“We wait,” said Jake, rocking in his seat, too ramped up to stay still, his eyes wide and glinting.
Ten minutes passed, twenty. The biker reappeared, mounted up and roared away. Jake got out of the car. Somewhat reluctantly, Julian followed. With each step, he had the sense that he was drawing closer to some invisible edge. You should stop this now, he thought. But he didn’t stop it. As they neared the front door, Jake pointed around the side of the house, whispering, “Stay out of sight while I talk to her.”
Jake knocked at the door. Peeping around the corner, Julian could see his hand fidgeting at something — no doubt, the knife — inside his jacket. He passed his tongue over his suddenly dry lips. “Who is it?” a female voice asked through the door — this wasn’t the kind of neighbourhood where you opened your door after dark without knowing who was knocking.
“Jake Bradshaw.”
“What do you want?”
“It’s about my sister?”
There was a pause, then the click of a lock and the squeak of a door opening. “What about her?”
“I just wondered if you’d seen her in the past few weeks.”
“No I haven’t.” The reply was spoken without hesitation, as if Ginger had been ready with it before the question was even asked.
“You sure you haven’t seen her?”
“I just said so, didn’t I? Is that all?”
“Yeah, unless you wanna suck my cock.”
“What? Is that some kind of joke?”
“Nah, seriously, I’ve got twenty quid here. That’s the going rate, isn’t it?”
“Piss off, you filthy little shit,” retorted Ginger, starting to close the door.
Jake shoved his foot between the door and the frame. He grinned as Ginger tried unsuccessfully to kick it out of the way. “That’s it, baby, I like it when you get rough.”
“I’m fuckin’ warning you,” yelled Ginger.
In response, Jake drew his hand out of his jacket. He wasn’t holding the knife, as Julian had feared. Instead, he gripped a crowbar. “Don’t, Jake,” cried Julian, springing forward. But he was too late. Jake brought the crowbar down with bone-breaking force on Ginger’s hand that held the door. She reeled backward onto the floorboards, crying out.
Jake loomed over her, brandishing the crowbar. “Where’s my fuckin’ sister?”
“Jesus, Jake, there was no need for that,” said Julian, his heart pounding in his voice.
“This bitch lied to me. Now she’s gonna open up and tell the truth, or I’m gonna open her fuckin’ head.”
Ginger’s eyes flicked between Jake and Julian, wide with pain and anger. “You’re crazy,” she groaned. “When Bull finds out about this, he’ll kill you.”
Jake’s lips curled into a sneer. “Ooh, I’m shaking.”
“You will be when he gets hold of you.”
Jake snorted. “That fat fuck couldn’t shift his arse fast enough to catch a snail, never mind me.”
“Maybe, but you won’t be able to outrun all The Outlaws.”
“Fuck The Outlaws. Bunch of bearded old cunts tossing each other off in their clubhouse.” Jake jabbed at Ginger with the crowbar. “Besides, if you don’t tell me what you were doin’ in a car with Mia and some guy the night she went missing, you won’t be in no state to tell nobody nothin’, you get me?”
Ginger blinked at the mention of the car, the anger in her face shading to a kind of hesitating fear. She looked at Julian. “You’d better tell your friend to back off, before he goes too far.”
Julian spread his hands helplessly, as if to say, sorry, but there’s nothing I can do. He returned Ginger’s gaze in a mute appeal for her to tell Jake what he wanted to know. “Right, you’ve got five seconds,” said Jake. “Then I start breaking bones. One…two-”
“Don’t make me laugh. Run away, little boy, while you still can,” said Ginger, grinning up at him. But it was bravado, and they all knew it.
“Three…four-”
Ginger raised her uninjured hand. “Okay, okay.” She heaved a quivering breath. “Yeah, I was with Mia that night. But how could you know that unless you’ve spoken to her since then?”
“That don’t matter. You just tell me why.”
“We were on the job.”
“Do you mean like prostitutes?” said Julian.
“No, I mean like Jehovah’s Witnesses,” Ginger retorted sarcastically.
Julian wasn’t surprised, of course. He’d guessed it all along. But even so, without him being aware of it, some tiny part of him had clung to the hope that he was wrong. Sadness clouded his eyes — sadness and something else, something which frightened him like a face leering out from a nightmare. “Where did you take Mia?” His voice was tight and trembling.
“I didn’t take her anywhere. The client’s driver picked us up and took us to his house. We did the job and left.”
“So Mia was fine when you left her.”
“Yeah.” There was something not quite convincing about Ginger’s tone. Julian heard it, and Jake did too. Jake made a threatening movement with the crowbar, prompting Ginger to go on, “Well, she was a bit quiet. You know, kind of faraway. But then she was always like that after we did a job.”
“You mean this wasn’t the first time.”
“No. I’d done a few jobs with her and Jo before.”
“Joanne Butcher?”
Ginger nodded. “I hadn’t seen Mia for months. Then, after Jo died, she came to see me, said she needed money. So I set the job up.”
“Did she say what for?”
“No. Probably for junk.”
“My sister wasn’t no junkie,” snapped Jake, his face contracting into a scowl.
“Okay fine, she wasn’t a junkie, but she needed money for something.”
“Yeah, probably to get the fuck out of this town.”
“Well whatever. We did the job, she went her way and I went mine, and that’s all there is to tell.”
“Who was the client?” asked Julian.
Ginger made no reply, her lips compressing.
“Who was the fuckin’ client?” said Jake.
“Just some guy,” said Ginger. “What does it matter?”
Anger flashed up inside Julian like oil in a frying-pan flaring to flame. He snatched the crowbar off Jake and shoved it into Ginger’s stomach hard enough to force her breath out in a hiss. She tried to push him away, but he caught hold of her hand. “There’s a girl missing. Maybe dead. Maybe runaway. Maybe imprisoned somewhere. So you’re gonna tell us who this fucker is, understand?”
“I dunno his name,” gasped Ginger. “He calls himself Mr X.”
“Mr X?” Julian repeated incredulously. “You’re lying again.”
“It’s the truth. Look, this guy comes to me, says he wants me to keep an eye out for girls like…well, girls like Jo and Mia. What makes you think a guy like that would want me to know his name?”
“You know where he lives, though.”
“Yeah, but like I said, Mr X didn’t do nothing to Mia.”
Julian stared into Ginger’s eyes, darkly. “Yes he did. And you’re gonna take us to his house.”
“Trust me, you really don’t want to go there.”
“Trust you,” said Jake, with something between a laugh and a snarl. “That’s a good one.”
Ginger’s gaze transferred to Jake, and Julian was surprised to glimpse beneath the hard-bitten mask of her face a glimmer of what might’ve been concern. “Leave now and I promise I won’t tell anyone about this.”
“We’re leaving alright, but you’re coming with us.” Jake took a length of rough brown rope from inside his jacket. He tied Ginger’s hands, taking no care to be gentle with her injured hand. Then he took back the crowbar and said to Julian, “Fetch the car.”
Julian sprinted to the car. His hands were shaking so badly he fumbled the keys twice before managing to
