Page 93 of Silent Scream

‘I really wouldn't if I was you. If yer don't leave us be, I promise yer will be sorry.’

With surprising speed Bethany Adamson travelled the distance to the door. She was gone before Kim realised she’d just been threatened.

Rather than warning her off, the woman’s words had induced the polar opposite.

Now another question burned within Kim.

Nicola and Beth had experienced the exact same childhood but were like opposing seasons of the year. So, what the hell had happened to make Bethany Adamson such a hostile, hateful individual?

Forty-Seven

The Hollytree housingestate lay between Brierley Hill and Wordsley. The entire council development, constructed in the early Seventies, covered a two-mile area and was now home to at least three registered sex offenders.

On entering, Kim was always reminded of Dante’s circles of hell. The outer layer was formed of grey prefab houses with windows that were either broken, boarded or barred. Fences separating properties were long gone. The gardens of empty houses had been used as opportune rubbish dumps for the good of the local community. Old cars with mismatched panels littered the road.

The inner layer was formed of maisonettes with twelve dwellings per block. Each external wall was a competition in sprayed-on vulgarity and offered more detail on the birds and the bees than the school curriculum. It was a battle the council had fought and lost. Kim didn’t need to leave the car to know the putrid smell of the hallways that dispensed more drugs than Boots.

At the centre of the estate three high-rise buildings towered over the rest of the estate, keeping watch. Although refuted by the council, these were the homes of families evicted from other council estates in the area. A trail of years served at Her Majesty’s Pleasure would have led back to the Ice Age.

‘You know, Guv, if it’s true that Tolkien named the dark lands of Mordor after the Black Country, he was surely looking this way.’

Kim didn’t disagree. It was the land that hope forgot. She knew ? because Hollytree had been home for the first six years of her life.

Bryant parked in front of a row of buildings that had once been shops serving the community. The last one to close had been the newsagents at the end after being robbed at knifepoint by two twelve-year-old boys.

The centre building, which previously operated as a chip shop, was opened one morning each week as a drop-in centre.

A group of seven girls in their mid-teens hung around the entrance. They filled the doorway with both their bodies and their attitude. Bryant looked at her and Kim smiled in response.

‘Don’t hurt ‘em too hard, eh, Guv?’

‘Course not.’

Bryant held back as Kim stood before the ringleader. Her hair was three different hues of purple and the fresh unlined skin of her face was mottled by metal.

She held out her right hand. ‘Entrance fee.’

Kim met her gaze, fighting to contain the smile. ‘How much?’

‘Hundred?’

Kim shook her head. ‘Nah, too much. There’s a recession you know.’

The girl smirked and crossed her arms. ‘That’s why I gorra keep me prices high,’

The cronies sniggered and nudged each other.

‘Okay, answer a simple question and you got a deal.’

‘I ain't gorra answer no questions ‘cos you ain't gerrin in, bitch.’

Kim shrugged and began to turn. ‘Fine, I’ll just walk away but at least my way you had a chance.’

The hesitation lasted a second. ‘Goo on then?’

Kim turned back and looked into a face eager for money.

‘Tell me how much I’d have to pay if I asked for a fifteen per cent discount?’