Chapter 21: Chapter 21

‘Cynthia. I work here part-time, well three days a week.’ She began noting down some locations on a pad.

‘Can you remember when or where you saw her?’

‘I couldn’t swear that I did. There were two girls, they used to hang around together either by the bull statue outside the Bullring, by Symphony Hall or by New Street Station. I haven’t seen them for at least a couple of months, but as I said, I can’t be sure that one was your daughter.’

‘Do you remember seeing her with a man?’ Maybe this woman had seen Westley.

She shook her head. ‘I don’t recall.’ She paused in thought. ‘Wait, I saw a younger man, probably in his early twenties with one of the girls at one point. He was very unkempt, like he lived on the streets too. Thin, dark messy hair, shoulder- length. I can’t recall any more as I didn’t speak to him at all.’

‘Did you hear the name Westley mentioned?’

She shook her head. ‘Sorry. I really wish I knew more. It must be awful for you. I can only imagine what you must be going through.’

‘It’s hell.’ Julia forced a smile. The more she smiled the more she trembled. Tears began to spill down her cheeks. She wiped them away and turned to face the door.

‘I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you.’ Cynthia came from behind the counter and pulled out a chair. ‘Here, would you like some water?’

Julia shook her head. Not wanting to lose any more time she thanked the woman, took the list and left for the first place at the top, the bull. The homeless man she spoke to in Redditch had also mentioned the bull statue.

Fifteen minutes later, she reached the statue. Back where she began her search. A middle-aged woman in a headscarf called out as she passed. ‘Big Issue.’ Julia pulled a few coins from her pocket and walked over. ‘Have you seen this girl?’

The woman began speaking in a language she didn’t understand but the woman was shaking her head and shrugging her shoulders. Julia pointed at the woman, then at her eyes, then at the photo of Christina. The woman shook her head again. Julia gave her the change and left. After waiting by the bull for twenty minutes she went to leave for New Street. The Big Issue woman ran over with a man and shouted. ‘Symphony Hall.’ She shrugged her shoulders again. Was she suggesting that she try by Symphony Hall or that she’d seen her daughter at Symphony Hall? Either way she didn’t want to waste any time, so she ran as fast she could.

FIFTY

Miley opened her eyes to another stuffy bright day. ‘Jackie,’ she said as she turned. The woman was sitting in the middle of the room on the filthy wooden floor, wiping her hands through the dust. Her bruised face now framing her eyes. Miley shuddered as she thought of what the male boss said. He thought she could actually do that to Jackie and that stung more than any amount of pain she was going through. She could never harm her only friend.

She couldn’t remember coming into Jackie’s room but the calmness that washed over her meant she’d had some form of medicine. It didn’t feel like her usual stuff. Something didn’t feel right, the crawling was coming back as she rubbed her eyes. Her stomach went into a spasm, causing her to double over. ‘Help me,’ she called. Staggering across the room to the door, she tried the handle but her sweaty hands slipped.

Jackie’s murmuring filled the room.

‘Come on, Jackie, let me help you back onto the bed.’ She leaned down, tears of pain streaming down her face as she grabbed the woman’s hands and tried to haul her up. A sharp pain shot through her back, almost causing her to topple as she pulled Jackie up to a standing position. As Miley turned her, ready to sit on the bed, she almost gagged as she caught sight

of the yellow, pus-filled flesh on the woman’s bare buttock. Dropping Jackie on the bed, she darted to the other side of the room, trembling and gasping for breath.

Jackie screamed, no words, just sounds, like those she’d heard in horror films. The woman clumsily lay back on the single bed, one leg hanging off. Miley ran over and hoisted her leg up as Jackie continued to yell. ‘Please, Jackie, I know it hurts. Please don’t cry.’

Tears streamed down Miley’s face as she stroked the woman’s hair. She grabbed the unravelled, grubby, knitted doll from the bedside table and placed it in Jackie’s arms. ‘She’ll look after you,’ she said as she kissed Jackie’s forehead and staggered across the room. Jackie gripped the doll and the cries simmered down to a murmur.

She needed to get out before she passed out – the room was getting hotter and little black spots teased her vision. The more she thought about the flesh, the more she could now tell that the sickly smell in the air was coming from it. She reached for the door handle and almost fell into the hallway as the door sprang open.

‘Hello,’ Miley called. ‘Simone?’ She had heard that name in the midst of her confusion, before the boss had drugged her. She hadn’t slept that deeply for a long time. Had he hurt her? Apart from the twinge in her back, she didn’t feel any other injuries that had come on since yesterday. Her heart began to pound as her mind flashed with possibilities of all he could have done to her when she’d been asleep. She reached down and exhaled. He hadn’t raped her.

She staggered in the other direction, towards the top of the stairs. She didn’t want to eat but she knew she needed to keep her strength up if she were to ever see her mother again. They

wouldn’t forget to bring Jackie’s breakfast, surely. If there was only one portion of breakfast, they would share.

