CHAPTER 39
Mick Worsley had put a word in for me with the boss, and they had been as helpful as I could have hoped. There was a drop due in Chester, another a day later. I could ride there on the first drop, and if I could find somewhere to spend the night, I was guaranteed a lift most of the way there and back. I had started to laugh when Mr Mossman mentioned ‘finding somewhere to stay’, and he had given me a sharp look.

“Nothing really, Boss. It’s just that the last time I found somewhere to pass the night in Chester, it was under a tarpaulin in a pleasure boat by the river. I might just go a bit upmarket this time”

That had actually brought a smile with some real warmth, and I had wondered, not the first time, how much Dad had told him about my background. He was as good as his word, though, and three days later, after a call to the solicitor in Connah’s Quay, I was in the right-hand seat of a Leyland wagon on the road to Chester. My driver dropped me right next to the station, which stirred an awful lot of mixed memories, and I had to remind myself that this time I would be buying a ticket and travelling in accordance with the rules.

I still couldn’t help looking over my shoulder for the bulky shape of a certain large policeman. Old ghosts are hard to kill.

The train left thirty minutes after my arrival, working its way alongside the Dee and past the airport, until it arrived at Shotton, where more memories struck me. I walked up Chester Road, feeling oddly superior at how scruffy the place felt, and found the law firm I wanted, on the first floor almost opposite the Post Office.

I was in casual clothing, some old jeans and my leather jacket over a Led Zeppelin T-shirt, hair loose over my shoulders.

“Can I help you?”

Another overly-dressed young woman at reception, nails bright scarlet and filed to points. I hoped she wasn’t responsible for any typing.

Down, Deb, you bitch. Be Nice.

“Hi. I am here about the affairs of Mr and Mrs Wells. I have an appointment with a Mister Knight”

“Can I take a name?”

“Deborah Petrie Wells”

“Oh. Any relation?”

“They were my mother and father”

“Oh…”

She looked hard at the file she had found, stared even harder at me, then pressed a button on a desk intercom.

“Mr Knight? I have a… I have a Deborah Wells to see you. They say they have an appointment”

I couldn’t hear anything other than some squawking, but thirty seconds later a door opened and a florid-faced man in a suit called over to me.

“Deborah Wells?”

“That’s me”

“Would you care to come in?”

I took a seat opposite him as he settled behind a desk covered in manila files, one of them open in front of him. His gaze went everywhere, before settling unsettlingly on my chest for far too long.

“This is all very unusual…”

I was ready to bite, but I remembered my resolution to Be Nice. I was after a settlement, not a fight, and I could surely manage not to punch him for the short time I had to be there.

“Well, unusual or not, here are my details. Driver’s licence in my name, pay slips with my name and address on and a copy of the paperwork when I changed my name. Is that a problem?”

I wanted to add ‘Do you like what you see?’, but I was concentrating on Being Nice. Sod it.

“Mr Knight, as you can see, William Wells has changed his life fundamentally. The documents I have provided should be sufficient to show that I am the person in question”

“Yes…”

Fuck Nice.

“Mr Knight. If you want, I can call for the care records showing when I was placed into Mersey View children’s home, and we can talk abuse and abandonment, but I don’t think we need to go that far. Do you have issues with my identity? If not, can we proceed? I have things to do, places to go, and as I have had no breakfast, I am not in the most tolerant of moods”

He sat and stared at me for a few seconds, face pink, then murmured, “Mersey View? In Runcorn?”

I raised both eyebrows.

“Didn’t you know? That is where my dear mother and father dumped me”

A few more moments of silence, then an attempt at a smile.

“I am sorry, Miss Wells. I was unaware of that part of your history, and I feel I may have begun this meeting in an insensitive way. I now understand the depth of your estrangement from your parents”

“They were not my parents. They were my mother and father. I have parents now, and they are fine people, and we love each other, as a real family should”

No, girl. Nice. Play Nice.

“Mr Knight, thank you for your apology. Please be aware that this is not something I was pushed into. My situation now, my life, my being Debbie, are the things that made my father push me out of the family. This is who I am. It is reasonable, you would agree, that I get a bit prickly when people pick on me”

He shook his head, muttering “Corbett and Corbett. Oh dear”, before looking up at me again, with rather more sympathy in his eyes.

“Miss Wells, you do realise that the law does not actually allow you to be recognised as a woman? I assume that is how you regard yourself?”

“Mr Knight, I came here to sort out a legacy, not discuss my life”

“Ah. I understand. You have my profound sympathy in that aspect. I wish to offer a suggestion, rather than intrude, and it is a well-meant one. I will assume that your status, legally, is not an open matter for those you work with or encounter in your daily life? That you live entirely as a woman?”

“I am a woman!”

“Please do not take offence, but the law states that you are not and never will be”

I started to stand up, fuck his attitude, fuck his opinion, and he held up both hands to calm me.

“No. No offence intended. I merely wish to make you an offer”

I settled down again.

“What are you proposing?”

“It is a simple thing. There will be a number of occasions in which someone in your position will need legal services, and at the moment, the position… Um, your status, it is currently known to me. To involve another legal firm would widen the circle of those aware, in my view unnecessarily”

I gave him the eyebrows again.

