Fighting Back (8 page)

‘Listen to her? She should be in jail for what she did!’

‘Look, hen. I know it wasn’t you who started the fire … everybody knows that.’

Mum wouldn’t even give her the chance to finish. ‘Because you know it was you who did it!’

Sandra shook with indignation. ‘It was not me! Will you listen, woman!’ She took a deep breath. ‘It was the Laffertys. They’ve been warning you to do what they tell you. And you’d better listen this time. It’s not worth getting on the wrong side of them. You must know that now.’

It must have taken Sandra a lot of courage to come in and tell us that. I had a feeling no one was supposed to mention that the Laffertys were responsible for the fire.

‘If you know it was the Laffertys, why don’t you tell the police?’

‘I keep well back from the police, and on the right
side of Ma Lafferty – it’s the only way up here. Can you not see that?’

‘All this because of that day in Ali’s shop?’ Mum still couldn’t take that in. ‘I don’t believe it!’

‘She won’t let anybody hurt her family. And she likes people to know who’s boss, toe the line. And since this all started she’s been really vicious. For everybody’s sake you have to just drop it!’

Something about the way Sandra said this, and the little bead of sweat on her lip, made me wonder even more if something had happened.

It was the wrong thing to say. Mum straightened. ‘Oh, I see, so all this has nothing to do with Kerry and me. You couldn’t care less what happened to us!’ She paused. ‘Been threatening you too, has she?’

And I knew by the way Sandra’s eyes widened that that was just what had happened. Mum didn’t seem to notice.

Now it was Sandra’s turn to be angry. ‘Look, we’ve all got to live up here, so stick to the rules and everything will be all right.’

‘The rules being, do what the Laffertys say! They might be your rules, but they’re certainly not mine!’

Was that my mum who had just said that? I looked at
her, and there was a fire in her eyes – a fire that had almost been extinguished with the other one.

Sandra turned from us. ‘I knew you wouldn’t listen. Well, on your head be it.’ And she stormed down our hallway and slammed the door so hard the whole flat shuddered.

Mum walked to the balcony and looked out over the river. She covered her face with her hands and I could hear her breathing hard. She was going to cry again. And I didn’t know if I could take any more tears. Yet in a way I was relieved.

We were going to do what the Laffertys wanted. Become just like everybody else. What else could we do if we were to survive here?

‘Can people really be that bad?’ she said softly, to herself, not to me. ‘This whole estate is terrified of that one family. They want us to be afraid too. We have been afraid.’ She turned to me. ‘Haven’t we, Kerry?’

I nodded.

At last, she’d realized just how bad the Laffertys were. She was giving in. What was the point of fighting it any longer?

‘She won’t let anybody hurt her family, this Ma Lafferty.’ Mum looked at me, and a little tear appeared
at the corner of her eye. She wiped it away with her fist. ‘When I think of what could have happened to you in that fire. I’ve been awful these past days, haven’t I?’

I couldn’t argue with that.

‘I’ve felt so useless, so helpless. She won’t let anybody hurt her family, this Ma Lafferty. She’s probably a better mother than I am then.’

‘NO!’ I shouted. ‘She’s horrible.’

She closed her eyes, then she shook her head. What was going on in there, I wondered?

Suddenly she lifted her head high. ‘Well, she’s going to find out that here’s another mother who won’t let anybody hurt her family. We’ve been pushed up against the wall, and there’s nowhere left for us to go. They think it means they’ve won. They almost had, Kerry. But now – now we have no choice. Now we’ve got to turn, and start fighting back. We’re not going to be victims any longer, Kerry. I’m going to get them for starting that fire. If it’s the last thing I do, I’m going to get them.’

Chapter Twenty-One

I thought, I hoped, that by next morning she would have forgotten all about what she’d said last night. I could even have taken her lying along the couch again.

By next morning, however, she was ready to begin her investigations in earnest.

‘What are you going to do, Mum?’ I asked. I was almost afraid to leave her alone. There was no telling what she would get up to.

She whipped a notebook from her pocket. ‘I’m going to ask questions, Kerry.’

‘No one is going to tell you anything,’ I reminded her.

‘I’ll be very discreet,’ she said. ‘They won’t even know I’m asking questions. It’s amazing what people tell you when they’re off guard.’

She’d been reading too many detective stories. But still, I had to admire her. This was so much better
than sitting in the house day after day.

