Behind a Closed Door (The Estate, Book 2) (6 page)

‘Reception okay this morning?’ Josie asked Debbie as she searched out a tenant’s file from the large cabinet by her side.

Debbie nodded. ‘Gets a bit boring, though, listening to everyone moaning.’

‘Do you fancy coming out on the patch with me for a few visits? People will still moan but it’s better than being inside – well, most of the time.’

Debbie nodded a little more eagerly this time. ‘I’d love to.’

‘Great. I’ll sort it out. All you need to wear is trousers and flat boots or shoes. I’ll find you some armour to change…’ Josie grinned at the in-joke regarding their work wear. ‘I’ll find you a coat to wear.’

‘Cluck, cluck, cluck, you’re doing it again,’ Ray teased, smirking at Josie as he sat down at his desk.

Josie stuck out her tongue.

‘Whatever you do,’ he shouted down the office to their new recruit, ‘don’t let her tell you the rules of a housing officer. They’ll put you off our job for life.’

‘Rules?’ queried Debbie.

‘Ignore him,’ Josie soothed her as she frowned at a grinning Ray. ‘I’ll introduce you to them one at a time.’

When Josie next went out on her own, she spent a pleasant half an hour with Amy and Reece Cartwright. As she left the property she looked up the road. As she’d expected, Kelly Winterton had been hard at work. There was a pile of empty boxes crunched up neatly by the side of the wheelie bin and curtains were hanging in arcs at each of the windows.

As she drove past, Josie spotted Kelly on the pathway. She was quite a way through cutting back the hedge that separated the path from the small garden. Pleased to see her making an effort already, Josie decided to stop.

‘Now that’s what I like to see,’ she said as she walked down the steps towards Kelly.

Kelly stood up straight and put a hand on the small of her back. ‘It’s bloody killed me to get this far, but I was sick of getting soaked when we moved in.’

‘It looks great. And it’s nice to see someone
doing
something rather than me having to enforce it with a dozen warning letters.’ She was about to ask where Emily was when she appeared behind her mum.

‘Hiya, lady,’ Emily smiled a row of milky-white teeth. ‘I’m helping Mummy clear the garden. I’m on litter duty.’

Kelly and Josie shared a smirk. Emily had numerous cuttings stuck to her red pom-pom hat, and a child’s pink rucksack stuffed with crisp packets, toffee wrappers and the odd shrivelled leaf.

‘What a good girl.’ Josie bent down to her level. ‘I think you can come and do my garden when you’ve finished here. You’re doing a wonderful job.’

‘Mummy says I have to leave the grown up stuff for her to tidy up,’ Emily pronounced, picking up the rucksack ready to return to her duties.

‘Is she always that sweet?’ Josie spoke to Kelly.

Kelly stopped mid-shear. ‘You should’ve been here last night when she was crying for most of it.’

‘Hello, ladies,’ said someone behind them. They both turned to see a small woman. She looked to be in her sixties, with shots of grey running through her dark hair.

‘Hello, Dot,’ Josie smiled warmly. Dorothy Simpson had lived in the flat below Kelly since she’d lost her husband to lung cancer. She was the first tenant that Josie had taken on a viewing when she had started working for the association. ‘This is Kelly. She and her daughter have moved in downstairs.’

‘Yes, we met briefly earlier, and I like her already.’ Dot smiled at Kelly. ‘Especially if she’s tackling the garden. I’d do it myself, but my arthritis is playing up at the moment.’

‘There’s no need,’ Kelly told her. ‘I’ll keep it in order all the time from now on. I can’t stand any kind of mess.’

Dot beamed even more when she spotted Emily. ‘Hello. Would you like to see if I have any chocolate biscuits left in my tin?’

Emily shrugged shyly but took hold of Dot’s hand anyway.

‘If you ever need a baby-sitter for an odd hour here and there,’ Dot said as she opened her front door, ‘give me a nod. I’d love some company.’ 

‘She seems nice,’ Kelly said, as she continued to shear.

