A Place Of Safety Read online

  Helen Black

  A Place of Safety

  For Mum

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Praise

  By the Same Author

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  There are 9.2 million refugees worldwide.

  The UK offers a home to 3%.

  Of those seeking a place of safety in the UK, a fifth

  are unaccompanied children.

  Prologue

  Things, as Luke Walker’s mother is fond of saying, are getting out of hand.

  The voices of his friends jar his ears as they stumble through some song by Lily Allen, clapping out of time, urging her on. Tom whoops with glee like a small child at Christmas, saliva dribbling down his chin. Charlie digs Luke in the ribs and shouts something in his ear but the words are lost in a fit of giggles.

  The girl is in the middle of their ramshackle circle, her laughter almost hysterical. She says something none of them understand and spins round and round so that her skirt flares up and the boys can see her knickers.

  Tom reaches out to touch her. ‘Yeah baby,’ he brays, but the momentum makes him lose his balance and he falls over, bringing Luke down with him.

  Tom gropes the ground and swears.

  Luke feels sick. He wants to go home. He would go home but he’s boarding tonight, and if the house master catches him in this state he’ll be in detention for a month.

  And anyway, the field is spinning and he doesn’t think he can stand.

  ‘You like?’ the girl asks them.

  The other two applaud but Luke can’t even nod his head. He doesn’t like, not at all.

  That night had started the same as any other. With prep finished and Mr Philips dealing with one of the homesick new boys, Luke and his friends sneaked out of school to mooch around the village. They pledged how different their lives would be when they could drive.

  Charlie’s the eldest and is getting lessons for his seventeenth, but that’s not for over two months.

  Luke should be next, but every time he mentions it his mum gives him the look and talks about how many young people die in road accidents.

  Tom is the youngest of the group but will probably still be first to pass his test. His dad already lets him drive an old Jeep across their land.

  They wandered down to the off-licence. Luke didn’t know why they bothered because Mrs Singh knows they’re all from the boarding school and under age. Tom called her a ‘fucking Paki’ and knocked over a rack of crisps. Luke hates it when Tom does stuff like that.

  They finally dragged Tom out with Mrs Singh threatening to call the police, and there was the girl, leaning against the Post Office window opposite. She was one of that lot from the hostel. You could tell by the way she dressed, the way she wore her hair. And she stood like they all do, hunched in on herself, as if trying to disappear.

  ‘Hey you,’ Tom shouted.

  She looked startled at being spoken to and was about to move on when Tom dashed across the street and caught her arm.

  ‘Do you want to earn some money?’ he asked.

  She didn’t answer, her face a blank canvas.

  ‘Money,’ he repeated, rubbing his thumb and forefinger together as if she were deaf or an imbecile. So they paid her five quid to get them some bottles of cider and headed to the park.

  It was built for the local kids but they’re all at home on their Nintendos. Only the boarders use it when they manage to slip out of evening prep. It’s cold and deserted, but at least they can get pissed in peace.

  Luke doesn’t know why the girl came with them. Maybe she liked the look of Charlie, who’s tall and dark—all the girls fancy him. Or maybe Tom talked her into it. He’s ginger and has a big gap in his front teeth, but he has a way of getting people to do what he wants. ‘Leadership qualities’ his mum calls it.

  Either way, she sat on the swings and shared their booze. She barely said a word, except that her name was Anna. Luke thought she was very pretty in a weird sort of way.

  When she started dancing you could tell she didn’t really know what she was doing, that she was drunk. He should have told her to sit down. Why hadn’t he told her to sit down?

  Now things are going pear-shaped. Tom has managed to pull Anna onto the floor. She’s still laughing but trying to push him away.

  ‘No no no,’ she says.

  Tom mimics her accent. ‘Yes, yes, yes.’

  She tries to push him away but she’s not very strong, and Tom’s the captain of the rugby first eleven. Luke notices how tiny she is and Tom easily holds the sticks of her arms above her head. Her sweater has ridden up and Luke can see her ribs protruding through her skin.

  ‘Come on, Tom, leave her alone,’ he says.

  Tom’s breath comes in hard pants. ‘Fuck off.’ His forehead is greasy with sweat and the unmistakable bulge of Tom’s cock pushes against his trouser leg.

  Luke feels the acid burn of bile in his throat and tries not to retch.

  The girl struggles to free herself.

  ‘Give me a hand, Charlie,’ says Tom.

  Charlie seems unsure and hovers above them.

  ‘Hold her arms,’ Tom grunts.

  When Charlie still doesn’t move, Tom snarls at him.

  ‘Hold her fucking arms, you queer.’

  Charlie steals a glance in Luke’s direction. He’s terrified of what’s about to happen, but more terrified of defying Tom. Luke wills him to walk away, to make a joke out of the whole thing. He doesn’t. He kneels above Anna’s head and presses firmly on her wrists.

  Luke realises now that she is screaming. The air shatters around him.

