Fighting Back (3 page)

‘Reruns on Sky?’ I suggested.

Either that or Ming’s mother had invited the Scottish National Orchestra to practise in her living-room.

‘I hope she doesn’t think she’s going to keep it as loud as that all the time.’

‘Oh, I’m sure it’s just a mistake. Maybe their volume control’s broken.’

‘It’s our eardrums that’ll be broken if that keeps up.’

However, it stayed that way until
Dallas
finally finished. Luckily, it was an episode Mum hadn’t seen, so she ended up sitting drinking coffee and listening to it.

‘Look on the bright side,’ I said to her. ‘We could save electricity this way.’

It was the afternoon before the police appeared; two of them. One about Mum’s age, the other, young and
good-looking. He took off his cap as he came in, and ruffled his blond hair.

‘I suppose you’re here about the shoplifting this morning?’ Mum asked.

The older policeman spoke first, introducing himself as Sergeant Maitland and the gorgeous one as Constable Grant. ‘Yes, Mrs Graham. I believe you saw it all.’

‘I did,’ she said. ‘The girl was quite blatant about it. She looked as if she did it all the time.’

‘She does,’ he said. He turned a steely gaze on me. And when I say steely, I mean steely. His eyes were hard and grey like gunmetal. ‘You saw this too?’

‘Oh, she did.’ Mum answered for me. ‘So that’s two witnesses you’ve got.’

‘Why was Sadie so afraid to say anything?’ I asked. ‘She saw it too.’

He seemed to be choosing his words carefully. ‘The girl’s name is Tess Lafferty. The family is well known, shall we say, in the area. Villains. We’ve always had trouble with them. The father’s already in prison. The mother’s the moneylender up here, Ma Lafferty, as she is commonly known. She has a couple of sons, real bad boys. Everybody’s a little scared of them.’

‘Not Kerry and I,’ Mum said. I wished she wouldn’t speak for me.

‘She said we’d be sorry,’ I told him.

He didn’t look surprised by that. ‘Tess Lafferty is used to getting away with things. Her mother usually makes sure she does. Ma Lafferty likes to make people do what she wants them to do.’

‘You think we might have trouble from them?’ I asked warily. For the moment, I was having enough trouble with Ming.

‘We’ve spoken to them,’ the Sergeant said with a reassuring smile. ‘Warned them to keep away from you. But any trouble … any at all, you let us know immediately.’

His manner became more relaxed, less official. ‘So you’ve just moved in?’

‘Yes,’ Mum began, ‘but we won’t be staying for long! First chance I get of another house, and we’re out!’

‘It’s not such a bad place up here. It would be a lot better without the Laffertys, but for the most part the people here are really friendly.’

‘Really friendly!’ Mum snapped at him. ‘You must be joking. Kerry even had her fish and chips stolen last night.’

I winced. Why did she have to bring that up? Sergeant Maitland looked at me. ‘Who did this?’ he asked.

Mum answered for me again. ‘That boy next door. And then when I went to demand it back … ’

The Sergeant tried to keep his face straight. ‘To demand the fish supper back?’

‘Of course. That mother of his … ’

‘Mrs Ramsay. Sandra,’ he explained.

‘Ah, on first name terms with the police, is she? Ha! I’m not surprised. Well, she insulted me and she slammed the door in my face. And another thing – that television of hers.’ As if on cue, next door’s television suddenly blared into life, full volume.

‘We’ll have a word with her about that,’ PC Grant said.

‘Didn’t the last tenant ever complain about it?’ Mum asked.

Sergeant Maitland smiled. His grey eyes became much warmer when he smiled. ‘Old Billy? He was as deaf as a doorpost.’

Why did he have to remind her about Old Billy?

‘And that’s another thing! He lay dead in here for weeks, and nobody told us. I’m telling you, I won’t be
staying here for long.’

‘It could be a good place, Mrs Graham. A lot of people want it to be a good place. There are a lot of nice people live here.’

‘Well, we haven’t met any of them,’ Mum said. ‘Except for Ali.’

‘Is his name really Alistair McFadyen, by the way?’ I directed my question to PC Grant.

‘Yes. His father was a Scot and his mother was Indian. He’s a real character, isn’t he?’ His smile was breathtaking.

‘We’ll have a word with Sandra about the television, Mrs Graham. And I’m sure Ali appreciated your co-operation.’

PC Grant flashed his deep blue eyes at us. ‘Nice meeting you,’ he said.

Chapter Seven

‘He was dishy,’ Mum said after we’d seen them off.

