CHAPTER 72
Paul kept me up to speed, in a very unofficial way, especially when two of Di’s mates started the process with Paula. He was clearly fretting, worried about whether she would be able to cope with the sort of thing I wasn’t sure Di had managed without being hurt. That said, I couldn’t be sure Charlie would be able to take it, but she was now insistent that she was to, as she put it, rip a new arsehole in Ashley Evans’ face. While I wondered about her sense of anatomy, I understood her meaning perfectly. Paul, though, was already suffering. He did put my mind at rest on one issue, however.

“No, Debbie. Got a room rented for her”

“And who’s paying for it?”

He looked down at his hands as we sat in Harry’s.

“Um… Me”

“For god’s sake, be careful, mate”

“It’s far enough away from mine to avoid attention. Don’t want her testimony compromised”

“Not what I am worried about, is it? Her OWNER, Paul. I doubt he’s going to let this one slide, not from what I’ve heard. What if he comes looking?”

He looked up suddenly, his eyes slitted.

“Not this time, Debbie. He doesn’t call the shots now. We’ll get her through this, through the court case, and then we find somewhere safer. She’s ad more than anyone should ever have to bear”

“That word ‘We’, Paul?”

He looked suddenly worried.

“Sorry, Debbie. Assuming, aren’t I?”

I smiled at him as sweetly as I could manage, given the subject we were discussing.

“Not that, mate. Just pleased you remembered you aren’t alone in this one. Curls are with you as well. Just be careful, okay? What Sparky tells me about him, you’ll need to be”

As well as what I had heard from Maisie, of course.

I did my best to keep things steady, as Nita and Diane made repeated visits to coach Charlie in court-craft. I didn’t let either of the two women know about the other, for I could see the same hunger in each one, that need to Make Things Right that they shared. One change was evident, though, and that was the emergence of both Charlie and Tiff from their nest in the House. Never alone, nor even as part of a group of the other girls, always with me, but they were still outdoors. I took the opportunity to sort their wardrobe out, buying stuff that fitted them properly, and of course the first of those sessions ended up in a certain burger establishment, where Charlie and Tiff suddenly started giggling together.

“Share the joke, then?”

Tiff prodded Charlie, who did her best to give one of her disdainful sniffs, but failed, in yet another fit of giggles. Eventually…

“Nana, just, well, last time in Maccy D’s, it was different. That wonky-eyed… suppose I should be more polite here, yeah? Anyway, here’s me looking around, autopilot, looking for anyone acting like him, and knowing you’d slice and dice him for cat’s meat! And Kim’s told us about your sister and her friends, and…”

She lowered her voice to a whisper.

“Did they really trash that flat?”

I gave her a single nod.

“Not to be discussed, right? If it’s been fixed, they aren’t going to be using it from their cells, are they?”

Charlie fiddled with her drink for a moment, taking off the lid and shaking some of the ice around.

“Nana?”

“Yes, love?”

“Am I going to be all right in the court?”

I thought for a few seconds, but the answer was obvious.

“If you don’t think you can, you don’t have to do it, love”

Her reply was just as I had expected.

“No. Pay it forward, yeah? I mean, I know it’s me paying that shit back, but it’s also, like, if he comes out early, he’s just going to do it again, some other girl for him to piss on. Got to do it. Got to do it for other women”

I fought back some treasonous tears, because all I felt at that moment was pride. Each of my brood was fighting back in their own way, most by the simple act of living a genuine life, but these two were doing it directly, right into the face of hatred and violence.

“Charlie? Di managed it”

She nodded, face set.

“Yeah. That’s what’s got me and Tiff here moving. Not just us, that’s the thing”

“You know you and Di, you know what you are? Sisters, isn’t it?”

She gave yet another nod, and I realised she wasn’t trusting herself to speak without breaking, and my duty, my position in the world, had never been clearer to me

My brood. My children. Whatever happened, they would be kept as safe as I could manage.

The day came, of course, before any of us felt ready for it, and we made our way to the Crown Court, but I was still distracted after the bombshell Charlie’s sister the copper had dropped on me.

I had guessed it was coming, of course, but sitting in Ruth’s and talking as dispassionately as I could about Mersey View and its staff was something I really had to work at. It clearly stretched Di’s poker face to the limit, and that expression crumbled as I described the sound of footsteps on the stairs, fleeing the scene entirely as I told her how I had eased my hunger in a Shrewsbury showground.

“You were scavenging from dustbins? Shit!”

