Fighting Back Page 7

  I pulled her back. ‘Give it a couple of minutes, Mum. Please!’

  But a couple of minutes later and the sound was still on full.

  Mum was out on the landing before I could stop her.

  She was at Sandra’s door when it was suddenly opened and there, in front of us, was Ma Lafferty. She looked surprised to find Mum there.

  ‘Have you got a problem?’ she said gruffly.

  ‘I might have known you would be with your “friend”,’ Mum said. ‘Does she really need the sound up so loud?’

  Ma Lafferty seemed to relax, and she called back into the house, ‘Sandra hen, put the television down. You’re annoying your neighbours.’

  Then she pushed past us and hurried down the stairs.

  She had left Sandra’s door open and as we stood there she appeared at her living-room door. I gasped. My mum did too when we saw her. Her face was swollen, and she had a black eye. She wasn’t just surprised to see us. She was astonished.

  ‘Sandra!’ I’d never heard Mum say her name before like that. Concerned. ‘Did … did she do this?’

  It all fell into place. Sandra had lost her job, Sandra couldn’t pay. Sandra was scared. So was Ming. Yes, Ma Lafferty had done this.

  Sandra wobbled towards us as if she was going to fly at my mum. Mum stepped back and so did I.

  ‘I fell! OK? I fell!’ she screamed, and she slammed the door in our faces.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  I couldn’t sleep that night for thinking about Sandra. I thought about how hard she had worked for Ming. Always keeping up her payments, never falling behind – until now. She didn’t deserve this. No one did. It was the first time I had felt sorry for her.

  We had to do something about the Laffertys.

  Mum, however, had no sympathy for Sandra at all. ‘She says she fell? Why doesn’t she just tell the truth? Get them into trouble?’

  ‘Because she’s afraid, Mum. She has to live here.’

  ‘So do we. But I’m fed up with being afraid. I’m going to see Sergeant Maitland today.’

  I was surprised. ‘Why?’

  ‘To tell him about Sandra.’

  ‘What’s the point of that, Mum? She’ll only say she fell.’

  She straightened. ‘I’m going to tell him everything. That we saw Ma Lafferty leave the house. At least he’ll have to question her.’

  ‘But Mum, that might get Sandra into even more trouble.’

  She shrugged her shoulders. ‘Why should Sandra get into trouble? I’m the one talking to the police.’

  And nothing I could say would make her change her mind.

  The lift was broken again that morning so I had to walk down the stairs. Ming was sitting on the fifth floor, staring into nothing. He didn’t even hear me come down.

  ‘Is everything OK?’ I asked him.

  He didn’t even look at me. ‘Oh, brilliant,’ he snapped. ‘My maw looks as if she’s done five rounds with Rocky, but everything’s brilliant.’

  I sat down beside him on the stairs. ‘Why don’t you go to the police about it?’ I knew the answer to that one. Ming only glared at me, as if I was stupid.

  I wondered if I should tell him my mother intended going to the police, but decided against it. He looked depressed enough, and he would never understand her motives.

  ‘How can you bear it, knowing she did that to your mother?’

  He turned on me then, and I realized just how ashamed he was. ‘How do you think I feel? I could … I could …’ He jumped to his feet and kicked the steps angrily. ‘But Maw says not to do anything. I hate them, Kerry. I hate them! I wish we could get rid of them.’

  He looked at me then, for a long time, before he spoke.

  ‘What is it?’ I asked.

  ‘We saw them that night – the night of the fire.’

  ‘You saw the Laffertys?’

  He nodded. ‘The two boys. Me and my maw saw them through the letterbox.’

  ‘And you wouldn’t tell?’

  ‘My maw was in enough trouble with them, Kerry. She made me promise. I thought I was protecting her, but now, after what she did … I’m telling you, so you know, but I’ll never tell the police. The Laffertys might take it out on my maw – so don’t ask.’

  ‘We could have been killed. And you wouldn’t say.’

  He tutted. ‘How do you think the fire brigade were there so quick? We phoned them right away!’ He said it as if I should thank him. I was so angry at him I could have kicked him.

