CHAPTER 34
Life got a little more complex with three guests, but they really seemed to settle with each other. Kim and Cathy clicked immediately on the music, while the latter’s studious nature chimed with Nell’s own shyness. Kim pleased me once more, with an offer of simple kindness. Rather than have Cathy as the first occupant of the second house, Kim moved her stuff into one of the bedrooms there and handed her own room to the newcomer. Such strength in one so young.

We had, naturally, the series of visitors I had warned Cathy about, including a steadily more welcome Paul. Heidi arranged a school place in a local sixth form college for Nell, which initially worried me but in the end really brought her out of her shell, and later in the year, Heidi also arranged for Kim to sit her GCSEs in maths, English and whatever the hell they were calling ‘cookery/home economics/being a good traditional wifey’ that year. I had memories of my own experience that way, sitting my own GCSEs, the shitty and gobby girls who had abused me, so I begged some time off from Bert, just enough to allow me to collect her after each exam. When I asked her how the other pupils were reacting, as she emerged from her last session, she just grinned.

“Does my street cred real good! Look, Kim’s Mam is a bad-arse biker bitch! Best be nice to her!”

“I think they actually say ‘bad-ass’, love”

“Na. Sounds stupid talking about donkeys. Anyway, my arse can’t really be bad cause I got whistled by a couple of the lads. Can we stop by Maccy D’s?”

Sod it. She’d worked hard, so I let her have her greasy treat.

Paul found me guest number four, just as my two older charges’ college broke for the Summer, and that was a game changer. He came to the back door at the end of July, which surprised me because it wasn’t his usual night to visit. I brought him into the kitchen, which was being used more and more as an airlock, keeping the inner door shut. He looked drained.

“What’s up? This isn’t your normal schedule, is it?”

“Bit of an emergency, Debbie. Had the word from a couple of the girls over to Splott, off East Tyndall Street. Wanted to run something past you, but I think I can guess your answer. I spoke to Nita earlier”

“How shitty is this one, butt? Another Kim?”

He shook his head, sadly.

“Worse, Deb. Lot worse… Look, could we run this one past your girls? I really need to know what they think”

I nodded, leading him into the living room, where Kim was slumped in an armchair, in jeans and T-shirt as she nodded along to some music, while Cathy, who seemed to be going all Laura Ashley on me, was on the settee with Miss Beige, talking about some book or other. I gave Kim a tap on the arm as I passed, and she paused her CD, pulling off the headphones.

“Paul here wants to run some stuff past you, girls. I have a bit of an idea what it might involve, so let him speak first, questions later. Got me?”

Three nods. I gave another one to Paul, and he drew a long, slow breath before speaking.

“Been a busy couple of months for us, ladies. Started with a rape over to Southerndown”

I saw Kim and Nell start up at that one, but both shut their mouths again, hanging onto their obvious questions. Paul nodded at them.

“Yes, I know you like that place. Girl was sixteen. Punched silly as well. Anyway, we have another youngster to worry about. Long, long story, but I’ll try and sum up. A girl, runaway. Sixteen years old. Not that clued up”

He looked hard at Kim, who shrugged.

“Anyway, she had some stupid ideas, the first one being that she could find casual work, make her own life, that sort of thing. First night she was out, she had her bedroll stolen. Up comes an even stupider idea: turn tricks, as the Yanks call it. Off she goes to where all the girls are, her only party dress and heels on, and starts doing the waiting-under-a-streetlight stuff. The thing is, she’s not really… she’s not exactly what it says on the label. A girl like you three, she is. Got a stupid idea that she’ll tell any customer that she only does French, keep her knickers on. First bloke she pulls, he decides he’s after the full Monty, so he rams his hand up, and doesn’t like what he finds there, so she gets a serious beating”

He looked hard at me, nodding.

“Yes, Deb, like that Sarah Powell case. Not quite the same, though. This girl is still out there, not in Casualty. The paramedics came out after a shout from one of the Toms, and gave her some treatment, but she won’t go to Casualty in case her Mam and Dad find her. That’s it, in a nutshell. I think you all know what I am asking”

Kim nodded at the other two, and Nell gave a wide-armed shrug that clearly said the answer was obvious. My first girl stood up and went to get her leather, calling over her shoulder as she went.

“You riding with us, Paul? Scare her less if we don’t take your car”

He slumped, a little bit of his tension easing.

“Thanks, ladies. Thank you all”

Cathy stood as well.

“Nell and I will sort a room out for her. I’ll put the water heater on as well, so she can have a bath”

I grabbed my own leather, as well as the van keys, and a short while later, the three of us were crossing the tracks on Splott Road, Paul guiding us around to a back street where several women in very short skirts were standing around, each near a street lamp. He showed me where to park up, then opened the window and called out.