‘Yes, Dot’s one of my prize tenants. She’s the chairman of Clarence Avenue Neighbourhood Watch, helps out at the church on Samuel Street. She’s always running errands for people less fortunate than herself, too. I’ve never…’ Josie stopped in mid flow as a black and white collie ran past on the pavement. She put her folder down on top of the low wall. ‘I won’t be a minute.’

Kelly couldn’t resist going to investigate as Josie shouted Tess at the top of her voice and raced up the path.

Josie tore after the dog, grabbed for her collar and walked her back the way she had come. She marched Tess down the path and finally managed to tie her up in the garden again. As usual, Mr and Mrs Thomas weren’t in to reprimand. Josie made a mental note to pop in next week when she called to see Amy.

Kelly had finished the hedge and was bagging up the last of the cuttings when Josie came into view again.

‘You certainly have a varied role as a housing officer,’ she grinned as she clocked the red glow of her cheeks.

‘She’s a good dog really, but she’s always escaping. Between you and me, I’ve given up with her owners. I’ve had to tie her up in the back garden. It’s not something I like doing but what else can I do? It’d be a trip with the dog warden if she’s caught wandering the streets again.’ Josie held up muddy palms. ‘Don’t suppose you’d take pity, offer me a cuppa and let me wash my hands?’

Kelly could hear Scott’s scornful tone as he said ‘absolutely no fucking way’ quite clearly in her mind. But Scott wasn’t here to say it aloud. Loneliness made her nod her head.

Once Kelly had checked that Emily wasn’t badgering Dot too much, they went upstairs to the flat and into the living room. Josie glanced around. Although the floorboards had still to be covered, it was almost a replica of the room Kelly had left behind in Patrick Street: the large coffee and cream swirl rug, heavy ivory curtains hanging from a thick chrome pole. The settees had been placed in an L-shape on the back walls. Three wooden-framed photographs of Emily hung strategically above the tiled fireplace.

 ‘It looks fantastic,’ Josie enthused, before sitting down on the settee nearest to the window. ‘It must have taken you ages to get rid of the yellow stains.’

Kelly ran her hand over the door frame nearest to her. ‘Three coats of white gloss. To be exact, it was three coats of one-coat gloss. And if you think this is bright, you should see Emily’s room – Princess Pink.’

Josie unzipped her folder and pulled out Kelly’s paperwork. ‘Do you mind if I run through this while I’m here?’ she asked when handed a mug. When Kelly didn’t reply, she continued. ‘Did you go and sort out your benefits last week?’

‘Yeah.’

‘What about your bills? Have you registered the suppliers in your name?’

Kelly nodded this time. Josie could feel her resistance to the questions.

‘That’s good,’ she continued, ‘because if you ever want to get out of here, you’ll need to prove you’ve been a tenant long enough to qualify.’

‘I told you I’m capable of surviving on my own,’ Kelly muttered. She turned to stare out of the window.

Josie put her drink down on top of a coaster. ‘I haven’t called to spy on you. These are routine questions I ask all of my new tenants. I’m simply interested to see how the place is coming on. You have a real flair for making a home.’ Her eyes raced around the room again. ‘I’m genuinely amazed to see how much you’ve done in such a short space of time. Some of the tenants I signed up during the same week as you won’t have moved in yet, let alone started any decorating. Now that you’ve done that, though, have you thought any more about getting a part time job to tide you over?’

Kelly sat down on the other settee. ‘Yeah, I need to do something. I don’t know how people manage on benefits.’ She grimaced, knowing how it would sound to Josie but when she’d lived with Scott, everything had been acquired without question; now she was fending for herself, she had to watch every penny.

‘Why don’t you come with me to look around Mitchell Academy?’ Josie suggested. Mitchell Academy was a high school on the estate that had been used as a community college on its closure. Originally the building had housed six hundred pupils, but government cuts had insisted that it amalgamated with another school three miles away. ‘What do you fancy doing?’

Kelly sighed. ‘I don’t know what I
can
do. It seems so long since I left school. My mum reckons I could get some work at Miles’ factory because my auntie works there. I might give it a go.’

