‘No they fucking wouldn’t.’ She leant forward, spoke urgently. ‘They’ll put me back in care, that’s what they’d do, right?’
‘You’re not sixteen? How old? Fourteen, fifteen?’
‘Thirteen, but it doesn’t matter see, I’m not doing another day in care, not for you, not for anyone.’ She leant back, searched for her cigarettes. Lit one. Leant forward again. ‘And don’t try dragging me into all this, right, ‘cos I never saw anything, right? Never met you.’
‘What’s he look like?’
‘You don’t want to know,’
‘Leanne…’
She shrugged. ‘I dunno. Always smiling, got a scar see, he grassed on someone, they didn’t like it.’ She drew her finger across her face in a large crescent.
‘Tall, short, black, white, how old?’
‘White, getting on a bit, I dunno. I’m off.’ She pushed back her chair.
‘D’you need some bus-fare?’
‘S’alright, I got some.’
I held out one of my cards.
‘No, ta.’ She handed it back.
‘Just in case.’
She smiled. ‘I never seen you. What would I be doing with that?’
‘I’m in the Yellow Pages,’ I called, as she walked out. ‘Kilkenny.’
I asked for the bill. Went and waited at the counter while the waiter added it up. Rummaged in my bag for my purse. Gone. Thirty quid. The little sod. Library tickets, Leisure Pass. Luckily, I keep my cheque book and card in a separate pocket. She’d not got that. I wondered how she’d spend the money. Clothes, food, booze, drugs? It wouldn’t go far. And then she’d be back in the doorways, begging to get by. Oh, well. It was probably a fair price for what she’d told me. Only this wasn’t a case; there was no client paying the expenses. If I wanted the truth, I’d have to pay for it. At that time, I’d no idea how much the whole business was going to cost me.
I was late getting to school. Mortal sin. I found Maddie sitting with her teacher in the empty classroom.
‘I’m so sorry,’ I gushed. ‘The traffic was awful.’ Mrs Cummings looked relieved; Maddie burst into tears. Guilt.
‘Why didn’t you come?’ she repeated time and again in between sobs, as we drove to collect Tom. I’d tried to hug her but she’d shoved me away. She needed more time to be angry, to hate me for abandoning her. My explanations and apologies were irrelevant. The deed had been done.
The nursery stays open till six to cater for working parents, so my being half an hour later than usual was neither here nor there. Tom had been on his Castlefield Museum trip and was full of chatter about trains with smoke coming out of them.
