Damaged Goods (15 page)

‘That may be so, Miss Valentine, but the papers are not available to me to evaluate,’ said the magistrate.

Marshall cleared his throat. ‘The second point I was going to make before my friend interrupted was that this offence carries a mandatory life sentence, which must make the defendant at risk of absconding.’

Lilly shook her head in exasperation. ‘If my friend knew the first thing about the law involving children he would know that life sentences do not apply.’

‘That’s true,’ said the magistrate, ‘but this crime would carry a lengthy term of imprisonment so the point remains valid, if clumsily made.’

‘A fair point, but the reality here is that Kelsey has nowhere to go. Nowhere to run.’ Lilly took her client’s hand, she was not above a few theatrics of her own. ‘She has lived on the same estate all her life and has left the area only once on a daytrip to the seaside. Her mother is dead and her sisters are in care; sadly, she has no one else.’

‘She could take to the streets, she wouldn’t be the first,’ spluttered Marshall.

‘Yes, I’m sure a life alone in a shop doorway sounds enticing to Kelsey,’ Lilly answered, ‘but the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Kelsey has known about these charges for some time but has made no attempt to evade the police.’

Kelsey gripped Lilly’s hand, her nails digging into the fleshy palm, while the magistrate thought about his decision.

‘I am in a very difficult position today as I do not have all the facts. The police and the Crown appear to have rushed over here without due preparation. I feel that the issue of bail should be brought before a Crown Court at the earliest opportunity.’

Lilly allowed her shoulders to relax.

‘However, in the meantime I must err on the side of caution and remand Miss Brand into custody.’

Lilly and Miriam watched in silence as Kelsey was bundled into the back of a white prison van. It would be full of women chained to the bar behind their seat. Kelsey would be squeezed in among them then chained herself. The journey onwards would take about an hour in the rush-hour traffic. The windows were placed deliberately high so Kelsey would have no idea where she was being taken.

This is not Rochene. This is not Rochene. Lilly whispered the mantra under her breath, her heart thudding.

Lilly felt the heat of Jack’s presence behind her before he spoke. She drank in the smell of damp leather. He must have got caught in the downpour too.

‘You’ll get a priority hearing at the Crown Court,’ he said.

‘Not today, Jack,’ Lilly sighed.

‘She’ll be all right.’

He didn’t sound convinced.

‘She’s being taken to jail, Jack. A child has no business being locked up with addicts and thieves and Christ knows what,’ said Lilly.

‘She’s seen it all before,’ he said.

‘She’s still a child,’ admonished Miriam, but her tone wasn’t stern. She knew what he was trying to say. ‘And a child has no business being locked up twenty-four seven with adult criminals.’

‘You’ll get no argument from me,’ he replied. ‘But remember, this isn’t Rochene.’

Lilly smiled to herself. The man had ESP. The rain had stopped, the temperature had dropped. Jack was one of the good guys, and this wasn’t Rochene.

Max checked his watch. As soon as the police had let him go he had sent a text to the girl telling her to come to his place tonight. Then he had raced home to clear up. He knew from experience that the right accessories were everything. A surround-sound TV, an expensive music system, Gucci aftershave in the bathroom. These were things that would impress her, never mind that he lived on the fourteenth floor of one of the most ugly tower blocks in the country.

He watched her now as she fingered the latest iPod he’d left casually but conspicuously on the sofa. A kid from round the estate had robbed it the day before and offered it to Max to clear off the debt from his ever-increasing habit. Normally Max accepted nothing but cash, but he’d fancied the iPod and made an exception. It stored thirty hours of music, which would come in handy on the long flight to LA. He smiled to himself at the thought of his forthcoming trip.

Time to get to work.

‘You have a very pretty face, Charlene,’ he said.

She blushed and tugged at the frayed edge of her boob tube. ‘Nobody’s ever said that before.’

Max waved his arm to the side in derision. ‘Trust me, you have just what I’m looking for.’ He moved towards her. ‘I am gonna make you a star.’

He took her face in his hands and turned it to the side. ‘Take it off.’

Charlene looked startled and shrank away.

‘Your makeup, take it off.’ He held out a bottle of cheap lotion. ‘I need to get a shot of you totally natural. All the top agencies will want one.’

Relieved at her mistake, she took the bottle from him.

