well, don’t get carried away with yourself,’ she warned him. ‘Coming down hard on the local tearaways and shit is fine, but some of the other people round here …’ She gave a knowing shrug. ‘I wouldn’t ruffle too many feathers, if I was you. You never know who knows what – who’s connected to who. You get my meaning?’
‘So long as nobody draws unnecessary attention to themselves,’ he smiled. She flicked her cigarette over the wall and onto the grass below and headed back to her maisonette. ‘I don’t suppose you’re carrying the keys to that metal grid on you?’ he asked still smiling.
‘No,’ she answered. ‘Do yourself and everyone else a favour and catch this animal who’s been messing with the kids round here. Feeling is, because it’s only our kids, Old Bill don’t care. You find him, you win everyone’s respect – almost.’ She turned away from him before shouting into the dimness of the concrete cave. ‘Nakiya.’ She saw the look of interest on his face. ‘My daughter.’
‘I see,’ he nodded.
‘And in case you’re wondering,’ she explained, ‘which I know you are – the keys are never on the outside – always on the inside. Even if I’m just out here for a smoke or a friendly chat with a passing cop.’
‘Of course,’ he replied as her teenage daughter appeared on the other side of the grid holding a single key.
‘Open it,’ her mother demanded, causing Nakiya to eye King suspiciously. ‘It’s fine,’ she told her. ‘He’s fine.’ Nakiya’s expression changed from one of suspicion to disinterest as she quickly unlocked the grid and swung it open. Ubana stepped inside quickly, the grid being slammed behind her and immediately locked. She turned round and looked through the bars as King leaned back on the wall with the sun pleasantly on his face.
‘Looks like you were right,’ he smiled.
‘Oh yeah,’ she asked. ‘About what?’
‘About this place being a prison,’ he told her.
Her eyes rolled as she unwittingly examined the bars in front of her. ‘Maybe,’ she replied, ‘but if you ever want to stand on this side of the bars, you’d better have a warrant. Know what I mean?’ She winked and closed the door before he could answer.
She was right about one thing, he thought to himself. Word really did travel fast on the estate.
A short time later King met up with Renita to patrol the estate together looking for trouble. As they headed down a huge vehicle ramp that led to dozens of underground garages, King spotted a large piece of plastic wall hanging a little looser than the other panels on the bottom section of a low-rise row of flats and maisonettes. He stepped towards it and pulled it even looser and peered inside the bowels of the building.
‘Someone’s pulled this loose deliberately,’ he told Renita. ‘Wonder where it leads to.’
‘Probably the basement area of the building,’ she guessed. ‘It’ll be where the water tanks and electrical stuff is all kept. Everything will be pumped into here before being fed out to the flats.’
‘So why would somebody want to break inside?’ he asked.
‘I don’t know,’ she shrugged. ‘Why don’t we see if we can find out?’
He pulled the loose panel to one side so she could more easily enter. ‘Ladies first,’ he grinned.
‘Well thank you,’ she joked. ‘You’re such a gentleman.’
She clambered through the small gap into the semi-darkness and watched as King did the same. They both un-holstered their Maglite torches from their utility belts, instantly illuminating their surroundings, and realized they were in some sort of corridor with dozens of pipes running above their heads and along the walls next to them. Underneath their feet was nothing but cold concrete lit by the occasional safety light glowing red.
‘Christ,’ Renita complained. ‘It’s like being in a bloody submarine.’
‘Not a side of the estate most people would ever see,’ he replied, squinting as he followed the beam of light from his torch. ‘Want to split up like they do in American horror movies?’ he teased her.
‘No I bloody don’t,’ she told him. ‘Place gives me the creeps.’
‘This way then,’ he encouraged her and headed off along the corridor, following the long cones of light that stretched out ahead of them as they walked deeper and deeper into the strange underground world until the thin corridor suddenly and unexpectedly opened out into a cavernous room where there was a little more light from the weak overhead strips and seemingly grey metal box after grey metal box attached to the surrounding walls.
‘Wow,’ Renita declared. ‘What d’you think’s in the boxes? There’s hundreds of them.’
‘Not sure,’ King answered, his torch sweeping every corner of the room. ‘Probably the electrical circuit boards for the block.’
‘Amazing,’ she admitted. ‘You wouldn’t want to be the one to try and find the blown fuse if electrics failed.’
‘No,’ King agreed as he drifted to a corner where something had caught his eyes in the torchlight. ‘I suppose not.’
‘You found something?’ Renita asked, slowly following him.
‘Over here,’ he told her as he passed his light over the arrangement of old sofa cushions, homemade stools and a crate that was clearly being used as a makeshift table, littered as it was with the remnants of drug use and alcohol consumption.
‘Christ,’ Renita surveyed the scene. ‘Lovely place to talk the night away with friends.’
King bent closer to better examine the items strewn across the table. ‘Don’t be too harsh on them,’ he told her. ‘Looks like cannabis and alco-pops – nothing too heavy. Probably just kids looking for somewhere to hang out of the rain and away from their parents.’
‘Speaking from experience?’ she asked.
‘I was a kid once,’ he answered.
‘Hard to believe,’ she replied, trying to sound serious.
‘Still,’ he ignored her, ‘can’t have them hanging around off their faces down here. Only a matter of time before they start a fire and burn the whole bloody block down.’
‘Idea?’ she prompted him.
‘Hope you brought a good book,’ he told her.
‘Ahh,’ she complained. ‘You’re not serious, are you? You want to wait down here until someone shows up? Could be hours. Could be days.’
‘We’re not going to wait down here for days,’ he began to explain.
‘Good, because this place still gives me the creeps.’
‘But let’s give it a while.’
‘Fine,’ she reluctantly agreed and followed him to the darkest corner of the basement room where they prepared to lie in wait for whatever