‘I’ll ask questions too,’ I said quickly, before I could change my mind. ‘I’ll ask Ming’s pals, the children round here. They see everything and they’re not so scared to talk.’

She beamed from ear to ear. ‘Me, Sherlock Holmes. You … ’ she hesitated. ‘Oh, bother, I can’t remember his name, but he was a doctor.’

I did ask Ming later that day when I came back from school. He was standing round the door of the Wee Hippy with his friends. They were all getting stuck into chips.

‘Not you as well!’ he said as soon as I asked him if he had seen anything suspicious on the day of the fire. ‘Your maw has been driving everybody batty today. Going round the doors, demanding they tell her what they saw!’

Oh dear, I thought, and she was going to be so discreet.

‘At least she’s not sitting in the house, scared!’ I told him.

His eyes narrowed. ‘My maw’s not scared!’

And I wondered again what had happened.
Something was going on with Ming’s mother. ‘I didn’t mean your mother, I meant mine. Is everything all right, Ming?’

He snapped back at me and I was sorry for my concern. ‘Of course it is. What’s it to you?’

‘Absolutely nothing. I don’t care. I only want to know if anybody saw anything on the night of the fire.’

One of his pals, the littlest one, leaned forward. He looked as if someone had sprayed freckles across his nose. ‘Kerry, hen – see, if the whole of the flats had seen the Laffertys carrying up a box of dynamite to your door, they wouldn’t say a word. So don’t ask.’

I shook my head. ‘I don’t understand how you can all be so afraid of them.’ I looked at Ming, deciding I would appeal to his manhood. ‘You, Ming – you’re not afraid of anybody – did you see anything?’

Ming’s eyes couldn’t meet mine. He screwed up what was left of his chips and aimed the paper at a wall. ‘Forget it, Kerry,’ he said, and he was off running, pulling his pals behind him.

Mum had even less luck. Hardly anybody would even talk to her, and when they did they usually threatened her with grievous bodily harm.

‘I won’t give up, Kerry. I’ve only just begun.’

‘People did see something, Mum. I know it. They’re just too afraid to say.’

She nodded and sighed. ‘If only there was something that could unite them against the Laffertys.’

If only.

It was after seven and just as we were clearing up the tea dishes Sandra’s television went on full blast.

‘Oh, no, not again!’ Mum clapped her hands to her ears. ‘That is ridiculous!’ She banged on the wall a few times, but to no avail. The television still blasted away. ‘Right, I’m going next door. I’ll tell her!’

I pulled her back. ‘Give it a couple of minutes, Mum. Please!’

But a couple of minutes later and the sound was still on full.

Mum was out on the landing before I could stop her.

She was at Sandra’s door when it was suddenly opened and there, in front of us, was Ma Lafferty. She looked surprised to find Mum there.

‘Have you got a problem?’ she said gruffly.

‘I might have known you would be with your “friend”,’ Mum said. ‘Does she really need the sound up so loud?’

Ma Lafferty seemed to relax, and she called back into
the house, ‘Sandra hen, put the television down. You’re annoying your neighbours.’

Then she pushed past us and hurried down the stairs.

She had left Sandra’s door open and as we stood there she appeared at her living-room door. I gasped. My mum did too when we saw her. Her face was swollen, and she had a black eye. She wasn’t just surprised to see us. She was astonished.

‘Sandra!’ I’d never heard Mum say her name before like that. Concerned. ‘Did … did she do this?’

It all fell into place. Sandra had lost her job, Sandra couldn’t pay. Sandra was scared. So was Ming. Yes, Ma Lafferty had done this.

Sandra wobbled towards us as if she was going to fly at my mum. Mum stepped back and so did I.

‘I fell! OK? I fell!’ she screamed, and she slammed the door in our faces.

Chapter Twenty-Two

I couldn’t sleep that night for thinking about Sandra. I thought about how hard she had worked for Ming. Always keeping up her payments, never falling behind – until now. She didn’t deserve this. No one did. It was the first time I had felt sorry for her.

We had to do something about the Laffertys.

Mum, however, had no sympathy for Sandra at all. ‘She says she fell? Why doesn’t she just tell the truth? Get them into trouble?’

‘Because she’s afraid, Mum. She has to live here.’

‘So do we. But I’m fed up with being afraid. I’m going to see Sergeant Maitland today.’

