Blood Rush (Lilly Valentine) (22 page)

‘Solomon Street,’ Rocky tells her. ‘Ask for JC.’

‘What number?’

Rocky gurns at her. There are bits of food stuck between his teeth.

‘Unless you serious stupid, you’re gonna know.’

Throughout Chika’s testimony, Tanisha didn’t move. She didn’t even lift her head. Instead she concentrated on her nails, peeling away the painted tips and letting the flakes of varnish fall, until her legs were covered in what looked like gold leaf.

When Chika mentioned her by name, Tanisha flinched but didn’t look up.

Lilly made studious notes. Not because she needed to but because she needed to focus. Not on Chika’s words, but on her own reaction to them. How was she going to undermine her? Which card should she choose to nudge so that the whole pack collapsed? Or should she just sweep away the deck in one move?

When she was finished, Chika moved to leave the witness box.

‘Please remain seated, Miss Mboko,’ said the judge. ‘No doubt the defence have some questions for you.’

A shadow passed across Chika’s face and she looked over at Tanisha and Lilly. There was a glimpse of the intensity Lilly had seen earlier as Chika entered court. Something powerful, yet trapped. As if sensing Lilly could see, it fled, but not before Lilly made a
mental
note of how to proceed with her cross-examination.

‘Thank you for coming today.’ Lilly gave a warm smile as she got to her feet.

Chika shrugged. ‘It’s all right.’

‘Quite a way for you,’ said Lilly.

‘Not really.’

‘Come now, it’s a two-bus journey at least, and we all know how frequent they are these days in Luton.’ Lilly gave a small laugh. ‘You did come on the bus, didn’t you?’

‘Nah.’ She nodded at Jack, who had taken a seat to the side of the court. ‘He brought me.’

‘That was very kind of him. Did you arrange to do that over the phone?’

Chika shook her head.

‘Then how did you sort things out?’ Lilly asked.

‘He came and got me.’

Lilly paused as if she were puzzled. ‘How did he know where to find you?’

‘Dunno. Tracked me down, innit.’

‘So you didn’t volunteer to come,’ said Lilly. ‘The police, as you put it, had to track you down and bring you here themselves?’

Jez pulled himself to his feet. ‘With all due respect, Your Honour, this application was listed at such short notice there was no way the witness could have known anything about it.’

‘It’s a fair point,’ the judge said to Lilly.

‘Then I’ll put it another way.’ She narrowed her eyes at Chika. ‘I don’t think you would have come here today of your own accord and I don’t think you’ll come again in the future.’

‘Is there a question coming?’ Jez rolled his eyes.

Lilly ignored him and kept her own eyes trained on Chika. ‘Frankly, I don’t think anything you’ve told the court today is true.’

‘You calling me a liar?’ Chika glared back.

‘Yes,’ said Lilly.

‘Your Honour,’ Jez called out. ‘Who is giving evidence here? Miss Mboko or Miss Valentine?’

Lilly pressed on regardless. There was something dangerous about Chika and she needed the judge to see it.

‘I think you made this whole story up.’

Chika pushed the tip of her tongue between her lips and pressed them around it.

‘I think you hate Tanisha McKenzie and you saw this as an ideal opportunity to make trouble for her,’ said Lilly.

‘Your Honour,’ Jez raised his hands so that they framed his head.

‘Miss Valentine, I can see where you’re going with this,’ said the judge, ‘and I’m asking you to stop.’

But there was no way Lilly was going to stop. She could see the colour drain from Chika’s tongue with the pressure she was placing on it. Her nostrils flared as she used every ounce of her willpower to restrain the fury that was fighting to be set free.

‘I think you didn’t always feel this way about my client. You used to be the best of friends. But something happened and
everything
changed.’

‘Miss Valentine, I am now
telling
you to stop this.’ The judge raised her voice.

Despite the warning, Lilly continued. ‘I think, Chika Mboko, that you are a violent criminal with a grudge against Tanisha and that there is no reason that this court or anyone else should believe anything you say.’

‘Enough,’ the judge bellowed.

Chika jumped to her feet in the witness box, her entire body shaking. She bared her teeth at Lilly. This was it. The reaction Lilly had been searching for. The rage.

‘I … am … not … lying,’ Chika whispered.

In that instant Lilly knew she had lost.

