Somewhere to Hide (The Estate, Book 1) (6 page)

Jess looked her up and down, frowning when she spotted her footwear. ‘What size shoes do you take?’

‘Five.’ Jess ran to her room again and came back with a pair of black high heels. ‘I can’t be seen with you wearing those manky trainers. It would ruin my street cred.’

Becky tried them on as Jess opened the window and took her own shoes off.

‘Climb down onto the porch roof. Then use the sill on the window and jump onto the garden. It’s easy. I’ve done it loads of times.’

‘In these?’ Becky pointed to her feet.

‘Dur!’ Jess tutted. ‘Throw them onto the roof! Once you get there, drop them down onto the grass.’

Jess disappeared and Becky stuck her head out of the window. Seconds later, she watched her jump onto the grass. Seconds after that she joined her, picked up her shoes and sneaked over the back fence into the alley behind.

As they reached the main road, Becky glanced around taking in her new surroundings. Davy Road looked like a row of identical houses, parked cars squashed into every available space alongside the pavements on each side. Some of the gardens were tidy, some unkempt. Some of the properties looked spotless. Then every now and again, a doss-hole would reveal itself, mostly hidden behind overgrown hedges, piles of rubbish along the path, yellow netting – or closed curtains that were too small for the window, trying to hide God knows what inside. Still, from what she could see it didn’t look as bad as Cathy had mentioned.

‘Where are we going?’ she asked, more out of nervousness than curiosity.

‘You and me are going to get lashed,’ Jess told her. ‘We’ll have to go to Shop&Save first to get some vodka.’

‘I haven’t got any money. Have you?’

‘We don’t need money, do we?’

Becky turned to her in a panic. ‘I can’t steal something! I nearly got caught when I first got here.’

‘So? That was ages ago. You’ll be okay. Anyway, it’s your test to join the gang.’

‘What gang?’

‘Our gang – you and me.’

Even though the spring night wasn’t too cold, Becky shivered. ‘I’ll do time if the police catch me.’

‘Don’t give me that tall tale again. The police are no more looking for you than my parents are looking for me and they only live around the bleeding corner.’ Jess grabbed her arm and kept a firm hold. ‘Come on, it’ll be a laugh.’

Minutes later, Becky’s heart pounded inside her head as she stood in front of the alcohol shelves inside Shop&Save. Most of the expensive liquor was behind the till, out of their reach. Jess walked up and down the aisle, pretending to look for something while covertly watching the woman behind the till.

‘Now!’ she whispered loudly as the woman reached for a packet of cigarettes for a young boy who didn’t look old enough to smoke. Becky grabbed a bottle of vodka and shoved it under her top. She held it in place with her arm by her side and moved away quickly.

‘Have you got any cheese and onion crisps?’ Jess shouted, hoping to distract the woman.

Heart beating fit to burst, Becky made her escape. She walked out of the shop and across the car park, faster and faster, not looking back until she’d crossed over Davy Road again.

‘Hey! Wait up!’ Jess joined her a minute later. She took the bottle and swigged a huge mouthful, then passed it to Becky. Becky did the same but coughed at the burning sensation in her throat.

Jess eyed her suspiciously as she wiped her mouth. ‘Don’t tell me you’ve never got bladdered before!’

‘Of course I have,’ Becky lied. Apart from cans of lager, there had never been any alcohol in her house. Her dad was always at the pub so there was no need to buy anything stronger. Trying to hide her naivety, she knocked back another large amount. ‘What shall we do now?’ she asked.

Jess checked her watch. ‘We’re meeting Danny Bradley in fifteen minutes. I said I’d be here about nine. He’s coming to pick me up.’

‘Is he your boyfriend?’

‘I wish.’ Jess urged Becky to drink some more vodka. ‘He’s not interested in me. I’m too young. He says he likes his ladies to be more, how shall I put it, experienced. I told him I’d had practice but he meant skills that come with age, I suppose. I’ve given him the odd blow job but that’s all he’s interested in. I’ll keep on trying though. He’s gorgeous. You can see for yourself soon.’