“Girl’s got to eat, Di. What else could I do?”

I really started to get worked up as I described Mam and Dad, and all Di did was take my hand and keep me as calm as she could manage. I suspect that she was holding my hand as much for her own comfort as for mine. She left me with a file of names, a list of staff members and other people that had been incarcerated in the same shithole, and I gave my promise to see who I could remember.

There was one moment that really struck home, when she asked me if anyone had listened to me as a kid, and I had snarled something negative. As I washed my face back home, hiding the traces of more bloody tears, I understood what must have been at least a part of the source of Charlie’s strength.

Somebody was listening, now. Someone who bloody well mattered. Someone who cared.

She was waiting for us at the Court, along with Paul, who looked really worried. Kim, as ever, was watching my back, and I caught a glimpse of Paula looking almost respectable as one of Diane’s crew led her into a private room. I recognised a few of that group from the television reports, in particular the Asian man with the broken nose, and I finally managed to get a moment with him.

“You Inspector Patel?”

There was real warmth in his smile.

“Debbie? Debbie Wells?”

I nodded, and his smile became a grin.

“Keeping my team rather busy, you are!”

“Sorry, Inspector”

“Not at all! Toilets need flushing, after all. And it’s Sammy, if you like”

“Sammy. Anything we need to know?”

“Well, not much I can tell you, except that we have the same judge”

“As?”

“Same as Di had for her trial. I suspect he’s pulled some heavy-duty strings. Probably claiming this is a continuation trial. Ashley Evans, just with added charges and less wiggle room for the defence”

“What do you have?2

Once again, I saw the same bared-teeth grimace he had shown on TV.

“Not telling you, Debbie. You’ll hear it later, if you’re stopping for the trial. Oh, and two of my boys said to say thank you”

“Me? What for?”

“Barry and Bryn really, REALLY hate drink drivers. And all of us love cake!”

He leant closer to me, voice much softer.

“And they were two of the lads who met your friends Pritchard, Evans and Evans when they got nicked”

I had to laugh. Keeping my own voice low, I asked him a teasing question, and he barked out his own laugh.

“Absolutely! The team’s old boss, as my own boss puts it, cultivated a culture completely lacking in shame. Blame Diane: she’s like a dog with a bone when you get her attention. Never, ever lets go. Now, your girl? She going to be okay?”

I was losing count of the number of people watching Charlie’s back. She was off with another of the team now, and the rest of us settled into the public gallery, Paul fidgeting nervously until I slapped his wrist.

“She will see, Paul! Send her a smile, something positive, okay? This is the time she will need you at your best. Both of them, isn’t it?”

I followed the lead of everyone else, as the judge came in and we all bobbed up and down, and a big man stood up between two prison staff as a man in a gown read out a long list of criminal charges, and four names. One being Paula Amanda Cairns, and another being Charlton Dilwyn Surtees, “Known as Charlotte”

The process was a familiar one, something I had seen so often in films or on television, and once Evans had snarled ‘not guilty’ to everything, the woman Paul had called ‘Nell’ was telling her story. The prosecution man was smooth.

“Ms Askew, I must apologise, but it will be necessary to go over some very unpleasant events”

“I know that. About time I got this out of my system, and him done”

“Thank you for your help in this matter. Can you tell us if you recognise the man in the dock?”

“Yes, I can. He’s the bastard who knocked two of my teeth out when I was fourteen”

I saw the jury shifting in their seats, as she told us what was effectively the same tale I had heard from Charlie and Diane, and then Jasmine Skye Lenihan gave her own almost identical version, before Paula Amanda Cairns took the stand.

She was wearing far more clothing than I had grown used to seeing her in, and she looked rough, her face looking green at times, but for once I could see and hear the woman rather than the doped-up zombie that had discovered poor Andrea’s body. The other man in the wig discovered that the hard way, the snide bastard.

“Ms Cairns, what is your occupation?”

“On the game, isn’t it?”

“For the benefit of this Court, and the ladies and gentlemen of the jury, could you be more specific?”

“I’m a tom. A whore. A prostitute. OK?”

“Were you working the night you met the defendant?”

“Working? You mean looking for trade? It was two days after my seventeenth birthday! I was on my way to a fucking clarinet lesson!”

Sammy and Di’s judge was quick to interrupt, his tone of voice calm but cutting.

“Please, Ms Cairns, and yes, I understand the stress you will be feeling. In order to limit such stress, and avoid distressing questions that may be reminiscent of the unpleasant way rape trials were accustomed to proceed…”

The judge stared directly at the snide man in the wig.

