Two-Faced (13 page)

‘Ruth’s a bit upset with you,’ Davy said when Liam squatted down beside the car.

‘Not my problem,’ Liam replied, shrugging.

‘No, it’s mine,’ Davy retorted coolly. ‘Seeing as I’m the fucker who’s got to listen to her moaning about it. So be a good lad and get in the car, eh? I’ll drop you round there and youse can sort it out.’

Liam sighed and shook his head. ‘No offence, Davy, but she made her choice when she gave my old man my number, so there’s nothing to sort.’

Davy peered silently back at him for several long moments, screwed up his mouth and shrugged. ‘Oh, well, she can’t say I didn’t try. But if you’re set on staying away, hurry up and get the rest of your gear, ’cos she’s threatening to set fire to the whole fucking lot of it, and knowing her she’ll do it when I’m in bed and fucking cremate me.’

Snorting softly, Liam said, ‘’Cos she’s that upset about me leaving, eh?’

‘She’s a mad Irish bitch – what can I say?’ Davy grinned. ‘Anyhow, I didn’t stop for that. I’m after Kedga. Seen anything of him?’

Shivering as warm air from the car circled his head, Liam said, ‘Not lately. Why, what’s up?’

‘Alzheimer’s,’ Davy replied dryly. ‘Keeps forgetting who he’s dealing with. Walks off with two keys of my skunk, then thinks I’m gonna hang around like a pussy waiting for him to show up with my money.’

‘I haven’t seen him,’ Liam said, standing up. ‘But I’ll keep an eye out for him, if you want.’

‘Yeah, you do that,’ Davy said and reached into his pocket. He took out his wallet, peeled some twenty-pound notes off the wad inside and held them out of the window. ‘You’ve got my number; give us a bell when you find him, yeah?’

‘Yeah, course,’ Liam agreed, slipping his hands in his pockets. ‘But I don’t need paying for it.’

‘Take it,’ Davy insisted. ‘I know you’ve been sleeping rough since you left Ruth’s – I can smell you from here.’

It was a joke, and Liam took it as such. But he still didn’t take the money.

‘Honest, I don’t need it. I’ve been kipping on my mate’s couch, so I’m fine. And my social worker will be getting me into a hostel any day.’

Davy took another suck on his spliff and snorted softly. ‘And that’s what you want, is it? Do-gooders telling you what to do and checking on your every move?’

‘Not really,’ Liam admitted, hoping that Michelle couldn’t hear any of this. He didn’t want her to think he was a loser. ‘But it’s better than nothing. And I’m definitely not going back to Ruth’s.’

‘Can’t say I blame you,’ Davy chuckled. Then, peering up at him, he said, ‘Actually, I might be able to help you out there.’

Liam kept his expression neutral but he was sure that whatever favour Davy was about to offer, there would be a catch. There usually was with guys like him.

‘I’ve got a gaff for rent,’ Davy went on. ‘It’s only a bedsit at the top of an old dump I’ve bought over in Longsight, but at least you’d be able to come and go without no fucker spying on you.’ Grinning now, he nodded towards Michelle. ‘Somewhere to take the honey for a bit of privacy.’

Liam smiled and shook his head. ‘Cheers for the offer, but I think I’d best just go along with what the social worker’s got planned for now. You know what they’re like for asking questions, so you don’t want them in your business as well.’

‘Don’t worry about me,’ Davy countered unconcernedly. ‘I bought the house to channel funds into something legit, so they can’t touch me. You just tell them you found it on an ad in the newsagent’s window, then sit back and leave them to set up your housing benefit and council tax. It’ll be a doddle, and we’ll both get what we want.’

Liam chewed his lip thoughtfully. He didn’t really want to be indebted to Davy, but he had to admit that the thought of having his own place was a damn sight more appealing than moving into a hostel. And at his age, with no job and no prospect of getting one any time soon that would earn him any kind of decent wage, a hostel was all he was likely to get.

‘What about Ruth?’ he asked.

‘Nowt to do with her,’ Davy assured him. ‘Anyhow, I’ll be passing by there in a minute, so why don’t you come and take a look. I’ll get you signed up and you can move straight in. And you’d be doing me a favour, ’cos I could do with having someone I trust in there to keep an eye on the place.’

‘Why, is it empty?’ Liam asked, thinking that he’d be acting as some kind of on-site security guard.

