CHAPTER 20
The bike ran sweetly as we swept over the Severn Bridge, that wind once more surprising me by its absence, Kim sitting in a far more relaxed way on the pillion, and then we were pulling up behind what was now our house. Luggage in, a quick shower each, using both bathrooms, and then I pulled the tent out of its bag to hang from the shower head to dry out. All of our used clothing went into the washing machine, and then we walked the short distance to Ruth’s place for something nice.

“Special tonight is sausage and mash, girls. How was the camping?”

Kim grinned.

“Magic! I don’t think my legs will be working properly for a few days, though!”

“You’ve caught the sun, love. Panda eyes!”

“What?”

“You’ve had sunglasses on, so the skin round your eyes is still white. Bit of cream on your nose would be a good idea. What did you do?”

“Debbie had an old friend staying there as well, and we did all the big mountains round us, and we did birdwatching, and we went swimming in the sea!”

Ruth snorted at the last.

“Too bloody cold for me, isn’t it? Anyway, you had someone asking after you, Debbie, and I smell copper”

“Man or woman? Get a name?”

“Woman. Said she was called Anita, asked if you could call her. Something about having trade for you, so I am absolutely NOT going to ask what she meant”

I had a really good idea what Anita had meant, and as Kim glanced at me with a raised eyebrow, I guessed that she had also worked it out. She kept off the subject until we were back home, and then walked into the hallway for a few seconds.

“Building work, Debbie. Remember?”

“Yeah. You said you had someone you knew?2

“Sparky. That was who. Told me a few things before I got sick. Letting me know he wasn’t dangerous, I think. His old job, it was”

“Royal Marine, I hear. How’s that help?”

“Combat engineer, he said, then he was a builder, until, well, all the work went. Lost his business. Not really fond of banks”

She laughed, showing how well she was healing. I silently gave thanks for Pat and Ruth, before asking what was funny.

“It’s you and him, Debbie! Both the same, isn’t it? I mention banks to him, coppers to you, and you both growl. Anyway, fancy doing a tea run this evening? Weather’s not bad, but be nice to show them we’re still here, as well as having a word with Sparky”

I cocked my head to the side, picking up on her words.

“You said ‘we’, Kim”

Her expression serious, she nodded sharply.

“Yes. Done a lot of thinking over the weekend. Watched you and Pat, listened a lot to her, way she sees the world. Don’t know where I’ll be in a couple of years, when I get to eighteen or whenever. I just think I feel right being here. Time I did some of that paying forward stuff”

There was a flicker of uncertainty in her expression, so I smiled back at her, easing her obvious worry about getting things wrong. So nervous, but fighting so hard for life.

“You going as biker bitch, girly girl or intrepid mountaineer, love?”

That brought a laugh, as I had hoped.

“Bathing beauty would be a bit over the top, isn’t it? Biker bitch, so we can match, I think. And I am not climbing in and out of a van in a skirt!”

We sorted the van, with the urn filled and secured, loaded tea and the essentials, and set off just as the light was starting to go. I parked up in one of my usual spots, and we soon had a steady flow of people enjoying a hot drink, as well as some of the biscuits Kim had bought in our corner shop. I passed the word that I would like a word with Sparky if he was about, and twenty minutes later he was by the van, a broad smile on his face and a fierce hug of welcome to me. He released me, then offered his embrace to Kim.

“You are doing bloody well, Kimberley! I hear you’ve been trying to poison people in some café or other”

Her recovering strength showed once more, as she pushed back at his quip.

“Didn’t trust me, did she? I went to cook Debbie a meal, and Ruth sneaks in and takes over! Anyway, never really said thank you, did I? To you, that is?”

“No need, love. It’s what folk do, or what they should do”

“Always right to say thanks, Sparky. Anyway, Debbie has an offer for you I thought you could do with”

He looked at me, shaking his head.

“No charity, Deb. Apart from the tea, that is”

“Not charity at all, Sparky. Got a job of work I need doing. Kim says you were a builder”

“Oh?”

“I’m joining two houses together, terraced ones. Need some doors hanging, and one putting through the dividing wall. Sound like your sort of work?”

“I’d need a look at it before I could say, girl”

“How about now?”

He looked around him in a very obvious way.

“Well, I seem to be free at the moment… Yeah. Go on”

“I can shout you a bed…”

He was shaking his head vigorously before I had finished.

“No ta. I’ll bring my doss bag, if you don’t mind. I don’t sleep indoors anymore”

“Can I ask why?”

His eyes screwed up as his mouth twisted.

“Fire, Deb. Confined spaces, mates and fire. Leave it there, please”

He was right: I didn’t really want to know any more than that, and I really wished I hadn’t asked. Shit.

“Grab your stuff, then, and we’ll be off”

He insisted on riding in the back of the van, and once we were home, he ran an obviously practised eye over the doorframes and the cupboard.

“The kitchen doors will be easy. The walls are solid, no plasterboard stuff but structural, I can replace the frames with something more substantial with no problems. The connecting door’s going to be a bit harder, and I’ll need to fit an RSJ in as a lintel. Um, a steel girder thing. I’ll want a couple of jacks. They can be hired. You’ll need…”

He rattled off a list of items, as well as the places we could find them, and then Kim held up a hand.

