The Know (23 page)

‘Ain’t she with that Tommy?’

It was said slyly and Joanie replied quietly, ‘Monika, do me a favour, mate, and don’t wind me up today. I know what you’ve been saying and I really don’t want a row, OK?’

Monika blew out her lips and sighed.

‘There’s something wrong there, Joanie. A grown man with all them dolls . . . it ain’t natural.’

Her voice was friendly but all-knowing and Joanie decided to go before she lost her temper once and for all.

‘If you see your Bethany, ask her to let me know if she has seen Kira, OK?’

‘Where are you going?’

Joanie sighed sadly.

‘I’m going to look for my child, Mon. By the way, exactly
where
is Bethany?’

Monika didn’t answer her.

‘You have no idea, do you? She could be anywhere and you couldn’t give a toss, could you?’

‘She can look after herself.’

It was said flatly, with no emotion. Joanie stared at her one-time friend and then, looking round the dilapidated room, she answered her caustically: ‘Well, she’s always had to, ain’t she?’

As she walked down the overgrown path she wondered at her friend’s complete indifference to her own children. Poor Bethany, no wonder she was like she was.

When Joanie located Kira she was going to give her a telling off she wouldn’t forget in a hurry. Then she was going to get her a bowl of treats and hug her all night long.

 
Paulie and Jon Jon were giving out to Earl who was taking it very well.

‘I can’t believe you did that, Earl. Are you fucking stupid? If plod had searched the car and found that money, you two would have been banged up by now. How would you have explained it away?’

Earl didn’t answer.

Paulie was fuming. This was all he needed today.

He had had his first letter from Sylvia’s solicitor and the name on the letterhead alone had stunned him. They cost a fortune and he had the feeling he was going to be footing the bill for his own divorce.

Now he had Wonder Boy sitting here like a brain-dead amoeba after nearly bringing the filth down on them like a ton of bricks.

‘The tax man would have been bad enough but how exactly was you going to explain over forty grand in cash to Old Bill?’

Still Earl didn’t answer. Jon Jon felt sorry for him but he could see Paulie’s point. Earl needed to be brought to book.

His phone beeped a text and he read it quickly.

‘What’s the time?’

‘Why? Are we keeping you, Jon Jon? Got a hot date with your bird?’

He shook his head.

‘Me little sister is missing, if you must fucking know.’

Earl looked at his watch.

‘It’s after nine, Jon Jon.’

He was grateful to have the heat taken off him.

‘She’s probably with that fat geezer.’

Paulie’s voice was dismissive, but Jon Jon was already walking out of the door with Earl following him.

‘Sorry, Paulie, I have to go.’

He got up from his chair.

‘What about the rest of the money?’

‘I’ll collect it later.’

Jon Jon was gone and Earl was following him like a lost sheep. Paulie was annoyed but he swallowed. He knew what Jon Jon was like about his sisters.

 
Bethany was outside her friend’s block of flats when she heard the news about Kira. It seemed she had been missing since early afternoon. All the mothers were talking about it and she listened as they discussed it.

‘Say what you like, that girl was well taken care of.’

The other women murmured agreement. They had all joined in the search of the flats and the surrounding streets: husbands, partners and children. But no one had come up with anything. It was nearly eleven at night.

Bethany had not yet been home and it occurred to her that no one was out looking for
her
. Her mother would have gone to work without even checking she was at home. She felt a great wave of self-pity wash over her.

As she cried one of the women said sadly, ‘Come on, Beth love, she’ll turn up.’

And those words made Bethany cry even more. All the women made a fuss of her but it was no compensation because she knew that Kira was missing because of her.

 
‘I’ve called the police, Jon Jon.’

He nodded.

It was gone midnight and still there was no sign of Kira. They had searched everywhere, been to every house and flat and looked in every outhouse and shed on their estate. They had visited the park, the waste ground, and even the pubs round and about. Jon Jon had looked in the rubbish shutes and bins though he didn’t tell his mother that. It was as if Kira had disappeared off the face of the earth.

Joanie was getting seriously worried now, more so because she knew her youngest wouldn’t voluntarily go missing. She knew not to go anywhere without one or other of them being told where she was.

There was a knock at the door and Joanie let in a neighbour. Mary Brannagh was a small dumpy woman with straggly grey hair and dark glittering eyes; the gypsy in her was evident. Joanie and Mary had always had a certain rivalry because Mary did Tarot cards as well.

‘All right, Joanie?’

She nodded.

‘She’ll turn up, Mary love. And when she does, I am going to muller her.’

Joanie kept her voice as light as she could.

Mary answered her ominously.

‘She is with someone she knows, Joanie. A dark-haired person.’

Her voice was hushed and Joanie, even though she knew Mary meant well, wanted to strangle her and sling her out of the front door. Instead she was saved from answering by Jon Jon doing the deed for her.

‘Come on, Mary. Out, love. No more of this talk, me mum’s worried enough as it is. We have the filth coming in a minute.’

He hustled her out of the door and she was not happy about it. But there was nothing she could do.

When the door closed behind her Joanie looked at her son and said plaintively, ‘Where the fuck is she, Jon Jon?’

Mary had frightened her now. Joanie believed in the cards and what they said.

Jon Jon sighed.

‘I don’t know, Mum. Now calm down, she’s probably just forgot the time.’

Joanie was not to be placated.

‘She ain’t forgot the time, she can hardly
tell
the fucking time! She’s gone. But at least she’s with someone she knows. That’s what Mary said, ain’t it? Who does she know who would keep her out this late? Who do we know who’s got dark hair?’

Jon Jon sat on the sofa with his head in his hands.

