Behind a Closed Door (The Estate, Book 2) (5 page)

She pushed her way through the overgrown hedges again.

‘Mummy, I’m wet,’ Emily wailed.

Kelly kept a hold of her hand as she guided her down the steps. ‘Nearly there,’ she gave her voice a sing-song tone. ‘Then we can see our new home, Emily. Isn’t it exciting?’

Kelly opened the door and bent down to have a nosy at the mail that had been pushed to one side when she’d been shown around. Dozens of leaflets advertised two for the price of one pizzas and double glazing. Red bill reminders for the previous tenant, the odd letter addressed to the new occupier and free newspapers aplenty.

‘Pooh, it stinks.’ Emily covered her nose with her hand.

Kelly encouraged her to climb the concrete stairs with a gentle nudge on her shoulder. A ninety degree turn to the left led them into a long hallway, made brighter by the vast but narrow landing window behind them. Four doors led off it. The first one on the right revealed the larger of the two bedrooms. Next to that was the bathroom. It was half the size of the one Kelly was leaving, with damp patches that needed to be papered over or, at the very least, painted. The door on the left led into the other bedroom.

Kelly walked the few steps towards the last door and pushed it open. It led into the living room.

‘And it’s cold,’ Emily added, when Kelly hadn’t answered her.

‘It won’t be, once we move our stuff here and put the fire on.’

‘But it will be dark soon and I don’t like the dark. I’m scared, Mummy. I want to go to Nanny’s.’

‘It won’t be dark for ages yet, and I promise we’ll be gone long before then.’ Kelly squatted down to Emily’s level and pulled her daughter into her arms. ‘It’s going to be fun living here, Em, wait and see. You can have your room decorated however you like. Do you want Barbie again? Or do you want something else now that you’re growing into a young lady?’

‘Can I choose my room first?’

While Emily raced around, determined on making as much noise as possible on the bare floorboards, Kelly checked the windows. Child locks had been fitted, but nothing to deter the thieves: at least they were on the first floor in this block. She ran a hand over the freshly plastered chimney breast. If only the other three walls were in the same state, she could get away with a lick of paint. But they weren’t. The fresh plaster had been where the previous tenant must have ripped out the fireplace and hadn’t put the damage right. The housing association had re-fitted another one, ripping off some of the wallpaper and plastering over a good deal of what was left.

Kelly looked out of the large window and surveyed the neighbouring properties. She was in a block of four flats: other than the two blocks above hers in Clarence Avenue, the rest consisted of semi-detached properties, similar to the one she was being forced to leave, but they were nowhere near as tidy. The garden in the house opposite had more rubbish bags there than in her new garden and a soggy, single mattress had been dumped on the path. On the patch of grass in front of a bay window, the shell of an old hatchback balanced precariously on piles of house bricks, the wheels having long ago vacated the body. The windscreen was missing and the number plates had been removed to claim anonymity.

Kelly tried to calm the fear mounting inside her. She’d spent six nights on her own since Scott had gone. Only now was it beginning to sink in that he wasn’t coming home for a long time – wasn’t coming home to Patrick Street at all, in fact. He’d made sure of that.

‘I’ve picked me room, Mummy,’ Emily shouted through, bringing Kelly back to the present with a jolt. ‘Come and find me!’

‘My room, Emily. I’ve picked
my
room.’ Kelly raised a smile as she walked through to the bedroom. ‘I can’t see you,’ she played along with her. ‘Are you hiding from me?’

Emily giggled as Kelly flung open the cupboard door. In a fit of fun, she grabbed her daughter and began to tickle her.

As they collapsed into a heap of laughter, Kelly’s nerves began to centre. Maybe it was inevitable that she’d be anxious about moving here, but what choice did she have? She had to live somewhere and here was as good as any place. It had a roof and four walls, much more than some people had, and she already had furniture – well, most of it would fit in.