As the top of the stairs became visible, she could see that there was no food. ‘We’re hungry,’ she yelled as she slammed her body into the bannister. It was all for nothing, no one was coming. She reached the top of the stairs and took the first step. Her weak body slipped down several more before she grabbed the rail.

Shaking the bottom door, she sobbed as she realised it was locked. ‘Let me out. I want to go home.’

Heavy footsteps made their way across the floor. She began to shiver and needed to pee. The shaking became violent as the door unlocked. ‘Stupid junkie,’ the man said as he stepped over her and pulled her back up the stairs by her skinny, needle-marked arm. As he dragged her back up, she felt the skin on her bottom burning on the coarse carpet. He flung her across her bedroom and filled the doorway with his imposing frame.

‘Please, can we have some food?’ If she didn’t eat, she would die and she wanted to see her mum again. ‘Please, anything. I’ll do anything.’

The man slammed and locked the door. She listened to him pacing along the creaky landing. ‘Answer your phone,’ he yelled as he kicked the door. The old floorboards squeaked as he walked across the landing.

Jackie began to scream out again.

‘It’s okay, my love. It will all be okay, I promise,’ he said as he ran into her room. He let out a roar that almost shook the building. As he thundered out of Jackie’s room and along the

landing, Miley felt her stomach drop as she shook uncontrollably. He was coming for her.

‘How dare you?’ he yelled as he ran in and kicked her hard in the buttocks. ‘Call yourself a carer?’

‘I didn’t hurt her. I love Jackie. I didn’t do anything.’ Her breath was that erratic, words were barely forming. Spittle landed on her face as he seethed and held a fist above her. She closed her eyes. ‘It was the other boss, not me. Please. I didn’t do it.’

He roared again as he hit the bedframe, left the room and thundered down the stairs.

The crawling started again, under her skin, inside her, in all of her. Even her eyes itched. She used all her strength to push her little finger from her tense fist.

A little beetle crawled around it, until it reached the skirting board and escaped through a gap, through the gap where all its friends lived. ‘Come back.’ Tears fell down her cheeks. She clamped her eyes closed and cried as sweat drenched her old T-shirt. ‘Don’t leave me alone to die.’

FIFTY-ONE

Sweat began to drench Julia’s hair as she lugged the rucksack towards Symphony Hall. Almost there, she thought as she grabbed a flyer and stuck it to the window of a vacant shop. She spotted the grand building with its mirrored glass frontage up a flight of stone steps. She scanned the area, looking for anyone who might be loitering. Passing the art museum, she spotted the blonde girl lying in the sun on one of the steps. Her head was resting on a rolled-up hoodie as she slept. The dusty shade of blonde that only came with not washing it stood out, as well as the tears in her clothing.

Julia pulled a flyer from her bag. ‘Hello.’

‘I’m not moving. If you think you can move me on, you’ve got another thing coming. Go away.’ The girl didn’t even open her eyes.

‘I’m not here to move you on. I’m looking for my daughter and I thought you might have seen her.’

Dazzled by the sun, she sat up and rubbed her eyes. ‘You’ll be lucky if I can remember her, they come and go all the time. Some go home, some get mopped up by the pervs, and some get off the streets – not many though. You all come around, trying to gain my trust. What for? You all pretend that you can help or you need help. I don’t fall for that sort of thing.’

‘Please.’ Julia thrust a flyer into the girl’s hand. ‘She’s fifteen. Christina and I argued. School wasn’t going too well. I suppose things just got her down. She met a man. From what people tell me he’s in his early twenties with brown shoulder- length hair. She came with him. Maybe you’ve seen them. He is called Westley.’

The girl sighed and looked at the flyer. ‘I don’t remember the man but I remember her. She and Erin left me on my own. We met late last year, when it was freezing – broke into places together to find warmth and shelter. I got sick of hanging around with Erin anyway, stupid cow was a junkie.’

Julia almost stopped breathing knowing that her daughter had gone off with a junkie. ‘Was my daughter taking drugs too?’

‘How would I know? I only knew about Erin because I saw her doing it. She didn’t shoot up in the street, nothing like that, and I made her take her needles to the exchange. I wouldn’t know about your daughter.’

Exhaling, Julia scanned around for somewhere to sit. ‘Can I buy you something to eat, if you don’t mind talking to me? I really need to ask you a few things.’

‘There’s a cafe inside Symphony Hall. I haven’t had anything decent for ages. Buy me a dinner and I’ll answer all your questions. Ask me to get in a car and go somewhere with you, I’ll scream paedo. Don’t test me.’

The girl scoffed the sausage and mash meal in front of her, stopping to reply to Julia’s questions with an open mouth.

‘When did you last see my daughter?’

‘A couple of months ago.’ The girl began licking gravy off the plate.

‘That long. I thought you’d seen her recently.’ Julia gripped the edge of the table and fought her tears back.

‘I never said that. I said I remembered her and she took my place as Erin’s best mate. We shoplifted together, made a pretty packet at one point. They used to try and sell their goods by the Bull outside the Bullring. There’s always a buyer if you’ve got good gear. If trainers are a hundred pound, someone will always give you thirty for them. We got hold of perfume, even meat. Yes – you’d be surprised. A piece of beef for Sunday dinner that cost fifteen quid – some cheapskate in a pub will buy it for eight quid. I taught Erin all she knew.’

