The cops weren’t fooled, and one of them yelled at him to come outside with his hands behind his head. No longer smiling, he tried to make a run for it, but a baton-whack to the back of his legs brought him down before he reached the gate, and he let out a roar of pain and anger when one of the cops squirted pepper spray in his eyes.
He rolled around on the path, screaming threats and kicking out at the officers who were now trying to cuff him, and Holly winced when he clamped his teeth around one of their hands and they both started whacking him with their batons. Scared that they might kill him, Holly was relieved when a van pulled up behind the car and another four officers leapt out.
The new arrivals made short work of dragging the man to his feet and tossing him into the back of the van, and the first two dusted themselves down before going inside the house.
Action over, Holly drew the curtains and took another bite of the sandwich as she switched the light back on. Almost immediately, the electric went out, plunging her into darkness again. The emergency credit had already been used, so she lit a candle and carried it into her room. Still thinking about the woman from across the road as she changed into her pyjamas and climbed into bed, she reached for her phone to tell her best mate, Bex, about the fight she’d witnessed. She had no credit, so she sent a text asking Bex to ring her.
When ten minutes had passed with no word from Bex, she tried their other friend, Kelly. Getting no response from her either, she blew out the candle after a while and settled down for an early night, thinking that she would tell them both when they met up at the park behind Bex’s house in the morning.
As soon as Holly’s head hit the pillow, a pounding bass beat started up in the flat above, and she groaned when she remembered it was Friday night: party night for the man who’d moved in there a few weeks earlier. The music was already loud enough for the ceiling light over her bed to be swaying and she knew it would only get worse as the night wore on.
Cursing the man under her breath when shouting and raucous laughter signalled the arrival of his rowdy mates, she pulled the pillow over her head to escape the noise. A vision of the woman from across the road immediately flashed into her mind, and she shivered when she recalled the man punching her in the face. Unlike Holly’s mum, who rarely made any effort with her appearance, the neighbour was always immaculately made-up and stylishly dressed, and Holly didn’t understand why anyone would want to hurt her the way that man had done tonight. But at least now he’d been arrested he wouldn’t be able to do it again and the woman would be free to find someone who treated her better.
2
Saturday morning dawned bright, but the sun wasn’t throwing off any heat and the icy air bit into Holly’s flesh when she climbed out of bed. Still groggy, because the party in the flat above had gone on well into the early hours, she pulled on her dressing gown and stumbled over to the window.
A concrete play area consisting of two broken swings, a rickety slide and a roundabout that no longer turned sat to the left of the glass-littered residents’ car park. None of the local parents allowed their kids anywhere near it, because the gangs who hung out there to smoke weed and get pissed had turned it into a no-go zone. Holly didn’t even like walking past when the gangs were there, afraid that she would catch their eye and become a target for the abuse they hurled at anyone who dared look their way. Thankfully, the area was deserted now, so she decided to make an early start on her chores.
After washing and dressing, she picked up the cash, electric card and shopping list her mum had left on the hall table. Her mum worked nights – every night – and rarely got up before 3 p.m., so the household chores were left to Holly. She kept the flat reasonably tidy throughout the week, but Saturday was the day she did the weekly shopping, the laundry, the polishing and vacuuming. And once those things were out of the way, she was free to go out and meet up with her friends for a few hours. Looking forward to that, because she’d been revising for her GCSEs all week and desperately needed some downtime, Holly tiptoed past her mum’s room where she heard loud snores coming from inside and quietly let herself out.
About to cross the road after leaving her block, Holly hesitated when the neighbour she’d seen being beaten up came out of her house carrying two bulging bin-bags. The woman was wearing a black satin dressing gown, and her honey-blond hair was pinned on top of her head, revealing a vivid red mark on her neck and a bruise on her cheek.
Shocked by the blast of a horn, Holly leapt back onto the pavement in time to narrowly avoid being hit by a Transit van. Blushing when it passed and she saw that the woman was looking at her, she dipped her head and scuttled away.
Suzie Clifton dumped the bin-bags on top of the wheelie bin and wiped her hands on her dressing gown as she watched the girl hurry down the road and around the corner. She’d seen her before, at the window of the first-floor