  ‘And then you pretended to think my mother started the fire herself. How could you do that?’

  He pulled at my jacket. ‘My maw said we had to let the Laffertys think we hadn’t seen anything. Honest, Kerry, I wanted to tell you.’

  I pulled away from him and began hurrying down the stairs. ‘My mum’s right. I’ll never understand you, any of you. You don’t deserve any sympathy.’

  His face was white. He took a deep breath. I turned away.

  ‘Kerry!’ he shouted at me, and I stopped. ‘I’m going to tell you something, but you have to pretend you found out yourself … I didn’t say a word. You’ve got to promise or I’ll never tell you.’

  ‘I promise.’

  ‘On your mother’s life?’ he asked.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Say it. Say it then.’

  Ming was serious. What had he seen?

  ‘On my mother’s life. Now … tell me, Ming. Tell me!’

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  I decided to go at once to the police. After what Ming had told me there was no time to lose. I met Mum on her way down the steps from the police station. She had wasted no time getting there either. She looked grim.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ I asked her.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ she said. ‘Never again, Kerry! Do you know what they said?’ She looked ready to explode. ‘That they had heard I was asking questions and I was to leave police business to the police!’

  I could understand why she was angry. So far the police had done little for us.

  ‘Well, I won’t go back to them, no matter what! And I told that horrible Sergeant Maitland that!’

  ‘Even if you found out something important?’

  ‘Even if – ’ she began, and then looked at me thoughtfully. ‘What do you mean?’

  This was when I had to be careful. Careful to make it look like I had worked this out myself, that someone – Ming – hadn’t told me he’d seen the whole thing. ‘I was thinking, Mum, remember that can of kerosene the police found on our stairs?’

  Mum just shrugged. ‘There weren’t any fingerprints on it.’

  ‘But what if that wasn’t the one they used? What if that was a decoy?’ That was what Ming had called it. ‘So the police would look no further for the real can, the one with the fingerprints on it. The one that maybe they put down our chute?’

  Ming’s exact words came back to me. ‘They had their hands all over it, Kerry. Splashing it over some rags, then setting them alight. When they were finished they pushed it right down our chute. And then they ran.’

  Mum was thinking hard. ‘But we wouldn’t know what floor it came from. It would prove nothing.’

  ‘That’s the good bit!’ I said excitedly. ‘I found out today – ’ I’d found out from Ming ‘ – that each floor has its own bin at the bottom of the chute. So anything put in at our floor lands in the bin for the thirteenth floor!’

  ‘Do you really think they’d be so stupid?’

  ‘Not stupid, mother. Sure of themselves. They always have an alibi. No one will ever admit they saw them.’ I could see she was hesitating. ‘It’s worth a try, surely?’

  She suddenly looked crestfallen. ‘Oh dear – I’m just after telling Sergeant Maitland I’d never talk to him again.’

  She straightened, sure of herself again. ‘I’ll go to that nice young Grant. He’s much more pleasant to speak to anyway.’

  The first thing PC Grant did, however, was lead her straight to Sergeant Maitland’
s office. He was grim-faced as he listened to her story. Then he turned his attention to me.

  ‘You figured this out for yourself, did you?’

  I thought it was a bit insulting that he should sound so surprised. I nodded.

  ‘No one told you anything … ’

  I’m sure I blushed, but luckily Mum answered for me. ‘Of course she figured it out for herself. She’s very bright!’

  ‘We’ll look into it,’ he said, standing up. Dismissing us.

  ‘You’ll do it right away?’ I must have sounded panicky because he looked at me in surprise.

  ‘Tomorrow.’

  ‘No. Tomorrow the bins are emptied.’ I hadn’t known this either until Ming had told me. ‘You have to come today. Right now! Please.’

  He held me back as we were leaving the office. ‘Who tipped you off, Kerry? You can tell me.’

  I swallowed. On my mother’s life, I had promised. I wouldn’t break that promise, for anybody. ‘I just figured it out. Honest.’

