The Promise Read online

  ‘If my mother was here now she’d wipe the floor with you.’ Georgie saw the smile disappear from the woman’s face, replaced with a twitch. The woman knew it was true.

  Georgie herself had watched a few times when her mother had beaten the crap out of this woman for saying much less.

  ‘Well, your mother isn’t here, is she? She’s been locked away with all the rest of the scum. Personally, I hope they throw away the bleeding key an’ all.’ Mary Sheelan laughed, delighted with the fact that the child could be so easily riled. ‘Cut from the same cloth; you’re just like her.’

  Her words hit Georgie like a blow to her chest.

  The same words that Shaun had used.

  She spoke up. Loud. Not caring what anyone thought about her.

  ‘My mother was right about you. You’re nothing but a vicious old cunt,’ Georgie spat, repeating her mother’s favourite profanity. ‘And just so you know, she’s not in prison. Didn’t you hear? The police made a mistake. They’ve let her out. She’s on her way here now, actually, to pick us up. I expect she’ll be dying to see you, especially when I tell her all the things you’ve been going around saying.’ Georgie watched the colour drain from Mary’s face.

  Rendered silent, Mary Sheelan looked as white as a ghost.

  She’d done nothing but slander Josie Parker the last few days, revelling in the fact that the woman was locked away behind bars. She felt a bit worried now, and rightly so.

  Josie Parker had always been a force to be reckoned with. A right gobby cow she could be, with a bastard of a temper on her. Only, now she’d added murder to her résumé.

  She’d bludgeoned a man to death. The papers said it was just some drink-fuelled domestic.

  The woman was clearly a lunatic.

  The other people at the bar were all whispering amongst themselves, nudging each other.

  ‘Come on, Marnie. Let’s see if Davey is upstairs while we wait for mummy.’ Grabbing her sister’s hand, Georgie continued to lead Marnie out the back.

  Mary was right. People around here would talk shit about her mother, regardless, but at least now Georgie had given them something worth talking about.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Davey Lewis was in his element. He’d finally seen sense and told his Mel to sling her hook and, for the first time in months, he felt genuinely free to do as he pleased, and right now, what pleased him was rolling around naked in bed with his good friend, Mandy.

  ‘Did you hear that?’ Mandy said now, sticking her head out from underneath the covers. ‘Sounded like someone calling you?’

  Davey stopped what he was doing and strained to listen.

  He could hear the blurred sound of voices floating up through the floor beneath him, general buzz of chatter from punters, music blaring out from the jukebox. A loud laugh. Nothing out of the ordinary.

  ‘Nah, you probably just heard one of the locals; you know what they’re like once they’ve had a drink in them. Probably trying to give the likes of Michael Bublé a run for his money, singing along badly to the juke box. Rita has it all in hand, I’m sure. That woman should be a bouncer not a barmaid!’

  Davey grinned. ‘Now, where were we?’ He winked, bowing his head back down underneath the covers. ‘God I’ve missed you, Mandy,’ he said, genuinely.

  ‘’Course I know you missed me, you daft bugger. How could you not? I’m the best thing you’ve ever had, mate, and don’t you forget it.’ She felt exactly the same. Her and Davey were like two peas in a pod. For the first time in her life, Mandy had met a man that she could actually talk to. Like, really talk to, and more importantly Davey seemed to listen. She was determined to do whatever it took to make this work out. Even if it meant giving up her job. That’s how serious she was about the man. She wasn’t going to let anything fuck it up for them.

  Davey pulled Mandy around so that she was on top of him. Throwing the covers off, revealing her ample breasts, Mandy almost got the shock of her life to see Georgie and Marnie Parker standing at the foot of the bed.

  ‘Jesus Christ, you scared the bleeding life out of me!’ she shrieked, covering up her naked body with the duvet.

  Perplexed at Mandy’s sudden outburst, Davey sat up too, pulling the covers over himself.

  ‘Girls?’ Davey narrowed his eyes. ‘What are you doing here?’

  Suddenly feeling awkward, exposed, talking to the young girls without his clothes on, Davey reached down for where he’d discarded them in a pile on the floor, and pulled his jeans on.