  Tom clamps one hand over her mouth and uses the other to pull at his flies. Luke tries to get to his feet to help the girl but falls sideways and ends up flapping like a fish in a net.

  Tom laughs. ‘Don’t worry, you’ll get your turn, Lukey boy.’ He thrusts his hips forward and Anna’s eyes shoot open. He knows he has to do something. Anything. So why doesn’t he move? Why is he still lying on the hard autumn ground? He closes his eyes, disgusted at himself and wishes for tomorrow morning.

  Chapter One

  The sky outside the office was clear and welcoming. The pale October sun attempted to make its presence felt and Lilly longed to take her lunchtime walk. She’d instituted a daily turn around Harpenden Park after a four-week contested divorce case that had frazzled her mind. She found that the fresh air calmed her, and it stopped her from wolfing more than a sandwich for lunch.

  She turned her gaze from the window back to her client and sighed. Mr Maxwell was so absorbed in his story he had failed to notice his solicitor’s evident lack of interest.

  ‘I simply cannot justify another penny,’ he said. ‘And I cannot see why she should be allowed to sit at home all day while I work my socks off
.’

  Lilly wondered why a man with such a profound lisp would choose so many words beginning with ‘s’, and pretended not to notice the spittle that was accumulating on his tie.

  ‘She has three children to care for,’ said Lilly, ‘and they are your children.’

  ‘We have an au pair for them.’ He fixed Lilly with eyes that bulged like marbles in an otherwise flat face. ‘You have a child, Miss Valentine, yet you seem to manage to work without too much trouble.’

  Lilly thought of her ridiculously complicated child-care routine, involving her ex-husband, friends, and anyone prepared to offer a lift to school.

  ‘What do you think she could do to earn some money?’ Lilly asked.

  Mr Maxwell gave a dismissive shrug. ‘She used to be a model.’

  Lilly tried to hide her shock. What beautiful woman would go for this unappealing specimen of manhood? Mr Maxwell gave a tree-frog blink. The sort who would be happy to sit on her bony arse all day and count his money was the obvious answer.

  ‘As galling as it seems, Mr Maxwell, the court has ordered you to pay maintenance to your wife and children,’ said Lilly.

  ‘Ex-wife.’

  Lilly nodded. ‘So you will have to pay.’

  Mr Maxwell shuffled his whinging backside out of Lilly’s office, his eyes pulsating.

  As he left the building she watched him limp up the road. Lisp, blinking eyes, a limp—maybe she was being too harsh on the poor man. Then a blonde bounced towards him, her plastic breasts fighting to escape. She covered his bald head in tiny kisses and squealed.

  Mrs Maxwell Mark Two was waiting in the wings. Some men never learned.

  Lilly checked her watch and groaned, realising that her next client was due any minute. She tried to leave a gap between them but divorce cases always overran. These people paid by the hour, so it was their funeral if they blabbed over their allotted appointment, which invariably they did. When it came to splitting up the marital assets, this lot would argue over the contents of the hoover bag.

  Lilly missed her care cases. Stroppy teens who might spare you ten minutes between shoplifting in Tesco’s and meeting their mates in the arcade. Sometimes they didn’t turn up at all but left convoluted messages about ASBOs, social workers and pregnancy tests.

  God, she missed it.

  She pulled a Kit Kat from her bag. Chocolate and no exercise, a double whammy As sugar and hydrogenated fat entered her system, she realised that the only thing keeping her sane was the weekly trip to Hounds Place. At least there she could do some good. Some real good.

  ‘Might pop over there after this client,’ she mused.

  ‘Don’t even think about it.’

  Lilly turned to the door, where the ever scowling secretary-cum-receptionist, Sheila, had appeared.

  ‘You don’t even know what I was talking about,’ said Lilly.

  Sheila crossed her arms. ‘You want to go running off to the Dogs’ Home.’

  ‘It’s called Hounds Place,’ said Lilly. ‘As you bloody well know.’

  Sheila scooped up some papers fanning the floor and slid them back into their file. ‘Do you keep your house as tidy as this?’

  ‘Did you just come to annoy me or did you get bored with filing your nails?’

  Sheila tried to put the file back in the drawer but the runners were jammed. She pushed and pulled, the metallic groans matching her own.

  Lilly sighed. ‘Do you actually want something, Sheila?’

  ‘The powers-that-be want to take you for a drink after work,’ she said, without turning around.

  Lilly put her head in her hands. ‘Bloody marvellous.’

  ‘Stop whining,’ said Sheila, and thrust her arm into the cabinet. It disappeared like a vet’s arm in a cow. ‘They probably want to thank you for your hard work and good attitude.’

  ‘In my new role as advisor to the rich, ugly and divorcing I make them shitloads of money. Good attitude is not part of the package.’

  Sheila was now virtually inside the cabinet, her shoulders and chest lost in its recesses, her face pushed against the handle.

  ‘I don’t know why you’re so miserable. You’re making good money, aren’t you?’

  It was true. Lilly’s wage had increased by fifty per cent since the firm had reallocated her caseload.