Jamie staggers down the street, hooting hysterically. He can’t remember when he last had such a laugh. His new mate Trick, or is it Track, no, definitely Trick … anyway, he’s a blast. He bumps into a litter bin overflowing with rubbish and ricochets sidewards, slipping on a discarded box of chips.

‘I’m a stunt man.’ Trick writhes around on the pavement. ‘Roll the fucking cameras.’

They met a couple of hours ago in a swing park. Jamie had just scored from some girl on the Clayhill. Not the usual one. He’d walked around a bit, looking for her, when another one called over to him.

‘You chasing?’

He wasn’t sure. The other girl’s gear was always good. He’s read on the internet that some dealers cut it with all sorts of things. Rat poison and stuff. At least he knows the other girl’s drugs won’t kill him.

When she began to walk away he decided it didn’t matter. It’s probably only injecting it that can do you any harm. After all, they put loads of chemicals in cigarettes and you don’t see people
keeling
over when they light up.

So he scored a wrap and set off to find somewhere to take a puff. Finally, he found himself in a park. It was pretty rundown, with graffiti sprayed over the roundabout and the tyre swing was melted where someone had set it on fire.

It was then he saw Trick. Their eyes met and he knew. They were the same. He darted under the slide and Jamie followed him.

Underneath, it was dark, but not cold. They had to crouch to fit. It reminded Jamie of a summer spent in Tuscany. Mum and Dad hired a villa and invited all their friends to visit. The adults spent their days around an enormous table by the pool, drinking Chianti, while Jamie sheltered from the sun under a slide in the garden.

Trick pulled out a bag and a piece of tin foil, and patted his pockets for a lighter. Jamie took out his own drugs and together they did their thing. He was nervous about getting high with someone else. Would it be the same, or would it spoil that
delicious
rush? He needn’t have worried. It was even better. Somehow their shared secret intensified the moment.

‘See that?’ Trick pointed to a dark stain a few feet away. ‘That’s blood, that is.’

‘No way,’ Jamie exclaimed.

Trick nodded. ‘Some black girl got proper battered.’

They both looked at it with serious faces. Then Trick started to giggle, and soon he and Jamie were coughing and spluttering with the humour of it.

As Jamie helps Trick to his feet now, he can’t believe how much they have in common. Okay, they’re from totally different
backgrounds
, but it just doesn’t matter. The government are always banging on about how the middle classes shouldn’t shut
themselves
off from the rest of society, how they should mix with the other members of their community. Well here is Jamie, well and truly mixing and loving every second of it. Maybe he should write to the prime minister and suggest he get all the kids together and throw them in a room with some meth. That would do wonders for his social cohesion policy. Jamie is laughing so hard he has to stop and bend forward from his waist to catch his breath.

Trick brushes the chips from his jeans. ‘Shall we have another hit?’

See, that’s what Jamie means, they’re virtually reading each other’s minds.

He looks around him. There are people milling up and down the street.

‘Don’t worry.’ Trick puts a hand on Jamie’s arm. ‘I know a place.

The game was up. As Chika was led out of court by Jack, she gave Lilly a sneaky smile. She had won.

Lilly did a quick calculation. Her application had rested squarely on the assertion that the prosecution’s case against Tanisha was built on sand. That Chika wouldn’t turn up and shouldn’t be believed. Sadly, she hadn’t been able to prove that. Chika’s
evidence
now lay on the table together with CCTV footage of Tanisha chasing the victim into the park, and of course, the fact that Tanisha had lied to the police.

There was no way the judge was going to grant bail.

‘Your Honour,’ Lilly said, ‘I should like Annabelle O’Leary, to give evidence.’

The judge frowned at Lilly. She had not been amused by Lilly’s refusal to stop her cross-examination of Chika.

‘I am telling you now, Miss Valentine, that this had better not be a repeat of your previous spectacle.’

‘Your Honour, I think it’s important that you hear about Tanisha’s current foster placement. From the horse’s mouth, so to speak.’

‘Very well.’

As Annabelle was brought into court, Lilly winced. Annabelle had clearly not been able to follow the instructions to calm
herself
down. She was bleached of all colour and her eyes darted around in an almost paranoid fashion. When she picked up the Bible to be sworn in, she dropped it, then banged her head against the rail as she bent to pick it up. Even Tanisha sighed. There was no way anything Annabelle had to say would impress the judge.