  ‘What on earth is going on?’ Mandy asked, shaking her head in confusion. She’d been gobsmacked when she’d heard that Josie had been arrested for murdering Trevor.

  The first thing she’d done was rush around here to Davey, so that they could both try and work out what the hell had gone on, but neither of them had known what to think.

  None of it made any sense.

  Murder?

  Josie Parker was capable of a lot of things, but murder?

  ‘The police said you’d been taken into care?’ Mandy stared from one girl to the next. ‘Why are you here?’ Both of them dripping wet, no shoes on their feet.

  Hearing the shock in Mandy’s voice, Davey tried the softer approach.

  ‘All right, Mandy, I’m sure that the girls don’t need an interrogation.’ Crossing the room, dressed now. Davey could see the turmoil on their two little faces. They looked scared. Terrified, dressed only in their nightdresses, which were now soaked through. Their bare feet blackened from running through the streets. Georgie’s foot covered in blood.

  God only knew what these poor children had been through the past couple of days. Right now they didn’t need a barrage of questions to add to their troubles. They needed someone to help them.

  ‘Whatever’s happened, girls, it will be all right. I promise,’ Davey said now with conviction. ‘Jesus, you both must be freezing. Look at you both, blue with the cold. Here.’ Rummaging inside his wardrobe, Davey brought out two of his old cardigans, wrapping them around their shoulders. ‘Let’s get you two all warmed up, eh.’

  Then looking at Georgie, Davey said: ‘You want to tell me what’s going on?’

  Georgie could see the genuine concern in Davey’s eyes. She knew that she’d been right to come here. Davey was kind. She liked him. He had always made a fuss of her and Marnie on the rare occasions that their mother had brought them into the pub. He made sure that they had a glass of lemonade, on the house, of course, and if he had them he’d give them a lollypop each too.

  Georgie nodded. ‘We ran away,’ she said simply, no hint of apology in her voice as she spoke. ‘They took us to a children’s home, but then they said they were going to take Marnie away from me. They were going to put her in a foster home. So we ran away.’

  ‘You ran away?’ Mandy rolled her eyes. ‘Oh that’s just great. Well, we’ll have Children’s Services on the doorstep any minute then, won’t we, and the police too.’

  Mandy couldn’t blame the girls though. In such a short space of time, Georgie and Marnie’s lives had been turned inside out by the dramas that had unfolded around them.

  ‘We’re going to have to call the police, Davey, and let them know the girls are here,’ Mandy said, not wanting them to bring any trouble to Davey’s door. The man had enough on his plate with his nightmare of an ex, and this place, without harbouring runaways too.

  Seeing the fear in the girls’ eyes at the suggestion, the look that passed between them, Davey shook his head adamantly.

  ‘Not yet, okay.’ He shot a warning look to Mandy. ‘Let’s just get the girls settled first. How about I make us all a nice mug of hot chocolate, eh? I might even have some biscuits out the back too. How does that grab you?’ He smiled, guessing that they were probably hungry as he took in their waiflike forms, how fragile they both appeared.

  Davey’s kindness was too much for Georgie. His soothing voice; his lovely smiling eyes. She folded. Unable to pretend that she was all right any longer, she gav
e herself up to the big heavy sobs that shook her body.

  She was terrified of being sent back to Rainbow House, of being sent back and having to face Shaun James again after what he did to her.

  She wanted her mother.

  She wanted to go back in time to when none of this had ever happened.

  Letting Davey wrap his arms around her, Georgie properly sobbed, her rare show of emotion setting Marnie off too.

  Davey pulled them both in for a hug.

  ‘Here, don’t cry,’ he said, trying to lighten the sombre mood. ‘My hot chocolate ain’t that bad, I promise.’

  The girls were clinging onto him; holding him tightly as if for dear life. They were both freezing cold, shaking, sobbing uncontrollably. He looked over towards Mandy, his heart breaking in two for the pair of them.

