Not leaving the last chapter's hand grenade to fester.

CHAPTER 60
The year had been a decent one, all told, and I was looking forward to the usual festivities, even without Malcolm and Graham’s presence. For once, I had not only the Christmas Day off but Boxing Day as well, and some sad man without a life had actually volunteered to cover New Year’s Day for me. My plans took a slight hit when Heidi dropped in to sort a couple of things at the end of November, those ‘things’ actually being Serena and Alicia. The four of us adjourned to the dining room as soon as Paul turned up with Nita, which I hadn’t been expecting. As I was sorting out a tray of drinks for us all, the kitchen door banged, and it was Kim.

“They here, then?”

“Sorry?”

“The women and our copper, Deb. For the meeting?”

“Yeah, three of them here, but…?”

The girl grinned.

“Sub-contracting I am, now! Hang on, and I’ll grab another tray”

I led her through to the dining room, and noticed no surprise on any of our visitors; faces. Nita grinned at my obvious confusion, and started passing round the tea.

“Kim’s been doing some work for us, Debbie. Observation stuff”

It started to make sense at last.

“Girls’ parents? Meetings in the Olive?”

Heidi nodded.

“Yes, absolutely. We’ve had a couple of enquiries from two of their parents, and it is about Christmas. Where they will spend it, to be clear”

Alicia was looking eager, while Serena just looked wistful. I watched them for a couple of seconds, before giving up my attempt to read their minds.

“What’s on the table, Heidi?”

“Ah, nothing surprising. Basically the same proposal in each case, from Alicia’s father and Serena’s mother: they go to their old homes on Christmas Eve, or rather the grandparents’ place in Alicia’s case, and they come back on Boxing Day. Two nights with the family, see if there are bridges that are possible to build. We wanted Kim here to get a fourth, or sixteenth, opinion on what she thinks”

Kim smiled, awkwardly.

“Yeah. Been watching ‘Licia’s Dad when he visits, yeah? Mrs Milton here, she buggers off so they can have some privacy, but doesn’t tell them I’m doing Secret Squirrel stuff. Same with Serena and her Mam”

Nita held a hand up to get her own thoughts in.

“Paul and me, well, we’ve been following and watching. Today is a sort of ‘shall we say yes?’ meeting, so I will say that I am not happy about one thing, and that is that Alicia’s mother is still sitting in the house. I have no real idea of what the grandparents are like. Paul and I have talked it through, and we think Serena’s side is an easy call, but with Alicia, it is a bit in the air. Two other people involved, isn’t it?”

I could see the problem immediately, so I turned to Serena first.

“How do you feel, love? About a Christmas at home?”

She smiled, and it was even more uncertain than her earlier attempt.

“Debbie…”

“That’s me, love”

“This, here, yeah? This feels more like home, now, with you, all the others. I mean, this is me, me being me, not like when I was, well, HOME home. But, like, Mam is still Mam, and I still love her, and… If it could work? Yeah. Like to try, I would, if you say I can”

I nodded, and turned to the other girl.

“What about you?”

She took her time thinking it over, which pleased me, as it showed that she was making a proper decision, not leaping at rainbows.

“Dad is being really sweet now, Debbie. Like those ear rings, yeah? He’s… This is going to sound bad, like Tiff’s Dad, yeah, but it’s not how I mean it. He’s got cuddly, and I mean affection cuddly, not randy cuddly. It’s…”

She tailed off for a few seconds, hands waving as she sought the words, then she grinned.

“What I mean is I really think he’s getting it now, getting me, that is, who I am, who I… who I’ve always been. Bamps and Nana Wallis, yeah, I think they’ll be okay. Not like Mam’s side, is it?”

Paul coughed for attention.

“Can I make a suggestion?”

Heidi nodded.

“Go ahead, mate”

“Well, quick summary, aye? We are all pretty clear that the two parents involved are sorted. We have two wild cards involved, the grandparents. Deb, will you be using your Vanover those three days, at all?”