“You mean you smell the chance of more money from me?”

For the first time, I saw him smile in a natural way.

“Guilty, Miss Wells, but I feel we have mutual interests here from which both of us can benefit. You may find the law on your status altering. May I ask a very personal question, for a valid reason?”

“You can ask, but I might well tell you to fuck off”

His laugh was also a genuine one now.

“I see you have recovered your poise after your… unfortunate childhood. No, the question is being asked for a reason. Are you familiar with the Wolfenden report and subsequent legislation?”

“Never heard of it”

“It is the reason for my intrusive question, Miss Wells. Am I correct in assuming you see yourself entirely as female? As a young woman?”

“I am a woman!”

“Are you conventional in your affections, Miss Wells?”

What? Oh… I thought of the wedding invitation, and nodded, looking down at my knees.

“Then be aware that acting on such affections is currently illegal for you. The law considers you to be a man, and as you are under twenty-one years of age, any sexual activity you may engage in would be a criminal offence for both of you”

I looked up sharply, and he winced.

“I see. Then you have both been lucky. That, Miss Wells, is only one example of your potential difficulties. Keeping your situation confidential, within these walls, would be a sensible precaution. I will leave you to consider that, and move on. Your father was a very odd man, Miss Wells”

“He was a complete bastard!”

“As it may be, indeed. He had two life assurance policies on both himself and your mother, plus a third, on you”

“What the fu--- what the hell?”

“The two on your mother and father have obviously matured, if that can be said to be the right description, and your mother’s assured sum, plus what is left of your father’s legacy, will be available to you. Your own policy can be left to run, or collected. If left to run, you will need to make arrangements to deal with the premiums, both current and outstanding. I believe, given your circumstances, that we have a case to contest cancellation and loss of monies invested. Would you be happy for us to proceed on that basis?”

“Er, yes. Please”

He made a few notes, then pulled over a smaller file folder.

“That leaves us with the property on Castrian Street. What are your intentions there? Can I assume that you do not intend to take up your former life in this town?

“Absolutely!”

“Then your choice is either to arrange to let the premises, which I would not recommend in the prevailing economic situation, or to sell. We can fulfil the necessary task for either. I would personally favour a sale as the better option”

By the time I left his office, I was almost in shock. The total sum we were looking at, given the local property prices, was going to be well into five figures, a sum I would never have dreamt of in the most delirious of my happy-family fantasies, and it would go a very long way to repay some of my debt to my real parents. It felt apt, in truth, that two people, one in particular, who had done so much to hurt me would end up giving such benefit to two who loved me.

Back to Shotton and the slow train to the city, and I decided to splash out on a B&B in the centre rather than some dosshouse near the industrial estates or station. Mick was due to collect me from the station at two or three the next afternoon, so I had time for some memories. I left my bag in the guesthouse, and made my way along Foregate past the clock to The Rows, where I spent an hour staring into shops I remembered far too well, plus others that had replaced what I now felt had been old friends, now lost. A travel agent window held a poster showing a generic family at the beach, all four people grinning inanely, and I found myself weeping as I stood and stared.

“Are you OK, Miss?”

I returned to reality to find a policeman standing behind me, and had a moment of panic before realising there were no longer risks in being where I was standing.

“Sorry?”

“You are crying, love. You all right?”

“Sorry. Didn’t realise. Just been dealing with solicitors and shit. My mother died”

“I am so sorry to hear that, love. Can I make a suggestion? There’s a not-bad café just round the corner. Do decent cake, and not too touristy. Do you good to use their ladies’ to clean your eyes, then have a cuppa. Too nice a day to be crying. Remember her in better times, would be my advice”

“Thank you, constable. Um… Can I ask a question? About another copper?”

“You can. Might not know the answer, though, if he’s gone. I moved over from Nantwich, so might be before my time”

“Sergeant Addams. Big man”

The policeman’s face hardened.

“We don’t talk about that bastard, pardon my French. Banged away, he is, and good riddance to bad rubbish, the bent bastard. You might have heard about that bad place up in Runcorn. Children’s home. Really, really bad place. He was on the take from them. If he was a mate or something, sorry, but not sorry, if you see what I mean. What they did to kids there, you really don’t want to know. Forget him. Go and wash your face, have a cuppa and a slice of cake, then just enjoy the day. Nice weather. Not to be spoiled by that sort of thing. Now, you sure you’re OK?”

I shook his hand, smiling up at him. One more like Anita or Tim than that fat bastard of a sergeant. Be Nice, Debbie.

“Thanks. I’m fine. Got to be: I have a friend’s wedding coming up in a fortnight. Can’t take a frown as a wedding present, can I?”

He smiled, and set off on his beat once more, and I went for the suggested cuppa and cake, which was excellent. Decision made; people were being there for me, people always had been, apart from those years of hell. Even Knight had come through, after his initial creepiness.

Rosie and Carl deserved it, and I resolved to give them the best Debbie I could for their wedding. Before then, I had a lot of research to do.