TRAPPED (16 page)

‘Alright, alright I get it Lorn, but you
could
be mistaken, it
could
be innocent.’

‘Yeah like the acid bath murderer was.’

Frankie got annoyed.

‘You’re not helping, Lorn.’

‘What do you want me to say?’

‘I dunno, but there must be another explanation.’

‘Here, look, if you don’t believe me. Take a look at this.’

Lorna proceeded to go into her Chloé oversized bag. A moment later she brought out a tiny digital camera and thrust it under Frankie’s nose.

‘What do you …’

‘Just look at them, Frankie.’

With a furrowed brow, Frankie Taylor started to scroll through pictures of his wife and a man he’d never seen before in what he’d only describe as a passionate embrace. Lorna had certainly been thorough in the task he’d set her. He didn’t know whether to be angry with her or not. But then why would he be? She’d only done what he’d asked her to do. And it showed she cared. He continued to stare at the photos as Lorna spoke to him.

‘Okay Frank, let’s just say it was an innocent hug. We’ll go with the Disney version if it makes you feel better. But what you should ask yourself is; what was she doing there in the first place? If it was so bleeding innocent, why didn’t she tell you where she was going? Ask her and see what she says. If she doesn’t tell you the truth, then you know she’s up to something.’

Frankie listened hard to his sister and then nodded.

‘Get out now, Lorn. I want to be on my own. I need to think.’

‘Whatever you say, Frankie.’

‘And Lorn?’

‘Yes, Frankie?’

‘Thank you.’

Lorna closed the door behind her leaving her brother with his head in his hands. As she leant on the closed door a wide grin spread over her face. Tonight she’d come a little closer to getting rid of Gypsy and when she had, she, Lorna Taylor, would get exactly what she deserved.

Gypsy sat in her dressing room and sighed. She felt emotionally drained. It’d been a difficult night. First from the fright she’d had, though she could see now she’d overreacted and let her imagination get carried away. And then of course there was the clinic.

She’d got upset when they’d explained things to her and she’d broken down in tears, so much so, one of the staff – a young very flamboyant gay man – had walked her out and helped her hail a taxi. He’d been lovely and had given her a big hug and she’d held onto it, needing every ounce of his concern. When she’d arrived home, she’d popped her head round the door to see Frankie still watching the poker. She’d only spoken to him later to let him know the spray tan lady had arrived but she hadn’t bothered saying anything else. After all, what he didn’t know about couldn’t hurt him.

It was getting late now and Johnny Taylor eyed the grey tower block up and down for a fourth time. It was a shithole. Nobody needed to tell him that. He hadn’t even seen inside but in his gut he knew. Knew he wouldn’t make his worst enemy have a piss in the place where he’d put his daughter.

A group of kids tumbled out of the block of flats leaving the steel door open. Their beltless jeans hung almost to their knees, showing off designer underwear and youthful taut stomachs. They stopped pushing and joking with one another when they saw Johnny, nodding their heads in respect for one of Soho’s upcoming faces, turning up their own swagger as they did so.

Inside, Johnny decided to walk up the concrete stairwell rather than risk going into the lift which had shit smeared all over the sides. Gina’s flat was on the sixteenth floor. He could’ve easily bounded up the flight of stairs but he chose to walk slowly, taking in the filth, the graffiti walls, the used syringes and general rubbish strewn along the corridors.

He could feel the anger increasing with every flight of stairs he walked up. The fury ran through his body but he wasn’t entirely sure if he was more upset about Harley or the money he’d dished out. He knew it was a terrible thing to think. It should’ve been all about his daughter but the fact that he kept thinking about the money worried him.

He hated the thought he might be a bad father. He’d been given everything in the world; love, money, and apart from the situation with Maggie, he’d had the freedom to enjoy his life as he wished.

He’d always been surrounded by his mum, his doting father or the hookers from the clubs who’d babysat him. All of them giving him truckloads of love. He’d presumed he’d be the same with his own child – and at first he had.

It’d been a shock when Maggie had told him she was pregnant and he’d needed to go on one of his
‘
legendaries’ to get his head round it. When the news had properly sunk in he’d been happy. Not one part of him had wanted her to get rid of it. But then to his shame, when things got tough and complicated, he’d stuck his head in the proverbial. Whilst his wife was banged up he’d palmed his daughter off to Gina Daniels and got on with his life. It was, even by his standards, totally unforgivable.