Josie nodded. ‘Great. It will alter your benefits if you do over eight hours a week but I think you could easily combine the two. My husband works at Miles’ Factory; he does the day and noon shift.’ She checked her watch and shot to her feet. ‘I’d better get going. I need to call another couple of times yet though, just to see that you’re settled. Is next Thursday morning okay for my next call?’

‘Yeah, I suppose so. And I’d better rescue Dot from Emily.’

‘Don’t you mean rescue Emily from Dot?’

Kelly shook her head. ‘I know exactly what I mean. That child can talk the hind legs off a donkey, given half the chance.’

Josie smiled to disguise her feelings. Her biological clock had been ticking for quite some time now but Stewart wanted to wait until the timing was right for him too. Then again, with the relationship how it was, there didn’t seem much point in trying for a baby if they weren’t more of a unit first.

‘I’ll show myself out and thanks for the drink,’ she said. ‘I don’t accept such offers from everyone I visit, you know.’

Later, as she went back outside to finish clearing up, Kelly recalled Josie’s visit. She found herself warming to the woman behind the coat of authority. Josie had no airs and graces, no false chit-chat. She was straight, to the point, yet never rude with it, and she didn’t judge people. But it was her ability to care without being patronising that she really found admirable.

It also made Kelly realise how much she’d given up for Scott. She was twenty-four-years old and not a friend to her name. Everyone she’d been close to had eventually been driven away in case they became too familiar and saw or heard too much. If she
had
had someone like Josie around all the time, to share her concerns and talk over her worries, maybe she might not have got into this mess.

Still, Kelly sighed, Josie was a housing officer. To her, a visit was part of the job. Kelly knew she must visit lots of tenants and make them feel that she was someone in authority that they could trust. But it did seem a pity that the arm of friendship she was offering came with strings attached.

CHAPTER SIX

It was nearing six thirty when Josie got home from work that evening. She knew she didn’t have to rush because Stewart was on the noon shift, two-til-ten. It made her feel sad to realise how much she relished coming home to an empty house. Every other weekend she’d be thinking that the next week, when Stewart was on days – six-til-two – it would be different. But by each Friday night, she couldn’t wait for his noon shift to start again.

She hung up her coat and checked the mail: a gas bill, two circulars, a bank statement for her and a bank statement for a Mrs S Mellor. She sighed. She’d rung the bank on several occasions to complain about the computer-generated error but still they kept coming. She left it on the kitchen table for Stewart, along with his monthly car magazine.

After running the hoover around the living room, she ate a quick meal and then decided to savour the peace and quiet by finishing off the last three chapters of the romantic comedy she was reading, but she was also keeping one eye on the time, as there was a film she wanted to watch at eight.

At quarter to ten, she woke up with a jolt to see the film credits rolling. Damn and blast, she’d missed the ending again. She walked through to the kitchen, made a cheese and tomato sandwich for Stewart and two slices of cheese on toast for herself.

She was halfway through it as she heard his car pull up in the driveway. Automatically, she switched on the kettle and slid the sandwich across the table, reaching across to bring the salt and pepper nearer.

‘Hiya, love,’ she greeted him cheerily. ‘It’s a bit nippy. Have you had to scrape the ice off your car?’

‘Yeah, it’s not fit for a dog out there.’ Stewart shrugged his coat off and threw it over the back of the nearest chair. He lifted up a corner of bread from the sandwich and frowned. ‘Couldn’t you have toasted it for me?’

Josie sighed. No rush to kiss her on the cheek, then. ‘You had that last night. I thought you might like a change.’

‘I’d rather have a curry.’

‘Well, order a takeaway if you want to suffer with indigestion all night.’ She pushed past him into the living room, taking her toast with her before he pinched it off the plate.

Fifteen minutes later, Stewart was still in the kitchen. Josie cocked an ear and yes, he’d turned on the portable television rather than come through and sit with her. Fuming to herself, she switched off the set she was idly watching, plumped up the cushions and took her dishes through.