  Mandy shrugged. Feeling useless, like a spare part, as she watched the scene unfold before her eyes. She didn’t have a clue what to say or do. She couldn’t make sense of any of it. How had it all come to this? It was crazy. Josie shouldn’t have been locked up; she should be here with her kids. This was just madness.

  ‘Come on now, girls. I can’t have you two crying like this; you’re going to set me off in a minute,’ Davey said, trying his hardest to comfort them. ‘And trust me, you don’t want to see that, because it’s not a pretty sight. There’ll be snot and tears everywhere.’

  They gave Davey a small smile.

  ‘Come on, let’s go and get you both a nice hot drink, yeah? We can have a little chat, yeah?’

  The girls nodded.

  Taking their hands, Davey walked towards the bedroom door, shooting a look of apology back towards Mandy.

  Laying her head back against the pillow she stared up at the ceiling wondering what she could do. The girls must have really been distressed if they’d both felt that they had no other option but to run away, and Mandy, knowing Josie the way she did, knew she wouldn’t want the girls to be separated from each other. That would break her heart.

  There was only so much that she and Davey could say and do to help, though. They didn’t have any leverage over what the authorities decided for the girls. That was the long and short of it.

  Mandy screwed her mouth up, thoughtfully. There was one person though, who might be able to do something. It was a gamble, but right now, it was the only hope the two girls had.

  Reaching down to her handbag beside the bed, Mandy rummaged around for her phone. She had to at least try and make things right for them; it was the least she could do for Josie.

  Tapping in the number, she just hoped that she was making the right decision.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  ‘Can you believe the cheek of that young one, speaking to me like that. She’s the spit of her mother, isn’t she? Josie was always such a crass, vile woman. It’s no wonder those kids have turned out the way that they have.’ Mary Sheelan shook her head in disgust. Still smarting from the way Georgie Parker had just humiliated her in front of the entire pub, she couldn’t help herself, she was chomping at the bit. Determined to save face as she sat there slagging Josie and her two daughters off to anyone who would listen.

  Unfortunately that meant Rita Gregory had been lumbered with her as no one else wanted to give her the time of day. Serving behind the bar, she couldn’t just up and move away like some of the other locals.

  ‘Did you see the state of them? Like feral animals, the pair of them.’

  Rita Gregory yawned exaggeratedly, the woman was boring her something stupid; though, the way Mary was knocking back her pints of Strongbow, Rita would be surprised if the woman was capable of picking up her glass, let alone the hint.

  Still, Mary continued with her constant rambling, convinced now that the child had been lying. The police hadn’t made a mistake. Mary would have heard by now.

  The child had called her bluff. Cheeky little madam.

  ‘The only good thing, I suppose, is the fact that the woman is locked away. I mean, those kids are probably damaged beyond repair as it is. You can’t blame them, can you? Having a mother like that dragging them up. Josie was always a wrongun, opening her legs for anyone willing to slip her a few quid, but a murderer… ’ She gave an exaggerated shiver. ‘It makes my skin crawl. That could have been me you know!’

  Mary stared at Rita for added effect, willing the barmaid to ask her to elaborate. When Rita didn’t Mary continued, regardless.

  ‘The amount of times that Josie started her drunken brawls with me. I should have known the woman wasn’t right in the head. She’d pick a fight in an empty room that one. She clearly had anger issues. I mean, most of the time I didn’t even do anything to goad her. Just kept myself to myself, minding my own business. Just think, the wrong place, the wrong time and I could have been beaten to death with a hammer too.’

  Rita Gregory rolled her eyes at this. Mary Sheelan, keeping herself to herself. Who was the woman trying to kid? Normally, Mary would have taken herself off home by now, but she was still lingering around the bar like a bad smell, and Rita knew why. The woman was dying to see if Georgie Parker was going to make another appearance.

  It wouldn’t surprise Rita one bit if Mary went for the girl. She hadn’t taken kindly to being shown up like that.

  In the meantime, Rita was having to execute the patience of a saint, listening to the woman, seeing as no one else was listening to her now.

