Broke (26 page)

‘Could you step out of the car, please, sir? We’ll need you to come down to the station to answer some questions.’

‘Are you having a laugh?’ Yates stepped out and jerked his arm away when the male officer tried to grip it. ‘I’m not going nowhere except to the hospital to see my girlfriend.’

‘It shouldn’t take long, if you cooperate,’ the policewoman assured him.

‘I’m going nowhere,’ Yates repeated, still resisting as the officer now tried to cuff him. ‘I ain’t done nothing wrong. I’ve been at my mate’s watching
Terminator
for the last hour. Ring him if you don’t believe me.’

‘Here, what’s going on?’ Gemma yelled when she noticed the commotion. ‘He was nowhere near when the fire started. I saw him going out with me own eyes, and he ain’t been back ’cos I’d have seen him. I’ve been out here the whole time, and I’ll swear to that on any Bible!’

Amy came round and winced when the bright lights scorched her eyes. ‘Where am I?’ she croaked. ‘What’s going on?’

‘You’re in hospital,’ a nurse told her. ‘And your wrist is broken, my love, so I’m going to need you to lie as still as you can until we can get it set. Do you think you can do that for me?’

Amy nodded and squeezed her eyes shut as a hacking cough rose up from her chest to her throat.

A young PC came into the room. After a quiet word with the nurse, he sat down on the chair beside the bed.

‘Hello, Amy, I’m PC Gibson. I just need to ask you a few questions, if that’s okay?’

‘About what?’ Amy eyed him nervously.

‘About the fire, to start with.’ He flipped his notepad open.

‘
Fire?
’ Amy frowned.

‘I know it’s probably a bit hazy, but it’s important that we try to build a picture of what happened,’ said Gibson. ‘Do you remember how it started?’

‘No idea,’ Amy answered truthfully.

‘Your boyfriend . . .’ Gibson looked at his notes. ‘Leonard Yates, is it?’

Amy tensed at the mention of Yates’s name. Gibson noticed and sat forward on his seat. ‘Did he do this to you?’

‘I don’t know what you mean,’ Amy mumbled.

‘It’s obvious that you’ve been assaulted,’ Gibson said quietly, guessing that, like most abused women, she was probably too scared to talk. ‘We’ve taken Yates in for questioning, so he can’t get to you if that’s what you’re worried about. If he
did
do this, it’ll be easier for us to hold him if you tell us what happened.’

A sob escaped Amy’s raw throat, and she threw her undamaged arm over her eyes and rocked her head from side to side on the pillow.

‘I’m sorry, you’ll have to leave it for now,’ the nurse intervened. ‘We need to treat her injuries and give her some pain relief. She’s an addict,’ she added quietly, gesturing with a motion of her eyes at the track marks scarring both Amy’s arms. ‘If she starts withdrawing it’ll be difficult for us to work on her – and even more difficult for you to get any sense out of her. I’ll call you back in when she’s fit to talk.’

Half an hour later, her wrist set, Amy felt much more comfortable. She’d been given a shot of morphine for the pain but, thankfully, it hadn’t been enough to knock her out, so when the nurse went off to find the policeman Amy was able to reach into the bedside cupboard and pull out her jeans. When she found her mobile phone still in the back pocket, she said a silent thank-you to God. Then, aware that she had very little time, she pressed redial – and sobbed with relief when, this time, Kelvin answered.

25

Yates scowled at the desk sergeant who opened the holding cell door the following morning. ‘Letting me go, are you? Realised you’ve got nothing on me?’

‘Come and get your stuff,’ the sergeant said coolly.

Yates followed him out to the reception desk with a cocky swagger in his step, complaining all the way: ‘My girl’s been in hospital all night on her own thanks to you lot, so I hope youse are fuckin’ pleased with yourselves. And I’m gonna sue youse for locking me up, an’ all. I’m an innocent man, and this is an infringement of my civil liberties, this.’

Unfazed, the sergeant pushed the clear plastic bag containing Yates’s belt, wallet, watch, loose change, cigarettes and lighter across the counter. ‘Check it and make sure it’s all there, then sign this.’ He slapped down a form.

Yates tore the bag open and rifled through it. ‘Where’s me coke?’

‘Very funny,’ the sergeant drawled, disappointed that no drugs had been found on Yates, because he’d have taken great pleasure in charging the scrote had there been the slightest trace.

