Snatched (37 page)

‘He won’t disturb the old man, if that’s what you’re worried about,’ Dave said. ‘He’s not exactly loud, is he? And, anyway, my dad’s deaf as a doorknob, so it won’t make any difference to him
who
’s in the house.’

‘I don’t know,’ Sue said, biting her lip. ‘I’m really grateful for the offer, but I don’t know if it’s worth the hassle we’ll get.’

‘Don’t you worry about any of that,’ Dave said firmly. ‘If anyone’s got a problem with it, they can come to me – if they
dare
.’ Pausing, he dipped his head to peer into her lowered eyes. ‘Come on, Sue, if we’re going to give this a go, then we’re going to have to come out sooner or later. And I know you wanted to wait a bit, but you’re not exactly in the best position right now, are you? And no one even knows where I’m living, so you wouldn’t have to worry about anyone coming round uninvited.’

‘Carole must have figured out that you’d have gone to your dad’s after you left her,’ Sue said quietly. ‘And she must know where it is, because you were together for long enough.’

‘Carole’s got no idea,’ Dave assured her. ‘Fact, if you asked her, she’d probably tell you that my dad was dead, ’cos that’s how much she knows. My parents met her once, when we first started going out, and they hated her, so I never took her round to the house again. Anyhow, they moved out of Rusholme years back, and she doesn’t know which area they went to, so it’s not a problem.’ Shrugging now, he said, ‘There’s nothing else I can say, except the offer’s there if you want it.’ Squeezing her hand now, he added, ‘And I’d really like it if you said yes, because I really like
you
. Okay?’

‘Okay,’ Sue murmured, gazing back at him with affection. ‘I’ll think about it.’

Winking at her, Dave said, ‘I’ve got a good feeling about this, Sue. You and me, we’re going to be good together.’

Sue felt the butterflies start up in her stomach, and she was surprised because that usually only happened with Terry. So maybe Dave was right . . . maybe they
were
going to be good together.

She certainly hoped so, because he was exactly the kind of man she needed in her life. Strong, protective, passionate, kind. And he genuinely cared about her kids – which was exactly what Connor needed, too.

16

‘You don’t have to go,’ Julie said, a guilty look on her face as she followed Sue into the bedroom at the end of the week. ‘I was due on when I said it, and you know what a bitch I can be. I get a right temper on me about the stupidest things, but I don’t mean half of what I say – you know that. Come on, mate, let’s not fall out like this.’

‘It doesn’t matter,’ Sue assured her, giving her a small smile of forgiveness. ‘Honestly, I’m not mad at you. You were right. We
were
taking over, and it wasn’t fair.’

‘So stay, then,’ Julie said, her eyes glistening with tears. ‘Please, mate, it won’t feel the same without you. You and me have been like sisters this last year, and I’m going to miss you.’

Thinking that sisters didn’t do to each other what Julie had done to her by not telling her the truth from the start, Sue shoved the last few of Connor’s clothes into a bin bag and shook her head.

‘I’ll miss you, too, but it’s better this way. Your flat’s too small for all three of us. And the council were just going to leave us here, so you might never have got your space back.’

‘I don’t care,’ Julie insisted. ‘I’d rather know you were safe here with me than living in some scummy hostel.’

‘We’ll be fine,’ Sue lied. ‘I went to see it yesterday, and it’s really clean. Anyway, it’s only temporary until they find us somewhere permanent.’ Pausing now, she bit her lip before asking the favour she’d been trying to get the courage up all week to ask. ‘Thing is,’ she said. ‘I really don’t want to get my benefits messed about again while they’ve only just sorted them. So do you think I could carry on getting them from here? Just until I get my own place.’

‘Will they let you do that if they know you’re living at the hostel?’ Julie asked, thinking it highly unlikely.

‘I don’t know,’ Sue admitted, not having thought it through that thoroughly. ‘But I can ask, can’t I? And they might treat it as a special case, what with Nicky still being missing.’

‘Doubt it,’ Julie said, shrugging as she added, ‘But if they say yes, I don’t mind. I’d still rather you just told them to forget it and stay here, though. Hostels are for losers.’