I was shocked. ‘A bit young for you, wasn’t he?’

Now it was her turn to be shocked. ‘Oh, I don’t know about that! Although I have aged over the last few months. Look at me!’ She grabbed me by the shoulders and frogmarched me to the mirror. Her face was pale and her eyes … well, they had lost a lot of their sparkle. Other than that she looked fine to me. After all, she was just Mum.

As she prepared tea, I went out to the balcony. I wasn’t alone for long, however. There was washing hanging out on the next balcony, and suddenly from between the Y-fronts and his mother’s massive knickers (either that or there was a tent hanging out to dry) Ming appeared. The lace on the knickers caught on his hair and stuck there. He looked like a creature from another planet. I had to force myself not to laugh.

‘My maw’s raging at you. We’ve just had the cops in.’

‘We’ve got every right to complain. Your television was blaring.’

‘So what? We were here first.’ He said it as if there was some logic in that.

‘By the way, is this flying saucer yours?’ I pointed to the satellite dish, sitting on our balcony.

‘We get a better reception from it on your balcony.’ He said it as if I had a nerve resenting it being there. ‘Anyway,’ he went on, ‘what do you mean, a flying saucer?’

‘Sorry, I thought you might have arrived from your home planet in it,’ I said, very sarcastically.

He looked baffled. ‘You’re daft, do you know that?’ he said. Then he aimed a spit from his balcony. Disgusting.

‘What were the cops up at you for?’ he asked at last. ‘You getting arrested or something?’

I had a feeling Ming knew exactly why they had been here. ‘Let’s just say we’re helping them with their inquiries.’

He began to laugh. ‘You got a death wish or something?’

I tried not to ask, but curiosity got the better of me.
‘What do you mean by that?’

‘Do you know who you shopped?’ He hesitated. Maximum effect. ‘Tess Lafferty.’

‘So I heard.’

‘You don’t know that family yet, but you will. The brothers are really bad news, and that mother of theirs … ’ Hesitation again. He looked suddenly, deadly serious. ‘Ma Lafferty. She’s the worst of the lot.’

‘I’ve got a mother as well, you know,’ I reminded him.

His face flushed with anger. Maybe he was trying to be helpful, and I wasn’t taking him seriously at all. ‘Let them get you!’ he snapped. ‘Then you’ll see how bad they are.’

‘The police have told us they’ll protect us.’

That seemed to amuse him. ‘The cops? Up here? They’re useless. You’re in big trouble, Kerry. You’re going to get out of here even quicker than you thought. Probably thataway … ’ He pointed straight down, thirteen flights.

Chapter Eight

We were having tea next evening when the doorbell rang. I was still chewing a piece of crusty bread as I opened the door. A tall, very erect woman was standing there, her dark hair pulled back in a ponytail. She wore large gold loops in her ears and there was a gypsy look about her. Her skin was taut and shiny and she was smiling.

It was the most frightening smile I had ever seen in my life.

‘You must be Kerry.’ The woman’s smile grew wider, and I saw that her teeth were stained with nicotine. ‘Pretty wee thing. Tess told me you were.’

Tess. The mention of that name sent shivers down my spine, and I knew at that moment who this woman was.

The famous Ma Lafferty.

‘Mum!’ I called back into the flat. ‘There’s someone here to see you.’

‘Oh, your mother’s in then?’ As she spoke she was pushing past me into the hall. She placed a hand on my shoulder, ever so gently, and guided me towards the living-room.

Mum was just coming out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on a cloth. She wore a puzzled smile as she took in the woman, the hand on my shoulder, and didn’t know what to make of it.

‘Yes … can I help you?’

‘I’m just saying,’ Ma Lafferty said, still smiling, ‘what a pretty wee lass you’ve got here.’

Mum began to thank her but Ma Lafferty continued. ‘Like her mother. Oh, I can see where she got her good looks from.’

Why was she being so pleasant? And why did everything she say sound like a threat?

‘And you are … ?’ Mum asked, though by then I’m sure she knew exactly who the woman was.

I answered the question. ‘It’s Ma … Mrs Lafferty, Mum.’

‘Och, you can call me Ma. Everybody does up here.’

A sudden flush had come to Mum’s cheeks. ‘Can I do something for you?’

‘It’s this silly business about my Tess.’

I felt Ma’s hand tighten ever so slightly on my shoulder.

‘That’s out of my hands, I’m afraid.’

