… why are you doing it?’ He was trying to be tough with her, but her breasts swayed enticingly, and a heat was stirring in his loins.
‘I know you like what you see, Heck. I’m not blind. I knew that first night in the pub. You’d have done anything to shag me then.’
‘That was then, this is now.’
There was a brief pause before she said: ‘Look … I don’t want to feel alone tonight. Not in here. You don’t need to worry; I’m not asking to be part of your life. I don’t want to take your control away. I just … it’s this place.’
Before he could resist – not that he tried very hard – their lips fastened together, their tongues entwining. Hers was sweet, soft and it probed into the deepest corners of his mouth as he wrapped his arms around her and dragged her down onto the pillow.
An hour later, Lauren began to cry – at first very softly, but then with progressively deeper sobs, which she struggled to suppress.
Heck, who’d only been half-asleep, put a hand on her shoulder. ‘What’s the matter?’
She shrugged him off. ‘I don’t know … nothing, something daft.’
He sat up tiredly. ‘Problem shared, and all that.’
‘I don’t know … stupid. Mum would so disapprove of what we’ve just done. She thinks sex without love is a bad thing.’ Lauren sounded embarrassed, though her tears were still flowing. ‘Just her generation, I suppose. But it’s got me thinking about her … everything she’s been through in her life, and now this. Sitting in that flat all day next to the phone, waiting for good news to arrive about Genene. And why? On what basis? I mean I bought my way out of the army to be with her, and I’m not even there, am I? I’m here with you!’
‘She knows what you’re doing,’ Heck said awkwardly. ‘You told me that, yourself.’
‘I also told you she doesn’t approve. You know, she and Genene were so like each other; always pleasant and polite, dead straight-laced, proper ladies even in that shithole. Me … I was just a juvenile delinquent who thought the crap I’d suffered meant I could do anything I wanted. I so wasted my school years; hanging out, getting involved with gangs. Genene said I was letting the side down.’ Lauren shook her head, fresh tears appearing. ‘I was too dimwitted to realise that behaving like a street hoodlum only gave those who hated us even more ammunition. I only went into the army through default,’ she said. ‘The second time I got arrested for being found in a stolen car was the day it became obvious something had to change. My probation officer said I’d only avoided juvenile prison by a miracle. He pointed me to the armed services.’
‘Out of the frying pan and into the fire, eh?’ Heck remarked.
Lauren nodded and sniffled. ‘That was what Mum said. She was worried sick by it. I mean, there were wars kicking off everywhere. But Genene thought it was a good idea. She said it wasn’t as dangerous as the route I’d been following in Chapeltown. Anyway, me and Genene … we still didn’t see eye to eye on stuff. I almost rejected the idea because she supported it, but thankfully, in the end, I didn’t. The army was the first bunch I’d ever met who weren’t concerned that I didn’t have any grades. They said they’d train me, and not just to fight. They’d find out which disciplines I had an aptitude for, and educate me appropriately. They said I’d come out better equipped to make a go of it on civvy street than most university leavers did …’
‘Good bit of blarney, if nothing else.’
‘They needed bodies, didn’t they?’ she said. ‘They were off to war. Anyway … despite that, things went well. Suddenly I had a career, money, prospects.’ Fresh moisture glinted in her eyes. ‘And all because of Genene, who I never once thanked. Christ … Heck, I’d got into some bad habits during my dumb days. One of them was always assuming there’d be time to do things later. You know what I mean? Anything difficult or awkward; anything you don’t really want to face up to. You keep putting it off because there’ll be time for it later. Except … there might not be.’ Briefly she couldn’t speak. More hot tears dripped onto her breasts. ‘Isn’t there …’ She struggled to get the words out. ‘Isn’t there anything you can say … about Genene, I mean? About where she is, what might have happened to her? It was bad enough when I thought some pervert had grabbed her, but now … the idea that it’s more than one pervert, maybe a bunch of them, who specialise in grabbing women, for God knows what purpose! I mean … come on, Heck, tell me something … You’re a copper!’
Heck wanted to put his arm around her shoulders, but felt it would be inappropriate. What they’d just done together had been too quick and functional to entitle him to behave like a boyfriend. Besides, she was seeking comfort, and he had none to give. To most folk, Genene Wraxford was nothing more now than a tattered, peeling face clinging to a few rain-soaked lampposts, and most likely that was all she’d ever be.
‘Lauren … this is the reality of crime,’ he said quietly. ‘It’s not about Robin Hood, or rebels without a cause, or likeable rogues. It’s about evil actions destroying innocent lives. And all we can do as police officers is react to it. Clean up the mess any way we can, wishing as much as everyone else that we’d been there in time to prevent it. I don’t know where Genene is or what happened to her. But I’ve got to be honest with you, it’s not good. She’s been missing a long time, love.’
Again Lauren mopped her tears away, frowning, the young street-tough trying to reassert herself. ‘Why couldn’t it have happened to me, eh? I could have dealt with it. Poor Genene wouldn’t have had the first clue.’
Heck didn’t bother to mention that few, if any, dealt easily with the onslaught of typical urban predators.
She blew her nose, and then, unexpectedly, said: ‘You need to be a lot nicer to your sister, Heck. I don’t know what happened between you two in the past. But if you intend to make up with her – and I reckon you do, because you don’t strike me as the sort of bloke who carries a grudge forever – you’d better get a move on. One of these days, all of a sudden, she’s not going to be there anymore.’
She reclined onto the pillow and rolled over, turning her back to him. ‘For the record, I’m pissed off as hell that you’ve seen me in this state. Bet you were thinking: “She’s alright, this one. But no, hang on … she’s just a soppy girl after all.”’
‘You think I don’t cry?’ Heck replied.
‘Not in front of anyone else, I bet.’
‘Only because it’s a long time since there’s been anyone else.’
‘Well don’t break down on us yet.’ She sniffled again. ‘You’ve got some cases to solve.’
Heck sat up for several minutes after she’d gone back to sleep, pondering her final comments. In truth, he didn’t know which prospect he found more onerous – the increasingly dark road along which this investigation was taking him, or the road to reconciliation with his sister.
Frank Ogburn only opened his bruised, swollen eyes because someone dashed ice-cold water into them. Even then, the anaesthetic was wearing off at its own ponderous pace, so he remained muzzy and nauseous. He knew
