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“The thing is, my brother had a real problem with it, said he was going to kill Jay. What if it was him that did this?” Kate looked at Sonia with such fear and sadness in her eyes that Sonia couldn’t help but think that maybe Kate was right, maybe it was him. She had heard people talking after Den’s death about Billy being involved, but it had never come to anything; even when the police had looked into it, rumours were often just that, rumours.
“Hey, don’t you be upsetting yourself honey,” she said, resting a comforting hand on Kate’s arm.
“Until Jay comes around and can tell us what happened, we should keep our assumptions to ourselves.”
Knowing that people around here often had nothing better to do than talk about other people’s business, whether it was true or not, Sonia had dismissed it as spiteful gossip and lies. Could there be an element of truth? No doubt she would find out.
Kate wanted to stay at Jay’s side, but Sonia insisted that she go and get some rest; if not for her sake, then at least for the baby’s. She fancied a bit of time on her own, to get her head round the fact that she was going to be a grandma, and she also wanted to be there on her own when Jay came round, she knew it was a bit selfish, but she was his mum after all.
Kate reluctantly agreed to go, she was totally exhausted and could do with some rest, and her pregnancy was making her feel sick and drained all the time, she felt as if she had no energy at all. After making Sonia promise to call her the minute that Jay was awake, she made her way to Emma’s; she would stay there for a few days, and sort out what to do about Billy.
11
Billy was sitting alone in his office at the warehouse. He yawned loudly; it was only two o’clock but he was knackered, what a day it had been. There had been a few shipments in today and it had been a busy one. He wasn’t complaining though; he smiled as he reminded himself about the wedge they were earning. This warehouse was just one small part of their empire, and it was a nice little earner. He took a sip of his tea, which was now as he discovered with distaste, cold. Then he checked his emails once again, he hoped that all was going well for Lee and Jo
Jo
Hearing his mobile beep with the sound of a new text message, he gri
Billy was far from being an angel himself. He knew that if the police ever raided this warehouse or found about their little shipping arrangement, he would go down for years. Billy played with the big boys, ripping off the police and the government, half of whom, let’s face it, he knew were doing a lot of dodgy shit themselves, which made his activities more than okay. If you don’t take it, no-one’s going to just hand it to you, right, he would say. But he would never take from his own, and selling drugs to kids was just the lowest as far as Billy was concerned. Not only was he going to fuck up Jay’s life, he was going to enjoy every second of doing it.
12
Kate just could not get her head around Emma’s weird behaviour; she was shocked as she made her way back from Emma’s to her own house.
Her visit to Emma’s on the way back from the hospital hadn’t quite turned out as she had wanted, so now she was walking home to sort out her options. She wouldn’t be staying at home if Billy was there. Not if she was right and this was all down to him, she couldn’t, it would condone his behaviour. And now Emma had let her down too.
Emma had been in an absolute state. Her eyes were sunken and dark, her skin grey and dull, and in the five days since Kate had last seen her it might as well have been five months, by the state of her, she looked as if she had lost about a stone, her cheeks looked so gaunt and hollow.
“What the hell has happened?” Kate asked, looking around the flat as if searching for a clue when she had first arrived.
Emma didn’t seem to want Kate to be there, she had seemed reluctant to let her in, and Kate could see why now. The curtains were drawn, making the room dark. There were cups filled with cigarette butts, mouldy food on plates on the floor, it was much worse than normal. The place stank. Her friend was sitting there, strewn over the armchair, her legs dangling over the arm; she didn’t even bother to look at Kate, just sat there trance-like and inhaling long drags from her cigarette.
“What do you mean ‘what’s happened’? Nothing’s blooming well happened,” Emma smirked. She knew what Kate was getting at, but she couldn’t be arsed to go into it. It was her house and she could do what she wanted. She didn’t have to explain herself to anyone, as far as she was concerned. Kate was too boring for her own good, Emma thought, as she put her fag out on the side of a di
Kate could see her friend was on something. She knew that some of Emma’s friends smoked a bit of weed now and again, but Emma had never done anything other than that as far as she knew, and it had been a sociable thing when she had done it in the past. Now, Emma’s eyes were glassy, her pupils dilated.
“Are you on something, Em; have you taken anything?” The concern in Kate’s voice turned to anger. What the hell was Emma playing at?