Blindsided

‘Supposing the boy in hospital is Jayden’s … He would have been around a year old when his mother was murdered, so perhaps your brother took him to safety? We aren’t saying your brother is definitely alive, but I would say it’s a possibility. The other possibility, of course, is that Jayden did escape that night, with his other child, but was later murdered, and the child has been raised by someone else.’

‘If he is alive … Fuck, I can’t even think …’ Holly shook her head, scraping back her hair with all ten fingertips. ‘I just can’t imagine it, but my dad is going to go mental when you tell him it’s a possibility.’

The two women stood up to go, and DC Marriot turned back at the front door. ‘Holly, be careful, won’t you? This isn’t just about the boy, and his possible identity. We also have to consider who left him in your car.’

Holly sighed. ‘I’m hardly going to forget, am I? But yeah, thanks, I’ll take care.’

***

Holly watched the two policewomen get into their car and head off to her dad’s flat. He still lived next to the betting shop, but one of her cousins ran the bookies business now. Most of the time her dad was too pissed to remember his own name, so good luck them getting anything coherent out of him. They’d probably get the wheels nicked off their car too, just for going onto the Seaview.

What a mess. Her head was buzzing, and she wandered around the house picking things up and putting them down. Jayden’s son? If he was alive why had he never been in touch? Larissa had had another child – given the timeframe, it fitted. Either that or they were wrong about the age of the boy in hospital and Jayden had survived, and got over Larissa pretty quick. Perhaps they were right with the second theory. Maybe her brother had given his baby son to someone he trusted to look after him, but then got himself in trouble with the wrong people. Again.

Chapter 9 (#ulink_32598cd7-3fa7-5eca-89b8-f1da17113928)

Holly reached for her phone. ‘Cathryn?’

Her best friend answered on the second ring, her voice quick and sharp. ‘Where the hell have you been, girly? I’ve left four messages on your voicemail since you came out of hospital, and I’ve only had one text and one phone call. What’s going on, Holly? I’ve been so bloody worried about you.’

‘Sorry. It’s been weird. Look, can I come over?’

‘Of course. I’m just putting Angel down for a nap. I’ll open a bottle.’

‘It’s twelve o’clock,’ Holly said, her heart lightening, despite herself.

Cath was always there for her, always ready to help despite being a single mum with five kids. She was the type of girl who only ever wanted to have fun, and had slowly morphed into the type of woman who inspires awe in her friends by juggling kids and work on her own, whilst being blatantly honest about how tough it could be. Her huge clan of aunts, uncles and cousins all helped out with the childcare, but the kids’ dads had all buggered off. The fact that two of the dads were Niko and Jayden hadn’t altered the friendship. Holly’s best friend, Lydia often said with a smile, was a force of nature.

‘Whatever, I’ve had a bitch of a week, babes. We’ll walk to school to get the brats later, then I can take the twins in the buggy and they won’t screech so much.’

Holly grabbed her coat, pulling the fake fur hood snugly around her face, and set off for the Seaview. Her road of respectable Victorian semis ran down to the railway bridge. After that the houses became blocks of flats, with smaller buildings squeezed together, dwarfed by the grim tower blocks.

The light drizzle was whipped across Holly’s face by an icy lash of wind. She crossed the road, head down, and took the footpath that led to Cathryn’s house. High wooden fences either side killed the wind, but the path was dank, and gloomy, the mud strewn with cigarette butts, rubbish and empty bottles.

Stepping over an odd assortment of rotting furniture, which included a sofa and the remains of a double bed, Holly allowed her mind to drift again. Every step was familiar from here onwards. She and Jayden had played football in that road, had smoked in that playground, spinning slowly on the creaking swings, feet scuffing the gravel. Niko had tried his luck with Cathryn behind those green-encrusted concrete garages. Roman, Alexi and Devril had played basketball next to that tower block, and Cath’s mum owned the chippie in the next road. She would give the kids greasy paper bags of salty chips drenched in vinegar and only charge them half the usual price. The usual mix of emotions when she came back to the Seaview made her stomach roll uneasily. There was sadness, nostalgia, a touch of fear that she didn’t quite belong anywhere now.