Chuckling softly, Sue said, ‘No, they’re not. They’re for people like me who haven’t got any choice.’

‘But you
have
got a choice.’ Julie pounced. ‘You can stay here.’

Sighing, because she wasn’t making this easy, Sue said, ‘You’ve done enough for me already, and it’s time to move on.’ Tying a knot in the bag now, she gave Julie a hug. ‘Thanks for everything, you’ve been a good mate. And we’ll still see each other, so don’t worry about that. I just need to start standing on my own two feet again or I’m never going to get anywhere.’

Chins wobbling as she struggled to control the tears, Julie flapped her hands in a gesture of surrender. ‘Okay, but you make sure you ring me as soon as you’re settled. And make some friends quick so you can get a babysitter, and we’ll start going out again.’

Thinking that she would rather die than ever go out on the town with Julie again, Sue nodded. Picking up her bags then, she walked through to the living room and jerked her head at Connor.

Clutching at the small teddy that Tina had sent over for him a few days earlier, Connor reluctantly slid off the couch. He hadn’t particularly enjoyed being here, but he’d rather stay here than go to Dave’s house any day.

He’d wanted to scream when he’d heard his mum lying to Julie, telling her that they were going to a hostel. He’d wanted to run in and tell Julie where they were really going and beg her to let him stay with her instead. But the words wouldn’t have come out, and he’d just have made his mum mad, because she’d already warned him not to tell anyone.

Just like she’d warned him not to be mardy in front of Dave, because then he might kick them out like Julie had.

Sniffing loudly, Julie reached down and gave Connor a big cuddle as he traipsed miserably past her.

‘Bye, squirt,’ she whispered, the tears in her voice trickling into his ear. ‘And I’m sorry Auntie Julie’s been a cow lately, but she never stopped loving you – you know that, don’t you?’

Peering up at her, Connor tried to project his thoughts into her head through her eyes.

But it didn’t work.

Ruffling his hair, Julie turned him around and gave him a little push in the direction of the door, saying, ‘Go on, then. Get moving before she goes without you.’

Resisting with every ounce of his being, Connor twisted round and threw his arms around her fat waist.

Laughing sadly, sure that he was just letting her know that he was going to miss her, Julie prised his hands off and pushed him firmly out into the hall.

Squatting down beside him at the front door, she gave his cheek a gentle pinch, saying, ‘I’ll see you soon, so you be a good boy for your mum.’ Whispering now, she added, ‘And tell your mum to get that man to drop you off at the end of the road. She might think he’s her friend, but I don’t like him, and I don’t think she should be telling him where you’re living. Okay?’

‘Come on, Connor!’ Sue called impatiently up the stairs just then. ‘The bags are in the car, now we’re just waiting for you. And Dave’s got things to do, so get a move on!’

Shoulders sagging, because there was no point trying to prolong it, Connor turned and walked down the stairs.

Shaking her head as she watched him go, Julie closed her front door. That poor boy didn’t want to go into a hostel, but if Sue was too damn stubborn to accept an apology and do the right thing by him, there was nothing that Julie could do about it.

‘All set?’ Dave said when Connor was safely buckled in on the back seat.

Nodding, Sue pulled her own seat belt on and smiled. Despite her trepidation when he’d first suggested this, she was excited now. The more she’d thought about it over the past week, the more she’d realised that it was the ideal solution to her problems. Especially now that Julie had agreed to let her carry on claiming her benefits from the flat, because now she wouldn’t have her money cut by declaring herself as living with a man. And therefore there would be no complications when she eventually got her own place again. She’d just change her address and make a new claim for housing benefit and council tax, and it would all be sorted.

She still had the problem of the social workers to get around. But if they kept calling round at the flat and getting no answer – and Julie would definitely ignore them – they would eventually give up and go and find some other poor family to harass.

Which just left the problem of what she was going to tell Terry.

She’d already put off the idea of him picking Connor up this Sunday by telling him the same lie that she’d told Dave last week: that the social workers were coming round for the day. But she’d agreed to meet up with him the following Sunday – back in Cheetham Hill, because she hadn’t told him about moving yet. So she had just over a week to come up with a good excuse for getting out of Dave’s house for the day. And then she’d have a good few hours to think about what she was going to tell Terry when he brought Connor back.