‘I wish,’ Davy snorted. ‘The twats at the auction house conveniently forgot to mention the sitting tenants when I bought it. It’s full of fuckin’ junkies and alkies, and they’ve got
rights
so I can’t turf ’em out.’ Flashing a sly grin at the man sitting beside him now, he added, ‘Not legally, anyhow, but we’re working on it – eh, Faz?’

Nodding, the other man tapped his watch to remind Davy of the time.

Davy turned back to Liam and said, ‘We’ve got to get moving. So what you saying?’

‘I’m definitely interested,’ Liam told him, glancing back at Michelle who was still huddled on the bench, looking thoroughly miserable now. ‘But do you mind if we leave it till tomorrow? Only I’m supposed to be taking her to the pictures.’

‘Nah, I’ve already got someone else in mind for it, so it’s either tonight or forget it,’ Davy told him. Then, grinning lewdly, he added, ‘Bring her. There’s a bed, so I’m sure she won’t mind missing out on a film.’

Liam told him to wait a minute and went back to Michelle to explain the situation.

She cast a surreptitious glance at the men in the Merc when he asked if she wanted to come. They looked really sinister, and she
really
didn’t want to be stuck in a car with them. Anyway, there was no telling how long it would take for them to get to wherever they were going and do what they had to do, and if she didn’t get home before her mum and Mia there would be hell to pay.

‘I’d best not,’ she said. ‘But you go. You need the flat.’

‘Sure you don’t mind?’

‘Not at all.’

‘And you’ll be all right getting home by yourself?’ When she nodded and said she’d be fine, Liam went to kiss her. Stopping himself in time, because he sensed that she would probably jump a mile, he shrugged and said, ‘I’ll give you a ring, then.’

Michelle watched as he got into the car. When they set off, she hunched her shoulders and headed for home, arriving just as the phone started ringing.

‘Just making sure everything’s all right,’ her mum said when she answered – trying, Michelle thought, not to sound like she was checking up on her. ‘You sound a bit breathless. What you been up to?’

‘I was on the loo, so I had to run downstairs,’ Michelle lied.

‘Where’s your mate?’ her mum asked. ‘I hope you haven’t left her on her own and let her start rooting around?’

‘She couldn’t make it,’ Michelle told her. ‘Something came up, so we’re just going to go over that coursework at school tomorrow instead.’

Sounding just the tiniest bit guilty now for having doubted her, her mum said, ‘Okay, well, try not to fall asleep before we get back. Sammy’s giving Mia some extra coaching so we might be a bit late, and I don’t want to have to bang the door down.’

Michelle promised that she’d be up and put the phone down. She gazed at herself in the mirror. Despite the running, her cheeks were deathly pale, which made the freckles Mia despised stand out more sharply than usual. And the hood of her jacket had flattened her carefully straightened hair to her head, so she looked a fright. But at least she hadn’t been caught.

This time.

6

Mia’s first audition came and went without success.

Knowing her as well as he now did, and recognising a real diva in the making, Sammy had tried to prepare her for that eventuality, explaining that it was practically unheard of for
any
model to land the very first job they went after. He’d told her that she mustn’t be disappointed when she didn’t get it, because there would be plenty more opportunities in the future.

And Mia had listened to his advice with her usual dutifully attentive expression, although she hadn’t believed for one second that she would fail. In fact, she’d been utterly convinced that she would prove to be the exception to the rule and land her first job with no trouble whatsoever. So when Sammy had told her the bad news, she’d been devastated. And it hadn’t helped that the successful girl was also one of Sammy’s clients – and a complete dog, in Mia’s opinion.

But she’d hidden her disappointment well, too proud to allow anyone to see how badly it had affected her in case they thought that she was jealous of the dog – or something ridiculous like that.

Impressed that she’d handled her first rejection with such maturity – because he’d secretly dreaded that she would go into a major strop – Sammy had quickly lined up several more auditions, the last of which was for a TV ad along the same lines as Jonathon’s teen-razor affair, only this time it concerned a girl waxing her legs for the first time because she was going on her first date.

He’d actually been a bit wary of putting her forward for that one, wondering if it might be too soon. But she’d insisted that she wanted a shot at it, and he’d let himself be persuaded.

Mia was ecstatic about the Wonder Wax audition, and the bitter taste of failure from the previous audition that was still so sour in her mouth just made her all the more determined to bag it. Using the intermediate audition as rehearsals, she soaked up the photographers’ directions like a sponge and scrutinised the other models in order to analyse later what the ones who ultimately landed the jobs had over her.

