‘I’ll let you know when it’s alright to come down,’ said Trina.
By the time she went back downstairs her mother was already at the kitchen sink trying to clean herself up. Trina helped her by holding a cold compress to her busted nose and wiping away her tears.
Eventually her mother was calm enough to speak to her. ‘That’s the end of it now, Trina. I won’t put up with it no more.’
Trina nodded solemnly but didn’t react except to ask, ‘Can the boys come downstairs now?’
‘Yes,’ said Daisy. ‘You can tell them I fell over and banged me face by accident. And not a word of this to anyone else, do you hear?’
Trina nodded again and went to speak to her brothers.
*
Isaac did call at the house again but only to collect the things he had brought with him. Trina watched, her stomach growling with fear and annoyance as he lifted the TV, stereo and various other items and walked out of the house without saying another word.
It was the last time Trina saw her father, just a few weeks before her tenth birthday. But she didn’t miss him and the endless rows that accompanied him whenever he returned home. If anything, she was relieved to see him go. In fact, the whole family were much sorrier to lose their TV and stereo than they were to see the back of their bullying husband and father.
5
February 2005
Ruby was sitting in the public gallery at Manchester Crown Court surrounded by the clientele of the Rose and Crown. Prostitutes, pimps, drug dealers and conmen; they were all there. Next to her was her friend, Crystal, who had been tense throughout the trial of her former pimp and lover, Gilly.
As Ruby tried to concentrate on the judge’s summing up of the case, she heard a sniffle and looked over at Crystal. Her friend often looked bedraggled; Ruby put it down to the fact that she worked long hours as well as taking care of her four-year-old daughter, Candice. But today she looked worse than ever.
Crystal’s eyes were red-rimmed through crying, the small pupils and dark rings underneath them demonstrating a lack of sleep. Ruby could see fresh tears, which had smudged Crystal’s mascara and eyeliner, leaving black streaks on top of the dark circles.
Her body language also spoke of her sorrow; her shoulders were hunched, her features strained, and she rung her hands as she waited for the judge to finish speaking so the jury could announce the verdict.
By contrast, Ruby was a woman who looked after herself; that was apparent from her taut muscles and radiant complexion with chestnut-coloured skin as soft and smooth as velvet. Her face was crowned with neat cornrows whose plaits spilt out enticingly onto her broad, honed shoulders. She was clean-living in relation to her diet, having given up the drugs long ago, unlike Crystal who seemed to rely on a cocktail of toxic substances to get her through the day.
Despite her physical appeal, Ruby was anything but sweet. Her face was beautiful but harsh, her strained features accompanied by a subconscious snarl, sparked by painful memories that haunted her. She appeared formidable, invincible and had a mood to match. But, although Ruby was feisty and sharp-tongued, she was extremely loyal to the people she cared about.
Ruby tutted as she looked at Crystal and whispered, ‘What the fuck you snivelling for? You’re better off without him.’
Ruby’s eyes drifted across to the man in the dock. Gilly. He too looked tense, but he was trying to hide his disquiet behind a look that spoke of pure arrogance; chin jutting forward, eyes narrowed and a painted-on sneer.
For a few seconds Ruby studied him. Today he was smartly dressed for court in a shirt, tie and jacket, an obvious attempt to impress the jury. His hair had also been freshly washed and combed, his natural blond tone shining under the lights of the courtroom.
But Ruby saw through his innocent disguise. She knew the real Gilly. The scruffy one. The nasty one. The violent pimp and drug addict. And his smart appearance couldn’t hide the badness that she knew was within him. Neither could it hide his pale, scabby face, a result of his drug abuse, which Ruby assumed had increased since he’d been charged with GBH the previous year. Although he’d been held on remand ever since, Ruby guessed that he was having no difficulty getting hold of drugs on the inside.
He caught her eye and she quickly shifted her gaze – not that she was afraid of him, but she didn’t want him to think he merited more than a fleeting glance. As she looked away her mind drifted back to that day when she’d found Crystal, almost a year before.
Ruby had known there was something amiss. She’d seen Gilly and Crystal leave the Rose and Crown and it was obvious to her, and the other girls she was sitting with, that he was angry with Crystal about something. When he’d told Crystal he wanted a word, Ruby suspected he might be having more than a word with her.
She’d left it ten minutes, but when they still didn’t come back to the pub she grew concerned and went to find out what had happened. There was no sign of Crystal or Gilly outside the Rose and Crown or in the street that led down the side of the pub, so Ruby had carried on along the street on her way to work.
But something had stopped her. She’d spotted somebody slumped against a bin in an alleyway and was ready to dismiss it as another of Manchester’s down and outs. Until she saw the blood trail. Then she realised that that person was her friend, Crystal.
Ruby panicked when she first reached Crystal. There was no sign of movement and she’d thought she was dead, especially when she
