CHAPTER 52
Heidi came over a week later, having spent some time digging out the necessary paperwork Frank had asked for. We settled down in the kitchen cum airlock with a cuppa and, purely by the slightest of random coincidences, a couple of Gemma’s treats

“Took some time with one of the family court judges, Debbie. He’s someone I’ve dealt with before, a bit more switched on than most of the others. This is good! Would it, by any chance, be some of Gemma’s work?”

I grinned and nodded.

“Debbie, you should have given me some of these before I went into His Honour’s chambers. Would have made things a lot more straightforward. Now, he was amenable to her staying here as a place of safety, and her father’s behaviour made that a no-brainer. Nice and easy it was, sorting her National Insurance stuff out. Year to go till her eighteenth, so no choice about the name on the firms, though”

She savoured another mouthful, then did that looking-at-her-cup thing, which always left me worried.

“Broached another issue with him, love. Kim. Can’t keep her hidden forever, and she has her own eighteenth next month, am I right?”

I just nodded, and she patted my arm in reassurance.

“Don’t worry. I explained about her own father’s behaviour, and I might just have mentioned that shiner the bastard gave you, and hinted about her own scars. Yes, I do know about the marks on her back. I need a chat with her, in private, but we have some odds and sods I can get started. If I send you an e-mail, can you print a form off for me? After some editing?”

“What does she need to do with the form?”

“Making assumptions, I am, but it is what is called a statutory declaration. She fills in her old name before you print it, along with the name she wants from then on, and once it’s printed you take it to any solicitor and pay them a fiver to witness her reading the form aloud, then signing it. When I say ‘any solicitor’, I will be giving you details of the one you will be using, if you get me. No gossiping that way”

Another mouthful almost sucked in appreciation, and then a smile of regret when she looked down at the plate to see the lack of any more pastries.

“I’ll sort out the rest of what Kim needs after her birthday, but for Gemma, I will need her working address, for two reasons. First is an obvious one, and that is our duty of care, as we will have to do a DBS check on her boss”

“DBS?”

“Disclosure and Barring Service. What the old Criminal Records is called now”

“Oh. And the second reason?”

“An obvious one, Debbie! I want to spend some money there. She is a bloody good pastry chef, is Gemma”

Heidi, as ever, was as good as her word, and when her mail arrived, I sat at our main dining table with Kim as she typed her details into the spaces on the electronic copy of the form.

“Debbie? Got a couple of questions before I do this, and that’s surname and middle name. I can pick my own, can’t I?”

“That’s what Heidi tells me, love”

“Then fuck Dad. I am not keeping his name, the bastard. Bamps’ name will do me, Banks. Kimberley Banks. Other one…”

She turned to me, looking slightly worried.

“Your friend, Deb. The lovely one. Scary one. Do you think she’d mind if…?”

“Kimberley Rose Banks sounds fine to me, girl, and Rosie will be flattered, believe me. Get it typed in, but don’t print it off yet. Take a few days to see how it feels before we get it sworn over properly, OK?”

“Thanks. Debbie?”

“Yup?”

“This is really real, isn’t it? Not something Dad can stop?”

“Not once you’re eighteen, love. Anyway, I think he values his health a bit too much to stick his nose where it isn’t wanted”

She nodded, closing down the laptop.

“Ill have to talk it through with Phil before I sign. Two of us now; share things, we do. Never believed I could find that sort of thing, did I?”

She laughed, and it was a happy sound.

“We’ll have to see how Cathy and Nell are getting on, whether it’s the dancing or the wall crawling that’s working best”

I shrugged.

“It’ll be the climbing, love. Ropes and that, stop the lads running away! Anyway, shall we see what Gem’s up to? You two can toss for supper duties”

We returned to our usual seats, to find Gemma glued to the television, which was showing some rugby highlights, some club match or other, not really my thing. I hadn’t actually been given much opportunity to engage in team sports as a child, although Dad had indulged, in his rare excursions into being a father rather than a shit.

“Gemma? Time to decide who’s cooking tonight”

“Un, could I just see the rest of this?”

A couple of heads turned, and their owners shuffled over to stare at the screen. Maisie’s gaze switched suddenly to Gemma.

“Gem?”

“Um?”

“It’s the big man, isn’t it?”

“Um?”

“Yes, I know there are a lot of big men there. The one wearing number eight, girl. For god’s sake, wipe your chin!. Bloody hell, we could make toast on her cheeks!”

I held up a hand, stopping it before it got out of hand.

“Maisie. Don’t push it too far, please”

That girl looked up at me sharply, and I saw a sudden flush of guilt in her eyes.

“Sorry, Nana”

I made a joke of it, to avoid it appearing as if I was pillorying her.

“How many of you sods are in on that?”

I got the laughter I needed, and Rachel and Emma both raised their hands, as much a double act as my student pair had become.