‘You’re a joke, mate,’ sneered Yates. ‘A total fuckin’ joke, the lot of you.’

‘If you say so.’ The sergeant smiled and nodded towards the door. ‘Off you go, there’s a good boy. But make sure you behave yourself, because we’ll be watching you.’

‘For what?’ Yates glowered at him. ‘You ain’t got nothing on me, or you wouldn’t be letting me go.’

The sergeant leaned forward and clasped his hands together on the counter. ‘We all know you did it, and it’s only a matter of time before we prove it, so I’d watch my back if I was you.’

‘You’re the one who needs to watch your back,’ Yates retorted with a smirk. ‘’Cos if I see any of your lot following me, I’ll be doing you for harassment.’

The sergeant held his gaze for several long moments, then smiled again and turned his back.

Yates sucked his teeth and strolled out, shouldering past a PC who was on his way in.

Marnie was sitting on a bench outside. She was smoking a cigarette, but she dropped it when she saw him and ran up the path.

‘Are you okay? Did they treat you all right? What did they say?’

‘Not now, I’m tired,’ Yates muttered, eyeballing the occupants of a panda car that was driving slowly past. ‘What you doing here?’

‘I wanted to see you,’ said Marnie, linking her arm through his. ‘I couldn’t sleep, I was too worried.’

‘You ain’t been sat out here all night, have you?’

‘No, your friend Keith came round to pick your car up, and he gave me a lift. He’s waiting round the corner. Have you heard anything from the hospital?’

‘No, but I’m gonna go up there now. I’ll drop you at home and give you a call when I know what’s going on.’

‘I’ll come with you, if you want?’ Marnie offered.

Yates shook his head. ‘I need to see her on my own. Find out what she’s been saying about me.’

‘What
could
she have said? You weren’t even there.’

‘They think I did it,’ muttered Yates, nodding hello to Keith as they neared the car. ‘She was smacked out of her head when I went round there last night, and I walked out on her. You know what she’s like. She could have said anything to get back at me.’

‘Yeah, well, she’ll have me to deal with if she tells any lies about you,’ Marnie said indignantly. ‘Gemma saw you going out well before the fire started, so we all know you weren’t there. And if she says different, I’ll knock her out.’

‘You’ll go home and keep your mouth shut,’ said Yates, grinning as he stroked her stomach. ‘You’ve got Junior to think about now, so there’ll be no scrapping or arguing. You just leave all that to me.’

Marnie smiled and climbed into the back of the car. It wouldn’t be long now before everyone knew their news, and she couldn’t wait. Lenny had tried his best, but even
he
would have to admit now that Amy was beyond help. If the drugs and the prostitution hadn’t been enough to make him see sense, surely Amy setting the house on fire would. She hadn’t been right in the head since Mark walked out on her, but instead of getting better she’d been getting progressively worse, and now she was an actual danger to herself. And God only knew what would have happened if the fire had spread to Marnie’s house.

That didn’t bear thinking about, and Marnie was determined to make sure that the bitch was never allowed to move back in after the council fixed the house up. She had her baby to think about now, and she would kill Amy before she would let her put it in danger.

After dropping Marnie off, Yates drove straight over to the MRI. Furious to hear that Amy had discharged herself just ten minutes before he got there, he jumped back into the car and set off for Stretford, sure that she must have gone to her parents’ place.

‘Go easy,’ Keith cautioned when they stopped a few doors down from the house. ‘If she’s told them anything, they’ll be straight on the blower to the pigs when they see you.’

‘They’ve got nothing on me,’ Yates reminded him. ‘Anyway, it’d look a bit odd if I didn’t call round to check on her, wouldn’t it?’

‘I suppose so,’ Keith conceded. ‘Just don’t go kicking off if it doesn’t go your way.’

‘I’m cool,’ said Yates, smiling as he got out of the car.

He had no intention of kicking off and giving the fuckers ammunition to throw at him. He just needed to see the bitch, find out what she’d been saying – and make sure she didn’t say anything else.

Sonia Clark was weeding in the back garden when she heard the doorbell. She peeled her gloves off and walked down the path to the side gate. ‘Can I help you?’ She peered out at Yates through the bars.

‘Oh, hello, love, sorry to disturb you.’ Yates stepped around the wheelie bin and smiled at her. ‘I’m a friend of your Amy’s. The hospital said she’d been discharged, so I figured she’d probably come here, what with the house still being taped off, and that.’

