CHAPTER 68
I rose to me feet, nodding to her to follow me, and as we left the Olive, I gave Kim a stealthy thumbs-up. Across the road, round the back and through the various safeguards. I caught her gaze sweeping over the two cameras we now had on the back of the house, and eyebrows rising as I undid all of the locks. I shrugged as I put my keys away.

“Some people don’t like us. What can you do but follow the Boy Scouts’ motto, and be prepared?”

Into the airlock kitchen, where I made her wait before unlocking and partly opening the inside door and calling through the crack. I could see Micky and Chloe sitting with Charlie and Tiff.

“I have someone here to talk to us. She is safe. No threat, nothing to worry about. We’ll give you one minute to decide to stay here or go upstairs or next door”

I pantomimed to her to wait, counting the seconds before we went in. One last bit of advice to Little Miss Trannyspotter.

“No judging, no comments about passing, no staring. Got it?”

Into the living room, holding the copper in the doorway by the simple method of standing in front of her.

“Girls, this is Diane. She’s a copper, but one of ours, I believe. No threat”

Charlie looked, and sounded, less than convinced.

“Why should we believe that, Nana?”

This was going to be hard work, clearly, but I still felt that connection coming from Diane, despite that thing about my hands, which had bloody well hurt.

“I know, Charlie, but please, just this once? I have talked through it all with her, what she’s after. I believe her. Di, take a seat? Tiff, could you put that recording on, the one from the news?”

Tiff nodded, knowing exactly which one I meant, setting it running, and I waved at the space on the settee. Charlie sniffed a complaint, moving to another seat, as Diane took the space. Diane’s eyes went from girl to girl, clearly evaluating them, weighing them as girls. I was just asking myself how far they fell below whatever standards she held, when the senior copper started speaking from the television. Charlie and Tiff led the others in shouting abuse, including a particularly venomous “Wonky-eyed…” for that particular piece of shit, and I kept my eyes off the screen and on DC Owens as the chorus would down and her eyebrows stayed raised. Once it was over, I took a deep breath before turning to the four younger women.

“Switch it off, Tiff. Girls, Diane here arrested that lot. Show some manners now, OK?”

It was an immediate transformation, Charlie in particular slumping from her rigid poised-to-attack posture as if she was a puppet whose strings had just been cut through. She swallowed a couple of times, casting a quick glance towards Tiff, before finding her voice once more, the same one I had heard in the pub on our first meeting.

“Who nicked Pritchard?

Diane brought out a much tighter-lipped smile.

“I did”

Charlie’s voice was still trembling.

“Did he get fucking hurt?”

I saw Diane’s knuckles whiten once more, so I smiled at her.

“What was it you said, Di? Only the most necessary and appropriate levels of force, or something?”

That other smile, came out, the one that was all bared teeth and no humour at all. This woman could really hate, it seemed.

“I may have hit him several times with a steel baton after giving his face a full can of pepper spray, but that’s what happens in the heat of the moment, Your Honour”

Charlie launched herself across the room, her dressing gown flapping, and flung her arms around the newcomer, tears starting to fall.

“I am so, so sorry, Diane! Nana, I should know by now, aye? Not to doubt you. I am so sorry”

Tiff waited her turn in shuddering silence before asking her own question.

“Who arrested Joe Evans?”

“A friend”

She then added something that revealed far more of her humanity than anything she had said so far, not even the admission about her rape.

“He can’t hurt you again, girl”

Tiff was so different to Charlie in her reaction, starting to fall apart as I watched, and I couldn’t help remembering that Charlie had got out of a window, whereas Tiff had been held for a week. Her voice was so, so shaky that she had to struggle to get the first word out.

“Tell me he got hurt”

A very sharp headshake.

“Not that day, but I think someone else had been there before us. He’s not well. When my boss spoke to him, he pissed himself”

Charlie was coming back to herself, and she almost snarled her next comment.

“Yeah, makes a fucking change then, on the floor instead of on you, yeah?”

That broke the professional poker face, and I saw Diane sit upright, staring hard at Charlie. I waved at the other girls.

“Can you three, not Charlie, please do me a favour and go off next door? We actually have two houses, with a communicating door, Diane. Gives us more room, and two more alternative exits, just in case”

Eyebrows up again, which irritated me a little.

“Don’t look at me like that, OK? Some families don’t take to their kids being trans. When I say ‘don’t take’, think of the way you described arresting those bastards. Reasonable force? Necessary etc? Same here. Two of my girls gave up and went home, and I still put fucking flowers by their graves. That is why we do what we do, Diane”

“It’s that bad?”