A car screeched past, jammed with teenagers, the radio blaring, and there was a gang of five kids playing football on the scrubby grass that bordered the Seaview, on the edge of Beach Road. Their yells echoed across the wasteland, bouncing off the concrete walls of the tower blocks.

Cathryn’s house, part of a block of grimy terrace houses, was strewn with the chaos of five children, and Holly, as usual, felt instantly at home. The rooms smelt of polish, perfume and babies, and there were piles of clean washing on the table, contrasting with the piles of dirty washing on the kitchen floor. Make-up covered the tiny worktop, and Cathryn’s uniform was hung up to dry over the sink.

Relaxing, she sank down with a sandwich and a glass on the crumb-encrusted sofa, narrowly avoiding a dozen plastic Lego bricks.

‘Right, babes, what the fuck is going on?’ Cathryn sat opposite her, baby monitor wedged between two cushions, wine bottle on the table between them. Her long platinum-blonde hair was tied up in a knot, her pretty face was bare of make-up, and she wore her usual ripped skinny jeans and cropped pink velour hoodie top, which showed off her flat, improbably tanned stomach.

Holly took a deep breath. ‘The police came over to mine after I dropped Milo at school this morning. They said they got the DNA results back from the lab, and the boy in hospital is related to me. Cath, they reckon he’s Jayden’s kid.’

Cath stared with her mouth open, baby blue eyes wide and shocked. ‘But Jay’s dead, so how …’ She stopped talking, leant over, and sloshed white wine into both their glasses. ‘The fucking bastard. Do you really think he’s just been living somewhere else all this time?’

‘I don’t know. They don’t know either. Going by the age of the boy they reckon he’s Larissa’s kid, unless Jayden had someone else on the go. Suppose Jayden is alive, I don’t understand why that dealer would have lied and said he helped get rid of the body?’

‘Dunno, but if I find out he’s still alive …’ Cath took a long, shuddering breath, ‘Why would he not contact us? Me and the kids, Lydia, your dad and you? Even just to say he was on the run or whatever? I’ve had to tell Sean and Ronnie that their dad’s dead and now what do I do?’

‘Nothing,’ Holly told her quickly. ‘We can’t do anything because we don’t know if he is alive.’

‘You said before that the police went on about Niko and Devril?’ Cath was frowning. She lifted her glass to her mouth but put it down again without drinking, and sloshed wine all over her fingers. ‘I can’t believe this.’

‘Yeah, me either. Do you think there’s something going on? Niko’s out, Devril is hanging around again, and then Jayden shows up with his kid?’

‘I really don’t know, but if they’re planning some kind of business takeover they can forget it. The Nicholls have everything sewn up round here, and nobody asks any questions. Rohan, you know he’s one of Joey’s sons, and he is fit, well he came over a few months ago asking about Niko. I think they were checking him out, because it was before he got released.’

‘Why would they do that?’

‘To see if he was worth talking to? I dunno. I told you, Niko had always said he had some money stashed. When we were together he used to go on about it and how we could move house and all that. Am I a mug or what?’

‘You’re not, even if I really can’t see how you could have sex with Niko, let alone have a kid with him,’ Holly told her. ‘Not that I can talk, but your taste in men is terrible!’

Cath flicked her a V-sign, and continued, ‘And the Mancinis are doing a lot of the driving and a lot of the dealing now, so they’re well happy being part of the Nicholls’ operation. Mason’s about to croak, your dad won’t give a shit who’s doing what … I dunno. My family just do their thing no matter who’s in charge, whether it’s legal or not, as long as they get paid.’ She thought for a moment. ‘Except my mum, but she’s got the chippie, hasn’t she? Anyway, Dev would never hurt you, Holly, whatever’s going on. Did you know he’s a journo now though? Freelance and does a bit for all the red tops. Lots of dramz and uncovering juicy stories.’

‘No! Since when? I knew he was a writer but I never thought of journalist.’ A journalist – Devril had chosen a profession that they had all hated ever since Larissa’s death. It was almost as bad as joining the police. Holly bit her lip, swallowing hard. Her experience of journalists, from Jay’s trial to the present interest surrounding Jay’s son, wasn’t good. They were tricky bastards, and they wrote whatever they wanted, no matter what you said. ‘You never said!’