‘Does he have any friends?’ Becky asked. It was a valid question: she’d be lonely if Jess was to cop off with Danny. And already she was starting to feel a bit queasy. She wondered if she could get him to drop her back at Cathy’s.

Jess laughed. ‘None that would be interested in a virgin like you.’

Becky lowered her eyes. It seemed like Jess didn’t believe that she was pregnant.

Both girls turned as a car peeped its horn and came screeching to a halt inches from the kerb at the side of them. An electric window dropped down. Jess moved forward and Becky followed, intrigued to see who had captured Jess’s heart.

‘Hey, Danny,’ Jess smiled, pushing her chest out as she leaned on the car door. ‘Feel like a good time tonight?’

‘I might do. What’re you drinking?’

‘Voddie.’ Jess threw a thumb over her shoulder. ‘The new girl lifted it. Want some?’

‘I’ve got my own stash.’ Danny flapped his fingers. ‘Move out of the way; let me have a look at her then.’

Jess huffed but did as she was told. She pulled Becky nearer. Becky practically fell through the window with the force.

There were two men in the car. The passenger was about eighteen, with a skinhead and a bad case of acne which was just as well because Becky couldn’t take her eyes off the driver. His hair was cut short and he sported a goatee beard. His skin was olive, his eyes as dark as the mood he was trying to portray. As he smiled, Becky noticed that one of his front teeth was chipped. She felt her cheeks burning as he stared at her. She also felt Jess’s eyes boring into the back of her head.

Suddenly, she was pushed aside. Jess ran a hand across the paintwork of the car. ‘Nice motor you’ve thieved.’ She leaned further forward this time. ‘Where’re you off to?’

‘Around.’ Danny revved the engine. ‘Are you getting in or not?’

Jess didn’t need to be asked twice. She opened the back door and slid along the seat. Becky followed suit but Danny turned, his hand on the back of the seat in front.

‘Not you, lovely one. You can sit in the front with me. Parksy, shift your arse into the back.’

Cathy flicked on the kettle and checked her watch again. It only revealed what she already knew since she’d looked at it a minute earlier. It was twenty minutes past eleven. She’d swing for Jess when she finally came home.

Why hadn’t she thought to look in on Becky before half past nine? She’d knocked twice with no reply either time before going in on the third. Since finding the room empty, Cathy had been on tenterhooks.

Where would Jess take Becky? And would she keep her out all night? She wouldn’t put it past Jess to try and get Becky into trouble straight away. And why had they sneaked out in the first instance? Yes, she would have lectured them if they had gone out the front way but she wouldn’t have stopped them. She had no right to do that even if she wanted to. Despite what had been thrown at her over the past three years, she was no one’s keeper.

Aware that she wasn’t going to settle until she knew they were home safe and sound, she parted the curtains and stood staring out into the street. Across from her was her friend, Rose’s, house. The house was all in darkness: Rose was in Kos for a fortnight. She’d been gone for ten days of the two weeks that she would be away. Already, Cathy missed her so much.  She’d been the first person Rose had met when she’d moved here with her husband, Arthur. She and Rich had been messing about in the street after a heavy snowfall as the other couple were moving into Christopher Avenue. Seeing Rose and Arthur struggling with a double bed, they’d rushed over to help. Rose had extracted the estate’s gossip from Cathy during the next few minutes and a loyal friendship had begun. Twenty-six years her senior, Rose had become the mother Cathy had always wanted. She dreaded the day when anything happened to her. Trust her to be away now when she needed calming down. Still, she’d be back in three days with a deep tan and a large bottle of Bacardi for her.

Cathy hadn’t really known her mother, Carole. Even before her father had left them when she was six, she’d learned to fend for herself. School was only two streets away, no main roads to negotiate, so she was capable of making the short journey alone. She made jam sandwiches for her lunch, soup for tea, then oven chips and fish fingers as she got older. Her clothes were always shabby, always worn that extra day before they were washed. Socks were grey, shoes were scuffed and she was teased for it at school. Reeking Riley she was called by the kids in her year. By the time she was ten, she was known as the quiet one without any friends.