Ma Lafferty was shaking her head. ‘Not at all, dear. One word from you, and Ali will have to drop the charges. I’m sure you don’t want to get a wee girl into trouble for nothing.’

Mum straightened. ‘I’d hardly call shoplifting nothing, Mrs Lafferty.’

‘It’ll never happen again. I’ve given her a good ticking off. And my Tess has never been in trouble before.’

I didn’t dare remind her that the police had told us they had a file as thick as the telephone directory on Tess Lafferty. All charges dropped of course.

‘I’m sure if you had a word with the police …’ Mum began to say.

For a moment the smile vanished. ‘We never bring the police into things up here. Of course, you’ve only just moved in. You wouldn’t know that. But you’ll soon learn.’ Then she said something that really scared me. ‘Sooner or later everybody learns up here.’

She wasn’t just talking about the police. She was talking about herself, and her family. Mum knew it too. I saw that little streak of defiance rise to the surface.

‘I know what’s right and what’s wrong, Mrs Lafferty.
And I won’t change my opinions just because I live here.’

Again that horrible smile widened. ‘We’ll see about that, Mrs Graham. I’m sure you’ll change your mind at some point.’

Suddenly, Mum reached out and pulled me from Ma Lafferty’s grasp. ‘Are you threatening me?’

‘God love you, no, dear. So, don’t bother going to the police and saying that I have. I was just in visiting my friend next door, Sandra – and I thought if I popped in here we might be able to solve a wee problem in a civilized manner.’

She said it as if she really believed it was true. This woman knew every little trick in the book. She was threatening us all right, we all knew it. Yet, she hadn’t said a thing we could tell the police.

‘I just don’t believe in wasting police time. This will never stick, Mrs Graham … it never does.’ Mum took a deep breath. ‘I think you’d better go, Mrs Lafferty.’

Ma Lafferty was already walking down the hall.

‘Oh, I’m going,’ she said. ‘I just wanted to try to settle things in a friendly way. But I can see you don’t want to be friendly.’

‘Friendly!’ Mum said loudly. ‘You’re trying to scare us. Don’t you think I don’t know that?’

‘Scare you?’ Ma Lafferty sounded almost innocent. ‘How could I possibly scare you?’

‘Oh, we’ve heard all about your family, Mrs Lafferty. But you won’t scare us. Will she, Kerry?’

I couldn’t answer.

Ma Lafferty opened the door. Her tone became kindly. ‘I just wanted to welcome you into the area.’ She spoke loudly, I was sure, so any neighbour who was listening, and I’d bet my pocket money they would all be listening, would hear and could testify to only these friendly words. Then she smiled widely.

‘This can be a bad area. A lot of nasty people. Just you be careful.’ She reached out and touched my cheek. ‘And you too dearie – you be careful too. You’ve got such a pretty face … ’

Mum drew me from her and slammed the door. She was breathing heavily. And for one minute I was sure she was going to say that we would go to the police next day. Say we had seen nothing. Forget the whole thing.

Too much to hope for. Instead she looked at me, and smiled. ‘Well, I think that showed her we can’t be threatened!’

Chapter Nine

‘Was that a visitor you had yesterday?’ Ming was waiting by the lift as I came out of my front door next morning on my way to school. He was drawing on a cigarette end, and standing right by the NO SMOKING notice.

‘Can’t you read?’ I asked him at once. Then added, ‘Silly question. Of course you can’t.’

He squashed the cigarette out with his fingers and flicked it away. ‘Never mind any of the insults,’ he said. ‘What did she say?’

‘I take it you mean Ma Lafferty?’

‘Well, she is the only visitor you’ve had – apart from the cops.’

I was ready to insult him again. But what was the use? And I did want to tell someone. ‘She came to ask if we’d drop the whole thing about Tess.’

He held up his hands dramatically. ‘Do it, Kerry. Tell
your mum just to forget it. The Laffertys always win in the end anyway, and then they really would have it in for you.’

I pushed the button for the lift. ‘I’m taking a chance going on this lift you know. I hope I don’t meet the Hippo Brigade again.’

‘The Hippo Brigade?’

‘Eight fat ladies who seem to spend their time going to bingo! And they don’t like redheads.’

This doubled him with laughter. ‘The Hippo Brigade … I like that!’

Where was the lift? I was going to miss my bus at this rate.

‘Why are you all so afraid of Ma Lafferty?’ I asked.

He had been laughing but his face suddenly became deadly serious. ‘Everybody owes her up here.’

‘Not everybody,’ I reminded him. ‘We don’t. And there must be others.’