‘And?’
‘He’s a glorified pimp. He doesn’t call himself that but, apparently, he collects protection from a lot of the girls. You might know him. He’s a good-looking guy called Kev.’
Sapphire grew even more alarmed. ‘Kev? Kev who?’
‘Pike. Some people call him Pikey.’
‘Shit!’
‘What? Do you know him?’
Sapphire had recognised the name straightaway. She remembered Amber telling her about him a few weeks ago. She’d seemed really chuffed with herself for bagging this guy with his own nice flat and a bit of cash.
Sapphire had only seen him the once as he never came into the Rose and Crown and she worked a short distance away from Amber. But she just happened to have been walking across town when she bumped into the two of them together. Amber looked like the cat that had got the cream, but Sapphire noticed that, despite his obvious good looks, his face wore a grimace.
Sapphire resisted the urge to tell Skinner everything. Instead, she just said, ‘Yeah. I know of him. He collects protection from one of the girls I know.’ Then she quickly shifted the focus. ‘Have you told anyone?’
‘What, about what he did? Have I fuck! I shit myself. I tell you, after that night I couldn’t get out of that fuckin’ squat quick enough. I dragged my stuff together and I’ve been on the streets ever since.’ Then he seemed pensive for a moment before he added, ‘Sapphire, promise me you won’t tell anyone what I’ve told you. He’s a right nasty bastard and I don’t want it coming back on me.’
‘No, course I won’t,’ she said. But even as she said it, she knew that she needed to find Amber. She had to be warned what Kev Pike was capable of, as soon as possible.
44
October 2000
After Amy’s mother first suggested entertaining other men, she hadn’t mentioned it again for several months. Amy had hoped that it was just a drunken notion. But then Loretta had raised it again a few weeks later and this time it was in the morning when she was hungover.
‘Look at this,’ she had said, showing Amy the bill that had just landed on the doormat. ‘Three bloody months we owe on the rent now. We’re going to have to do something, Amy. We’re behind with all the other bills too and I can’t bloody raise all that money on my own. Have you thought any more about what I said to you before? He’s still asking after you, y’know.’
Tears of bitter disappointment sprang to Amy’s eyes. ‘Mum,’ she pleaded. ‘I don’t want to. It was horrible.’
‘OK. Then I suppose we’ll have to carry on as we are. But it’ll only be a matter of time before we lose the house. The landlord’s already threatened me with eviction. And when that happens, I don’t know what the bloody hell we’ll do.
‘You and Nathan will probably end up in care. And me… well, I don’t know what will become of me. I’ll probably end up on the bloody streets. And when that happens, Amy, just think, you’ll be able to tell yourself you could have prevented it.’
Amy thought about what her mother had previously told her regarding children’s homes. She was about to plead with her again but as she opened her mouth her lip trembled, and she was worried that she’d burst into tears. She walked away and tried to occupy herself with other things, so she didn’t have to think about it.
But the thoughts wouldn’t go away, and Amy felt a disturbing mix of feelings: shame because of what she’d had to do and unwillingness to get involved with that again. But then guilt took over along with a sense of responsibility for getting the family out of their current predicament so that they could all stay together in this house.
She also thought about the wider implications. Apart from the unappealing prospect of being taken into care she had concerns over her mother. Not only was there a chance of her becoming homeless but Amy also worried about how her mother would cope with that. A vision of her mother lying on the sofa with an empty packet of pills on the coffee table flashed into her mind and she subconsciously bit down on her bottom lip.
Despite all that, Amy fought the feelings of guilt that were gnawing away at her and kept to her resolve not to agree to her mother’s wishes. She knew deep down that it was wrong, and she dreaded getting dragged into that situation again.
But her mother continued to work on her. A few days later Loretta showed her a final demand for an overdue telephone bill and reiterated that they didn’t have money for anything more than necessities. It was obvious to Amy from her mother’s tone of voice that she was becoming frantic with worry.
A week after that Nathan had asked what they were having for tea.
‘I don’t know, love. We’ve got no food and no money for any, have we, Amy?’ said Loretta, flashing her daughter a look of despair.
Amy shrugged but her mother’s eyes remained fixed on her for several seconds. The implicit meaning was obvious to Amy who squirmed under her mother’s penetrating gaze.
Somehow it didn’t occur to Amy that her mother must have found a way around the arrears problems if they were still living in the house. Neither did she consider that the food situation was no different than it had been before Cliff came on the scene, and they’d managed alright then.
It took a few more months for Loretta to succeed in her intentions where her daughter was concerned but eventually Amy acceded to her mother’s wishes, beaten down by overwhelming guilt and worry about the future.
45
January 2016
Sapphire should have been at work, but she was desperate to find Amber and warn