‘You’re real cute, baby, but I’m a professional, I don’t take advantage of my position,’ he assured her.

Predictably, he caught the fleeting look of disappointment in her eyes and whispered, ‘But you can always take advantage of yours.’

Charlene beamed and removed her makeup to reveal a pasty and pimply complexion.

‘Peaches and cream,’ Max purred, and pulled her hair into two pigtails held high and tight on each side of her head. He chose glittery hair-bands to keep them in place.

Charlene checked her reflection and pouted. ‘I thought I was supposed to be a model. I look bleeding twelve.’

Max rubbed the top of her arm and smiled in reassurance. ‘You look perfect. You’re just nervous, everyone is the first time.’

‘Really?’ she said.

He pulled out a small plastic bag containing four pills. ‘All my girls need something to relax them before a shoot.’

‘I ain’t no junkie,’ said Charlene.

Max pretended to be hurt. ‘Of course not, baby. These are just for fun, to get you in the mood. Kate Moss and all those supermodels take them.’

Charlene held out her hand. ‘Kate Moss!’

Half an hour later the girl was sprawled on the sofa giggling as Max took some Polaroids.

‘I thought you’d have a proper camera with a tripod and that,’ she slurred.

‘We use those for studio sessions,’ said Max. ‘These are just shots for your portfolio. To get people interested.’

‘Do you think anyone will be interested?’ she asked.

He flashed a smile. ‘Definitely. I know one man who’ll be chomping at the bit.’

Pleased with this information, Charlene allowed Max to rearrange her arms above her head and didn’t even notice that her pants and one breast were exposed.

When the girl had passed out Max sat beside her on the sofa. The photographs were good but Max didn’t feel pleased. Disgust was beginning to well in the pit of his stomach, threatening to make him retch. He reached for his pipe. He’d have just a few toots to settle himself. Wouldn’t anyone need it in these circumstances?

He nodded to himself as he took the first deep breath and finished the whole rock in seconds.

Now he could look at the last Polaroid and smile.

‘Yeah, baby, I know someone who will love this. And when he pays what I ask you’re gonna be in the movies.’ He turned to Charlene. ‘You’d like that, wouldn’t you?’

He shook her hard. ‘I said you’d like that, right?’

She was comatose.

‘Jesus,’ he muttered, and pushed her off the sofa. The fall woke her momentarily but she curled foetus like on the dirty carpet and went straight back to sleep.

Lilly parked outside her house. She staggered to her door and noticed the dent in the left-hand wing of her car. Then she saw that the bumper was hanging off and the headlight was smashed. Clearly she had more than tapped the bollard outside court.

Part of her divorce settlement was that David would give her a car and keep up the insurance payments, so she would have to call him with the details to make a claim. It was the last thing she needed, far behind having a bath and a bottle of red wine. Thank God that Sam was at karate club and wouldn’t be home for a few hours.

She poured a generous amount of lavender oil into the stream of the hot tap, its heady yet soothing aroma immediately filling the tatty little bathroom. The doctor had told her to ensure her wound stayed dry, but given her earlier soaking Lilly declared his advice null and void.

She slipped beneath the unctuous film into the gloriously hot water below. It was enough to make her skin pink and her mind quiet. She closed her eyes and sighed.

Too soon Lilly’s sanctuary was invaded by an annoying but persistent prickle in her throat. She instinctively rubbed the offending spot and immediately it stung. Whether the problem was the water or the oil was a moot point, but it caused Lilly to leap out of the bath like a scalded cat. In the mirror she could see the wound was red and angry; a steady trickle of blood dribbled down and pooled between her breasts. Even dabbing it with a towel was agony.

As Lilly searched for cotton wool the phone rang. It was David.

‘I’m glad it’s you,’ she said.

‘It’s nice to speak to you too.’

‘No, no, I’m not glad because it’s you per se,’ she said, ‘but I’m glad because I need to speak to you.’

‘Whatever, Lilly, I’m just glad you’re glad.’

There was an awkward silence which David eventually filled. ‘So what did you need to speak to me about?’

Lilly swallowed her pride. ‘I pranged the car.’

‘Ah.’

Lilly stepped outside and surveyed the damage. ‘It’s quite bad, well, not really bad, but bad enough.’