“Moira?”

A ravaged woman with a mass of curly hair stepped forward, her mane glinting red as she came into the light.

“Copper? Not your normal wheels, is it?”

“Got a friend here, come to look after the kid”

I stepped out and walked around the front of the van. She grinned, a couple of teeth missing.

“I know you1 You’re Sparky’s mate, isn’t it? Had a couple of meals off him, na? You the one taking the kid? You working for coppers now, then?”

“I don’t work for coppers. I work for kids who need me”

“Aye. I know about your tea runs as well. Come over here some nights, be nice. Posh has the kid round the corner, aye? Paramedics say it’s all soft bits, no bones gone, but she’ll need someone to check her bollocks are OK”

She whistled, and another working girl came out, supporting a slight figure in bare feet, carrying one shoe. Moira bent down to talk to her, voice a lot less raucous.

“Maisie? This woman here is one of the good ones. We all know her. She’s not the Filth, she’s not the Social, she’s not some shitty care home bitch. You go with her, and you get well, and you find another way to live, aye? This life, it’s shit. You don’t want to be in it”

The child mumbled something and the woman supporting them replied, slurring her words.

“Like we have a fucking choice, Moira and me? Come on; Mo’s due along in a bit, so I’ll need to be busy, and you, Welby, you don’t help us find trade, so piss off, please”

They helped the kid up into the front seat, Paul moving to the back of the van with a muttered comment about seatbelts, and as we pulled away, I checked in the rear view mirror. The one called ‘Posh’ was already leaning into the front window of a car.

What a fucking life.

I parked up round the back once more, and Paul and Kim helped the girl through the kitchen and into the living room, where they settled her into an armchair. Kim called over to Cathy as she came from the hallway.

“Cathy, love? I left a pot of soup in the fridge for tomorrow. Want to warm some for Maisie here?”

She turned back to the bruised girl.

“When did you last eat, love?”

“What’s today?”

“Thursday”

“Two days, then. Where am I?”

“You asking cause you’re wobbly or you asking cause you want to know who we are?”

“Who you are, I s’pose”

“Simple. This woman here, she’s Deb, and she looks after people like us. Special girls”

The girl, Maisie, struggled to sit up, eyes wild.

“No! Not doing that! Let me go!”

It was Cathy who caught her meaning, as she returned from the cooker, and she swept forward in her floaty dress, kneeling down in front of the child.

“No, love. Not like that. Safe place, this one. Not what you thought. Never like that”

The girl grabbed her hands.

“You sure? Really sure?”

“Absolutely. Kim there’s just done her GCSEs, Nell and me, and I’m Cathy, we’re doing our A-levels now. That’s all the work we ever do, and nothing like… Not that sort of place. I mean, Kim has a job at the café round the corner, and she could TRY doing some of her own laundry, but hey”

Kim caught on immediately, and mock-snapped back.

“Yeah, well, who was it borrowing WHOSE clothes when they first got here? Payback time, girl!”

Nell moved over to join the team.

“All this place is, all Deb does, is give a safe place to girls like us. Now, Cathy and me, we’ve set a room up for you, it’s got its own lock if you feel you need it. We’ve put the heater on for a bath, which you can stay in as long as you want, and Cathy and me, we’ve left you some ‘jamas and a dressing gown on the bed. Want some soup before we take you up?”

“Please…”

I followed Cathy into the kitchen, shutting the door as she stirred the soup after pulling on an apron.

“What have I missed, love?”

“Nothing complicated, Debbie. I think she thought this was a specialist brothel”

“Oh for fuck’s sale!”

Kim slipped in, shutting the door, just in time to catch Cathy’s remark.

“Yeah. Wonder what her home life was like. What we doing with her, Deb? I’m going to be out all day tomorrow, and you’ve got work as well”

“You see yourself as the boss here now, don’t you?”

“Well, someone has to. Nell and Cathy, they’re both a bit airy-fairy, aren’t they?”

Cathy went “Oy!”, which actually made me laugh with that comment, and Kim waited till I had wiped my nose before putting her hand on my arm.

“Seriously, the others will be with her. I’ll have a quiet word with Ruth, get something tasty for tomorrow evening. Paul says he’ll help, so ask him if he can get a doctor to visit. Nell and Cathy will manage all right, even if they are airy-fairy”

I stepped back into the living room, and asked Paul about getting a doctor, and he pointed to his radio.

“FME is on her way. I gave her a quick explanation of why we were neither in the nick or in Casualty, and she swore something amazing. Said she’d be her in twenty minutes. I’ll hang on for that, then get out of your way. I wouldn’t say no to some of that soup, though. Missed a meal break with this job, and the smell is making my guts growl”

I passed his request to Cathy, and she nodded. Kim muttered something about ‘aroma not smell’, and that actually brought a smile to Maisie’s face. Kim spread her arms, mirroring Nell’s earlier gesture almost exactly.