  He didn’t believe me, that was clear. But he came. They all came. Police, forensic, everyone. And the whole of the tower block turned out to watch.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  It didn’t take them long to find the empty can of kerosene, and there was a bonus. The forensic people found minute scrapings from the same can on the rim of our chute. Proof positive that the can had come from our floor, if more proof were needed. The neighbours watched silently. Only Sandra and Ming were noticeably absent.

  ‘And have you enough to arrest them now?’ Mum asked loudly as we stood on the landing.

  Sergeant Maitland nodded. ‘Oh, yes, enough to arrest them … and to hold them without bail. They’re a threat to a single mother and her daughter, and with the reputation the Laffertys have they won’t get bail. I’ll make sure of it.’

  ‘And my daughter did it!’ Mum said, even more loudly. ‘My Kerry. A little girl, on her own, found the proof to put them away!’

  I wished she would shut up. I felt so guilty. Ming had found the proof. If it weren’t for Ming, we would never have discovered the can – the bin men would have come and it would have been gone for ever. And I couldn’t say a word.

  Sergeant Maitland knew. I was convinced that he did. He stared at me for a long time, waiting for me to say something. I couldn’t even meet his steely gaze.

  Finally, he turned from us.

  ‘Don’t we even get a thank you?’ Mum just didn’t know when to shut up.

  ‘All I am going to say is this,’ he looked from me to Mum. He was exasperated with her. ‘I don’t want you anywhere near the Laffertys’ house when we take them out. I want no banners, no cheering. I don’t want to see you anywhere near the place.’

  ‘You need have no fear of that, whatsoever!’

  As soon as they were gone, Mum put her arm round my shoulder and led me back to our flat. The neighbours never said a word. Mum couldn’t take that at all.

  ‘Aren’t any of you going to say anything?’ They stared at her in a stony silence. ‘The Lafferty brothers are going to be arrested. Do you understand that?’

  One by one they stepped inside their houses, and quietly closed their doors. They knew what we didn’t understand even then.

  The worst was yet to come.

  ‘You are a wonderful woman!’ Ali said as soon as Mum and I entered his shop next morning. ‘Life here has been nothing but excitement since you two arrived here.’

  Excitement, I thought, I could well do without.

  ‘You should have witnessed the commotion last night,’ he went on. ‘The Laffertys were brought out of their house, struggling, screaming abuse at the police. Then they were thrown into the van, and taken away. Quite a bit of excitement, I can tell you, as word got round the estate!’

  Mum basked in this attention. She’d had it from no one else.

  That got me thinking. Did Ali fancy my mum? He was certainly a more suitable boyfriend for her than PC Grant. He was a good-looking man, and he had a lovely set of teeth. He was forever showing them off.

  And he was giving her so much attention now.

  ‘It was Kerry really,’ Mum insisted, smiling at me. ‘If it weren’t for her we would never have considered searching the bins.’

  ‘You are a wonderful woman too!’ Ali said.

  And again I felt so guilty. Ming deserved this praise, not me. I wondered if I could tell them, just Mum and Ali? I could trust them. Ming could trust them. And really what did it matter now, that the Laffertys had been arrested?

  I knew the answer to that in the split second that I thought it. The door of Ali’s shop flew open and in she came. Ma Lafferty. For once her hair wasn’t pulled back tight from her face in a ponytail. It flew behind her, making her look like a madwoman.

  Her eyes went wild when she saw my mum.

  ‘You!’ she screamed. ‘You’re responsible!’

  Mum didn’t deny that. Her smile was triumphant. ‘Yes. We are.’

  Ma Lafferty’s gaze darted to me. ‘You think you’re so smart, don’t you? You think this is over, don’t you?’

  Ali stepped forward then. ‘Out of my shop, Mrs Lafferty. You know you are barred from here.’

  ‘I’m going,’ she said, already backing out. ‘I only came in to give you a warning.’ Her finger pointed straight at Mum. ‘Watch your back, dearie. Because I’ll get you. Don’t ever forget that. I’m not finished with you yet.’

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  ‘Well, it’s really all thanks to you,’ I told Ming. ‘Can’t I tell them now it was you who told me?’ I was excited after all that had happened and had sought him out at the Wee Hippy.