‘Ah.’

‘I’ll need to make a claim.’

‘Who are your insurers?’ he asked.

‘I don’t know, you’ve got the paperwork.’

‘Why would I have it?’

Lilly wondered if he was being deliberately obtuse but his tone sounded genuinely baffled.

‘You sort out the insurance, so everything comes to you. I probably have a copy somewhere but I can’t put my hand on it,’ she said.

‘We talked about this a couple of months ago, Lilly. I can’t afford to keep up the insurance payments.’

Lilly nodded, she remembered the conversation, one of a million they had every week about money or the lack of it. ‘You said you’d ask Cara to shop around for something cheaper but I guess she was too busy having her toes waxed.’

David sighed. ‘She called umpteen other companies but they were all as expensive. Perhaps if you didn’t have quite so many accidents …’

‘Well, she didn’t call me,’ Lilly interrupted, in no mood to discuss her checkered motoring history.

‘Ah.’

Lilly pulled the towel around her. The air felt cool on her wet skin.

‘What the fuck does that mean, David?’

‘You don’t need to swear.’

‘Yes, actually, I do.’

Another maddening silence; again it was David who cracked. ‘Since we couldn’t find anything more economical, I reverted to the premise of the original conversation.’

‘Which was what?’

‘That you would have to pay it yourself.’

He coughed in embarrassment and Lilly finally understood what he had done.

‘You bastard! You total, utter bastard! You cancelled my insurance.’

‘I couldn’t afford it, Lil,’ he said.

Lilly raised her voice to a roar. ‘I’ve been driving around in an uninsured car.’

‘Cara was supposed to tell you.’

‘I don’t suppose she cares that I’m ferrying around my son,
your son
, in an illegal vehicle. That, I imagine, is low on her list of priorities.’

‘That’s not fair, she hasn’t been feeling a hundred per cent.’

‘Nothing too trivial, I hope.’

‘Actually, she’s pregnant.’

This time the silence was broken by Lilly hanging up.

The doorstep was hard and cold. It was almost five and Lilly was still sitting motionless, gazing at the state of her car. She adjusted the damp towel that was wrapped round her and took a sip of wine from the glass in her right hand and a bite from the Snickers bar in her left. She tried to ignore the throbbing in her throat and concentrated on the damage. Even on the cheap it would cost more than a month’s salary to repair.

Tears stung Lilly’s eyes but she didn’t swallow them, she let them roll down her cheeks and drip off her chin. Soon, her shoulders heaved.

‘Whatever’s the matter?’

Lilly looked up and saw Penny at the gate.

She swiped at her cheeks with the back of her hand. ‘What are you doing here?’

‘Thanks for the welcome,’ Penny laughed. ‘You seemed in a bit of a state this morning so I thought I’d just check everything was okay.’

‘If the mothers have been twittering behind my back you can tell them not to worry. I’m not having a breakdown.’

Penny laughed again. ‘Don’t be so suspicious, Lilly. This isn’t a delegation.
I
just wanted to know you were okay.’

Lilly instinctively felt uncomfortable that someone saw her as anything other than tough. She fought for something funny to say to deflect Penny’s concern but nothing came to mind.

‘Everyone needs a friend from time to time,’ said Penny.

Lilly’s eyes welled again. She had friends, didn’t she? She wasn’t lonely, was she?

Lilly gasped between sobs, ‘I crashed my car.’

Penny surveyed the damage and prodded the wing with the toe of a pristine tennis shoe. She sat down next to Lilly and put her hand on Lilly’s knee. ‘Now why don’t you tell me what’s really wrong?’

For nearly an hour Lilly set out Kelsey’s case. How she had been adamant that Max had killed Grace, but now couldn’t even be sure that Kelsey hadn’t killed her mother. She admitted that the uncertainty was tormenting her and the responsibility weighed too heavily on her shoulders. She mentioned Jack and her feelings for him. She doubted he would ever forgive her if he found out about the letter. Indeed, Lilly would never forgive herself if Kelsey went on to hurt other innocent people.

Finally, she admitted how shocked she had been on hearing of Cara’s pregnancy.

‘It’s not that I want him back but I still feel hurt. For all the crap that went on between us we still had this special bond because of Sam, and now he’ll have that bond with someone else as well.’