at them as Demi searched for a vase. She didn’t say anything either. Just stared at Demi.

Well they can both do what they like. Demi’s not paying any more attention. Here she is tonight, working with her crew, and it feels great. She looks up the length of the tower blocks. First the one to her left, then to her right. All those windows glowing yellow. How many girls are in there, hiding away? She wants to shout out to them all and tell them not to be afraid. That there are friends who will watch out for them.

 A boy comes scurrying out of the shadows towards Demi. She can see the whites of his eyes, wild in his face. Chika’s told her not to be scared. People like this might look mad, but they know exactly what they want. And they know Demi and the rest of the CBD have got it.

The boy stops in front of her, hopping from foot to foot. She stares him down, just like Chika showed her.

‘Yeah?’ She nods aggressively at him.

‘Glass,’ he answers. He sounds posh. Not from round here.

She signals to a boy called Sean on a BMX, who cycles off to get the gear. This is the worst part; while they wait.

‘Don’t talk to them, or listen to any rubbish, you get me,’ Chika warned. ‘If they try to tell you that they’ll pay tomorrow or that they’ve only got three days to live, let them jog on.’

‘Okay,’ Demi replied.

‘And if you think for even a second that they’re gonna try to rob you, use this.’ She pressed a can of pepper spray into Demi’s hand.

At last, Sean is back and hands the man his wrap. But only after he’s given Demi the money. She can’t help smiling.

The ground was still covered in frost when Lilly arrived at HMP High Point, and the white blanket, stretching out across the cavernous car park and surrounding wasteland, made the dark prison walls even more foreboding.