‘The only thing I regret is putting my trust in a lying whore like you,’ Rob snarled, tightening his grip on her wrists. ‘And how many more of these cunts have you been meeting up with behind my back while I’ve been grafting my bollocks off to give you a life of fucking luxury?’
‘I’ve already told you – none!’ Suzie yelled, trying to pull her hands free. ‘And you’ve never given me a damn penny. I pay my own way. Always have, always will!’
‘Yeah, and we know how you do that, don’t we?’ Rob sneered. ‘Twenty for a blow job, fifty for a shag . . . that what you’re charging these days, whore?’
‘Get the fuck off me,’ Suzie cried, blinking to clear the tears that were stinging her eyes.
‘You might as well quit struggling, ’cos you’re going nowhere till you tell me who this cunt JC is,’ Rob said, yanking her arms together and grasping both of her wrists in one hand before reaching for the phone he’d dropped. ‘Hey sexy,’ he said, as he read out the message on the screen, ‘so good to see you last night, can’t wait to do it again.’
‘That’s not from a man,’ Suzie spluttered. ‘It’s an old school friend. Her name’s Jenny. Jenny Corbett. I bumped into her last year and we swapped numbers.’
‘LIAR!’ Rob roared, his face so close to hers that his sour breath scorched her cheeks. ‘How about this one, then?’ He scrolled to a different message from the same contact. ‘You’re so hot . . . I can still taste that sweet pussy . . .’ Pausing, he glared down at her. ‘That don’t sound like no old school friend to me. Unless you’re trying to tell me you’re a dyke now?’
‘She was messing about,’ Suzie said, her cheeks blazing. ‘That’s what she’s like. It was a joke.’
‘Tell you what, why don’t I ring this number and see who answers?’ Rob said. ‘But be warned,’ he added ominously. ‘If you make me do this and it turns out to be a bloke, I’m gonna fuck you up.’
Aware that this was going to end badly, Suzie renewed her struggle to get out from under him, but he was too big and heavy to shift.
‘OK, I’ll tell you the truth,’ she gasped. ‘They were from a man, but they’re old messages – I swear. I finished with him before I met you, and I haven’t seen him since.’
‘Why didn’t you tell me that in the first place?’
‘Because I didn’t think you’d believe me.’
‘You were right, I don’t,’ said Rob. ‘Now give me the cunt’s name.’
‘It’s the truth,’ Suzie cried. ‘And I don’t even care if you think I’m lying. I’ve had enough, Rob. I can’t take this any more.’
‘So you’re admitting it then?’
‘I’m not admitting anything. I’m just sick of you trying to control me! This is my house, not yours, and—’
‘I’ll give you one last chance,’ Rob cut in, his voice deceptively quiet. ‘I want . . . his fuckin’ . . . NAME!’
‘FUCK YOU!’ Suzie yelled, thrashing her head from side to side. ‘FUCK—’
‘You don’t get to tell me what to do, bitch,’ Rob hissed, clapping a hand over her mouth. ‘I want his name, and I ain’t leaving till I get it.’
Unable to breathe, Suzie widened her eyes and tried to shake off his hand. But he either didn’t realize or didn’t care that he was suffocating her, because he kept it firmly in place.
Next door, May Foster had heard the commotion through the bedroom wall and had called the police. Pacing her tiny hallway as she waited for them to arrive, she gazed at the framed photographs on the walls: the visual timeline of the work she’d done to the house since buying it at auction some years earlier. She had intended to do it up and sell it on, then invest the profit in another property in a slightly better area and do the same again. But she’d been forced to rethink those plans when, a few weeks after committing to the purchase, the company where she worked had gone into liquidation, leaving her unemployed for the first time in years. In her mid-forties by then, she had struggled to find another job in a youth-dominated market. So, ignoring the warnings from her family and friends who had told her she was crazy to consider moving to such a rough area, she had sold the flat she’d been living in at the time and moved into the house. It had been a wreck inside and out, and the repairs had swallowed every penny she’d made from the sale of the flat. But she had settled in nicely over the years, so she’d never regretted her decision.
Until that bloody couple moved in next door.
It was bad enough that she could hear the obscene noises they made whenever they had sex, but their frequent arguments were even worse. The yelling, the screaming, the foul-mouthed insults they threw at each other . . . It was horrendous, and the walls were thin enough that she might as well have been right there in the room with them when they were going at it.
But it wasn’t only the noise that set May on edge; it was the feeling of dread that hovered over her during their quieter times as she waited for the next argument to erupt. When the lout had come back to the house on Saturday morning, she’d wondered how long it would be before it all kicked off again. Now, just two days later, they’d had the mother of all bust-ups, and enough was enough. The pity she’d felt for her neighbour when she’d seen the bruises on her face the morning after their last fight was long gone. And this time, if the police didn’t hold the thug and that silly girl let him back into the house, she intended to contact their landlord and demand they be evicted.
6
Josie woke in a cold sweat to the repetitive beep-beep-beep of her alarm clock going off. She’d had nightmares in the past, but