‘Leave it out, Mum. If you start listening to Mary Brannagh you might as well sign yourself in fucking Runwell and be done with it.’

‘Well, where is she then?’

Joanie was hysterical now, screaming out the words.

‘How the fucking hell should I know? You’re the one who let her go up the fucking shops, Muvver, not me!’

Joanie knew that she was being unfair even as she shouted, ‘Are you blaming me then?’

Jon Jon tried to hug her. He knew how upset she was and felt powerless because he didn’t know how to make it all better. She threw him away from her.

‘Leave off, Jon Jon. I want Kira. Not you or anyone else. I want me fucking baby!’

Then the crying really started. By the time the police arrived an hour later Joanie was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. She could not stop crying.

Jon Jon explained everything to the policemen as she sat in a chair chain smoking and drinking tea laced with vodka.

 
Tommy was tireless in his searching. Everyone remarked on it. By the time dawn had broken most people had given up to go home for a few hours’ sleep before going to work.

The whole estate had been out looking. Even Sippy Marvell and his henchmen were driving round searching. Paulie had all of his male workforce on it and Jasper’s cronies were roped in as well.

Jeanette was devastated. She had arrived at her mother’s at one in the morning, crying her eyes out. Now she sat with Tommy and Joanie as they waited for news. She was warming more and more to Little Tommy, especially when she saw him holding her mother gently as she cried. The pain in his face was raw.

The police were searching Kira’s room for anything that might give them a clue as to where she had gone. Joanie was getting impatient with them and it showed.

She lurched over to the room and said loudly, ‘She ain’t run away! How many times do I have to tell you that?’

The WPC smiled gently.

‘Kids often have people in their lives they don’t tell their parents about. We have to make sure she isn’t writing to someone or phoning someone secretly. Does she use a computer at school? Internet cafés?’

Joanie shook her head.

‘I told you, she has learning difficulties. She can’t barely write her own name, bless her. And computers are out of her fucking league. Look at her room, she’s nearly twelve and it’s like a four year old’s! Someone’s got her, took her off the street, and you lot are fucking around here!’

‘Stop it, Mum! Stop it. She could just be lost.’

Joanie looked at her son in incredulity.

‘The whole of this estate is out looking for her and you think she might still be lost? It wouldn’t surprise me if they found Lord fucking Lucan, they’ve looked so bloody hard! Everyone knows her so where the fuck is she? Where is my baby!’

She was pulling her hair and screaming now.

The WPC took Jon Jon aside and said, ‘I’m sorry, mate, but it’s time to call in a doctor.’

He nodded sadly. His mother’s fear was communicating itself to them all now.

Joanie was sedated at eight thirty-five in the morning. It took them over an hour to talk her into having the injection. Jon Jon was glad they had done it. The local news was carrying the story and the way it was worded there was no doubt in anyone’s mind that Kira Brewer was not coming home. There were even frogmen dragging the river.

He went into his own room and cried like a baby.

 
Paulie Martin watched the news in his girlfriend’s flat. She was young and pretty with thick blonde hair and pale blue eyes. She was slim to the point of emaciation but she had boobs to die for. She made him a mug of strong coffee and then joined him in the large leather chair as he watched the news.

‘Poor Joanie, eh?’

He nodded.

‘If anything’s happened to that child she’ll go off her head, she loves her so much.’

He nodded again, not at all happy with the way this girl was talking about Joanie. Joanie was his private friend. He wondered how much Jenny knew about the two of them, and how much she was trying to find out. He knew how whores gossiped.

‘She was so good to me when I had my abortion.’

Paulie’s ears pricked up at her words.

‘What abortion?’

He had one eye on the TV now and one on Jenny.

She laughed.

‘Don’t worry, it wasn’t yours! No stray Martins went AWOL.’

And none would in the future. She had just seen the last of him but he wasn’t about to tell her that.

‘I was pregnant last year, by me bloke. Anyway he didn’t want to know and neither did I to be honest. So I had it taken away, and the funny thing was I felt really bad afterwards, crying and all. Anyway, Joanie helped me out, explained about hormones and that.’

She looked sad for a few moments.

‘Joanie said she considered it when she found out about Kira but couldn’t do it. Said she loved the father too much and it was probably all she would ever get from him.’

Jenny laughed.

‘I don’t think he was exactly Mr Reliable, know what I mean? But she said she had been with him off and on for years.’

She got up, stretched then said innocently, ‘I like Joanie, I wish she was my mother. Those kids of hers are her world, and that youngest one . . .’

She sighed.

‘Well, if anything’s happened to her, it’ll kill Joanie, won’t it?’

‘Did she say who the father was?’

The girl shook her head.

‘Nah. I’m going for a bath. I might pop round later and see how she is. You can let yourself out.’

He nodded.

In his heart he had always wondered if Kira was his. It had kept him away from Joanie at the time because of Sylvia. If she’d thought he had fathered a child there would have been hell to pay and he had waited for Joanie to put the hard word on him. But she hadn’t and he had breathed a sigh of relief and picked up where he’d left off.

Now he shook his head thoughtfully. She would have told him, wouldn’t she? He’d thought it had been a punter, like the other kids’ dads. Some men picked up brass and lived off them for a few months then went back to their real lives.

Paulie didn’t put himself into that category, of course.

The picture of Kira was on the screen again. He remembered her laughing face; remembered her sitting on his lap as a toddler and smiling up at him. Remembered how much Joanie and the others had loved her. He saw her again with her bright eyes when he had cooked her breakfast a few weeks earlier. Remembered her concern when Joanie had been clumped by Todd McArthur.