‘Sorry?’ Sonia frowned. ‘What are you talking about?’

Yates immediately knew that she hadn’t heard from Amy, and held up his hands. ‘My apologies. I presumed you knew.’

‘About what?’ Sonia demanded. ‘Has something happened to Amy?’

‘There was a fire,’ Yates told her. ‘But it’s okay, she wasn’t hurt. They just kept her in overnight to keep an eye on her. I was in London and I couldn’t get back till this morning, but she’d already left by the time I got there.’

A little less alarmed now that she knew Amy wasn’t hurt, Sonia said, ‘Who did you say you are?’

‘Just a friend.’

‘And you say there was a fire? At Amy’s house?’

‘Yeah. The police reckon it started in her bedroom. They think she might have fell asleep with a lit fag, or something.’

A spark of disapproval glinted in Sonia’s eyes, and she muttered, ‘More like she fell asleep smoking drugs.’

‘Wouldn’t know anything about that, love.’ Yates gazed innocently back at her. ‘Anyhow, sorry for worrying you, but I’ve got an idea where she might have gone, so I’ll get off. Shall I give her your love when I see her?’

‘Thank you for telling me,’ said Sonia, sidestepping his question.

Yates smirked when she went back to her gardening. No wonder Amy was so fucked up with a mother as cold as that. But attention-starved girls were a godsend for a man like Yates, because he could do whatever he liked to them safe in the knowledge that nobody cared enough to stop him.

‘What did she say?’ Keith asked when Yates climbed back into the car. ‘Is she there?’

‘No, they haven’t seen her.’

‘So what now?’

‘Got three gees of white in the boot, so we’re going back to yours for a few lines,’ said Yates, throwing the car into gear. ‘Then, when me head’s clear, I’m going to track her down.’

‘Don’t you think it’s time to knock this on the head?’ Keith suggested as they set off. ‘You nearly killed her last night – ain’t that enough?’

‘Is it fuck.’

‘So what you gonna do when you find her? Finish the job? ’Cos you know the pigs are gonna come after you if anything happens to her now, don’t you? They already think you battered her and started the fire.’

‘Thinking it and proving it are two different things.’

‘And what about that other bird’s baby?’

‘What about it?’

‘How you gonna be a dad to it if you’re banged up?’

‘I ain’t gonna get banged up,’ snapped Yates. ‘Now shut the fuck up – you’re starting to do my head in.’

Keith shook his head in despair and gazed out of the window. There was no point trying to reason with Yates, because he never took any notice. He’d treated girls badly in the past and got away with it, but even Keith didn’t know the full extent of what he’d done to them – or where they went to when they suddenly disappeared.

Yates was his best mate, and Keith would always have his back, but he had a bad feeling about this one. When it had first started, Keith had thought it was just about the money, but he’d soon realised that Yates was more interested in the girl herself. Unfortunately,
she
hadn’t been interested in
him
, so it hadn’t been long before Yates had turned nasty and started pimping her out. And now he’d escalated to actually trying to kill her. But instead of thanking his lucky stars that he hadn’t succeeded and leaving well enough alone, Yates was determined to find her and push his luck even further by doing God only knew what.

Keith just hoped that the girl had had the sense to go somewhere far, far away – for Yates’s sake as well as her own.

26

Kelvin had been horrified when Amy told him what had happened, but he hadn’t been overly surprised to hear that Yates had upped his violence to a murderous degree. He didn’t know the man on a personal level, but he knew the type all too well, and they were never satisfied until they had crushed everyone around them into submission. And those they couldn’t crush they tried to destroy instead.

Unable to leave work at the time he received the call, and aware that there was nothing he could actually do then anyway, Kelvin had struggled through the rest of his shift with a set smile on his lips, determined not to give anything away to Mani and to the other girls. One tiny seed of suspicion would be all that Yates needed to put two and two together, and if Kelvin was to stand any chance of helping Amy to escape he would have to carry on as normal and fool everybody into thinking that he knew nothing.

Already nervous when he picked Amy up from the hospital this morning, he kept an eye out for Yates as he helped her into the back of a black cab.

Amy was silent on the ten-minute ride, but when they pulled up outside a semi-detached house in a nice part of Fallowfield she gave Kelvin a curious look. ‘I thought you said you lived in a flat?’