Aiden’s unshaven face and unlikely get-up was really unnerving, never mind his attitude but Billie played along. ‘I-I’m sorry, Davey. I just went out with… how did you know I was here?’ Billie looked briefly at Kelly who was eyeing ‘Davey’, clearly pissed off with him.
‘Find My Phone, dumbo… I can track you anywhere. Now get in the car.’
Davey pushed Billie towards his white sports car with tail fins and giant exhaust, and she tried hard not to smirk at his play-acting.
Then Kelly waded in. ‘Oi, dickhead, let her go. I mean it. I’ll call the police.’ Kelly pulled her phone out of her bag and held it in the air, her finger poised.
Letting go of Billie, Davey turned and raced towards Kelly and before she could respond, he’d grabbed her phone and thrown it into the litter-strewn bushes that edged the street, snarling, ‘Fuck off, Barbie, and mind your own business.’
With that he strutted back to the car, pointed at Billie and told her to get in, which she did. The second they were inside he started the engine and as they sped off, Billie turned and saw Kelly, foraging around in the bushes for her phone. Twisting forward as she fastened her seatbelt she looked at Aiden who glanced sideways and gave her a wink, and with that they both burst into fits of laughter.
Once she’d controlled herself Billie gave him a nudge. ‘I think you missed your way, mate. You need to go on the stage cos for a minute you really did look the part and scared the crap out of me. And that accent! Have you been watchingShamelessor something?’
‘One of my favourites, andCorrie,of course. I think our Kelly bought the scumbag boyfriend routine and you looked so shocked it worked like a dream. I quite enjoyed playing a bad lad. Gave me quite a buzz especially when I threw her phone. Don’t know what came over me.’
Billie laughed and looked around the leather interior of the car. ‘And where the hell did you get this from? It’s so not you but, actually, I think it’s cool.’
‘Thislittle beauty is my brother’s pride and joy, so don’t get it dirty. He loves it more than his wife and kids.’
‘Oh, I see. Nice.’ Billie settled in and allowed the drama of the last few minutes to subside and relief to wash over her.
Aiden, however, wanted answers. ‘So, come on, what did you find out? I’ve been awake half the night worrying. I’ll take you to your car and you can tell me on the way, then if you’ve got time we’ll get some breakfast. I fancy a fry-up.’
‘Okay, deal, and I want to ring Mum and check on Iris. As for what I found out about Kelly, it might be something and nothing. She’s definitely not the person she makes out to be in public and she’s up to no good, that’s for sure.’
Aiden glanced over and raised his eyebrows so while they raced through the sleepy streets of Manchester, Billie told him everything.
34
The radiators clunked and floorboards creaked as Billie lay on the bed with Iris who was sleeping soundly in the crook of her arm. She needed to feel the comfort of her daughter’s warm little body.
She’d put her fake phone on silent because she was sick of replying to messages from Kelly. Seeing her name made her want to scream. There had been a stream of ‘are you okay, I’m worried about you, he’s a total psycho, you have to leave him’ messages that Billie had fobbed off with, ‘I’m okay, can’t really talk, he’s on one, will be in touch soon.’
Tears coursed down Billie’s face which she wiped away with the sleeve of her cardigan and held in the sobs of frustration that accompanied them. Babies pick up on distress and Billie was determined that Iris was not going to be sullied in any way by the stain of Kelly.
No matter how hard she tried to think positive and give herself credit for trying, Billie knew she had messed up and hated herself for it.
After going through everything she had gleaned from Kelly the night before, to her dismay Aiden’s prognosis was grim. Yes, all the evidence confirmed his suspicions that Kelly was an evil bitch but, unless they found some hard evidence, for example physical proof of this nest egg she had stashed, or they extracted a statement from the stupid bloke she’d been blackmailing, they were screwed. Even then it would only prove bad character in the present, but added to what they had from the past it might nudge them ahead.
Worst of all was that when she’d mentioned the old phone she’d found in the kitchen drawer, Aiden made it clear he thought she should have taken it. It was worth the risk for the potential information that was stored on it. She might have mentioned Stan or the offence in a message, given some hint that she’d lied in her evidence. Anything was better than what they had. It was clutching at straws, but he was going to get Tom to go through Kelly’s text messages again, just in case he’d missed something but he had a suspicion that the ‘cheat’ phone was the key.
Billie had felt such a fool and still did, but at the time she was a bag of nerves and terrified Kelly would wake up and catch her. Even though it had occurred to her to take the phone, what if Kelly noticed it was missing? Surely she’d suspect Billie straight away. That thought didn’t assuage the guilt and irritation she was feeling. Kelly had dropped so many hints and clues but no matter how hard they had tried to piece them together, Billie and Aiden were at a dead end.
There was no way she could sleep and she didn’t want to wake her parents by going downstairs to make a brew. So instead Billie wiggled free of Iris and pulled open her bedside drawer and removed the first letter that Stan had sent her from prison. Maybe reading it again – even though she knew it almost word for word – would help make sense of the jigsaw puzzle in her head. Using the torch on her phone Billie began to read and as she did, imagined Stan writing it in his cell, pouring his heart out and asking for help.
It was when she reached the last part, the hardest bit to read, that Billie wavered but forced herself on. She wanted to compare Stan’s version with the one Kelly told in the group.
I’d picked up a takeaway, plus extra for the freezer like always, then drove home and parked on the drive. When I got there I expected the house to be in complete darkness. I noticed a light on in the front bedroom, though I thought nothing of it. I presumed I’d forgotten to switch it off that morning. I let myself in and switched on the hall light. Then I heard footsteps overhead, heels tapping on the wooden floor, and knew instantly who was in the house. I froze for a second, totally shocked.
When I recovered I took the stairs two at a time and found Kelly lying on the bed, the sheets pulled back and let’s say she wasn’t wearing a lot apart from a sickly sweet smile on her face. Then she said, ‘Surprise’.
Too right!
I know you are probably screaming at me right now ‘why didn’t you just throw her out?’ but my head was mashed. It wasn’t working properly. For a start I wanted to know how the hell she’d got in. Later on, I worked it out. At some point she’d had a key cut from my spare set because NO WAY had I ever offered her one. She denied it in court, amongst other things, like having a twat for a dad and being a second-generation psycho herself.
I could tell she was enjoying getting one over on me, you know, being in my home, mooching about. She must have parked her car further along the road and then snuck in and waited. It was dark outside and there were no witnesses to her arriving. You know what the garden is like, all those bloody bushes are great for privacy but also hide nutters lurking in the shadows. The next few minutes of madness will haunt me forever. It’s like Groundhog Day or a never-ending nightmare. Please try not to hate me when you read the next bit because the hatred I have for myself is swallowing me alive.
Here goes, this is what happened next.
