FORTY-TWO

When the world outside darkened, and as Svetlana’s unwilling hospitality extended to her fifth customer, the squeak of a floorboard preceded the rattle of a key inside the lock of her door.

Before the door opened, Stephanie leapt off the bed and then backed against the window. Struggling to swallow the lump in her throat, she slipped a hand inside the pocket of her hooded top. Her fingers squeezed the plastic handle of the knife, but it felt smaller and lighter than it had done before.

Knacker’s bony face thrust inside the room, grinning. ‘Fought you might like somefing to eat.’ He held a yellow polystyrene container, the kind takeaway restaurants used to package kebabs.

Shuffling into the room, he peered about the walls and bed warily, maintaining the grin as if trying to find something positive about the situation he could comment upon.

He placed the carton on the foot of the bed and pulled a can of Carling Black Label out of the pocket of his ski jacket – the coat her deposit must have paid for.

He dropped the can onto the dirty bedclothes. ‘This stuff don’t come cheap neither. Yous’ll have to pay me back tomorrow. Till I can get to a cash machine that is, so you better be quick wiv that pin number, yeah, when I ask for it. Nuffin’s free in this world, girl. Don’t I know it, like.’

Unable to speak through a blockage of rage, disgust and fear, Stephanie glared at his face. Behind his curly head the light clicked out and plunged the corridor into darkness.

She needed to lose it, needed to get angry and provoke him, and then ignite herself. It was the only way she would be able to use the knife, by losing control in a hot flurry of hate and hysteria. ‘What the fuck do you think you’re doing? This is kidnap.’

He tried to laugh it off. ‘Nah, nah, it’s nuffin’ like that. You’s a bit of a drama queen, ain’t ya? Just a little setback, like, that we is fixing. No harm done, yeah.’

‘Your cousin threatened to burn my face with acid. He beat Svetlana. Margaret’s . . . You punched me. Assaulted me. And now you’ve locked me in this room. You’re in serious trouble. You know that?’ She lowered her voice. ‘Or, at least, your cousin is.’

Knacker’s eyes narrowed. He glanced over his shoulder into the dark corridor, pushed the door to then turned to her. ‘Let’s get one fing straight, yeah. So pin your ears back, girl, while I is explainin’ somefing to you. First fing, you don’t know nuffin’. Nuffin’ about me or Fergal, our backgrounds. Nuffin’. Second fing is, you better start cooperating, like. I’m doing my best to fight your corner here. But if the truth be told, you ain’t helpin’ much. Only fing in your favour with Fergal is you helping us out wiv a few small fings. But that ain’t enough no more. And I been trying to offer you a way out. I gave you a choice, on a plate, like, but you turned your nose up. Bent over backwards, I have, since you been here, but we ain’t got no time for passengers no more. Patience is all used up wiv them that don’t do what they are here for.’

‘I’m not here for anything. I rented a room. And if you thought I’d be a . . . a whore because I rented a room off you, then you were mistaken. Very much so.’

‘None a that, eh? And keep your voice down, yeah? I shouldn’t even be talking to you. Decision’s been made. Time for discussion is over. You saw what he done to that floor. Be fankful it weren’t somefing else, like.’

‘You can’t make me. I won’t. I won’t do it.’

‘Make you? No one is trying to make you do nuffin’. You knew what the score was, so why didn’t you fuck off, like? Like Fergal said, you was tempted. You was finkin’ about it. So we is just helping you wiv your choice, like. Bennet . . .’ Knacker held back, as though he’d just let slip the first word of a secret while justifying his odious coercion.

Stephanie loosened the knife inside her pocket. ‘I wasn’t tempted by anything. I don’t have any bloody money because you kept my deposit. That is the only reason I am still here. I was trying to get enough money together to get out and you know it. But you thought I was some kind of dumb teenager who’d fall for your bullshit and become a slag. And now you’re keeping me prisoner—’

‘Prisoner? Hold on a minute—’

‘Then what’s this? Locking me in this dirty room—’

‘Ain’t that bad—’

They’d begun to talk over each other in tight, breathless voices. Why was she bothering? He was a liar, a pimp, he’d assaulted her, and even now he could not stop twisting everything she said. She was never getting out.

