CHAPTER 14
The plan in question wavered a bit the next morning, as Kim seemed a little worse, and I realised that the run out to Southerndown might have been a bit premature. I raised that with her when I got in from work, no longer quite as worried that she was planning on a midnight flit. Once again, a pot of tea was produced as soon as I had my boots off.

“Kim?”

“Yeah?”

“I was thinking about yesterday. You think we were a bit early taking you out in the cold?”

She sat and thought for a minute, then shook her head.

“Not really. I think I needed a bit of a… I needed a bit of being a person. I’ll get better, so don’t worry; I’ll be OK to move out soon”

That comment actually surprised me enough to make me swallow some of my tea the wrong way, and I had a short bout of coughing.

“Don’t be silly, Kim. You think I want you gone? Got other thoughts, me. Now, Sparky says the coppers have been asking after you”

She paled, starting to rise from the table, and I waved at her to sit back down.

“For fuck’s sake learn to relax a bit! Sorry. That came out wrong. Sparky told me what they were saying, and it didn’t sound quite right to me, or to him. They said you’re fifteen, but they were waving an old school picture around. He also said he doesn’t think they know your new name. Anyone in your family or your school know it?”

She shook her head.

“No. I never told anyone. They would just have hurt me more if they knew. My secret dream, sort of”

I smiled back at her, trying to draw the sting of my earlier snap.

“Sounds a bit like me. My mother, the legal one, she had records by Debbie Reynolds, and I always thought she was lovely, so I took her name”

“Who’s Debbie Reynolds?”

It was my turn to sit speechless for a while, before shaking my head in astonishment.

“You ever watch Star Wars?”

“Once. Not my sort of thing”

“Well, Princess Leia? The actress? Debbie was her mother”

“Oh. Didn’t know that”

“Anyway, we need to sort out a few issues, a few details and stuff. Sparky and me, we think your parents aren’t really looking that hard for you, and once we see if the girls have had any questions, we’ll know. Now, when Mam and Dad first took me in, I was their niece, his sister’s kid. He called her Brenda, and she was never real. Now, before I go further, I need to know a few things. First one is easy: are you happy staying here?”

She looked worried again, so I gave her another smile.

“It’s a simple thing. I’m not going to decide for you, but that room is yours for as long as you want and need it. Choice is all yours, so trust me when I say I am not dropping hints for you to clear off. Who’d have a welcome-home brew on for me if you left? Think about it. The other bits sort of depend on it”

She nodded.

“The other bits?”

“Yeah. If I am watching out for coppers and parents sniffing around, it would be nice to know what name they’ll be asking for”

Her eyes went down to her knees, and she all but whispered “Barry John Norley. Dad likes to watch rugby”

I stifled my grin at birth, remembering my two men friends at the Arms Park.

“Right… Here’s an idea. Dad had a brother called Brendan, who is as real as his sister was. His son was… Terry. That makes you Kim Petrie. Can you remember that? And you’re sixteen now, left school. Makes you my… Oh, fuck knows what that is, sixty-seventh cousin fourteen times removed with a triple twist, whatever. Cousin will do, I think. Grab that notepad, and we’ll write it down. We’ll need a new birthday… Got it! Star Wars Day!”

“Eh?”

“May the fourth… be with you. Don’t look at me like that; who’s the one quoting Python all the time?”

The banter did the trick, and I caught her relaxing.

“Anywhere you know well that isn’t Pontypridd?”

“Ummmmm… Caerphilly? Mam likes to go shopping there”

“That’ll do for now, then. What I’m thinking is that someone is going to spot you in here, and we need to have our story sorted out first. Can’t put you next door, as the students--- sorry! I own next door as well; I rent it out in term time. They’d read you right away. You feeling well enough to go out in a couple of days? Might need a little padding first. What chest size are you?”

“Mam said I’m a 32 for my chest. Dad says I’m just a runt”

“Right. I’m going to have a think, but I’ll have a look round the shops tomorrow. Got a Tesco run, so I can probably find what we need there. Now, what are we eating tonight?”

She looked embarrassed.

“Um, I had a look in your freezer, and I got some sausages out. Hope you like toad in the hole”

“Got no batter mix, love”

“I made some. It’s in the fridge in a jug. I was going to do it with frozen peas and fried onions and gravy, but that’ll be from instant granules”

It was more than adequate, in the end, and once more, we ended up on the settee together, watching some mindless television until she could no longer keep her eyes from shutting, and I took her upstairs to her room.

The next morning was a dry goods drop, which saved me the faff a refrigerated load would have given me, and I simply locked the cab before explaining that I was going to do a little bit of personal shopping and heading into the interior of the huge shop, armed with Kim’s sizes on a scrap of paper. I didn’t splash out, at least not that much, but I did find a pack of bras that would fit her, as well as a couple of pairs of cheap trainers. There was a quilted jacket on sale, so I added a couple of packs of knickers and some tights before heading to the check out, reminding myself just in time to pick up both a spare toothbrush and a woman’s razor that would do for her face, if necessary, and some shaving foam to go with it. I’d taken my throwovers to work, as well as a couple of bungees, and it looked as if the whole lot would fit into the bags.

My wagon was ready for me, so I signed the various dockets, checked all my hitching and curtains and headed back for another load. I was feeling a lot better than I had for a long while, and as I set my copy of ‘Warrior on the Edge of Time’ pounding away on the truck’s stereo, I started to sing along.

