One False Move Read online

  Contents

  About the Author

  Also by Dreda Say Mitchell

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Thanks

  About the Author

  Born and bred in the East End of London, Dreda has seen it all from the inside. After working as a waitress, chambermaid and catering assistant she realised her dream of becoming a teacher. During this time she saw a new generation of East Enders grappling with the same problems she had but in an even more violent and unforgiving world. Dreda’s books are inspired by the gritty, tough and criminal world she grew up in. She still lives in London’s East End.

  Also by Dreda Say Mitchell

  Running Hot

  Killer Tune

  Geezer Girls

  Gangster Girl

  Hit Girls

  Vendetta

  Death Trap

  Blood Sister

  Blood Mother

  www.hodder.co.uk

  First published in Great Britain in 2017 by Hodder & Stoughton

  An Hachette UK company

  Copyright © Mitchell and Joseph Limited 2017

  The right of Dreda Say Mitchell to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

  All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.

  A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library

  Paperback ISBN 978 1 473 64063 4

  eBook ISBN 978 1 473 64064 1

  Hodder & Stoughton Ltd

  Carmelite House

  50 Victoria Embankment

  London EC4Y 0DZ

  www.hodder.co.uk

  To libraries everywhere for doing such a fantastic job. Without the amazing and legendary Whitechapel Library I would never have become a writer.

  1

  9 p.m.

  The attack came out of nowhere. One minute, twenty-four-year-old Hayley Evans was stepping out of the piss-stained lift on the eighth floor. The next, she was grabbed and slammed into the wall. The impact sent a shockwave of pain through her body. Air whooshed out of her chest. She froze. Couldn’t move. She knew she should, but panic had set in. She’d always wondered why victims didn’t scream and fight at times like this. But there was no fight in her. Fear crawled down her spine as she looked at her attacker. He was a blur of moving arms, his dark clothing turning him into a shadow. The black hoodie he wore flopped over his forehead and was zipped high, masking most of his face. He panted high and loud.

  Something flashed and twisted in the electric light. A knife. He shoved it under her long jumper. Oh God, he wasn’t going to …? Hayley’s blood ran cold. Her eyes grew wide with horror. No way was she going to let him do that to her. No way. She fought back, using every dirty trick she had learned living on the Devil’s Estate. She sprang off the wall like a tigress, taking him by surprise. Smashed her palms into his chest. And pushed with all her strength. He stumbled back in a strange, jelly-like dance. Hayley cried out with the ear-splitting power of a mad woman, just like her ex-boyfriend Adam had taught her. Noises caused confusion in your enemy, that’s what he’d said.

  Adam was right. The noise stopped the bastard in his tracks like he’d just met his worst nightmare. Hayley dodged to the side to get to the door to the stairs. Her breath was heavy and hard as she got closer and closer and— She yelped. Red-hot needles of pain tore through her scalp as he jerked her back by the hair. Her cries of pain turned to moans when he swung her round, yanking her head viciously back and down until she couldn’t control her footing and fell on to the concrete.

  Move! Move! But she couldn’t. The pain was too strong and her vision kept coming and going. He loomed over her, his blade poised for action. He hunched down beside her. Shoved the knife under her jumper.

  I’m going to die. I’ll never see my gorgeous Lily again.

  He cut a wild slice through the top of her jeans, going for something round her waist. And that’s when Hayley knew what was happening. He had taken her money belt, where she stored the money she collected on her rounds.

  For a brief second they both stared at the belt in his hands. And then he was gone.

  Hayley lay there, dazed. She felt like sobbing her heart out. How much had been in the money belt? A thousand? Maybe a little more. Now it was all gone. The problem was, the money didn’t belong to her. This job was meant to be her second chance. The start of her journey to a normal life after coming out of prison nine months ago. There weren’t many people willing to employ someone who had just finished doing a stretch.

  She’d been over the moon at finally landing a job with a genuine loan company. It wasn’t ideal, but beggars couldn’t be choosers. The job was simple. Every week she knocked on the doors of people on the estate who had taken out a loan and they paid it back to her a little at a time. The people who borrowed were the type who couldn’t get help from banks for one reason or another. That’s why most people called it getting money on the never-never.

  Hayley had been doing the job now for four months without any trouble. So why had it gone so wrong tonight? She was street smart, always alert and checking over her shoulder to make sure that no one was following her on her rounds. She hadn’t noticed anything unusual tonight. But she would bet her life that the robber had been spying on her for a while, carefully watching the route she took.

  How else could he have known to wait for her on the eighth floor? She should know – she’d used that method in her previous bad-girl life too. It was the kind of thing that went on in the place nicknamed the Devil’s Estate. Its real name was the Essex Lane Estate, and Hayley lived on it as well. It was well known for crime despite the residents being good people.

  ‘What do you expect, giving a jailbird like that a job handling cash?’ Hayley could already hear the disgusted, all-knowing whispers of people who didn’t think ex-cons deserved another chance at life. They would probably point the finger at her. They would think she’d set up the robbery to get a cut of the cash. The old Hayley might have done that, but not the new. As soon as she’d stepped through the prison gate she had vowed to go straight.