Now, with just a week to go, she already felt like a pro, and so she really didn’t appreciate her mum and Sammy constantly giving her last-minute tips. She never listened to a word her mum said, anyway, but Sammy was really getting on her nerves.

‘The trick,’ he was telling her on the phone now, for the third time today – and it wasn’t even lunchtime yet! – ‘is to
be
, not to
pose
. It’s not enough to just sit there prettily tearing strips off your legs. You’ve got to really
believe
that you’re going on your first date. So,
do
you believe it?’

‘
Yes!
’ Mia snapped, just about managing not to swear at him. ‘Now will you just leave me alone and let me get on with it, or I’ll be a nervous wreck by the time it happens!’

Much as Kim admired Sammy and understood what he was trying to do, even
she
thought that he was going a bit over the top with his constant coaching. Seeing how much it was pissing Mia off now, and fearing that her stubborn daughter might dig her heels in and make a mess of the audition if he didn’t ease up on her, she snatched the phone out of Mia’s hand.

‘Hello, Sammy, it’s Kim. Sorry she’s so tetchy, but she’s been practising all day and she’s a bit kna—
tired
. Anyway, I’ve been cracking the whip, so you don’t have to worry.’ She paused to listen to what the agent was saying and grimaced at Mia, mouthing,
‘He’s coming round.’

‘I’m not here!’ Mia hissed. ‘I’m going out!’

Gesturing to her to be quiet, Kim said, ‘Yes, I’ll be in, but I’m afraid Mia probably won’t be by then. She’s, er . . . she’s got an appointment with the dentist.’

‘He’s doing my head in,’ Mia complained when her mum came off the phone. ‘Can’t we find another agent?’

‘No, we can’t,’ Kim told her firmly. ‘I know he’s a bit full-on, but it’s only because he wants you to do well, so stop being disrespectful. He’s a good man.’

‘
Ew
,’ Mia grunted, giving her mother a dirty look. ‘You’re starting to sound like you fancy him.’

‘Don’t be daft,’ Kim scoffed, turning her head to hide the pinkness of her cheeks. ‘Anyhow, hadn’t you best get going? He said he’d only be ten minutes. He’s dropping off some pictures he wants you to look through.’

‘I’m not going anywhere,’ Mia said, flopping down onto the couch and flicking through the TV channels.

‘I thought you didn’t want to see him?’

‘I won’t have to. You can go out to the car and get the pictures.’

‘I can’t not invite him in when he’s gone to all that trouble; I’ll have to at least offer him a coffee. Anyhow, you’re the one who said you were going out.’

‘I didn’t mean it,’ Mia grumbled. ‘Anyway, there’s nowhere
to
go. Laura’s at school, and I’m not talking to anyone else.’

‘Why don’t you go into town, then?’

‘Gonna give me some money?’ Glancing up, Mia gave Kim a sly grin. ‘Otherwise I might have to stay in and tell him you were lying about the dentist.’

‘You’re a cheeky cow, you,’ Kim snorted. But she still reached for her purse – just as Mia had known that she would. Shoving a twenty-pound note into her daughter’s hand, she said, ‘There, now piss off. And don’t be telling Shell, ’cos I haven’t got anything for her.’

‘Like I ever talk to her anyway,’ Mia drawled, snatching the money and skipping out into the hall. She slipped Michelle’s jacket on because her own was upstairs and she couldn’t be bothered going for it, shouted goodbye and let herself out of the house.

She walked around to the bus stop only to see a bus pulling away and leaned against the plexiglas shelter to wait for the next one. A few minutes later, daydreaming about the house she was going to buy far away from this dump when she landed the TV job and became mega-rich and famous, she glanced around irritably when the sound of an unfamiliar ringtone disturbed her thoughts. She frowned when she saw that there was nobody around, then patted her pockets when she realised the sound was coming from inside the jacket.

Pulling Michelle’s phone out, her eyebrows puckered when she saw a love-heart symbol on the screen.

‘Hello?’ she said, answering. ‘Who’s that?’

‘Me,’ Liam said, chuckling softly. ‘Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten me already.’

‘Depends who “me” is,’ Mia replied dryly. ‘You’re not the only lad in the world, you know.’

‘Liam,’ he told her, a hint of uncertainty in his voice now. ‘Sorry, I just thought you’d recognise my voice. But it’s been a while since I called, so I guess I shouldn’t have assumed.’