The reaction I obtained from Kim was everything I had hoped for, but there was a hint of wistfulness when she looked at the bras.

“Go into the kitchen, girl. I’ll need the big scissors from the knife block, and there’s a bag of pudding rice on the side. Bring that as well”

I got a confused look, but I had remembered something Marlene had said in some mad discussion or other, and while Kim sat uncomfortably in her jeans, nothing on top but an empty bra, I showed her what could be done with a cut-up pair of tights and a few handfuls of rice. Once I had arrived at the right size for the first one, I weighed it on the kitchen scales, measured out the right quantity of rice for the second one, and Kim had visible breasts.

I was stunned by her reaction, which was to burst into tears and launch herself at me for a hug. I realised how little we had in common just then; my own breasts had been helped along by Mam and Carol, growing naturally on the same timescale as any other girl’s, and that certainly wasn’t the case with Kim. I had a lot to learn.

She was less pleased when I pulled out my old school books and suggested some work might be in order. Her frown vanished when she had the revelation that setting her homework was actually confirmation that her feet would be staying under my table.

We kept her indoors until the antibiotics were done, and as her illness disappeared, she became more at ease, livelier in her conversation and more adventurous in her cooking. Not all of it was successful, but she did produce a bloody good rice pudding from the remains of the box that had provided her breasts. I kept up my evening tea runs, of course, and after Sparky confirmed the visits from the coppers had ended, and the word from the working girls was equally negative, I decided to take the risk.

“Fancy a meal out tonight, Kim?”

“Will that be safe?”

I laughed, remembering Sparky’s description of the photo being shown around.

“Word I’ve heard is that the picture they’ve got of you involves a school blazer and tie, and short hair. Not what you’ve got now, is it?”

She grinned, happily and naturally.

“Where are you thinking of?”

“Friend of mine runs a place just round the corner. Got your family details straight?”

“Yes, Nana!”

“Oy! Not that bloody old yet, am I? Get ready, then”

She came out of her room in old jeans and her borrowed leather, but with the pink pair of the cheap trainers on her feet rather than the boots. I tossed her an old handbag just to complete the image, and we set off out of the back door. I paused to make sure all the locks were set on door, van and bike and then strolled around the corner to Ruth’s place.

“Hiya, Debbie! Not seen you for a few days. What’s been happening? And who’s this?”

“Ruth, this is Kim. Don’t know what you call her, but she’s my Dad’s brother’s granddaughter, if that makes sense”

“Don’t ask me, Deb! Hi, Kim. What are you doing: College?”

I let her run with the script we had rehearsed.

“No, not the sort of thing I’m made for. Done my GCSEs, going to have a look round for a job. Debbie here, she’s putting me up while I get sorted”

“Ah. That explains the face I kept seeing at your upstairs window, Deb. Nearly called the police about that, I did”

Shit.

“She’s been indoors a while, love. Came down with a really awful infection, so she’s been on antibiotics for a couple of weeks. State she was in, the police coming in, she would probably have snuffed it. But thanks for keeping an eye out. Anyway, enough of us. What have you got tonight that’s nice?”

Ruth relaxed a little more, grinning at Kim.

“One thing your… Cousin. That’ll do. One thing Debbie knows about is what she likes to eat. Tonight, I’ve got hunter’s chicken, or pork escalope”

Kim looked up.at that.

“Don’t know wither of them. What are they?”

“The chicken is a sort of stew, chunky bits in a tomato-based sauce with some onions and mushrooms and that. The escalope is a piece of pork coated in breadcrumbs with a mushroom sauce. I serve it with chips and peas”

She laughed at that.

“Silly thing is that the chicken is a French thing for hunters, and the pork is an Austrian thing, also for hunters, and the only hunting you two needed to do was walk round the corner. What are you drinking, Deb?”

“You want a coke, Kim, or something hot?”

“Coke, please Could I have the pork thing?”

“OK. Two cokes then, and a couple of the escalopes, please, Ruth”

We took a table away from the window, and as the café was a little busy, it curtailed Ruth’s questioning. Eventually, though, she found a minute or two to sit with us.

“Debbie making you work for your keep, Kim? Domestic service and all that?”

“I do some of the cooking, and I do a bit of cleaning”

“What’s her cooking like, Deb?”

“Er, variable, but she did do a lovely rice pud the other day. And a cracking toad in the hole”

“Really? I might be able to use her, then. Give her some basics, if she likes cooking”

Kim looked interested, but I wasn’t sure if it wasn’t too early.

“She’s still not a hundred per cent, Ruth. Rosie and me took her out on the bikes a few days ago, and it left her a bit ill for a while”

“Well, if she wants, I’ve always got space for a Saturday girl. Mostly loading and unloading the dishwasher, though. Might be a bit boring, but I pay cash. And a toasty and a hot chocolate”

I stuck my hand up immediately.

“Please, Miss! I’m free some Saturdays!”

Happy laughter, especially from Kim. Three weeks later, she was behind the kitchen door in the Olive, and two weeks after that she took her wages and bought her first skirt, in Dorothy Perkins.

Two weeks after that, now satisfied that the hounds had been called off, I walked into the reception area at Cardiff’s main police station.

“Hello; I don’t know if you can help me. I’m looking for someone who used to work here, a woman sergeant. Name of Harris. Anita, I think”