It would keep her warm and dry, though, and that’s all that mattered, really. And she would be safe, even on her own – if not entirely happy. Eventually she’d get
used to every creak of the floorboards, every bang of the hot water system, without jumping out of bed to investigate the locked door.

‘I think we’ll go up into town tomorrow morning, Em, and buy some roll ends of wallpaper. Then in the afternoon we’ll start to pack up your things.’

‘I have lots of things, don’t I, Mummy?’

‘Yes, you do.’ Despite her reluctance, Kelly would have to ask Jay to lend a hand with some of the bigger items, but she promised herself it would only be this once. She looked around the room again. Number 33 Clarence Avenue, their new home. Well, it would be when she’d finished with it, Kelly resolved. 

‘Yoo-hoo! Anyone home?’ There was a light rap on the door. ‘Thought I’d come and see for myself as you said you’d be measuring up for curtains.’

‘Nanny!’ Emily rushed towards her.

‘You call this home?’ Kelly griped as her mum, Jill, came into the room. Their stature and height were the same and, apart from a few grey hairs instead of an all over brown, their resemblance was uncanny. Emily had the Winterton button nose too.

‘Clarence Avenue isn’t as bad as everyone makes out,’ Jill tried to reassure her daughter.

‘It’ll do, I suppose. Looks pretty rough to me, though.’

Jill glanced around the bare living room. ‘You can make it nice, love. You seem to have a flair for this kind of thing.’

‘It’s going to cost me a fortune to get it half decent,’ Kelly continued, knowing that her mum really meant the inside and not the outside of the property. ‘There’s a stack of decorating to do, and cleaning. Everything needs to be scrubbed again before I’m moving one piece of furniture in. I can’t believe the association let it in this state.’

‘Have you thought about what to do for money until Scott gets back from you know where?’

Kelly was confused. ‘I don’t follow,’ she said.

‘Your dad says they’re advertising on the twilight shift at Miles’ factory. Four ‘til eight. It’s a little unsociable but it could work out well for you. I could look after Emily.’

‘Yeah, can we, mummy?’ Emily chirped in at the mention of her name. ‘I can stay with Nanny.’

‘And you know lots of people there. There’s Pam, for a start.’ Pam was Kelly’s auntie. Her cousin, Estelle, worked at the factory too.

‘I’m hardly going to have time to do anything else with all the decorating they’re expecting me to do in this dump.’

Jill shrugged and walked over to the window. ‘I just think there’s more to you than a stay at home mum.’

‘Actually, I was thinking of doing a college course.’

Jill turned back to her daughter and smiled. ‘I think that’s a great idea. What do you fancy doing?’

‘I’m not sure, thought I’d suss it out.’ Kelly back-pedalled slightly. ‘I know that being a mum is the best job in the world but Em will be starting school in September. I don’t know what I’ll do with myself then. Maybe if I start a course while Scott is – erm,’ she looked at her mum again, ‘working away, I could always say I felt the need to fend for myself in case he went to work away again.’

 ‘Maybe if you went to college during the day, you could manage the twilight shift?’ Jill pulled a bag of sweets from her handbag and gave them to Emily. ‘It’s not rocket science and it’s repetitive but you know the money will be good. And it beats scrounging off the social. I’ve always thought better of you than that.’

Kelly huffed. ‘Knowing my luck, I’d probably be hopeless at it.’

‘You won’t know if you don’t try.’

‘But what if I’m not good enough?’

‘Then you’ll get better with practice. You’re a smart woman, love, and not everyone on this estate needs to play the part of an extra in
Shameless.
Don’t get dragged down with the rest of them,’ she advised. ‘You can get yourself out of this situation if you really want to.’

Kelly said nothing. She knew she needed to secure her future but she wouldn’t make her mind up yet. There was so much changing in her life right now. She had all her furniture to pack up, her change of addresses to sort out, and she still had to go and see Scott, which was another thing she kept pushing to the back of her mind.

CHAPTER FIVE

‘Please tell me that’s all of it.’ Jay crammed two more boxes into the back of the van he’d borrowed. ‘I don’t know about you, but I’m knackered. I think you owe me a beer when we’ve shifted this load.’