Tanisha was going back to prison.

Lilly took up her pen, scribbled a note on her legal pad and pushed it on to Tanisha’s lap.

‘I wonder if you could help the court with something,’ Lilly asked Annabelle.

‘Of course.’ Her voice wavered.

Lilly took a deep breath. ‘Is Tanisha McKenzie pregnant?’

Annabelle’s mouth gaped, but before she could speak, Tanisha whipped up her head.

‘No,’ she shouted.

‘I’ll ask you again, Mrs O’Leary,’ said Lilly. ‘Is my client pregnant?’

In a split second, Tanisha leapt to her feet and crossed to the witness box.

‘You don’t have to answer.’ Tanisha grabbed at Annabelle’s arm, her fingers scrabbling to grip her waterproof jacket. ‘You don’t have to tell them nothing.’

The guards raced to Tanisha and held both her arms behind her back.

‘Please, Annabelle, you promised me,’ Tanisha screamed and struggled to get free.

Annabelle looked wildly from Tanisha to Lilly and tears tumbled down her cheeks when the guards dragged Tanisha back to the cells, the door slamming closed behind them.

A silence settled. No one seemed to breathe.

‘Miss Valentine,’ the judge’s voice rang across the room, ‘it appears you have just breached your duty of client confidentiality.’

Lilly put the palm of her hand over her mouth and breathed into it. She bit back a wave of nausea.

‘Your Honour, I do have a duty to my client, but, because of her age, I have an overriding duty to the court and in these
circumstances
I felt it would be impossible for you to make such a life-changing decision without all the facts.’

The judge looked grim. ‘Then you may repeat your question.’

‘Mrs O’Leary,’ Lilly could barely find her voice, ‘is Tanisha expecting a baby?’

‘Yes,’ Annabelle sobbed. ‘Yes, she is.’

The tissue that Annabelle used to wipe her nose was in shreds. White flakes clung to her nostrils. She had wept her way through the rest of her evidence.

As she and Lilly waited to be let into the cell area, she tried desperately to dry her eyes.

‘How long before the judge makes a decision?’ she asked.

‘Not long,’ Lilly replied. ‘With any luck, Her Honour’s gone off to find out what sort of facilities an adult prison has for a pregnant teen.’

The vast metal door clanked open and the guard smiled at Lilly.

‘Who pissed on your client’s chips?’ he asked.

‘That,’ said Lilly, ‘would be me.’

She knew Tanisha would be angry, but hoped she could make her understand that it had been necessary. She had hated
betraying
the girl’s trust, but Karol’s words had rung in her mind.
It is you who must decide.

When they reached Tanisha’s cell door, Lilly took a breath and began to speak as soon as she entered.

‘I’m sorry, Tanisha, but you have to understand …’

Before she knew what was happening, Tanisha flew at her.

‘You bitch.’ Tanisha landed a punch on Lilly’s mouth, the force throwing her off her feet. ‘You fucking bitch.’

Lilly crashed backwards, banging her head against the stone floor. The impact rang her skull like a bell. She remained sprawled as the guard tackled Tanisha and pushed her face first against the wall of the cell.

‘The baby,’ Annabelle wailed. ‘Don’t hurt the baby.’

Lilly tried to sit up, her ears booming and the taste of blood in her mouth. Tanisha screamed, her cheek pressed flat against the cement.

‘You’re supposed to be on my side.’

Lilly attempted to speak but found her mouth numb. Nothing moved as it should. She leaned to her side and spat out a
crimson
string of mucus.

‘I am on your side, Tanisha.’ Her voice was muffled by swelling.

‘You need to hear me now.’ Tanisha’s eyes blazed. ‘I’m gonna kill you and that piece of shit, Chika.’

‘I was just trying to get you out of that place.’ Lilly struggled to her feet. ‘That’s my job. That’s what I do. I’m your solicitor for God’s sake.’

‘No you ain’t.’ Tanisha squeezed her eyes shut. ‘You’re sacked.’ 

Outside the court room the silence was unnerving. Jack fiddled with his phone as they waited for the judge’s decision.

The spectacle of Lilly performing her legal tight-rope walk had left him with a familiar knot in his stomach. Part horror, part admiration. What was it about her that needed to commit so fully to her work? Perhaps there was some dark secret in her past she’d never told him. Or maybe she was just bloody difficult.