‘It’s for the pain,’ Josie replied, her eyes brimming with tears. ‘And – and I could do with some of those tramadol I got off you when I twisted my ankle that time, if you’ve got any?’
Fiona pursed her lips and stared down at her. Squirming under the scrutiny, sure that Fiona thought she was an alcoholic and was about to tell her to sling her hook, Josie put her hands out in a prayer-like gesture, and said, ‘Please, Fi, I’m begging you. I only need enough to get me through the night till I can get to the doctor. Please?’
At the sound of banging on the floorboards above, Fiona tutted, and said, ‘OK, I’ll give you one bottle and enough caps for two nights – in case you can’t get an appointment that fast. But my name had better not leave your mouth if you get sick, else you’re dead.’
‘I’d never grass you up,’ Josie insisted. ‘We’re mates.’
‘Being workmates don’t make us buddies,’ Fiona countered. ‘And I’m telling you this for your own good, ’cos it won’t be me who comes after you if I get raided, it’ll be my supplier – and he doesn’t fuck about. Do you understand what I’m saying?’
Desperate to get her hands on the painkillers and vodka, Josie nodded her agreement and licked her lips when Fiona walked into the kitchen, pushing the door shut behind her. She’d waited all day for this, and Fiona’s threats weren’t about to put her off. Where she would go once she got what she needed, she didn’t yet know. Her knee-jerk reaction after the argument with Holly had been to run away and never look back, but her conscience had stopped her and she had found herself here instead. She was exhausted and wanted to go home, but she couldn’t risk it until she knew what Holly had told Suzie. But she had no way of finding out while Holly was refusing to leave the woman’s house and Suzie had taken it upon herself to act as some sort of mediator. She’d already tried to force her to leave, and that hadn’t worked. And she couldn’t ask the police to intervene and risk raising their suspicions, so it looked like she was going to have to leave Holly where she was for now.
‘Here you go . . .’ Fiona came back from the kitchen with a bottle of vodka and a half-strip of tramadol capsules. Giving Josie a stern look as she handed them over, she said, ‘Don’t forget what I said. If anything happens—’
‘It won’t,’ Josie assured her, clutching the bottle tightly after sliding the silver strip into her pocket.
‘Er, I think you’re forgetting something,’ Fiona said sharply when she turned and made for the door. ‘That’ll be twenty-five quid.’
‘Twenty-five?’ Josie gulped, turning back to her.
‘That’s what I said.’ Fiona held out her hand.
‘Can – can I give it to you tomorrow?’ Josie asked. ‘I left my purse at home, and it’ll take an hour to walk there and back.’
At the sound of yet more banging from upstairs, Fiona yelled, ‘I’ll be up in a sec, Bri.’ Then, muttering, ‘Fuck’s sake,’ she turned back to Josie, and said, ‘OK, you can pay me tomorrow, but I want it first thing. If I’m not up when you get here, post it through the letterbox. And don’t let me down, or it’ll be the last thing you ever do.’
‘I won’t,’ Josie said, scrabbling to open the door. ‘First thing, I promise.’
Outside, Josie stood in the shadows at the side of the house and listened as Fiona locked and bolted the door. When the porch light went out, followed a few seconds later by the hall light, she peered at the houses on the opposite side of the road to check that none of Fiona’s neighbours were watching, then crawled back into the bin cupboard, pulling the door shut behind her.
As infuriating as it was that she couldn’t get to Holly tonight, there was nothing she could do about it, so she would see to her own needs and then go back round there tomorrow, when she felt stronger. And this time, Holly would leave with her – whether she liked it or not!
34
Suzie had taken the hot chocolate up to Holly and was on her way back down to the kitchen when someone tapped lightly on the front door. Guessing, from the timidity of it, that it was Josie, that the woman, embarrassed about her behaviour that morning, had come back with her tail between her legs to apologize, she was surprised to find Rob on the step.
‘Hope it’s not too late to call round?’ He gave her a sheepish smile. ‘I thought you might be in bed when I didn’t see any lights on, but then I saw your shadow through the glass and thought I’d take a chance.’
‘I’ve been sitting in the kitchen, that’s why the other lights are off,’ Suzie told him, shivering in the cold night air.
‘I thought we should talk,’ he said. ‘But I’ll come back tomorrow, if it’s not convenient?’
Noticing that he, too, was shivering, and that his teeth were tightly clenched, Suzie said, ‘No, don’t be daft. You’re here now, so you might as well come in.’
‘Cheers.’ Rob stepped inside. ‘I know you’ve got a lot on your hands right now, but . . .’ He paused and gave a tiny shrug. ‘Truth is, I felt bad about walking out in a strop earlier. I was jealous, and I acted like an idiot.’
‘Jealous?’ Suzie was bemused. ‘Of Holly?’
‘Yeah, I know, I’m a dick.’ He grimaced. ‘But we’d been getting on so well, and . . . I dunno. I just thought we were getting somewhere – you know?’
Suzie wasn’t listening. She had spotted three angry red marks on his neck and, concerned that he’d been fighting, she said, ‘What’s happened?’
‘What?’ Rob looked confused.
‘Your neck,’ she said, turning him to face the mirror on the wall. ‘They look like scratches.’
‘Oh, right . . .’ he murmured when he saw them. ‘That