  ‘SSSH!’ He looked around quickly, afraid someone might have heard me. ‘You think that’s it finished?’

  ‘Goodness, Ming, Chopper and Chas have been arrested. They won’t get any bail. They’re off the estate. What more do you want?’

  He blew out his cheeks in exasperation. ‘The boys are nothing,’ he began.

  ‘Oh yes?’ I said. ‘You didn’t think that when we met them in the playground.’

  ‘Ma Lafferty’s the worst, Kerry. Don’t you understand that yet? She can always get boys to do her dirty work. But she’s the boss.’

  I leaned against the wall beside him, thinking about her threat to us. It wasn’t all over. Deep down I knew that.

  He turned and walked away from me, his shoulders slumped. He had changed. Since what had happened to his mother, Ming had changed. I thought I knew why. I would change too if anyone did that to my mum.

  Mum was singing when I went home. As soon as I stepped into the living-room she grabbed me and began waltzing around the room.

  ‘All right, Mum, I know,’ I said, disentangling myself from her. She can be so embarrassing at times. ‘Because of you the Laffertys have been carted off to jail. You’re wonderful!’

  She began screaming with excitement and shaking her head. ‘It’s even better than that, Kerry! Even better. What’s the most exciting thing that could happen?’

  Dad wanted us home.

  It was my first thought. He had split up with Rachel and we were going home. One big happy family again. I almost said it, till I realized that wasn’t what Mum meant. That hadn’t even crossed her mind. Only a couple of weeks ago it was all she thought about.

  Goodness, how Mum had changed.

  I shrugged my shoulders. ‘Tell me,’ I said.

  ‘We’ve got another house. Out of here. We’re moving, Kerry. Sergeant Maitland has seen to it. Moved for our own protection. Away from the Laffertys. Away from the scum who live here.’

  ‘They’re not scum, Mum,’ I heard myself say, and I meant it. I thought of Sandra, working so hard for her and Ming. I thought of the jolly Hippo Brigade, loving their nights at bingo. I thought of Mr McCurley, that big giant of a man who did the shopping for all his elderly neighbours. I thought of Ming, who had helped me, and been a friend. ‘They’re not scum.’

  She looked at me in surprise. ‘A
fter all we’ve been through you can’t possibly like them. Did they help us? No.’

  ‘They’re frightened, Mum. Frightened of Ma Lafferty.’ I remembered how frightened I had been.

  ‘Well, you and me, Kerry, have done what none of them could do. We’ve got rid of the Laffertys. Once and for all.’

  ‘Not all of them,’ I reminded her. But she wouldn’t listen. She was too happy.

  Within the next few days we were to view our new flat, and if we liked it we could move in the next couple of weeks. No wonder she was so pleased. Nothing was going to spoil her mood. After all, she said, Ma Lafferty was no one to be afraid of now. I knew different. Ma Lafferty was the worst one of all.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  The other flat was also on an estate. On this one, however, the gardens were well kept and tidy and there were no boarded-up windows. The flat itself was clean and fresh and Mum was delighted with it.

  ‘This is more like it,’ she kept saying.

  ‘It hasn’t got much of a view,’ I pointed out. It was on the ground floor and all we would be looking into was another flat.

  ‘So?’ Mum asked. And she immediately began measuring for curtains.

  ‘You’ve decided then?’ I asked her.

  ‘Well, I haven’t signed for it or anything, but I will. Any move out of that place has got to be an improvement.’

  She was right, of course. We had to get away from the Laffertys. It was the only way to be really safe from them. So why did I have this feeling in the pit of my stomach? Surely I didn’t really want to stay?

  Mum was just so happy, I could hardly believe it. She never mentioned Dad, and I noticed that his picture had been taken from above her bed and hadn’t been replaced. Now that was a really good sign.

  However, she was getting on everybody’s wick. She was so smug! She lifted her nose in the air whenever we passed any of the neighbours, and refused to talk to anyone. Whenever we got in the lift, when it was working that is, she just sucked in her cheeks and raised her eyes to the ceiling. I could see people fuming at her.