  The door to the stairs opened. A surge of cold air swept over her, and she sighed with relief. Finally someone would help her. She started to speak, but whoever it was just stepped over her like she was a bag of rubbish and rushed inside one of the flats. They didn’t even give her a second look. That was the problem with living on the Devil; people were so scared they didn’t want to get involved.

  Feeling stressed and crushed, Hayley managed to get to her knees and crawl over to where her shoulder bag lay dumped on the ground. Her purse was still there. And her mobile hadn’t been stolen either. She pulled it out to call the police. But then she paused. Her finger hovered over the button but didn’t press it. The last thing she needed was the cops in her life again. She could hear their accusing voices:

  ‘Hello, Hayley. You dow
n here again? Only just out, aren’t you?’

  ‘You were carrying a grand? Where the hell did you get a grand from? On the take already?’

  No, the police weren’t an option. Next she thought about calling her probation officer. She decided against that, too. He’d only start snooping in her life even more, and she could do without that, thank you very much.

  She stood up slowly. Her body ached from the bruises on her back. Her jeans sagged on the left side where they had been cut. She pressed the lift button and less than a minute later was inside. She started to feel safe only when the metal doors shut with a hum and a bang. She slumped against the back wall, breathing deeply to steady her nerves. The lift lurched slightly as it reached the ground floor. When the doors opened Hayley’s heart kicked into a fast beat again as she took baby steps forwards. She peeped out. She checked right. Checked left. Then she shot out and ran into the courtyard.

  The tall and the small blocks of flats on the estate, with their hazy black outlines and watery yellow lights, whizzed past her. The night wind hit her face with invisible, chilly blasts. The booming bassline from a party in one of the buildings matched her own heartbeat. She kept running and running and running. Finally she stopped outside a ground-floor flat in a low-rise block.

  Hayley hunted for her keys in her bag, but was trembling too much to find them. She hammered on the door. A curtain twitched in the kitchen window and someone looked out. A voice called out, ‘Who is it?’

  ‘Nanna Lisa, it’s me.’

  ‘Hayley?’

  Two bolts were loosened on the heavy door. It opened slightly but was still held fast by a chain. When Nanna Lisa saw Hayley really was on her own, the door opened properly and she fell into her grandmother’s arms.

  ‘I’ve been robbed.’ Hayley allowed herself to cry at last. With tears streaming down her face, she added, ‘I’ve really screwed up this time.’

  2

  10 p.m.

  ‘Have you called the police, love?’ Nanna Lisa asked as they sat together in the sitting room.

  Hayley was clutching a very strong cup of tea. Her grandmother had tenderly cleaned her bruises half an hour ago. Then she’d helped Hayley into her nightie and dressing gown.

  Hayley arched her eyebrow. ‘You know they’re the last people I’d be calling.’

  Nanna Lisa shook her white-haired head and tutted. ‘You’re not living on the wrong side of the law any more. They’re there to help you.’

  Nanna Lisa had once been a tall woman but now, at the age of seventy-three, she walked with a slightly bent back. Hayley adored her. She didn’t know what she would do without her. Her grandmother had given Hayley and her younger brother Jamie a home when their mother, Nanna Lisa’s daughter, had died. Maggie Evans had been struck down and killed by a drunk driver a week before her fortieth birthday.

  The tragedy still made Hayley’s heart wrench and brought a tear to her eye every time she thought about it. Her mum had been a good woman who hadn’t deserved to die so young. Nanna Lisa had opened her arms to her grandkids. She had fought like a tiger against Social Services, who had wanted to place her grandchildren in foster care.

  ‘I might be getting on, with a grey hair or two, but those two little ones are my flesh and blood and it’s up to me to see them right,’ she’d declared.

  And when fifteen-year-old Hayley and eight-year-old Jamie had come to live with her in a three-bedroomed flat on the Essex Lane Estate, that’s what she’d tried to do, as best she could. It wasn’t her fault that Hayley had chosen the wrong boyfriend and started hanging around with the wrong crowd. Or that she’d got into all manner of trouble until finally she’d been locked up for three years. Her grandmother could’ve turned her back on her, but she hadn’t. Hayley would for ever be grateful for that.

  ‘What were you doing in Bell Tower?’ Nanna Lisa asked. ‘I didn’t know any of your friends lived there.’ She fixed Hayley with a beady stare. Hayley knew what the stare meant – her grandmother wanted the truth.

  And the truth was Hayley had told her beloved Nanna Lisa a little white lie. She’d told her grandmother she’d found work behind the bar of one of the local pubs. If Nanna Lisa had realised she was collecting money, she would have been furious. The estate could be a dangerous place and she would have feared for Hayley’s safety. Plus, that bad crowd Hayley had once been part of came out at night like vampires, and Nanna Lisa would be afraid that they’d suck her back into their world.

  ‘I’ve been collecting money on the never-never,’ Hayley confessed. Her hands tightened around her teacup, its warmth seeping into her skin.

