Authors: Mandasue Heller
Shafted (48 page)
Anyway, it was hers, not Dex’s, considering that she’d earned the bulk of it while he’d been inside. Whatever he’d had before he went in had long ago been gobbled up by his greedy family.
Heading out towards the kerb now to look for a cab, Gaynor noticed a figure huddled in the darkened shop doorway across the road. Doing a double take when she caught a glimpse of blonde hair beneath the hoodie, she narrowed her eyes, thinking,
Surely not?
Surely not?
A black cab came by just then and idled to a stop beside her. Shaking her head, Gaynor waved him on his way and made her way over to the girl.
Squatting down in front of her, she said, ‘Hello, Tania.’
Not recognising her as the woman in the picture that she had of Larry getting married, and wondering how she knew her name, Tania drew her knees up to her chest, terrified that she’d been sent by the Lewises to get her.
‘I’m sorry . . .’ she whimpered. ‘I did what I was told, but they knew I was lying.’
‘Hey, it’s all right, sweetheart,’ Gaynor said softly, sensing that she was every bit as much a victim of the Lewises as she and Larry had been. ‘You only did what you had to . . . same as me.’
Reaching out to give Tania a reassuring touch on the knee, she frowned when she noticed the rucksack in the shadows behind her, on top of a dirty folded blanket.
‘Have you been sleeping here?’
‘I can’t go back to my flat,’ Tania muttered, clasping her knees still more tightly. ‘And my mum and dad don’t want to know me ’cos of what I did.’
‘Isn’t there a hostel you could go to?’ Gaynor suggested, concerned for the girl’s safety. She might be eighteen, but she was obviously still a child.
Shaking her head, Tania said, ‘No. But I’m all right. Soon as the social stop messing me about with my money I’ll get somewhere else to live.’
Sighing, Gaynor reached into her bag and took out her purse. Taking out two twenty-pound notes, she pushed them into Tania’s pocket. She could have given her much more, but she had a feeling that it wouldn’t really make any difference; that the girl would probably stay right here no matter how much she gave her, because it was as close as she could get to Larry.
Glancing down at her hands now, Gaynor gazed at the ring Larry had refused to take back and bit her lip thoughtfully. Slipping it off her finger on an impulse, she held it out to Tania.
‘What’s this for?’ Tania asked, taking it and gazing at it as if it was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen.
‘To remind you that it’s not good to love people too much,’ Gaynor told her softly. ‘Because you only end up hurting them –
and
yourself.’
and
yourself.’
Getting up then, she turned and walked away.
About the author
Mandasue Heller was born in Cheshire and moved to Manchester in 1982. There, she has found the inspiration for her novels: she spent ten years living in the infamous Hulme Crescents and has sung in cabaret and rock groups, seventies soul cover bands and blues jam bands. She still lives in the Manchester area with her musician partner.
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