I was surprised. ‘Why?’

‘To tell him about Sandra.’

‘What’s the point of that, Mum? She’ll only say she fell.’

She straightened. ‘I’m going to tell him everything. That we saw Ma Lafferty leave the house. At least
he’ll have to question her.’

‘But Mum, that might get Sandra into even more trouble.’

She shrugged her shoulders. ‘Why should Sandra get into trouble? I’m the one talking to the police.’

And nothing I could say would make her change her mind.

The lift was broken again that morning so I had to walk down the stairs. Ming was sitting on the fifth floor, staring into nothing. He didn’t even hear me come down.

‘Is everything OK?’ I asked him.

He didn’t even look at me. ‘Oh, brilliant,’ he snapped. ‘My maw looks as if she’s done five rounds with Rocky, but everything’s brilliant.’

I sat down beside him on the stairs. ‘Why don’t you go to the police about it?’ I knew the answer to that one. Ming only glared at me, as if I was stupid.

I wondered if I should tell him my mother intended going to the police, but decided against it. He looked depressed enough, and he would never understand her motives.

‘How can you bear it, knowing she did that to your mother?’

He turned on me then, and I realized just how ashamed he was. ‘How do you think I feel? I could … I could …’ He jumped to his feet and kicked the steps angrily. ‘But Maw says not to do anything. I hate them, Kerry. I hate them! I wish we could get rid of them.’

He looked at me then, for a long time, before he spoke.

‘What is it?’ I asked.

‘We saw them that night – the night of the fire.’

‘You saw the Laffertys?’

He nodded. ‘The two boys. Me and my maw saw them through the letterbox.’

‘And you wouldn’t tell?’

‘My maw was in enough trouble with them, Kerry. She made me promise. I thought I was protecting her, but now, after what
she
did … I’m telling you, so you know, but I’ll never tell the police. The Laffertys might take it out on my maw – so don’t ask.’

‘We could have been killed. And you wouldn’t say.’

He tutted. ‘How do you think the fire brigade were there so quick? We phoned them right away!’ He said it as if I should thank him. I was so angry at him I could have kicked him.

‘And then you pretended to think my mother started
the fire herself. How could you do that?’

He pulled at my jacket. ‘My maw said we had to let the Laffertys think we hadn’t seen anything. Honest, Kerry, I wanted to tell you.’

I pulled away from him and began hurrying down the stairs. ‘My mum’s right. I’ll never understand you, any of you. You don’t deserve any sympathy.’

His face was white. He took a deep breath. I turned away.

‘Kerry!’ he shouted at me, and I stopped. ‘I’m going to tell you something, but you have to pretend you found out yourself … I didn’t say a word. You’ve got to promise or I’ll never tell you.’

‘I promise.’

‘On your mother’s life?’ he asked.

‘Yes.’

‘Say it. Say it then.’

Ming was serious. What had he seen?

‘On my mother’s life. Now … tell me, Ming. Tell me!’

Chapter Twenty-Three

I decided to go at once to the police. After what Ming had told me there was no time to lose. I met Mum on her way down the steps from the police station. She had wasted no time getting there either. She looked grim.

‘What’s wrong?’ I asked her.

‘What’s wrong?’ she said. ‘Never again, Kerry! Do you know what they said?’ She looked ready to explode. ‘That they had heard I was asking questions and I was to leave police business to the police!’

I could understand why she was angry. So far the police had done little for us.

‘Well, I won’t go back to them, no matter what! And I told that horrible Sergeant Maitland that!’

‘Even if you found out something important?’

‘Even if – ’ she began, and then looked at me thoughtfully. ‘What do you mean?’

This was when I had to be careful. Careful to make it
look like I had worked this out myself, that someone – Ming – hadn’t told me he’d seen the whole thing. ‘I was thinking, Mum, remember that can of kerosene the police found on our stairs?’

Mum just shrugged. ‘There weren’t any fingerprints on it.’

‘But what if that wasn’t the one they used? What if that was a decoy?’ That was what Ming had called it. ‘So the police would look no further for the real can, the one with the fingerprints on it. The one that maybe they put down our chute?’

Ming’s exact words came back to me. ‘They had their hands all over it, Kerry. Splashing it over some rags, then setting them alight. When they were finished they pushed it right down our chute. And then they ran.’