Gina shuffled to the front door, her hair in yellow Velcro rollers and her feet in brown slippers stained with grease. Her mouth was stuffed full of chocolate and some of it spat out as she swore at the hammering on the door.

‘Bleedin’ hell, I ain’t no frigging racehorse, what’s the rush?’

Gina pulled open the front door. She was about to continue spouting off when she came face to face with Johnny Taylor standing there, his face looking like a bulldog chewing a wasp.

‘Johnny!’

‘Get out me way Gina, I want to see Harley and I want to know what the fuck’s going on.’

‘I … I don’t know what you mean.’

‘Well ain’t that convenient? You didn’t think I’d eventually come round to see how you and Nicky were robbing me blind did you?’

Gina Daniels pursed her lips with indignation. She was argumentative whether she was wrong or right but
especially
when she was wrong.

‘Jon Jon, I ain’t robbing no one. If anybody’s being robbed it’s me.’

‘How do you figure that one out?’

‘I’m being sucked dry by your daughter. Every minute of the day she wants some part of me. Some days I worry I’ll wake up and I’ll just be a pile of bones, she’s taken that much of me.’

Johnny wasn’t interested in hearing it. He pushed past
Gina roughly, walking into the front room, seeing the piled up
takeaway trays, the overflowing ashtrays, the crumpled Lotto slips and in the corner, curled up on the mismatched burgundy chair, was his beautiful daughter, Harley.

The shame washed over him once more as he watched her sleep and instead of waking her, he grabbed hold of Gina by the arm who was chattering behind him like a machine gun.

‘Kindness of me bleedin’ heart and all I’ve got from it … Ow! What’s that for, Johnny? Get orf me bleedin’ arm.’

‘Shut the frig up with your chatter before me head gets wrecked. You and I both know how much money I gave you and Nicky. Coming in here makes me think I’ve walked in on a scene from
Slumdog
bleeding
Millionaire
. It’s disgusting.’

‘Charming I’m sure.’

Johnny pushed Gina against the wall with his forearm, so tempted but resisting the urge to hit her; not wanting to raise a hand to a woman even though the woman was Gina Daniels.

‘Do
not
take the piss. You need to tell me what’s been going on.’

Johnny stared with fury at Gina, who decided perhaps now might be a good time to start talking.

Nicky was twitching. He’d just taken a hit of the pipe and now he needed a bit of smack to help him come down properly from his high, rather than him clucking away in mid-air. Since Gina had spoken to him he’d been worried, so he’d done what he did best when things got too much or things got too painful; he got high.

He couldn’t get Gary off his back easily, but the one person he could try to appease was Gina. He knew he needed to stop her talking but so far that was as far as his plan had got.

Gina’s front door was ajar and Nicky pushed it open and quietly closed it behind him. He could hear the television on and as he walked into the front room he smiled at the sight of his niece asleep, her corkscrew blonde curls tousled all over her face.

Hearing voices coming from the bedroom, Nicky was about to walk in when he froze, recognising them. It was Johnny Taylor and worse still, Gina, opening her big trap; telling Johnny everything. Everything apart from how much she was in on it all.

‘… I couldn’t believe you’d only give a hundred a week to look after your daughter but Nicky swore blind that’s all you gave. Me being me didn’t want to turf the poor mite out onto the street. Poor creature ain’t got anyone else. That’s my trouble, I got too big a heart for my own good. My mother always said that. She said, Gina, people will take advantage of your good nature. I’m shocked, Johnny, I really am. I never thought Nicky would steal from his own, especially when the poor mite’s mum was in prison, and with all the secrets surrounding her. That alone would be worth more than a ton wouldn’t you say?’

Johnny glared at Gina. She was a sly cow and he didn’t believe a word she said about not being any part of it. But at least he knew some of the picture.

‘Don’t push it darlin’, I ain’t a muppet. The way I see it you owe me, ’cos I don’t buy that you weren’t in on it. I’ll deal with Nicky later, but I want to tell you how it’s going to work from now on.’