“Apart from a last collection of bits and pieces early on the twenty-fourth, no. What are you thinking?”

He grinned, a little sadly.

“Not exactly a Christmas party animal, me. If I could borrow your van, along with some camping kit, sleeping bag sort of thing, I know somewhere I could park near Mr and Mrs Wallis’ place, the senior ones, that is. Alicia takes my number, and any problems, I get her out”

Alicia was staring at him.

“You’d do that for me? For us? Give up Christmas?”

Another wry smile.

“I can take a packed lunch with me. Get your friend Gemma to male me a hamper up. Some DVDs and my laptop, and it wouldn’t be that much different to how I normally spend a Christmas, if I am rostered off. I normally work my Christmases, so this would actually be more of a time off for me than it usually is. Get something nice to eat, watch a Bond film, what’s not to like?”

I bit my tongue before I said anything else, as my traitor of a mind wanted to suggest he take a particular Splott woman to keep him warm for the night, and that wouldn’t have been funny at all. Keep it straight, woman.

“You okay driving the van?”

“Yes. Insurance cover will be our official one, and I drove carriers for ages—er, you know the police vans, like a minibus with a cell in the back? Not a problem, love”

Nita was nodding in agreement, as was Kim, and Heidi looked at each of us in turn.

“So we just need the important people to say go or no-go. Girls?”

Alicia was nodding rapidly.

“Yes! Please!”

Serena smiled, and once again, it was a wistful one rather than joyous.

“A chance to be with Mam, real mother and daughter stuff? Oh, god, if it can work… Yes. Yes, for me as well”

Heidi gave a single sharp nod.

“Then we are go, as they say. You certain about this, PC Welby, mate?”

“Yes. Chance to help someone get sorted, no real choice, is there? What Debbie always talks about, obligations and that. I’ll be fine, as long as I can get Gemma onside. Only thing I have to worry about is local Officers so we will need to warn the Port Talbot nick so that they don’t wake me up at stupid o’clock. That, and getting rid of all the weight I’ll put on living on pastries and pies”

Heidi took his hand and squeezed it.

“You are a star, mate. Right, any other comments? No? I shall go and sort out the details with the two others concerned, and can we rely on you to confirm safe return, Debbie? Or Kim?”

I let Kim answer that one, her tone showing her pride at being involved as an adult in something important.

“Yeah. Debbie’s off on Boxing Day, and usual drill is for the girls to be dropped off at my café, so I’ll be open and waiting. Not a worry”

‘My’ café? Never mind.

As usual, the holiday itself appeared suddenly, as the days immediately before seemed to evaporate. Alicia and Serena spent ages primping and packing before their departure, and in the previous two weeks we had spent time in the City centre as my girls fussed and fretted over presents to take for what they had decided to call their first real Christmas. My two students did their best to avoid looking smug, as they turned up with their lads to take the same two rooms they had used the last time, while Kim looked even smugger.

Made it. Normal. Proper, straight girls, all three of us. I had memories of Cathy and Kim, separately, but united in their pain, their fear that nobody would ever look at them in the way they needed, Nell’s shyness and disappearance into her world of beige, and here they were, alive at last.

We saw the two girls off separately, with the plan being for them to rendezvous at the Olive on Boxing Day before coming back to the House, and a couple of large taxis dropped the rest of us off at the Smugglers.

It was another brilliant night, even though the music was still rubbish, and the only slight downer was Marlene’s insistence that none of us stepped outside until our taxis confirmed they were there and waiting. I had to ask, of course, and for once her bitchy persona evaporated.

“Yeah, love. Getting worse, it is. Filth don’t give a shit, and I hear it’s the same in Swansea. Open season on benders. Even getting to me, it is. I used to lock everything up, go out, check all the doors from the outside, then up the back way to my flat. Now, I go up the inside stairs after dark. I’m not a twink, not anymore, and that seems to be the target of fucking choice, but better safe than fucking dogmeat. So you wait for your driver to shout you, right? And your girls: any of them not got my number?”