“It just sounds right, Debbie. But more like Snow White’s grandmother, yeah? Big teeth for people outside, not for us, though”

“Really? That how you see me?”

Tricia giggled.

“It’s how the kids at college see you, Miss Scary Biker, um, bitch!”

I shook my head, unable to hide my grin, memories of a train ride coming back, the point of my knife against some twat’s bollocks.

“Enough! Now, while Gemma watches her raw beef, we have sausages to go in the oven and potatoes to peel, boil and mash. Gemma’s had a full day’s work, anyway. Time for some weight to be pulled!”

“Debbie? I mean, Nana?”

“Yes, Kim?”

“I did a tray of chocolate sponge for Ruth, but there’s loads left, and it needs eating. Want me to pop round and get it?”

“You sure?”

“No problem. Gem?”

“Yeah?”

“You got time to do some custard? Need anything? Or should I just get a block of ice cream?”

“Custard would take a while, but…”

She drifted for a second, eyes on the screen, then laughed.

“No, not distracted by him, not really. Just thinking I could do some custard tarts for work. Not done them before, not there, anyway. Ice cream would be good”

She giggled herself.

“And saying that, have you seen his bum in those shorts?”

I waited until the throng had moved to the kitchen to argue about odd details of the proposed meal, and then asked her, as gently as I could manage, if she was all right.

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

“It’s a big thing, love, admitting who you are. Straight girl, isn’t it?”

She sat silent for a moment, before replying in the smallest of voices.

“Dad would kill me”

“Your dad isn’t here, love. The rest of us, you think we have a problem?”

“You don’t think they think I’m odd? I mean, I’m never going to be pretty, am I?”

“Does that really matter?”

She looked at me in silence for what seemed like ages, before a slightly uncertain smile came out from hiding.

“Yes. Yes it does. But at the same time, it doesn’t, not really. You are letting be me, and Frank, well, yeah. He…”

She paused once more, clearly trying to find the right way to express what she needed to get out.

“It’s the customers, Debbie. I wanted to hide in the kitchen, just do the baking and stuff, stay out of sight, stay safe, and Franks says ‘No, you talk to our customers, woman’, and that was a big word, that: ‘Our customers’, not his, and like I said he put some of them back outside and told them not to come back, but the rest, he says “If you liked the cakes, why not tell the woman who made them?’, and there were a couple who looked at me funny, but they came back”

She took a quick look at the television, only to see her programme had finished, and resumed speaking while her eyes stayed on the screen.

“It’s already got to where they come in to ask if we have particular things ready. Come in to ask ME if I can do them particular things. Me, Debbie. I’ just hope I can hang onto that, when Dad finds out”

“Are you in contact?”

“No. Wouldn’t be safe for the others, would it?”

A silent prayer of gratitude. I rose to give a hand in the kitchen, and as I stood, she spoke again.

“Debbie?”

“Yes, love?”

“What happened between you and Frank?”

“What has he said about me?”

“Nothing. He just says you are an old friend, but I’m not stupid, not blind”

A couple of deep breaths first.

“Gemma, let’s just say that bad things happened, they happened a long time ago, but it wasn’t anything that involved Frank. Some of us have our own issues, okay? Now, got to get the meal done, and the others will be back, and we can test out the competition in the shape of Kim’s chocolate sponge. Want a drink bringing?”

“Um, got one of those cans left in the fridge?”

“I think we have. Oh: just a thought, but we all have a weekend off coming up. I need to introduce you to someone, and if you can bring a bribe or two with you, it would be good”

I headed off into the kitchen, uncanned worms flailing around in my head. Stay away from that shop for a while, Debbie Petrie Wells.

My plan was a simple one, and it involved a pub we all knew well. I booked a couple of large cabs, and as we pulled up outside the Smugglers, I saw Gemma’s eyes widen in recognition, so I gave her my happiest grin.

“Remember this place, love? Going to show you why we like it!”

I went to pay off both cabs, and Gemma pushed my hand down.

“Wage earner I am now! My treat”

“You sure?”

“Not buying all the drinks, though, even if they are all going to be soft ones”

I led her past a couple of leather bears smoking outside the front door, and she giggled, which brought a sharp look from one of them, so I smiled at him.

“Girl’s first time here, mate. She got frightened last time, seeing all the big scary men standing outside”

His friend started laughing, while he made a show of looking all round.

“Just show me where they all are, Debbie! I call shotgun on the first two!”

I towed a tall, snorting girl inside, and Marlene was in full flow as soon as she spotted me.

“Fucking hell, it’s Nana Deb! Where’ve you left Little Red Riding Hood?”

On an instinct, I looked at Kim, who had the broadest of all the smirks.

“I shall have words with you later, Miss B! Marlene, this is Gemma. Gemma has something to show you”

“Sorry, darling, but Marlene does NOT swing that way! No girlies will ever be showing me their thing!”