Nicky backed away. It couldn’t have got any worse if he tried. It didn’t take a maths degree to know there wouldn’t be any money coming his way now. The only thing which was coming was more trouble. This time in the shape of Johnny. Nicky owed everyone big time, he knew that. What he also knew was that even though he owed money his priorities would still lie in his habit – his habit would come first, whether he or anyone else liked it.

Maggie opened the curtains in Nicky’s room and sighed, wondering what Harley was doing, wondering if she was okay. She was looking forward to seeing her later on. Her thoughts never strayed for long from her daughter; from her smile, from her laughter, from her whole being. Harley was everything to Maggie.

Maggie looked around the room. It wasn’t so much of a mess as a disaster. The brown wooden flooring was hardly visible under the mounds of dirty clothes, all stained from vomit and spotted with blood. The furniture tops were covered in empty cans of Pepsi and beer.

Maggie noticed some of them had been cut in half with a hole pierced into them; a sign her brother had been smoking crack. There was a stale smell hanging in the air, partly from the lack of fresh air, partly from tobacco but mainly from whatever drugs her brother had been smoking. She looked up to the ceiling and saw it was stained brown from the nicotine.

Maggie attempted to open the window but it was jammed shut from the dried paint. She doubted it’d been opened since her father had brought round a couple of his mates to repaint the house a few years ago.

Giving up with the window, Maggie looked at the bed. Lying with the cover over his head was Nicky, his black-soled feet visible.

‘Nicky, we need to talk.’

Nicky didn’t stir. Maggie called her brother’s name again, slightly louder which gave way to a small groan and a slight movement, before he turned over to lie motionless once more.

Dragging the cover off him and a stray packet of Rizlas along with it, Maggie exposed her brother – who was still wearing his t-shirt from two days ago – to the chill of the summer’s morning.

Nicky sat up quickly with a look of terror on his face, thinking his father had come into the room. Seeing his fear, Maggie’s heart sank. The anger which she was ready to fire out machine gun style fell away.

‘Fucking hell Mags, I thought …’

Nicky didn’t finish his sentence. He didn’t have to.

‘I know, Nick. Sorry, I didn’t mean to give you a fright.’

Maggie gave a sad smile, taking in her brother’s gaunt appearance. His nails were ingrained with dirt, as was the skin around his eyes and mouth, making him look like he’d been working down the mines rather than living in the heart of Soho. His blue eyes, once sparkling, looked dull and lifeless. His skin had a faint circular rash on it, another sign of Nicky’s chronic drug addiction.

Nicky started to cough and reached over to grab the small ashtray which was already overflowing with roach ends. He spat the contents of what was in his mouth in it. Maggie flinched, turning her head quickly, not wanting to feel nauseous.

‘Nicky, what’s been going on? I know you’ve been avoiding me since I’ve come out. Are you in trouble?’

‘I’ve just been busy, Maggie.’

‘Don’t lie to me Nicky, not you.’

Maggie stopped and looked at her brother, not wanting to admit how much him letting her down had hurt her.

‘Things started to get out of hand, Mags.’

‘What things, Nick? What could be as important as looking after your niece?’

‘We did look after her.’

Maggie shook her head sadly.

‘No Nick, no you didn’t. She looked a mess.’

Nicky shrugged his shoulders as he lit up a cigarette.

‘Kids are expensive. Johnny didn’t give us much money to look after her so we had to do our best.’

‘
Was
that your best, Nicky? You know I can easily ask Johnny how much he gave to you.’

Nicky’s guilt made him snap at Maggie, causing his sister to stand up from the bed in reaction to his verbal attack.

‘Okay, I know and I’m sorry. Fucking hell Maggie, she ain’t my kid. I did what you wanted, I got her looked after and maybe she ain’t in a bleedin’ palace but she’s certainly not in care is she? We all did what you wanted and if you want to find fault in it that’s fine Maggie, but tell me, who else would take her with no questions asked and keep their mouths shut? Yeah, it wasn’t ideal but none of it is, not the secrets, not Gina’s, not our life; so what else did you expect from me?

Maggie didn’t move and just stood staring at Nicky for a moment, before turning to walk out of the room. Pausing at the door without looking at her brother she spoke in a whisper, trying to keep her voice steady.