Perseverance Street (13 page)

Dee shrugged. ‘I wouldn’t know how, but I knew it could be done and I knew he wouldn’t put it past me. That’s all I needed. Anyway, not long after that he had a heart attack and died. Lucky me eh?’

‘How long ago was this?’

‘Thirteen years ago, during which time I learned the imitation jewellery business and established proper contacts to buy high quality merchandise.’

Lily sat
up in her chair and took a sip of her tea, realising she didn’t really know Auntie Dee. She was a formidable lady, right enough, and thank heavens for that.

‘So, is that how you got me out of that hospital place – blackmail?’

‘You were legally discharged but I had to lean on the doctor who discharged you. I just need to know your discharge is kosher. We don’t want the police arresting you the minute you turn up on the in-laws’ doorstep.’

‘How do we do that?’

‘By ringing Dr Freeman.’

‘Who’s he?’

‘He’s the creep I had to lean on. The man in charge of the hospital where you’ve spent the last month. A worse man than Johnnie Eccles ever was.’

‘Freeman? Was that his name? I remember someone. He had a white coat. Didn’t like him. Was I there a month?’

Yes, and you’d have been there a damned sight longer if Freeman had had his way
, Dee thought.

‘I need to know the name of the copper in Leeds who’s leading the hunt for Michael.’

Lily had to think long and hard about this one. It was a name emblazoned on her memory just over a month ago. ‘It’s something to do with stairs … Balustrade, I think.’

‘Funny name. Are you sure?’

‘No.’ Lily screwed up her face in thought, then her face cleared, as did her mind.

‘Bannister. His name’s Bannister.’

‘I assume
he’s a detective.’

‘Yes. He doesn’t wear a uniform. He’s a sergeant I think. Yes, Detective Sergeant Bannister.’ Lily smiled at her own achievement.

Dee was one of the few people in her street who had a telephone. She also had the number of Ecclestone House Hospital, along with the numbers of every other psychiatric establishment in West Yorkshire. Freeman answered on the second ring. He was obviously in his office.

‘Benny Boy. This is your good friend Dee Maguire. I’m ringing to confirm that you’ve sent the discharge notice to the Leeds Magistrates’ Courts and Leeds Police.’

There was a long hesitation before Freeman said, ‘I have – that’s what I agreed isn’t it?’

‘Yes, but you’re a weasel and I don’t trust you. I’m going to ring a certain Detective Sergeant Bannister of the Leeds Police right now and ask if Lily’s been officially released. If anyone knows, it’s him. What will he tell me?’

‘He’ll tell you what you want to hear.’

‘Good because if he doesn’t I’ll give him the list your wife compiled in her own fair hand.’

‘And how are you going to do that? I burned it.’

Dee laughed. ‘Oh, how gullible you weasels are. Do you think I didn’t make a copy of all the names? I have it here. Ruth Ingham, Dolly Marshal—’

‘All right, all right, so you have a copy. I kept my side of the bargain. I expect you to keep yours. The courts and the police have been informed, in writing, of her discharge. I’ve also
confirmed it by telephone. She’s a free woman. How is she, by the way?’

‘She’s OK, no thanks to you.’

There was a long pause before he said, without conviction, ‘Then you’ll know I didn’t screw her.’ He was hoping Lily wouldn’t remember what he
did
do to her.

‘Do I?’ said Dee mischievously. ‘I’ll see what Sergeant Bannister has to say about her discharge being official. If it isn’t, you’re in deep trouble.’

‘It’s official.’

Dee put the phone down and smiled at Lily, who was standing beside her. ‘You’re in the clear, Lily. Free as a bird.’

‘This Dr Freeman, do you think he might have molested me?’

‘I don’t know, Lily. What do you remember?’

‘Not much, but I have images of …’ She shuddered. ‘I don’t know what.’

‘Try and forget the images, Lily. He had you drugged. All sorts of weird images come to you when you’re drugged. He most probably didn’t do anything.’

Dee doubted that very much, but it was better that she think otherwise. Lily had enough on her plate right now without her being the victim of a perverted doctor who would get his comeuppance anyway.

But Lily wasn’t fooled.

‘Auntie Dee, suppose he’s made me pregnant?’