I shook my head, and turned to Gemma once more.

“Ignore her. She only does it for effect”

“Marlene does everything for effect, and fucking effective is what it is! What’s in the box, then?”

Gemma passed her bribe across the bar, and Marlene snorted as she opened it.

“Oh, you cheeky cow! Marlene’s dream life in cake form! I think I might like this one, Debbie, just not in that way, of course”

“You’ve lost me. I have no idea what she packed for you”

“Then have a look! A nice fruity tart with a couple of creamy horns!”

I looked at an extremely red-faced girl.

“Tell me that wasn’t your idea!”

“Um, Kim suggested it”

Marlene reached across the bar to take her hand.

“Darling, it was perfection! Now, I am going to sort you a round of drinks, so tell me what you all want, and then Marlene will be sucking up some cream after a nibble”

I left the others to grab the drinks while I pushed some tables together, and when Kim joined me, she was shaking her head.

“I really don’t know how she does it, Debbie. I think I’ve finally hit her with something to shut her up, and she just makes the joke even filthier! I am in bloody awe of her”

She grabbed our drinks from the tray, passed me mine, and changed the subject.

“Had a quick word with Marlene as well, and I will be having my double celebration here in a fortnight and a bit. New name, no longer a kid, and safe from that fucker forever! Oh, and I know we’re all on coke, but I can hear the disco starting up, and I intend to do some random twisting and twitching! Rest of you up for a dance, cause if you are you’ll have to do it with your own partners, as mine has just come in the door. Hiya, Phil!”

Just another abnormal night at the Smugglers. Once all the girls, including Gemma. were off to the disco, Marlene slumped down into one of their vacated seats.

“You come by taxi tonight, Debbie, or drove?”

“Taxi tonight. Takes too long fitting all the seats in the van just for one night”

“Good. I warned you about the kickings, and they are getting worse. One of my boys got raped last week. Gang of men, four or five of them”

That came far to close to my own history to be shrugged off.

“What are you suggesting, Marlene?”

“Same was we’ve done before, and get you a couple of cabs booked from here to pick you up at the door. If you had been in the van, I was going to sort you out an escort”

“How’s the lad who was, you know?”

“Not good, love. Okay physically, that is, just fucked his nerves up. Not seen him since. The new girl god my flat number? If not, here’s a card for her”

She was off to the bar, and I could almost smell her worry. I had a quick vision of Carl getting glammed up so that the suspected gang would pick on him, but it was far too silly a notion. In the end, I got the girls home at a reasonable time, once I had dropped Phil and Kim off far enough from home for our address to be hidden but close enough for it to be safe for Kim, while also being far enough from anywhere ‘pink’ to avoid said gangs.

Bastards. They didn’t stop us all returning for Kim’s eighteenth birthday, though, which was the stuff that both memories and gaps in them are made. Thank god I had taken some days off; I wasn’t wrecked, but I needed plenty of time to help Kim cope with the results of her own exploration of her liver’s limits.

All I need say is that she was rather green.

Life got a little busy them, as four of my girls were working hard (they claimed) for their A-levels, two for their O-levels and two more up their eyeballs in their degree courses. I had shuffled rooms around, adding in another two sets of bunks with Sparky’s help, and in the mean time I doing my best to keep am eye on Alicia’s meetings with her father. It was far from easy, but Paul was a diamond in supporting us, as he always had been. We weren’t exactly in a millpond of tranquillity, but at least what waves we encountered were small ones.

That changed just as the school exams were about to get under way, when Kin gave me a ring.

“Debbie, got someone I need to bring round. Girl’s got real problems”

“Where are you, love?”

“The Great Western, the Spoons place by the Central Station. Sparky got the word, gave me a shout”

“They not ask your age?”

“Nope, but then I am eighteen now. They are starting to get twitchy, though I told them I was waiting for my Nana to collect me, young girl, on mean streets, etc. If you can park at the side door, in the loading bay on Saunders Road? Don’t want to be too visible when we come out”

“What the hell is going on, Kim?”

“Tell you after. Quick as you can, be good, but don’t get pulled by a copper”

I got moving as soon as I could, double-parking against an empty car just long enough to pop the side door as Kim scurried across the pavement with a younger girl pushed along in front. Once in, Kim slammed the door and urged me to drive off immediately. I wasn’t feeling happy about things at all by then, and once we were parked up by the House, I kept both of them in the airlock until I could find out what was going on. Kim sighed, unhappily, then turned to the girl, who looked to be about twelve or thirteen.

“Debbie here runs this place, love. It’s as safe as she can make it. Nobody gets in unless we let them, okay? Deb?”

“Yes, love?”

“This is Charlotte. Charlie”

I wrestled down my automatic twitch.

“Hello, Charlie. What do you need from us?”

She was shaking like a flag in a gale.

“I… I got raped. And there’s some other men who want to do it as well”