“Sparky?”

“Yes love?”

“I know why you wanted to ride in the back of the van”

“Really?”

“Yes. I know you don’t want a bed, but would you like a bath? And some laundry doing? Like your doss bag?”

He stared hard at herm before asking what he was supposed to sleep in that night.

“I’ve got a sleeping bag you can use. I mean, Debbie bought it for me, and we have some sleeping mats, and there’s space out the back we can rig a tarp over for any rain. Don’t look at me like that1 I’ve just been listening, and if you do this work, you’ll need to be staying around while it’s going on. Want a bath, and some laundry?”

I saw him relaxing, and then he turned to me with his grin back in place.

2You are some sort of bloody miracle worker, Debbie! Can’t sleep in wet clothes, though, can I?”

Kim was still on a roll.

“Thought of that, didn’t I? late-night laundrette on the main road. I can use one of their tumble dryers”

“Bloody hell, trapped! Go on, then”

He took his bath, and it was rather prolonged. We ran what clothes we could through the wash, and Kim slipped off to the laundrette with them once the cycle was finished. Sparky spent a while on the settee wrapped in a couple of blankets until Kim returned, then made his apologies before slipping off with Kim’s sleeping bag to the little shelter I had set up in the back yard.

I dumped his old bag in a skip at one of my delivery site, and picked up two newer ones from the camping and sports aisle in the supermarket. That thing was beyond saving. I had two days off coming up the following week, so we arranged to pick up the equipment and materials he needed, and he hung the two security doors over the break, describing how he would return to them to fit extra security bars once everything was bedded in, or cured, or dried, or whatever the term was. On my next weekend, Kim and I worked as labourers while he settled the girder thing into place before fitting one more very solid door. I was actually astonished at his work rate, and decided to add bankers to the list that held coppers, chap-wearers and horse-faced straights. Here was someone who had talent as well as skill, and a bloody powerful work ethic, and he was sleeping rough while those bastards lived the high life.

We finally finished the whole bloody job on the Sunday afternoon, and I suggested that he and Kim popped around the corner to grab a Chinese takeaway. We would have one last night of silliness and company, working through my music collection, before we retired to our beds and Sparky to his new doss. I was amused to see how insistent Kim was about what she wanted to eat, after her former utter and complete mystification concerning Chinese food. I was still chuckling when I heard them knock on the back door. Thinking they were a bit quick, I opened it automatically, and a punch slammed into my face.

“Where is he, you fucking cow? Where’s my fucking son?”

I caught a reek of booze from his breath, as his blow flung me back against the cooker, where my hand found our cast-iron griddle pan. I got one good swing in, which staggered him, but he kicked out at my leg, taking it away from beneath me, and I fell against the fridge. That is when I saw the baseball bat in his hand, and realised I was dead.

He raised it in both hands, like a batter preparing to receive a ball, and screamed again.

“Where is the little cunt?”

Class, Debbie Wells. Class.

“Fuck off and die, arsehole!”

“Not me going to die, bitch. AAAH!”

That last was preceded by a meaty sound, and he sank to his knees, the bat dropping to the floor, as Sparky took another swing with the length of two-by-four he held, and what was clearly Dearest Daddy Norley fell forward from his knees to sprawl full length at my feet.

“You OK, Deb? You hurt?”

“Thank fuck, Sparky! I don’t know, but fuck, I think… Timing, love Bloody good timing”

“You able to stand up?”

“Don’t know…”

“Have my hand, love. Here”

My leg wasn’t that bad, as he had kicked it away rather than breaking anything. As I hugged my thanks, Kim entered, face white. Her mouth twisted, and then she was fumbling at the waist of the groaning man. I couldn’t see what she was doing until she stood up, her father’s belt in her hands.

“Looking for me, were you?”

Lash.

“Going to sort me out, were you?”

Lash. Lash. Lash.

“Like this?”

She went into a flurry of blows before Sparky pulled her away.

“Enough, love. Debbie, this is a real problem. What do you want me to do with this piece of shit?”

There was a groan from the floor.

“Get the fucking law on you!”

I found myself kneeling next to him, his head pulled up by my handful of his hair, the kitchen knife that had somehow ended up in my other hand pressed against his throat.

“Really? Need to be breathing to do that, you cunt!”

“Debbie…”

“Not now, Sparky. Kim, give him that belt, then grab a couple of bungees from the drawer”

He was trussed up efficiently by Sparky, who rolled him into a sitting position against the base of the cooker. I pressed the point of the knife against his crotch, remembering an arsehole on a train so long ago, his hand on my leg, my blade against his family jewels.

“This is where you are going to meet reality, cunt. Now do I call the filth in to deal with you?”

He smirked, and I pressed a little harder, which took the smile away.

“Na, I don’t think so. I think it’s time for you to meet some of my family”

Rosie and Oily, with three patches, were with me twenty minutes later. They asked to borrow the van, and that was the last I ever saw of Kim’s father.