Dee sighed. ‘Lily, if he did
that
to you it wouldn’t be just images. You’d know for certain. He likes his victims with a bit of life in them, otherwise it’d be like doing it to a
corpse. I remember him of old. I know his sick ways. On top of which he always uses protection.’ Then she added hastily, ‘But he won’t have raped you. Never think that.’

‘Are you going to be ringing Sergeant Bannister now?’

There was apprehension in Lily’s eyes. At the back of her mind she knew that Bannister had never been a bringer of good news.

‘I could do, but he might start asking awkward questions, such as who am I and where are you?’ She gave it some thought then decided, ‘No, there’ll be no need for that. Freeman wouldn’t dare bluff me with so much at stake for him.’

‘What list were you talking about?’

‘Oh, just a list of Dr Freeman’s patients. Women he wouldn’t want the police to be visiting and asking awkward questions.’

‘Women he molested?’

‘Women who actually remember being raped by him, which is why I’m sure he didn’t rape you.’

‘And will the police be visiting them?’

Dee let out a roar of laughter. ‘You bet your life they will, Lily! Now that we know you’re in the clear I’ll make damn sure Freeman gets what’s coming to him. I should have shopped him years ago. He’ll get ten years for what he’s done. My God! Why on earth do these idiot men trust me to keep my mouth shut?’

Godfrey and
Jane Robinson lived in a four-bedroomed detached house on a leafy street in the more opulent part of Roundhay in Leeds. Godfrey was a butcher with four shops and he’d been doing very nicely out of the war due to a black market scam he was running. He had land out near Wetherby where he raised pigs for pork and bacon. It wasn’t difficult to kill two pigs and hide one from the food inspector. Larry had known about this and had told Lily on condition she didn’t mention it to the authorities. She hadn’t given the matter a second thought as she never had any time for Larry’s snobby parents. Luckily for Godfrey, Lily, still recovering from the damage caused by her stay with Freeman, had pushed such trivialities into a dark recess of her memory.

Dee’s motorbike combination pulled to a noisy halt outside the Robinsons’ house and both women sat for a few moments taking a look at it. Lily had only been there once, to meet Larry’s parents. It hadn’t been a memorable meeting, especially as Larry had omitted to mention to Lily that her parents always called him Laurence. Her calling him Larry met with instant disapproval. They were devout Christians and members of the
Lord’s Day Observance Society. Lily thought she might catch them at their best on the Sabbath.

The house was an old stone property set well back from the road, with large, beautiful gardens that Lily knew were tended by a gardener. Godfrey wasn’t a man for any kind of manual labour. He didn’t even chop his own meat.

‘Comfy-looking gaff,’ observed Dee, dismounting from the bike and taking off her helmet and goggles. She turned to Lily. ‘Are you sure they’ll be in?’

‘Yes. On a Sunday they go to church in the morning and then stay in – observing the Lord’s Day.’

‘How are we going to play this? I mean, Christopher is your son. As far as I know they have no legal right to keep him. You could just thank them kindly for looking after him and tell them you’ll be taking him to live with you, where he belongs.’

Lily was shaking with nerves. ‘I know – but what if they kick up a fuss?’

‘Then we’ll threaten them with the law.’

‘Larry’s dad’s a magistrate. He’ll know the law better than we do.’

‘That doesn’t mean he can break it. Look, leave the talking to me. I can be really diplomatic when I try. Trust me.’

They approached the front door together and rang the bell. Mrs Robinson came to the door and stared first at Dee, then at Lily, whom she didn’t appear to recognise at first. She was a starch-faced women in her late forties who had apparently come from a background as humble as Lily’s.

‘Oh, it’s
you,’ she said, feigning delayed recognition.

‘Yes, it’s your daughter-in-law, Mrs Robinson,’ said Dee, brightly, holding her crash helmet under her arm in the manner of a policeman with his helmet ‘She’s been through a lot recently, as you no doubt know, and she’s come to collect Christopher, but not without thanking you and your husband for looking after him.’

‘Collect Christopher? How do you mean?’

‘Well, he is my son,’ said Lily politely. ‘He belongs with me.’

Mrs Robinson turned and shouted back into the house. ‘Godfrey! I think you’d better come and listen to this.’

Godfrey Robinson appeared in the doorway. He was a large man with heavy jowls, a completely bald head and a face that had set itself into a permanent grimace many years ago. His stomach protruded well over the waistband of his trousers that were held up by both belt and braces.

‘Go on. Tell him what you just told me,’ his wife said to Lily.