  ‘You what?’ Nanna Lisa asked sharply. She slammed her cup down on the glass table. ‘Have you lost your mind?’

  Hayley put her own cup on the table. Her hands waved in the air as she defended herself. ‘Come on, Nan, you know how hard it’s been for me to get a job. I don’t want to be on benefits for the rest of my days.’ She finished with a plea. ‘Please be happy that I’ve found work.’

  Nanna Lisa’s mouth tightened with disapproval. ‘I’ve lived on this estate since it was built back in the seventies. Back then you could leave your door open; let your kids play out. Not any more. Now you’ve got to keep looking over your shoulder, what with all the drugs on the estate.’ Her grandmother was right. Some big-time dealers were flooding the estate with drugs. Hayley and most of the other people who lived there had no idea who they were.

  Nanna Lisa’s eyes changed from annoyed to troubled. ‘You aren’t working for one of those dodgy loan sharks?’

  Hayley shook her head. ‘I’d never do that. It’s a proper company. It’s run by a sister and brother team. Mary Lewis is so nice. I haven’t met her brother yet. I’ll probably have to pay the money back over time, but I’m sure that Mary will be fine about it.’

  Before Nanna Lisa could say anything else, a little voice piped up from the doorway. ‘Mummy! Mummy!’ Hayley’s three-year-old daughter Lily stood in her jim-jams, her brown eyes lit up with joy and laughter.

  Hayley opened her arms and her daughter flew into her lap. In that moment Hayley forgot all her troubles. Her darling Lily was the apple of her eye. She still felt an intense, deep shame that her precious daughter had been born in prison. She’d never forget the day the prison doctor had told her she was pregnant. It had happened two months into her three-year sentence for her part in a warehouse robbery. It had shaken her world.

  Instead of feeling proud like most mothers-to-be, she was terrified. Prison life was tough and could sometimes be violent. Not the type of world she wanted to bring an innocent baby into. She’d convinced herself things would only get worse. She got depressed and down. Even knowing that the prison had a mother and baby unit hadn’t made her feel any better. Her life hit rock bottom. That was until one very special day. Hayley had been in the library, reading a magazine, when she’d had a funny feeling in her belly. It was like a tickle and flutter all rolled into one. She’d thought that something bad was happening and jumped up, distressed, to tell one of the other prisoners near her about it.

  The other woman had chuckled and placed her hand gently on Hayley’s arm. She’d said, ‘That’s your baby kicking for the first time.’

  Stunned and surprised, Hayley had sat back down, looked at her belly in wonder and placed her hand over it. That’s when she’d properly realised that she was carrying a real-life human being. A child needing love and care. A child who would look to her to find out how to live a decent life. A child needing a mum who would teach it right from wrong. What kind of mum would she be if she carried on in the dead-end world of crime? For the first time since she’d got banged up, Hayley’s face had spread into a huge, happy smile. Suddenly the world didn’t seem so scary. She’d whispered to her unborn child: ‘I love you, my little angel. Mummy’s going to make sure you have the best life ever.’

  Those simple and heartfelt words became a vow about her own life. A vow to go straight and leave the bad times behind. Nanna Lisa
had come to the rescue again when Lily reached the age when babies in prisons were taken from their mothers. She’d agreed to bring her up until Hayley had served her sentence. Handing Lily over had nearly broken Hayley’s heart, but knowing she was being looked after by her wonderful grandmother had helped.

  ‘Why aren’t you in bed, young lady?’ Hayley stroked her daughter’s soft hair.

  ‘Heard your voice,’ Lily whispered. ‘Wanted to see you.’

  Hayley was thrilled. She was convinced that talking gently to her unborn baby first thing in the morning and last thing at night in her cell had forged the strong bond between them.

  ‘Five minutes,’ Hayley whispered back, ‘then it’s beddy-bye-time for you.’

  The front door opened and slammed shut.

  ‘Jamie, is that you?’ Nanna Lisa called out.

  ‘Who do you think it is?’ came the gruff reply, ‘Father Christmas?’

  ‘Watch your mouth,’ Hayley threw back, annoyed.

  How dare he speak to their nan in that tone? Sometimes she wanted to strangle her brother. Jamie had more cheek and vinegar in him than a seventeen-year-old boy should be allowed.

  ‘Leave him alone, love,’ Nanna Lisa advised, trying to keep the peace.

  Jamie had been such a lovely boy once, full of sparkle and laughter. But when he turned fifteen he’d turned into a teenage nightmare. He’d been thrown out of two schools for fighting and swearing, and nothing Hayley or Nanna Lisa said would make him go to a new one. Since then he’d been hanging around with a rough crowd on the estate and getting into all sorts of bother. Hayley knew she’d been a bad example and felt guilty about that. But because of that she didn’t want her baby brother ending up locked away in a secure unit for boys.

  Jamie swaggered into the sitting room. He had the same brown hair as Hayley, but everything else was a mirror image of the father who had upped and left them when Jamie was three. His leaving was the reason they had both been so close to their mum.