‘I think I can run to that,’ Kelly answered. For all her misgivings, she wouldn’t have managed today if it wasn’t for Jay and his offer of a van. Her mum and dad had helped her to box up the remainder of their belongings yesterday, keeping Emily with them overnight so Kelly could shift the heavier items without her getting in the way this morning.

Jay pulled down the roller shutter and secured the padlock. ‘I reckon we’ll have this unpacked at the other end in a couple of hours. Do you want to see if we’ve forgotten anything?’

Kelly went back into the house and wandered around each room, checking cupboards, pulling out kitchen drawers, but she hadn’t missed anything. Finally, she made one last trip to the living room. She held back tears. Never again would she open her curtains and feast her eyes on old Mrs Shelby across the road at number forty, who’d wave whenever she saw her; be woken up by the boys from number thirty-two coming home from the pub at the weekends; be able to nip in to see Sue, her mum’s friend, at number seventeen to check on how her grandson was doing.

She had so many memories, good and bad: bringing Emily home from hospital, her first Christmas, her first birthday. Painting the living room walls buttercup yellow for two days until she and Scott couldn’t live with it any longer and had to do it all again in pale lemon; the police knocking on the door every time there had been a robbery or break-in to check for stolen goods. Kelly had lost count of how many times that had happened during their relationship.

‘Ready?’ said Jay as he came back inside.

Kelly turned towards him. ‘It’s not fair,’ she choked back tears. ‘Why should I have to move out because of that thoughtless git? This is my home, too.’

‘Don’t worry. I’ll help you in Clarence Avenue. It’ll be like this place in no time – only don’t try and badger me into any wallpapering. I’m crap at it. It always rolls down the wall again, no matter how much paste I put on.’

Kelly’s lips twitched, thankful that he was trying to make her smile.

‘Has Scott called again?’ Jay asked.

‘Yeah, last night.’

‘And am I taking you to see him?’

‘I’m not sure.’

Jay nodded. ‘I thought you’d say that. But he needs you, Kel. I can’t imagine what it’s like in there but I know he’ll be missing you.’

The lone tear that had trickled down Kelly’s cheek now headed towards her neck. She wiped it away abruptly. ‘He should’ve thought about that before he did that last job. I told him not to do it.’

‘Don’t you think he regrets that now?’

Kelly had asked herself that more than once over the past fortnight and it was eating her up inside.
Had
it all been a mistake? Had he been unaware of his actions? She needed to see Scott, ask him why he’d done it – to hear him say he hadn’t realised that he’d put their lives into jeopardy. But it was too raw.

‘I’m not ready to forgive him yet. Look what’s happened because of his stupidity.’

‘I know. You’ve every right to be upset.’

Yes, she did have every right to be upset. But Kelly didn’t want Jay to see her like that. Despite her anguish, she held her head up.

‘Upset is one thing, but feeling sorry for myself? I’m better than that.’

Jay flashed a smile. ‘Of course you are, but everyone’s entitled to throw a wobbler every now and then. It’s only natural.’

Kelly sniffed, knowing that if she stood there much longer, she’d start crying properly. ‘Let’s get out of here,’ she said, trying not to think that, as she walked down the path, it was for the very last time.

The following week, Josie was in the office, about to start on the massive task of clearing some of her paperwork. There were six people in that morning as she pulled out a bundle of files from her in-tray. Moments earlier, Debbie had finished her stint on the reception counter and was eating an apple while flicking through a pile of messages. A telephone went unanswered as Irene and Sonia argued over who was going to take over from her.

Where was the office manager when they needed her, Josie thought? Kay Whitehead had been their manager for the last seven years but most of that time had been spent working at their head office in Warbury on special projects – so special that none of her staff ever knew what she was doing. Sometimes the office ran okay without her being there: she was, she insisted, only a phone call away. Sometimes, however, things became a little lax and the staff started to rule the roost.