  ‘The root of all evil,’ she said.

  Sheila’s cheek was contorted by the pressure of the metal. ‘You weren’t saying that when you didn’t have any, you just moaned endlessly about the state of your house, how your car was knackered and you couldn’t afford Sam’s school uniform.’

  ‘But it’s so boring.’

  ‘Grow up,’ Sheila grunted. ‘It beats the bunch of no-hopers that used to come here thieving the staplers.’

  ‘Vulnerable kids,’ Lilly sniffed.

  ‘Junkies, most of them,’ said Sheila. ‘Like that bleeding nutter who drank the bleach.’

  ‘Kelsey was not on drugs,’ said Lilly. ‘It was her mother who was addicted.’

  ‘Whatever.’ Sheila shook her head as if the details were unimportant. ‘The point is it nearly bankrupted the office.’

  ‘We got paid,’ said Lilly.

  ‘Legal Aid scraps, and you know it,’ said Sheila. ‘And as for those scroungers at the Dogs’ Home, I don’t know why you bother.’

  ‘Because it stimulates my intellect,’ said Lilly. ‘Something you wouldn’t understand.’

  ‘I understand that having kids means making sacrifices.’ At last Sheila withdrew her arm, bringing with it a battered book. ‘This was stuck at the back.’ She threw it onto Lilly’s desk. The Art of Positive Thinking.

  ‘Something to stimulate your intellect.’

  Lilly put her head on the desk. ‘Do I really have to go for a drink?’

  Sheila’s laugh was nothing short of cruel. ‘Rupinder says it’s a three-line whip.’

  It’s been a horrid day. A nightmare. Mr Peters had bawled Luke out for not paying attention in Latin. He’d said he was wasting his talents, and that it was nothing short of criminal. Luke had wanted to tell him how close to the mark he was.

  During Information Technology he’d surfed the Net to see how long people got for rape, how old he’d be when he got out of prison. He couldn’t breathe when he saw life was an option. He’d seen a politician on the telly saying the government were cracking down, that ‘life should mean life’. He’d bitten his lip until it bled, terrified he’d burst into tears in front of the whole class.

  Worse still, Tom had been acting like nothing was wrong. He’d even boasted in the common room about meeting a ‘right little goer’.

  The other boys had laughed at him, said he was talking bollocks.

  Tom leaned over the snooker table and potted the black.

  ‘Ask Lukey boy, he’ll tell you what she was like,’ he said. ‘Gagging for it, wasn’t she?’

  Luke smiled weakly, but he could still hear the girl screaming and see her slender wrists being held so tightly that they seemed to turn blue-black. A bit like the sky before a storm.

  Now the bell is ringing and Luke can finally escape. Thank God he’s not boarding tonight. He wants to go home, to throw himself onto his Arsenal duvet and let it all out. Maybe he should tell his mum. Maybe she could help. Even if she can’t it would stop the whole thing running through his head like a bad film on a loop.

  He sees her car parked by the cricket pitch and bolts towards it. Inside it smells of clean washing.

  His mum smiles. ‘Had a nice day, love?’

  He can’t answer and squeezes his eyes shut.

  ‘Is everything all right, love?’ asks his mum.

  He stirs his pasta with a limp wrist.

  ‘Luke?’

  Her voice is so very gentle. He feels wrung out like a damp cloth, all the moisture down the sink.

  She lifts his chin and looks into his eyes. ‘You would tell me if something was wrong?’

  He sees in her familiar face a lifetime of wiped noses and birth
day teas. This isn’t a broken window or a bad school report. How can he tell her what he has been part of, what he has done? She can’t make it better. No one can.

  He forces some words out. ‘I’m just tired.’

  ‘You look peaky,’ she says, and presses a cool palm against his forehead. ‘You’re not hot but you’re obviously coming down with something.’

  He pushes his bowl away. ‘Yeah. I feel sick.’

  Relief plays at the corner of his mother’s mouth. This is her territory.

  ‘Better lie down, love,’ she says. ‘Will you be all right while I collect your sister?’

  The thought of Jessie, a year younger than Luke, fills his mind. What if some boys took her to the park…held her down…

  He runs from the room, his hand over his mouth, acid bile running through his fingers.

  * * *

  His bedroom is spinning and Luke concentrates on a small brown water stain on the ceiling.

  ‘I’ll be twenty minutes,’ his mum calls from the bottom of the stairs. ‘How about I call at Waitrose for some Lucozade?’

  Luke doesn’t answer.

  When he hears the front door close he lets the tears spill. He curls into a ball and weeps, snot pooling under his nose, sliding onto his lips, until it becomes clear what he has to do.

  He wipes his eyes on the back of his hand and packs a bag.

  Lilly had tried, she really had. She’d put on her coat and fully intended to head to the bar where her boss and the other partners were waiting for her. But when it had come to it, Lilly had made a sharp right turn and jumped into her new Mini Cooper. Sheila was right about some things. A car that started first time, every time, was a joy on a par with a night with George Clooney.