But for now, she just wanted to forget about all the lies she was having to tell and concentrate on the immediate future. So, settling back in her seat, she gazed out of the window as they drove – wondering how far his father’s house was as they went right through town, past the Fitton and Grafton estates in Rusholme, and on towards Didsbury.

‘Where on earth is it?’ she asked when she realised that they were about to go onto the motorway.

‘Wythenshawe,’ Dave said, giving her a side-grin. ‘Far enough out that no one can find me, but close enough that I can drive back any time I want. But don’t worry, it’s not the council-estate part. It’s country.’

‘I didn’t know there was any country in Wythenshawe,’ Sue murmured, feeling a little uneasy as the Manchester she knew like the back of her hand receded into the distance.

‘Not
country
country,’ Dave laughed. ‘Just a bit off the beaten track, so to say.’

He wasn’t wrong, as Sue soon discovered.

It was a small detached farmworker’s cottage, and it was barely visible from the rough lane they had to travel up to get to it, masked by a sprawling mess of overgrown trees and bushes.

‘It’s a wreck,’ Dave warned her as he turned through the gate and drove up the bumpy path. ‘The old man inherited it years back, and hasn’t bothered doing anything to it since. But soon as he’s gone, I’ve got big ideas for it.’

Glancing up at the house as they pulled in beneath the ramshackle porch at the side, Sue felt her heart sink like a stone. It really was a wreck. And not one of the ones you saw on those auction shows on TV, which looked fantastic when they were renovated and got sold for millions, but one of the dingy old ones that nobody wanted to touch, with creepy little rooms and long narrow corridors – and probably an outside loo and no running hot water.

She wasn’t far off the mark.

Stepping through into a small enclosed porch when Dave unlocked the side door, she struggled not to wrinkle her nose as the smell of mildew assaulted her. And there were other smells floating about on the air, too; rotten scents that reminded her of the bins at the back of the market, and something almost animal-like.

‘I know it’s a tip,’ Dave said, dropping his keys down onto the ledge behind the door and opening another door into the kitchen. ‘But I honestly think I’ll make a mint off it one day.’

Sue thought he was living in a dream world if he ever thought he’d make money from a dump like this, but her smile hid her absolute horror as she looked around the kitchen. The cupboards were filthy and falling apart; as was the sink, which was like a graveyard for plates and cups, all heaped together and bearing the slime and caked-on debris of whatever had been left on them when they’d been put there in the last century.

‘He’s a dirty old bastard,’ Dave said, blaming his father as if he himself had played no part in the decay. ‘Anyway, come and see the rest of it, then you can put your stuff away.’

The rest of the house was as bad as the kitchen. Mangy old furniture nestled among a mess of newspapers, old cups and dishes, overflowing waste-paper bins, and ashtrays.

Surprisingly, Dave’s own room was spotless. His bed was made, and there was a large flat-screen TV and an expensive stereo system. His clothes were all ironed and hung up, and the scent of his aftershave hung sweetly in the air, the freshness of which was due to this being the only room in the house where the window was actually open.

‘The old man’s not allowed in here,’ Dave told her when he’d unlocked the door and showed her in. ‘Everywhere he goes, he stinks the place up and makes a mess, so you have to keep him out if you want to keep it straight. But don’t worry, I’ve already put a lock on your room.’

Clutching at Connor’s hand, Sue nodded, her heart yearning to be back in Julie’s tiny, cramped flat. Or even the hostel, because either place would be better than this depressing cesspit of a house.

Hearing a shuffling sound behind her when Dave ushered her back out onto the landing, she turned her head sharply, half expecting to see a rat rummaging around in the filth. A shabby-looking old man was standing in the doorway of the room next door and as he peered at Sue, his faded eyes seemed to send out a message. Shock, fear, annoyance – she didn’t know. But it certainly wasn’t a welcome.

‘What’s up?’ Dave said sharply, his chin jerking upwards as he looked at his father.

Shaking his head, Jack Miller dropped his gaze and went back into his room.

‘Nutter,’ Dave muttered. ‘I told him you were coming to stay for a bit, but he must have forgotten.’