Page 14

THIRTEEN

Katie Parker pushed the stroller along the footpath, walking briskly into town. Louis was asleep with a see-through plastic cover over him, though she had no idea how long that would last. She allowed the rain to spritz against her skin and dampen her long hair. She’d recently taken to dying it a stark black, and had toyed with the idea of returning to using a kohl pencil around her eyes, goth-like. But that was from another lifetime. A time she’d shared with Jason before he’d been taken so cruelly away from her.

She turned into the shopping centre and headed for her favourite boutique, Jinx. They had advertised their autumn collection on Facebook, and she just had to have the leopard-print jeans.

The door was a tight squeeze with the stroller, but she was not going to leave her son outside. The second she entered, Louis opened his eyes and let out a squeal, then stretched out his hand and grabbed a white silk blouse from a hanger.

‘Ah Louis, can you not give me two minutes to myself?’

‘Is he a handful?’ asked June, the sales girl.

‘Sometimes. But most of the time he’s good.’ Katie knew June from their school days, and she welcomed speaking to someone her own age now and again.

‘I thought you were going back to college?’

‘I put it on hold again. It’s so expensive, and then there’s the childcare costs and the train fares. I don’t know how I’d manage it. I really need to get a job, but I’d still have childcare to pay for.’ She laughed. ‘Vicious circle.’

‘He is so beautiful.’ June tickled Louis under his chin.

‘I know. I’m blessed really. That’s what my gran says. She tells me that I should be grateful to have him when so many women can’t have kids. And I am. Grateful, I mean. But sometimes … you know … it just gets too much for me.’

‘Get a part-time job maybe. Here. Try this on,’ June said, hanging the silk blouse on the door of the changing room. ‘I’ll keep an eye on the little lad. What’s his name?’

‘Louis.’ Katie bit her lip. ‘I’m not sure I want to try that. Do you still have the leopard-print jeans?’

June whisked them from a rack and hung them in the changing room with the blouse.

‘Any special occasion?’

‘My sister’s eighteen next month and I was going to plan a surprise party for her. Haven’t told my mam yet.’

June took Louis out of the stroller and shoved Katie towards the changing room. ‘Try them on. They’d look great together.’

The cost didn’t worry Katie too much. Louis’ grandad sent her a monthly allowance for the baby’s upkeep. Lottie didn’t know about that because Tom Rickard had insisted Katie not tell her. Maybe she could ask him to pay for childcare. Now there was an idea.

June said, ‘I’ll leave the door open a little so you can see Louis.’

As she stepped into the cupboard-sized enclosure, Katie had a sudden feeling that someone was watching her. She looked towards the large plate-glass window of the shop but could only see people rushing around outside.

‘June, I think someone out there is watching me,’ she said.

‘What? God give me strength.’ June came and stood in front of the saloon-type fitting room door. ‘Some people have no life.’

Bernie Kelly looked at the person who was watching Lottie Parker’s daughter through the shop window. She ducked into the newsagent’s doorway and smirked. Maybe she could get someone else to do her dirty work. That would be fun.

A shriek of excitement must have escaped her lips, because a young child who was walking along with his mother squealed. Bernie stuck out her tongue and laughed silently as the mother gripped her son’s hand tighter and almost ran from the shopping centre. Maybe she needed to quieten down a little. It wasn’t a good idea to draw attention to herself. But after twelve months locked up in a hospital for the criminally insane, there was something liberating about being out in the real world. And she had a mission.

Leaving the other person to their voyeurism, she pulled her hood up over her head and decided it was time to eat. She had no fear of being recognised. Well, maybe Lottie Parker would recognise her, but that didn’t worry her at all. Not one iota. Because Lottie Parker was the endgame.

As she walked out of the shopping centre, she gave a quick glance up and down the pavement, just to be sure. Then she made her way slowly around the corner and into Fallon’s pub. A hot whiskey would go down a treat.