“Oh, I would say you have no idea, but I already know you bloody well do. Charlie? Check the connecting door, please”

Once the girl was out of earshot, I whispered to Diane, “If you don’t want me to mention your rape, say so now. You OK with it?”

A sharp nod.

“Right. Stay quiet”

Charlie came back in, nodding to me.

“They’re all gone, Nana”

I took a deep breath, pretty sure I was doing the right thing, but terrified of the reaction it might trigger.

“Good. Charlie, this is Diane. She is your sister. She was sixteen. Di, this is Charlie. She was only thirteen”

The woman’s mouth opened and shut a few times, then she simply, and quietly, asked her question.

“Ashley Evans?”

Charlie’s response was far better than I had feared, a snarl to match Diane’s bared teeth grimace.

“Fuck, yeah. You too?”

“Walking home from a friend’s place, French study session”

“Parents out, taking a chance for a walk around the block in the dark, dressed… Dressed as I should have been if life wasn’t such a fucking pile of shit. Did he piss on you afterwards as well? Get rid of the spoodge and the shit? Sorry, you were born with a fanny, weren’t you? He’ll have put it in there, won’t he, the cunt?”

In the middle of Charlie’s rant, I caught Diane’s poorly hidden surprise at the word ‘spoodge’. Before I could calm her down, the girl threw that switch herself.

“Sorry, Diane. Really sorry. Not your fault, is it? Just, well, not used to this. Too used to being a piece of shit to everyone. Except Nana, of course. Sorry”

To my utter astonishment, one obviously professional hard-case simply moved over to Charlie and dragged her into a hug, her own eyes moist as Charlie’s tears went fully to work.
There was a sudden break in sobbing, as Charlie managed to explain how she hadn’t meant the accidental pun about the C-bomb, and then the two of them sat locked onto each other for several minutes.

As Charlie’s emotions settled, she pulled a little away, staring at Diane.

“What are you looking to do, Diane?”

The most extravagant of hugs, in evident teasing sarcasm.

“Put Councillor Evans away for as long as I can, assuming he is guilty, naturally”

Charlie was still able to push things, though.

“No bullshit, please”

She almost put her hand across Diane’s mouth to silence her.

“I know you can’t say so, but you want him locked up big style. You want him hit with everything you can find. Am I right?”

As I watched the woman, I realised that there was very, very little she did without thinking it through in detail, and her answer fitted that pattern exactly.

“Charlie, I am going to explain a few things, then I need to ask you some questions. As you are the victim here, I can do it informally. You can do it with Deb here, or in private. You can do it anywhere, or in any way, that lets you feel safe or comfortable. First, though, I need to explain a few of the rules that I am bound by. That OK?”

Charlie nodded quickly, then turned to me, her expression pleading, but genuinely so.

“Nana, could I be really cheeky and ask for a hot chocolate?”

This was going to work, I decided.

“Course you can, girl. Di? You want anything?”

Another type of smile, this one almost child-like.

“Could I have the same, please? Haven’t indulged myself in ages”

“Five minutes, then. I’ll leave the kitchen door open in case you need me”

I caught the words as Diane started to bare her soul and what turned out to be shame.

“I was sixteen. He threatened me, said he had a knife, dragged me into his car by my hair, drove to a quiet spot, raped me…”

Her own voice caught on the last word, and she took a couple of breaths before resuming.

“Pissed on me and then punched me unconscious. I was then visited in hospital. That is all you need to know. That means I can no longer take a direct part in the investigation, partly because there are things I am not allowed to know before any trial takes place. Things that relate to my own experiences. What I am doing, though, is a bit like one of those silly old films, where the hero has a servant passing him loaded guns”

That whole thing sounded so much like Charlie’s story, but the girl actually laughed out loud.

“Like in Zulu, where the two wounded men drag themselves around with a box of bullets?”

That one seemed to blindside Diane.

“I would have thought that film was a bit before your time!”

A monumental sniff of disdain from my charge.

“I’m a Welsh girl, and there’s singing in it!”

“I know the bit you mean. It always makes me think of that poster, with the eagle or whatever and the mouse”

“What’s that one?”

“It’s a great big bird of prey, all talons and sharp beak, and there’s this mouse—it’s drawn, not photos, yeah? There’s this mouse, and he knows he’s about to be ripped to bits and swallowed, so he’s just standing there, resigned, and giving two fingers to the bird”

I made a decision that this woman, so far at least, was my type of copper. I brought in three mugs of hot chocolate, setting them down with a smile.