  ‘You know what, I’m going to give the police a call and find out what’s going on. Those two young ones shouldn’t be walking around here late at night. Did you see them: both half naked and soaked through with the rain? It ain’t right is it?’ Rummaging around inside her handbag for the mobile phone that her son had brought her for Christmas, she said, ‘It’s my duty to ensure that the police know their whereabouts.’

  Mary wasn’t fooling Rita; Mary didn’t give two craps about the children’s welfare. The woman just wanted to cause drama.

  ‘Maybe you should just keep out of it,’ Rita said, trying to stop Mary from doing something that she might later regret. ‘They’ve gone up to see Davey. I’m sure that he’ll be sorting it all out as we speak.’

  Rita wasn’t sure why the girls had come here either, or where they should be right now but one thing she did know for sure was that, if Mary started poking her nose in, the woman was just going to make things ten times worse for everyone involved. The girls especially.

  ‘Keep out of it? After the way that gobby little madam just spoke to me. Not a chance!’ Showing her true colours once more, Mary was having none of it. ‘The police will probably send a social worker down here to fetch them.’

  Holding her phone in her hand, she was making a big song and dance about it all. Sensing people around shifting about uncomfortably in their seats, some of them getting up to leave, Mary still didn’t realise that the atmosphere in the room around her had changed like the flick of the switch.

  Good. Let them leave. She didn’t care. She was only speaking the truth. If people didn’t like it tough luck.

  ‘Someone needs to teach that young Georgie some bloody manners. Forget about a children’s home; the kid needs locking up in a youth detention centre. She needed some discipline.’

  ‘Is that so?’

  Mary Sheelan didn’t even need to turn around. She could tell by the reaction of everyone around her that it was Delray Anderton who was standing behind her.

  She was so drunk, so busy sitting here slagging Josie and her girls off, that she hadn’t realised the real reason that people were looking at her funny.

  Sensing trouble, they were getting up and leaving. Knowing that Mary had dug herself a hole big enough to be buried in and, knowing her luck, that was exactly what Delray was going to do.

  Josie Parker worked for Delray; no matter what she’d done, the woman was still under Delray’s protection ‒ or at least she had been ‒ and the man wouldn’t take too kindly to anyone slagging off one of his girls.

  ‘Drink up, ladies and gents. The pub’s cl
osed.’ Delray raised his voice, though he didn’t need to. Just the sight of him standing behind Mary Sheelan with a face on him like thunder had given him everyone’s undivided attention.

  ‘Well, Delray. How are you?’ Mary gulped, praying to God that the man hadn’t heard her entire conversation. Though she could see by the look on his face that he had.

  People were disappearing. Leaving their drinks behind, they were all scurrying out of the pub.

  Selfish bastards.

  ‘You done?’ Delray glared at her.

  ‘Yes, Delray. I’m just off home.’ Unsure if Delray was asking about her conversation or her half-empty glass, Mary nodded. Either way, yes, she was done. She just wished to God she’d kept her big mouth shut.

  Delray held his hand out.

  Mary looked down at it confused.

  ‘Your phone,’ he demanded.

  Passing it to him with shaking hands, Mary watched as Delray dropped the phone down onto the floor, before he began stamping on it with his huge size twelve boots.

  The phone was smashed into a hundred pieces. Ruined beyond repair.

  ‘Sometimes, Mary, contrary to the crappy adverts you see on telly, it ain’t good to talk. Do you get me!’

  Mary nodded obediently.

  ‘Keep that big trap of yours shut, do you understand? You didn’t see the girls; you haven’t heard anything about the girls…’

  The last thing Mary wanted was the likes of Delray Anderton on her back.

  She felt sick now. All the cider she’d knocked back tonight threatened to show itself once again. She gulped the bile in the back of her throat.

  Looking down at the shattered phone, she wondered if she was next.

  Delray nodded towards the main door.

  ‘Go on, then. Fuck off, and if I hear that you’ve opened your mouth and so much as a peep has come out of it, it will be the last thing you do, do you understand, Mary?’

  Again Mary nodded.

  Delray waved the woman off.

  He had more pressing matters that he needed to deal with tonight. Matters that didn’t need an audience.