Climbing into bed, calm now, he allowed himself a wry smile. It was also one of contentment and satisfaction. While he lay in his villa, next to his beautiful wife and his gorgeous children sleeping next door, Stan relaxed in the knowledge that two thousand miles away, his trusted workforce would be keeping the home fires burning and the cogs of his little empire turning, and making sure the specific instructions he’d left were carried out. Doog was good like that.
Yawning, Stan turned on his side and slipped his arm over Billie, pulling her close, then closed his eyes and let sleep take him.
* * *
PC Gibson and Ward were having a cheeky break, keeping their heads down in a side street while they ate their burgers, when the shout came over the radio. Gibson knew they’d have to respond but was in no rush, not for this one anyway.
‘Finish your brew then we’ll get going. That woman’s a pain in the arse and I’ve been round there about five times in the last few weeks. The community bobby is sick of her too.’
Ward yawned and blew on his coffee that was miles too hot to drink. ‘Why, who is she?’
‘An ex-con, remember her? Might be a bit before your time though. She’s the one who framed her boyfriend and got him locked up for rape. Poor sod managed to prove he was innocent in the end but he still did time. She’s out now and insists she’s being stalked and never off the bloody phone. I reckon she’s got a screw loose or one of those attention disorders, but whatever it is we’ve got better things to do.’ Gibson scrunched his wrapper.
‘Attention disorder? What’s one of those?’
Gibson tutted. ‘You know, when they make stuff up so they are the centre of attention, the clue’s in the title. What the hell do they teach you lot these days?’
Ward looked thoughtful, then the light dawned. ‘Ah, I know who you mean now, but we have to check though. What if it’s real and someone is after her? We’ll all be in the shit then.’
‘Or she could be crying wolf.’
‘What’s that?’ Ward spoke with his mouth full.
Gibson looked incredulous. ‘Are you taking the piss or what?’ When Ward shrugged Gibson shook his head and started the engine. ‘Come on then, let’s get it over with but I’m warning you, she’s a nutter, and on the way, I’ll tell you a nice story about a nasty wolf and a fibber.’ Gibson huffed and headed towards the estate, in no mood for gormless newbies, time-wasters and ex-cons, especially someone like Kelly Langton.
* * *
Kelly gripped the phone as she peeped through the cracks in the curtain and scanned the street below. Everything looked the same along the row of houses opposite. The same unkempt gardens, second-hand cars and dog-fouled streets that showed no signs of lurking yobbos or careless drunks who were looking for a wheelie bin to piss up or deposit their tray of chips and curry. That was a ridiculous notion anyway because round there it was more likely to end up splattered across the pavement or left on your wall, along with an empty can of Stella.
There had definitely been someone outside though. She heard the side gate creak but this time, the front one was closed shut. At least whoever was tormenting her hadn’t tipped the green bin over again because she was sick of scraping up the contents in the morning, just like she was getting tired of having flat tyres and her windscreen wipers bent backwards. And now she was paranoid about her brakes being tampered with. Kelly was actually getting paranoid about everything, if she was honest.
Where the hell are the police?She’d rung them over forty-five minutes ago and still nothing. They should be here checking she was okay and there wasn’t an intruder in the garden. So much for visible policing. Her dad wasn’t picking up either so in temper, she rang the landline. Surely he’d hear that.
A sleepy voice answered but Kelly didn’t give it time to continue. ‘Mum, put Dad on quickly, I need him to come round. I think there’s someone in the backyard. I keep hearing noises.’
When she finally got a word in her mother’s voice sounded vexed. ‘Kelly, it’s the middle of the night and this is the second time this week. It’s probably just a cat or a fox. We hear them all the time here–’
‘No Mum, it isn’t a bloody fox. Why don’t you believe me? I’m telling you someone is stalking me and I need Dad to come round and check because the police can’t be arsed. I rang ages ago and they’re still not here.’
‘Don’t you swear at me, Kelly, and I’ll thank you to watch your tone.’ With that there was a muffled conversation and the phone passed over.
‘Kelly.’
‘Dad, at last, can you come round quick as you can?’
A loud sigh was audible, then the terse reply. ‘No Kelly, I’m not coming round. Your flat is secure and the extra locks I put on the back door would keep an army out so I want you to stop this. It’s making your mum ill again. It was your choice to get a flat when you could have stayed here with us but no, you had to have your own way and we’ve helped you all we could–’
Kelly didn’t give him time to finish, her short fuse lit instantly by his attitude. ‘Oh yeah, and bring shame to your door! You hated it when I came out of prison and only let me stay because the halfway house was a shithole. You couldn’t wait to see the back of me and I’m sure your stuck-up neighbours felt the same. So don’t make out you gave me the deposit out of the goodness of your hearts, you pair of hypocrites!’
‘Right, Kelly, that’s it, I’m putting the phone down and I’ll ring you in the morning when you’ve calmed down and have a civil tongue in your head. Your mum’s upset now so I’m going. Goodnight.’ And with that the line went dead.
Kelly threw her mobile onto the bed and pulled the curtains shut. How dare they treat her like this, their only child? She was sick of them feeling sorry for themselves when it was her that had been banged up for five years, not them. It was the same when they came to visit – when they could be bothered and her mum wasn’t having another sodding nervous breakdown. The look of shame on their faces, her bloody mother weeping into her tissue, her dad giving her lectures about keeping her head down and behaving, then she might get out early.God, he was a patronising pillock sometimes.
You’d have thought they’d bought her a swanky pad in Salford Quays the way they went on, not given her the bond for a shitty ground-floor flat on a dead-end estate.
And she wasn’t making it up either because someone was stalking her, making her life hell especially at night, so much so she sometimes thought it’d be easier back in jail. At least there she had her little crew around her. It hadn’t been easy at first but she’d soon identified the winners and losers and Kelly sought to ingratiate herself with the former. After that, she’d had a pretty easy ride in return for doing their bidding. She couldn’t wait for them to be released then they could have some fun. She’d already promised Julie the boxroom.
There it was again, a creaky sound. She definitely heard it. Taking another peep through the windows Kelly knew she wouldn’t sleep tonight so decided to make a brew, and put all the lights on and the telly.That’d tell a prowler I’m up and awake, might scare them off.