“Two, love, but they won’t come out of the House. Too scared”

“Ah. That be Alicia and, um… Serena?”

“I am impressed!”

“Don’t be, it’s part of my job”

“Okay. Not them, actually. They are off home to their family for a couple of days”

“Really? And? Good news, or too tired to fight?”

“Both gone home in a skirt, Marlene”

“Fuck! You make an old queen smile, love! Hope for this world yet! Anyway, that looks like a driver over there. Happy fucking Christmas, my sweet, and keep doing what you do!”

We piled into our taxis and made our way home, light rain washing the windows, and once in, we all simply agreed to leave everything from shoes to coats where they fell and hit our beds. Gemma and Kim would be doing the whole shebang for lunch/dinner/tea/probably most of the next week’s meals, and the girls had agreed that Leo, Scott and Phil would be allowed to share the load, although Kim would be expected to disappear with her lover to his parents for the evening.

I understood Paul’s worries then, for I felt like a beached whale by eight PM on Christmas Day. Ye gods, I was full.

Boxing Day actually dawned bright and clear, Kim trotting off to open the Olive, having left Phil at his parents, and I began to set out the makings of a communal breakfast, my girls appearing one by one, starting with Charlie and Tiff, who looked slightly dreamy.

“What’s with you two? You look miles away!2

Tiff grinned, in her usual shy way, head down and hand up to her mouth.

“Just nice seeing how there are nice men about. Not really met many, have we, me and Charlie?”

The other girl sniffed, loudly.

“Yeah, and taken is what they are. Still gives us nice thoughts, though. As well as naughty ones”

Tiff’s eyes widened

“You are such a tart, Charlotte!”

“A girl needs a hobby, someone said, and I got mine. There tea in that pot, Debbie?2

“Yup. Quiet day today, girls. Alicia and Serena should be back by lunchtime, so we’ll have someone else to gossip about”

Lunchtime came, and with it a call from Kim.

“Hiya, Debbie. Got Alicia here, and Paul’s just dropping the van around the back of the House for you. Think he needs a shower. Any word from Serena yet? We’ll hang on here till she’s in”

“How’s Alicia?”

“Happy as. Want a word?”

“Please!”

The younger girl came on the phone.

“Hiya Debbie! Happy Chrimbo!”

“How did it go, love? They treat you okay?”

There were a few seconds of silence before she came back, and I could hear the breaks in her speech that told me that she was crying.

“Dad… Don’t know what Dad’s been saying, but Bamps, well, he was great, and Nana, she says, she… she says she always wondered, and now she knows, and she’s happy as long… as long as I am, and, oh, Debbie! Got… got my family, got my Dad, and…”

There were noises at the other end, and Kim came through again.

“Best leave it for now, Deb. Happy girl here, just not up to talking. Any word from Serena yet?”

“Not yet”

“Okay. I’ll hang up in case she’s trying to ring”

“See you later, then, girls”

She clicked off, and the phone rang immediately. I clicked the ‘answer’ button without looking.

“Serena?”

“No. Heidi. She not there, Debbie?”

Her tone of voice was telling me that something was badly wrong.

“No. Alicia is waiting with Kim at the café. Not a word from Serena.

“Oh shit! Can you talk to me, somewhere private? Somewhere the girls can’t hear?”

“What the hell? Hang on”

I stepped out into the back yard, and I realised as I listened that Heidi was crying/

“Talk to me, love. Nobody listening, all right?”

“Oh shit, Debbie, they are still searching the house. No idea how many were inside”

I found myself sitting on the wall where Sparky laid out his shelter.

“What do you mean how many were inside?”

She wasn’t just crying now, but sobbing.

“The house, Debbie. It got torched, small hours this morning. Brigade have just got it out. They need to know if anyone was inside. Have you not heard from Serena?”