‘You never asked. Actually it was only the day before you had the car accident that I found out, so there hasn’t exactly been a good moment to tell you. I heard a bit of gossip, and I’m a nosy cow, aren’t I? Hell, you know what this place is like, but I googled him and for once the old bags are right. The word is he’s come back to get a story on Niko’s release, but I’m sure that’s a load of crap. Niko’s hardly the most interesting crim, is he? But Jayden, fuck me, my mind is totally blown …’ Cath shook her head, blue eyes suspiciously bright as she chattered away. ‘We need to change the subject for a bit, so I can get my head around this. Talk to me, Holly. How’s Tom behaving? Any more bitchy texts? I bet he’s absolutely loving all this drama. It proves he was right all along about your dodgy past.’

Holly was still thinking about Devril’s career change. It wasn’t mentioned on his social media pages. She had supposed he must be a copywriter or something. It had never crossed her mind he would be a reporter. Had he been following her? What story could he hope to get out of her? ‘Tom’s still an arsehole. He also thinks the accident proves I’m an unfit mother and he accused me of sleeping around. Actually, since I asked him about the texts they’ve stopped coming. He told me I was going crazy and I must have sent them to myself.’

Cath rolled her eyes, seizing her sandwich and taking a huge bite, as Holly continued, ‘He popped round with another massive gift for Milo, and pissed off back to his fancy lecture tour. Total bastard. What about Liam?’ Cath’s most recent ex had left her with another child and more heartbreak.

Her friend swallowed hard and ran a long bubble-gum-pink nail across her lips before she answered. ‘Total bastard. Hasn’t paid any child support for the last three months now, and he’s shacked up with some other girl in Panfield. It’s like history repeating itself. They can all fuck off, the whole lot of them!’ Suddenly she was crying and laughing at the same time, tears streaming down her cheeks, and spluttering crumbs and spit. ‘Oh fuck, Holly, what are we going to do? I’m not sure I can handle this. Jay’s been dead for a long time now, and I’m not sure I want to deal with all that stuff again. And what are you going to do about his kid? I really, really want to feel like I’ve moved on, but we never can, can we, if this is true?’

Holly moved across to sit next to her best friend and wrapped her arms around her skinny body. ‘I know, I don’t think I can take any more either, not with the divorce and everything. Hey, did you get a new necklace? That’s cute.’

Cath rested her head on her friend’s shoulder, her voice muffled as she spoke into Holly’s navy jumper. ‘Got it on sale. We should be glad if Jay’s not dead. If only he could see us now, he’d be gutted we’re not dancing on the table and opening another bottle of Prosecco.’

‘Depends why he’s back. Depends why they’re all back, doesn’t it really?’ Holly murmured, half to herself. They clung together for a moment, before the baby monitor flickered and emitted a high-pitched wail.

When the babies were settled comfortably on Holly and Cath’s laps with their bottles, Cath continued, ‘Remember when you and Dev used to go to the gym together? Niko never believed you were actually training, until you started competing.’

Holly smiled, shifting the baby to her other arm, revelling in the warm scents of baby skin and hair. It was a sharp reminder of the child Larissa had lost. She would have held her like this, comforted her when she cried … and the boy too. ‘Niko was too lazy to imagine anyone going to the gym to work out. He just used to pose with weights at Shoey’s because he couldn’t actually lift them.’

Cath giggled. ‘Looked all right though. And he had a good body considering he didn’t do anything.’

Holly scrunched up her nose. It was weird, having a perfectly normal conversation, whilst there were all these electric undercurrents floating beneath their banal words. She and Dev had been part of the gang, but as the kids started to pair off in their teens, it was always Cath and Jay, and her and Dev.

It was funny she and Cath had stayed friends. Tom hated Cath, and the feeling was mutual. When Holly got pregnant, her best friend had sat her down and told her exactly what she thought of Tom, and suggested Holly move in with Lydia and raise Milo on her own.

Cath was watching her, straightening her baby’s clothes with gentle fingers. ‘You two always wanted to get out of the Seaview, didn’t you?’

‘I suppose.’

‘You did. Dev would always talk about getting away from his uncle and setting up on his own, and you were super clever at school. You wanted to be a vet once, do you remember?’