Her thoughts sped up; she thought as quickly as she could of motives, horrible eventualities, possibilities, ideas . . . anything she could do to free herself.

The knife.

‘You won’t get away with it. People know I am here. What do you think is going to happen? Have you thought about that? No good telling yourself you’re in control and that it’s all going to work out. That your bills will get paid and that I’ll become a whore and start earning money for you, so you can buy trainers and skunk weed. I mean, are you fucking stupid?’

Knacker took two steps inside the room, at her.

Stephanie stared at the dried blood on his shoes. ‘You come near me again and I’ll fucking kill you!’

‘That a fact?’

‘You bloody hit me. Hit me!’

‘Then you should have been quicker wiv them keys, like.’

‘You stole my phone. My money. Locked me in here. It’s all stacking up against you. But you weren’t quick enough. Yeah? Yeah? Because help is on its way, you piece of shit!’

Knacker stepped away from her and seized the door handle. His eyes had lidded and he’d thrown his head back so she could just catch a thin gleam of the reptilian pupils and also see inside his big nostrils. He was shocked because he hadn’t expected this from her.

‘Margaret’s dead, isn’t she? That psychopath killed her.’

As she spoke the girl’s name, she sensed an immediate increase in his indecision, his torment, the endless mental wrangling beneath the curly hair and behind that bony and big-lipped façade of a face. He was scared of Fergal too, maybe more than he was of getting caught. She could sense it, because Knacker wasn’t as far gone as his cousin, hadn’t quite left humanity in the same way. And his partner in crime, his muscle, had done something to unsettle the creature before her. She could smell the fear on him, under the aftershave.

‘How many? How many has he killed?’

‘What you talking about?’

‘Here. In this house. I’ve heard them. Seen them. You know I have. Maybe you have too.’

Knacker looked puzzled. It seemed genuine.

‘The girls. The girls in these rooms. They’re dead. But they’re still here.’

‘You is cracked. Fucking cracked. Here’s you talking about psychos. Have a look in that mirror, girl. You is making my skin crawl. Saying these fings about my muvver’s house. What’s a matter wiv you, yeah? I give you a place to live. Try and help you out wiv some quick cash—’

‘Shut up. Stop. Stop. You didn’t. You did not help me out, or try to help me out. Cut the crap. You wanted me to fuck those creeps for money, you seedy little prick. That’s all this was ever about and you know it.’

Stephanie jabbed her hand at the ceiling. ‘He’s beaten Svetlana and now she is being raped. Raped. You’re a criminal. You made this happen. And you will pay for it. It’s not going to be all right. It’s not a setback or a little problem, you stupid twat!’ She dropped her voice to a desperate whisper. ‘But maybe it won’t be too bad for you if you let me go. If you help me right now. That’ll be taken into consideration, won’t it? You can save yourself here, Knacker. You know it. Why go down with that nutter?’

Knacker clenched his fists.

‘It’s gone too far, hasn’t it? You didn’t want this. But he wrecked it. It’s over now. Murder. Kidnap. Acid . . .’ Rage and fear had come together to make these words erupt, but now she’d lost her voice. It only took one word to burn the others out of her mouth: acid. This might have been the most desperate and important thing she’d ever said in her life, ever needed to say, but she was too emotional to continue.

Though maybe she had struck a blow, because his face was bloodless, but not from anger. He backed into the corridor and recovered sufficiently to glance over his shoulder and into the waiting darkness, in fear of who might be out there.

When he turned and spoke to her, his voice lacked the usual self-importance and arrogant assertiveness. ‘Fergal hears you, then I ain’t gonna be responsible for what happens. You made your own bed, like. Time to wake up, yeah? Have a good long fink about tomorrow. About what you need to do to make this situation right. To make it better for you, yeah? Cus if you don’t then you is no good to him. You can say all the hurtful fings you want to me, like. But I ain’t your problem. I fink you know what I’m talkin’ about.’

The door clicked shut behind him. Before she could get across the room he’d turned the key inside the lock.