Dee spoke first, not intimidated by this man. Her voice now took on a steely edge. ‘Your daughter-in-law’s come to collect her son. Where is he?’

‘Daughter-in-law? We no longer have a son. How can we have a daughter-in-law?’

‘I don’t care about that,’ said Lily. ‘I’ve come to collect my son.’

Robinson’s face went puce. He took out a handkerchief to wipe off the beads of sweat that were forming on his brow as he glared at Lily. ‘Who the hell do you think
you are? I think you’d better go away and find the other son you’ve lost before you come back here claiming our grandson. Cheeky young madam!’

‘You’ve no legal right to keep him,’ said Dee firmly. ‘She’s his mother.’

Robinson let out a loud, unpleasant laugh. ‘Mother? Mother you call her? She’s lost one son – strongly suspected of killing him, she’s been sent to a lunatic asylum for attacking innocent women and you want us to hand our grandchild over to her. What sort of grandparents do you think we are who’d place him in such danger?’

‘We could always call the police,’ said Dee. ‘I know you’re a magistrate but you can’t just make up your own laws.’

‘Call Winston Churchill if you like! We happen to be the legal guardians of the child – or didn’t you know that? If this lunatic wants him back she’ll have to fight us through the courts.’

Lily was now in tears. ‘Can’t I just see him?’

‘No, you can’t damn well see him! Now get off my doorstep before
I
call the police.’

He slammed the door in their faces. Dee kicked at it, then tried the handle but it had locked itself. She opened the letter box and shouted through it.

‘We’ll have you locked up for this you bloody child-snatchers!’

Lily was already walking away, desolate. Barring a miracle, she had no chance of getting Christopher back off these mean and powerful people, not with her reputation. If only she hadn’t let Michael go with Oldroyd. That
man was the key to all this. They must find him. He must be somewhere.

She was living with three gaping holes in her heart, one left by Larry, one by Michael and one by Christopher. The one left by Larry would heal with time, but time would never heal the holes left by her boys.

‘I’m beginning
to think they did the right thing sending me to a psychiatric hospital.’

They were in a café in Bradford. It was the day after the confrontation with the Robinsons. Dee had taken Lily to see a solicitor to find out how she could get Christopher back and how quickly. The news wasn’t good. Despite being discharged from the hospital Lily had a criminal record and the authorities had a responsibility to make sure Christopher didn’t come to any harm at her hands. Right now he was in the legal care of two respectable citizens who happened to be the boy’s grandparents and who also happened to be wealthy enough to put up a good fight in court. Morosely, Lily sipped at her tea. Since Larry’s death her demeanour had ranged from sadness to heart-rending depression.

‘Honestly, Auntie Dee, I just feel empty. Useless. I brought all this on myself by letting Michael go off with people I hardly knew.’

‘Lily, you were eight months’ pregnant, you’d just lost your husband and these people had been kind to you. I think they’ve stolen Michael for themselves. People do this, you know.’

‘Auntie Dee, you
never mentioned this before. I thought … well, I don’t know what I thought. The worst usually. For themselves? But they’re old.’

‘Old? I thought you said they were in their forties.’

‘Well, that’s what I told the police. I don’t know how old they are. A lot older than me, I know that much.’

‘Well I didn’t want to mention it to you but it’s odds-on that’s what’s happened. Childless people sometimes get into their forties and get really broody for children before it’s too late. Then, when they find they can’t have any, they take someone else’s.’

‘Really? Do you think that’s what happened? So, you think Michael’s being well cared for?’

‘I’m sure of it, love. I think both of your boys are being well cared for but it mustn’t stop you getting them back.’

Lily let out a deep sigh. ‘The answer to all this is me getting Michael back. If I do they’ll have no good reason to keep Christopher. The problem is, where do I start?’

Dee corrected her. ‘The problem is,’ she said, ‘where do
we
start?’ She passed a cigarette over to Lily, who’d started smoking again. ‘And I think you should get a job where you have a very sympathetic employer who’ll give you as much time off as you need to search for your son and who will even help you find him.’

‘What about applying to the courts to get Christopher back?’

Dee gave this some thought. ‘Godfrey and the Gorgon have got money, respectability, and they’ve given Christopher a good home, away from his mother who was locked up for being mentally unbalanced. This is how
the courts will see it, Lily. I think you should bide your time.’