The Family Firm

Chapter 9

Maggie Thomas was Katie's best mate, at least when it suited her. They were different in almost every way, but what had brought them both together was the nature of their respective mothers' work. Most people turned their noses at people like them. They knew how the women earned their bread and they considered it dirty money. It had been a great source of stress for the two girls as children, who were told time after time they might as well not go to school because they'd just end up turning tricks anyway, so they'd learned to stand up for one another and not let people like that slag them off. Of course, they slagged each other off behind the other's back all the time, but when it suited them, they were friends.

Right now, Katie was getting annoyed. They always walked home together from school, and Maggie had been chatting her ears off the whole way back about boys. She was boy crazy these days; Katie, not so much. Not after Liam had cheated on her (and already he'd moved onto another girl, the fucker!). And so she was bored to tears hearing about John and Greg and Danny and whoever else Maggie was infatuated with these days.

It was around halfway through their walk that Katie noticed a familiar car parked alongside a lorry park, and she quickly pressed her face up against the chain-link fence that blocked the enclosure off in order to get a better look at it. Sure enough, there stood a newly-cleaned black BMW with familiar-looking plates, and she pressed her lips together in thought.

Maggie was staring at her, annoyed that they'd halted their long walk home. 'What are you doing, Katie? Me mum's gonna whip me Khyber if I'm late again!'

'Keep your hair on,' responded Katie quietly to herself before she came to a conclusion, and turned around to look at the other girl. 'You go on without me, Mags. I've got to handle summink. I'll ring you later, yeah?'

Maggie just shook her head and started off down the pavement. 'Whatever.'

Once the girl's footsteps had retreated into the distance, Katie looked the fence ahead of her up and down before rounding it to find the entrance. The front was gated off electronically, and she cursed under her breath before looking around for an alternative. Her only other option, it seemed, was to scale the thing, and so she took a moment to knit her fingers into the loops and find a steady foot-hold before attempting climb over it.

The initial climb was nothing, but her school skirt got snagged on the top of the fence. Annoyed, she yanked it blindly until it tore, and she felt several feet onto the tarmac. She cried out as she scraped her knees and the backs of her forearms, cursing several times while she inspected the damage. She was bleeding and it stung, but it wasn't all that gruesome. And technically she was trespassing, so she had to toughen up and quickly hide before she could get caught.

Standing sorely, she brushed the dirt out of her wounds and scuffled off behind one of the lorries, limping towards the large, rectangular warehouse at the end of the car park. Certainly Freddie Evans had to be in there. That was his BMW, after all.

'Oi!'

The sudden voice startled her, and she ducked behind the lorry again, feeling her heart begin to race in her chest.

'I see you over there!'

She quickly took off running, but the footsteps that immediately followed her were faster, and suddenly a large hand grabbed her by the upper arm. Instinctively, she whipped around and attempted to clobber the fucker, but he held her down with both his arms and it was during this struggle that she realised he was only a kid, like her.

'Hey, hey,' said the boy, as she continued to thrash about. 'Relax, Jesus. What are you doing out here? Didn't you see it was fenced off?'

Katie forcibly pried herself from his grasp and took a few steps away, brushing off her uniform. 'I'm looking for Freddie Evans.'