“Well, muggins here made the stuff, so nyah to him! Reminds me. Got no bread in, Debbie. You able to pick some up tomorrow for us?”

The teasing and mundane conversation seemed to be settling the girl, so I left Kim to do her thing, pulling Paul into the kitchen as Cathy passed us with a bowl of soup.

“Yours is on the side there, Paul!”

“Thanks, love. Stomach thinks my throat’s been cut. What you want, Debbie?”

“Just a catch-up, really. What was with the two women?”

“Moira and Posh? You really need to ask?”

“Well, Posh looked pissed, and isn’t Moira a bit old for that life?”

He sighed.

“Posh isn’t, wasn’t drunk. She needed a fix. Probably end up sharing it with Moira. And Moira’s thirty two”

“Fuck!”

“Yeah. I know Sparky’s been dropping some meals their way, but like they said, might be nice if you could do one of your hot drink runs that way, if the weather gets shitty”

I looked at him a little more closely.

“I thought you’d be a bit more, you know, copper about them”

He dipped his spoon into the soup, savouring it for a few seconds.

“This is good. Kim’s doing well, isn’t she?”

“She is. Answer the question, Paul”

“Well, should be obvious. Girls are in the life for a reason, isn’t it? Nobody with a real choice goes on that game. It’s a toss-up whether they go on the heavy stuff because of their work, or the other way around. Both, I think. I keep a sharps box in the car, and some clean needles. One of these days… No, PC Welby, not now”

“One of these days you’ll…?”

He checked the kitchen door.

“One of these fucking days I will lock up that fucker Mo for a very, very long time. Leave it there, Debbie”

A few minutes later, there was a knock at the front door, so I did my usual trick of walking round from the back of the house, to find a middle-aged woman in slacks and fleece jacket, carrying a green backpack I immediately recognised.

“Can I help you?”

“I don’t know. I’m looking for a policeman, a PC Welby?”

I nodded.

“You the doctor?”

“Yes”

“Come round the back, please. I’m Debbie Wells. This is my place”

Through the security system once more, which raised her eyebrows, and into the living room, where Maisie’s bruising caused her mouth to twist.

“Do you have somewhere private for an examination?”

“Dining room, or the bedroom I’ve put her in?”

“Dining room will do, if it’s private. I can tell she needs a clean-up”

“Girls have put the heater on for a bath. We’ll feed her first, though”

“Thank you. What do we call you, my love?”

“Maisie”

“Right, Maisie. I’m Doctor Moore. I work for the police, part of the time, as what they call a Force Medical Examiner. I check people over to make sure any bruises left by the coppers aren’t visible”

She grinned.

“My little joke, love. Now, all I really want to do is make sure there are no problems that the ambulance crew have missed. The Police tell me that they are simply placing you here for safety. Nobody to be told where you are, no criminal charges, nothing like that, but before they can sign you off, they need confirmation you’re healthy enough. That OK?”

The girl nodded, and Doctor Moore led her out of the room, returning half an hour later.

“Any chance of a cup of coffee, Miss Wells?”

Kim rose first.

“Anyone want a hot chocolate?”

The doctor laughed.

“forget the coffee, then! Maisie? Choccy?”

The youngster nodded, and as she sat down again Nell went to the dining room for a couple of chairs. The doctor finished zipping up what was clearly a very comprehensive medical kit, and turned to Maisie.

“That’s me done, for now. As these ladies will be looking after you, are you happy for me to share what I found out?”

After a nod in reply, she continued, as Kim returned with a tray of steaming mugs.

“Nothing nasty, but I would normally want her observed for a while. Casualty is out of the question, so I shall leave you with some guidance. I don’t think she will be walking comfortably for a week or so. Nothing seems ruptured, but I would like to come back in a couple of days for another look, if you don’t mind. Essentially, that’s me done---ooh, ta, love, that smells good”

Maisie looked up from her own mug.

“She says it’s an aroma, not a smell, Doctor”

“Don’t make me laugh when I’m drinking, love! I don’t want to have to wash this blouse; it’s fresh on”

She quickly ran through the ‘observation’ guidance, then nodded to Paul after draining her mug.

“I grabbed a bus to get here, mate. You able to give me a lift?”

He rose, nodding.

“Absolutely. I think we need to be off now, anyway. Leave Maisie to settle in. Just remember, love: anything you can remember about the man that beat you up, I will be happy to work from. Good night, ladies”

In the end, Maisie fell asleep in the bath, so two of us helped her out and settled her in Kim’s old room, Cathy moving this time. It was Nell who climbed in with Maisie, around two in the morning, when the nightmare woke her.