As the years went on, Cathy managed to look after herself more. It became routine to get up early, clean the house, leave her mother in bed while she went to school. Afterwards, she would wash and iron and cook tea before starting on her homework. If Carole was home for her return, she’d more than likely be sleeping off a hangover before going out again. Carole Riley turned to drink to blot out her non-existent life and her daughter turned into herself to block out hers.

After the third spell in hospital, Carole’s liver failed. Cathy was sixteen when her mother took her last breath. The housing association claimed their house back and moved her into a block set up for homeless teenagers on the Mitchell Estate. The rooms were filled with girls, two in each. A woman in the flat downstairs was meant to look out for them. She was a type of warden, if Cathy remembered rightly, but she didn’t do a very good job of things. Still, it was here that she met Tina Unwin.

Tina Unwin told Cathy she was only intending on staying for a few weeks until she got her life sorted. But five months later, she was still there. Cathy settled in too and they became friends instantly, which she really enjoyed. It was nice to have someone to laugh with, cry with, come home to and care for even. Yet in some ways, they were the worst months of Cathy’s life. It could be quite rowdy at the block. Cathy learned to fight to defend her few possessions. There was a huge turnover of tenants so there were always ructions as another girl moved in and tried her luck in becoming top of the pile.

She’d been there for six months when she met Rich. Rich Mason was nineteen and one of the Mitchell Estate’s notorious scallies. He was known for getting his own way. He would fight for it, steal for it. Some people said he would kill for it, but Cathy had never seen that in him.

Three months later, when Tina decided to try her luck with a guy she’d met in Preston, Cathy moved in with Rich and life had been good for a few months – until he’d been sent to prison for three years for robbery. She was evicted from his place and had gone off the rails but they’d still kept in touch. When he came out of prison after serving just over two years of his sentence, they hooked up again and married a year later. If it wasn’t for that one stupid mistake she’d made, life until he died would have been more than she had expected.

She sighed loudly and glanced up the street again but there was nothing. Where were they!

At half past eleven, Becky held on to Jess for dear life as she negotiated her way up Christopher Avenue.

‘Watch out, you stupid cow!’ Jess said for the umpteenth time as Becky fell forward, taking her along too. She fell to the pavement, grazing her knee on the kerb. ‘Ow! Anyone would think you’ve never had a drink before.’

Becky dropped with a thump too. ‘I can’t go any further,’ she slurred. ‘I don’t feel very well.’

‘Oh, God.’ Jess took a step away. ‘No more puke. I’m never going to look Danny Bradley in the eye EVER again. You made a right mess of the car. It’s a good job he dumped it.’ She laughed. ‘I bet the owner wouldn’t want it back. Do you think they’ll catch you because of your DNA in the spew?’

Becky threw up. Then she began to cry.

‘Jesus Christ,’ Jess moaned. ‘I can’t believe you have anything left in you.’

A window opened across the road. ‘Will you two shut your bloody mouths and get off home. Some of us are trying to sleep!’

Jess turned and raised her middle finger. ‘Wind your neck in, Archie Meredith,’ she shouted. ‘Weren’t you ever young, free and single? Why don’t you get a life?’

‘Why don’t you get a job, you scrounging cow? I work a ten-hour shift to pay for the likes of you to lie in bed all day and get pissed every night.’

‘Ooh, chill out fat bastard and cop a load of this.’ Jess pulled up her top and flashed her bra. ‘There you go. Think of me while you get yourself off.’

‘Jess!’ Cathy whispered loudly as she walked up to them. ‘That’s enough!’ She placed a hand on Becky’s back. ‘Where the hell have you two been?’

‘Don’t… feel… very well,’ Becky managed to slur. ‘My head’s spinning.’

‘She’s such a lightweight,’ said Jess. ‘I wish I’d never bothered with her.’

‘You shouldn’t have taken her out at all,’ Cathy hissed.

‘She’s making all the noise, not me.’ Jess was unaware that she was shouting too.

‘Move them on, Cathy, or I’ll ring the association tomorrow,’ a voice yelled across again.