“I remember that one! Says a lot, that picture”

Diane picked up her mug, holding it below her face so she savour its warmth and smell.

“Yeah, but we’re not like that anymore, are we? And I do say ‘we’, because both of us have been there. This time, they’re getting more than two fingers. Anyway, as I was saying, spot on, Charlie. I’m pulling out the boxes of bullets, the ammunition like, and I have some very, very good colleagues, friends, who have the guns to fire them. You can be one of the bullets, if you want. But it has to be your choice. Now, what happened after you were attacked?”

“Parents kicked the little pervert out, didn’t they? Mam and Dad didn’t want no nancy-boy pervert showing them up. I… Nana, please”

Charlie’s face said all I need to know, as her strength failed again, so I took up her story along with her hand.

“Charlie lived rough for a while. About a week, wasn’t it? Yes?”

A sharp nod.

“Then she ended up in a ‘relationship’ Sort of. A chaser spotted her, took her for a burger, warm up the poor street kid”

That word clearly meant nothing to the copper, and I wondered how somebody could go through life, in her job, in a sodding liaison role, without doing some simple research. My mood was going up and down, and I realised how stressed I really was. Calm, woman. For the girls.

“Chaser. Tranny chaser. Men who get off on trans girls. Usual grooming process, usual sequence of concern, affection, undying lurve, sex, control, violence and a lot of the time punting the girl out to friends or customers. Chasers”

Charlie found her voice once more.

“Yeah. He had me in a flat, bedsit place. I went out the window, in the end”

I got onto the settee on her other side, giving her a one-armed cuddle.

“She ran into one of my other girls, just by chance. Kimberley. She’d already moved on, but she hadn’t forgotten me”

Well, not in the time since we had left her café. Charlie leant into me.

“Nobody could ever forget you, Nana”

Time to give Diane the full FAQ spiel.

“Thanks, love. That, Di, is how Charlie ended up here. It’s what we do. Trans girls only, they get a place of safety, and we do our best to keep the chasers away. I vet their internet use, for example. Too many of the bastards trawl things like Facebook looking for victims. Every so often, I take a walk round the city, seeing who’s new. We also go out in my van, when the weather’s shitty, with hot drinks. I know the areas the street kids hang around, and the older ones know me, know what I do, so they sometimes send girls to me when they see me”

Diane nodded her comprehension, then asked Charlie another question.

“You better now?”

“Yeah”

“What happened after Evans had finished with you?”

“Man out looking for somewhere to let his dog have a sneaky shit, saw me in the bushes. Called an ambulance”

“Police?”

“Two of them came to the hospital, called me a whore and a slut, threatened my family. I’m pretty sure that was at least one of them you nicked”

More of that meditation look from Diane, which clearly indicated some sort of head-game to calm her down.

“Charlie, what I will need from you is simple, and that’s date and times. At some point, I would like you to have a chat with a couple of my colleagues, and get all that down on paper, so we can use it properly. Would you do that for us? For yourself? Oh, and changing the subject, while she’s not here. Joe Evans and Tiff?”

I took over again, before Charlie could shout the usual three words.

“That one with the droopy eye? Chaser. Trawls the night clubs, that’s where Tiff met him, or at least where she was first spotted. Very free with his fists, she tells me”

More of that blanking of her face, before she spoke again. I was right: this was indeed someone who knew how to hold a grudge, knew how to hate, long and deeply.

“Charlie, if I do this, would you be happy to give evidence? I fully intend getting Ashley Evans charged with my rape, and if we added yours it would really ice his cake”

Charlie only bloody refused.

“Nobody wanted to listen when he did it, so no, not like that”

Diane’s mask slipped, just a little.

“You’ll let him get away with it?”

Determination was coming back into the girl’s voice.

“No. What I will do, and I will talk to Tiff, is to wait and see you do him for yours. If you nail him, then I know he’s vulnerable, him and his family”

Another pause, and then Diane altered course.

“Charlie, this may not be an easy thing for you, but one of the things that has haunted me all these years is big men. I have never forgotten, you know? Big bastard rapist, sort of puts you off bulky men. One of my colleagues, though, I can’t imagine anyone gentler. Big man, gentle man. He really cares about people. He’s called Blake, and he is one of the reasons I am only just starting to heal, seeing him as something other than muscles and size. It might help you as well”

I saw Charlie work it out immediately.

“And you’re in love with him?”

Once more the professional mask slipped, and I realised that Charlie must have worked out that fact before Diane had realised it for herself. The smile that came out this time, was like a slow sunrise.

“I think I am, Charlie”