“…could you please confirm, for the jury, and myself, what your occupation was at the time?”

Paula slumped against the edge of the witness box.

“What was I doing? I was in sixth form college, at Howell’s!”

I knew what that was, and it was a serious-money school. What sort of family was it that had kicked their own daughter out? The judge was still speaking.

“Once more, and for the benefit of the jury, and so as to CLOSE this line of questioning, and please take the question as I intend it to be taken: would it be fair to say that you were merely a school student at the time and not involved in sex work?”

She nodded, tears flowing.

“Thank you, Ms Cairns. May I take that as a yes?”

“Yes”

“Learned Counsel has, I would suggest, had a full answer to his question, and will now pay heed as to the vulnerability of the witness, who is not on trial in these proceedings”

Even when backing down, wig man was still capable of being a twat, it seemed, but one who knew when to cut his losses.

“I am grateful to Your Honour. Er, no further questions for this witness”

Paula was led away, her man leaving his seat next to me along with Di’s blonde mate, the one called Candice, and it was Charlie’s turn. I stared hard at the judge, hoping for some positive energy or whatever that might help, something Carol or Peter might have believed in, and my little girl was suddenly holding a book and swearing an oath.

“Charlotte Diane Surtees. Don’t want to give my address”

Diane was leaning forward, mouth hanging open. I whispered to her, “Take it as a compliment, girl. She might change her mind before she can make it official”

The other wiggy man, our one, was setting the scene.

“You are listed as Charlton Dilwyn. Could I please ask, for the benefit of the jury, that you explain the change? In your own words?”

“Well, I’m a trans girl, yeah? Seeing the gender clinic down to Exeter for now, till they open one in Cardiff. Yeah, officially a boy, but they got that wrong, so it’s being sorted”

“So, while your name remains officially Charlton, until you are of an age to change it, your preferred form of address is Charlotte. Is that a fair summary, Ms Surtees?”

Oh, you lovely man! He got a smile from her.

“Yeah. I usually go by Charlie. You can call me that if you want”

The judge said his own little piece, and I found myself settling a little. Not enough, though, and I was grateful for the tissue Di handed me.

“I am grateful to the witness for her explanation. For the benefit of these proceedings, and for the record, this witness will be referred to as Charlotte Diane Surtees”

Once again, Charlie went through her story, her stress showing clearly when she was asked if she could identify her rapist.

“Yeah. He’s that cunt in the dock”

It was a very short while later when I realised she was telling the court more than she had ever told me, and I had to ask myself whether she had spared me the extra details through pity, or through shame.

“Mam and Dad kicked me out, isn’t it? Nasty little queer. Ended up sleeping rough. I…”

The man in the gown had a box of tissues, and then a glass of water.

“Spent a while with no money, and then… Someone showed me how you could… Sorry. Got to make a joke out of it, only way. You can eat as long as you’re willing to eat, yeah? Suck someone’s cock, get enough for a couple of days. Sorry to be blunt. And then I did something stupid”

“Which was?”

“Local club. Thought I’d get in, no charge for girls, yeah? See if I could get warm, get pissed a bit before I had to suck another pissy cock, and at the same time it was somewhere I might find one…”

A couple of times, her eyes looked up to where we were all sitting, but she found more strength somehow, turning back to our wig man.

“I was hungry, yeah? Hungry and cold, and there was a man there, and he seemed nicer than the others, even though he had a wonky eye. Said he had a flat I could stay in”

“Can you remember his name?”

“Yeah. Joe. Joe Evans”

I actually saw the judge twitch. At the name

“So, I went back to his place, and he had a separate bedroom, and food, and it was warm, and it was dry… and then on the second night, I hear a voice, and I recognise it, and I sneak a look down the stairs, and it’s that cunt---sorry, sorry. Just, well, not good. It’s the copper from the hospital, one of them. Pritchard, yeah? And he’s coming up the stairs, and he’s already bloody UNZIPPING, so I went out the window, god knows how I didn’t break anything, and I ran like---I ran as fast as I could, and I hid, yeah? I was lucky, though. Met someone, and they knew Kimberley, yeah, up there?”

She was breathing hard just then, and when she turned to point at the public area, Kim rose slightly, making sure Charlie caught her smile and wave. Charlie tailed off after that, almost broken, and thank god the other man didn’t push her too hard. She was released, and I went out to give her what comfort I could find.