‘What did Erin look like?’ Julia pulled her old diary from her bag, the one she had for 2014 but had never used. It would be good enough to take some notes in.

‘Skinny, but aren’t we all? She had brown hair but she’d run a red colour through it. Stupid cow used to make me help her dye her hair in the bogs at Selfridges. We got chucked out a few times, once before she’d managed to swill it out. She had brown eyes, bags under them. The drugs had given her a sunken look. She was always toying around with the thought of prostitution until she tried it once and some shitbag beat her up. I told her not to.’

Julia’s heart began to race. Had Christina got embroiled in drugs and prostitution? She could be working out of some massage parlour at night. Her daughter didn’t belong here, she had a home. She looked at the girl sitting before her. Did she belong here? How had she ended up on the streets? Julia wondered if she’d left to escape abuse or had just fallen out

with her parents. ‘Can you tell me anything else? I really need to find her.’

‘The last day I saw them, a man came along. I think he was in his fifties but he might have been a little older. We’d been begging and thieving by New Street, by where the trams pass. There was something about the man. I’ve seen him since, looking for people to work for him. He gives me the creeps so I avoid him if he’s around. He came back with a woman a couple of weeks ago. I never trust people like that. There’s always someone offering me work but it’s never the kind of work I want to get involved with. Your daughter and Erin went with him. I told him to stick his job.’

‘What was the job?’ Her heart sank as she thought of her daughter in some seedy brothel.

‘Care work, domestic work, he said. They all lie though. I knew he was after a slave.’

She swallowed. Getting het up and panicky wouldn’t help. She needed information. ‘Can you tell me what he looked like or the woman?’

‘I remember thinking he looked really well off, fancy clothes and all that. I didn’t take a great deal of notice and they were quite far away. I just remembered his jacket, a really nice cut, looked designer. The woman came a little closer to me at one point, almost stared me out. Creepy bitch.’

‘What did she look like?’ ‘Her roots needed doing.’ ‘Is that all you remember?’

‘Yes. I see people all day long. How much do you expect me to remember? They are a posh-looking couple, with money and the woman’s roots needed doing, I remember that much.

That’s all I have. I didn’t want to catch the man’s attention. He gave me the creeps when Erin and your daughter went with him. The last thing I wanted was for him to come over and speak to me. I walked off and haven’t seen them since.’

Julia ran her fingers over her own roots where the grey was coming through. ‘Please try to remember something.’

The girl closed her eyes as she thought back, frowning occasionally as she did so. ‘The first time I saw him he was smart, wearing a crisp light-coloured shirt, trustworthy looking. I hate that I didn’t take any more notice now. I just wanted him to piss off. I’m really sorry, I can’t remember any more.’

‘Did he have an accent?’

‘Not much. He was quite well spoken. Can I have a dessert?’

‘Of course.’

‘I’ll have one of those?’ Julia hurried to the counter and bought the large slice of chocolate cake.

‘So you have no idea where she went after that? Are you sure you haven’t seen her since?’

‘I’m sure. I would have asked her about Erin if I’d seen her around. I sometimes go to some of the shelters for a free meal and I haven’t seen her there either.’

The girl filled her mouth with cake and licked her lips. ‘This is so nice, thank you. Aren’t you having any?’

Shaking her head, Julia felt a tear slip from the corner of her eye. The girl in front of her was just a little older than Christina. She acted like she knew it all but underneath, she could sense her fragility. ‘Can you go home?’

The girl placed the fork down and stopped eating. She shook her head. ‘I’m never going back there. They can never find me. I mean it. Soon, I’ll find a job. I’m a survivor. I’ve enrolled at college in September to do hairdressing. I have an interview at a bar next week. The centre gave me an address I could use and they take my post in. They are also helping me with clothes for my interview. It’s a start. I stay at a hostel overnight now. I’m slowly getting on my feet. I stay away from weird men and I stay away from drugs. I may look like some sort of vulnerable street urchin but I have my shit together. The only thing I’m always short of is food, as you can probably tell.’

‘Thank you for talking with me. I’ll go back to the police and tell them about the man and woman you mentioned.’ She paused and looked up, trying to suck the tear back into her tear duct. ‘Can I leave you my number? If you see her or hear anything, can you call me?’

The girl nodded.

‘If I can ever help you, just let me know.’ She couldn’t leave the girl without at least offering to be there. She’d felt a connection. This girl was someone’s daughter. She was scared to go back home and she was slowly crawling out of the gutter. If Julia could help her to escape the last bit, she would. Deep down, she knew the girl would never trust her. She pulled all the notes out of her purse amounting to forty pounds and placed them on the table. ‘Please buy food with the cash.’

‘I only ever buy food with the cash. Thank you. I hope you find your daughter. She’s lucky she has you. My mother would never come looking for me. There is just one more thing. Your daughter didn’t go by the name of Christina.’