“Mr. Wet Guy,” said Ruby. “Czesc!”
“Czesc mala,” said Kazek. He turned to Dillon. “Czesc maly. Co dzis porabiasz?”
“Eh?” said Ruby. “Is this your house? I thought you lived at the beach.” She started wandering round looking the place over.
“This is my house, Roobs,” I told her and was surprised to see her turn on her heel and shoot me a look of anguish.
“You live with us!” she said. “Daddy and Dillon and me.”
“This is my old house,” I told her. “Kazek lives here now that I live with you, sweetie.”
This satisfied her and she went back to her poking around. Dillon had found the remote and switched the telly on. Some programme about houses in the country. He held the handset up to me, the mud cracking off his cheeks as he stretched his pleading smile as wide as it would go.
“Cartoons, Jessie.” I got my Shrek DVD out and put it on for them.
“I’ll bring you some crisps,” I told them, but Kazek pulled me out into the hall.
“Why babies here? Gary! Dangerous!”
“Gary doesn’t know I live here.”
“Gary find out.”
“Maybe,” I said. “Well, okay, at least Gus doesn’t know I live here. Look, Kazek.” I pulled the broken bracelet out of my pocket and put it in his hand. He groaned-such pain-and two tears fell onto the little curl of orange rubber in his palm.
“Wojtek,” he said. “Where find?”
“Gus,” I told him. “I think… I don’t know what to think, but we have got to go to the police. We have to.”
“No, Jessie-Pleasie,” he said. “Gary zna tego policjanta I sa dobrymi kumplami. Nic nie rozumiesz! You no understand.”
“No kidding!” I said. “Okay, well, what about this? What about a priest? A Father? I need to tell someone. What do you think of that then?”
Kazek blew his cheeks out and wrinkled his brow. Then he nodded. “Okay. Holy Father? Okay.”
I dialled the number praying that it would be Father Tommy and not Sister Avril who answered.
“Good morning,” said his voice. Was it really still morning?
“It’s Jessie,”
“Jessie, my child,” he said. “How are things down on the catwalk?”
“I’m not at work, Father,” I said. “I’m at home and I’m in trouble. I need you to come. I-” I was ready to plead and cajole, but I’d forgotten who I was talking to. He might not wear a cape or his pants outside his trousers, but Father Tommy was already in the chute to the Batmobile.
“God keep you, my child,” he said. “I’m on my way.”
It was less than ten minutes later when the pounding came on the door.
“Jesus, Father, cool it,” I muttered, as I trotted along the corridor. He hammered on the door again, and I was on the point of taking the chain off when something stopped me.
“Who is it?” I said.
“Jessie, I know you’re in there.” Gus’s voice was ragged, like he’d been running. Or crying. I could hardly hear him through the door.
“How?” I said. “How do you know this is my flat?”
“Just let me in and I’ll explain.”
My hand was on the chain when he thundered his fists against the panels again. Both fists, fast as anything, like in a cartoon when they go round and round and turn blurry. It sounded like insanity.
Kazek came out of the living room, pulling the door shut behind him.
“Is Gary!” he whispered. “Don’t open, Jessie-Pleasie. Is Gary. He kill me. No open door.”
“It’s Gus,” I whispered back. “Gus?” I said in a normal voice. “Please tell me what’s going on. How did you find me?”
“Why did you run away? Where are the kids?”
“They’re here, of course,” I said. “Where else would they be? But Gus, you need to calm down if you want me to let you in. You’re scaring me and you’ll scare them too.” Ruby had sidled round the living room door with her eyes like saucers.
“Is that Daddy?” she said.
He heard her. “Ruby!” he shouted. “Daddy’s here, darling. Open the door.”
Ruby sprang forward and when I held her back, she started to scream. Gus went back to pounding.
“Let me in or I’ll call the cops, Jessie,” he said. “You’ve no right to take my kids away.”
He had a point. And how was he supposed to explain anything through a door?
“Just promise me you’ll stay calm,” I said. Kazek was shaking his head. He took Ruby and lifted her up into his arms, holding her tightly. I undid the chain and had my hand on the lock to turn it before Kazek understood what I was doing.
“No, Jessie-Pleasie!” The pounding stopped. There was silence.
“Gus?” I said. “Are you still there?”
I heard a whisper and put my ear close to the door.
“What did you say?”
“Bitch.” He hissed it at me. “Who the fuck have you got in there?”
I felt my face drain. “Gus, no,” I said. Even then, even then, I was looking for reasons not to believe what was happening.
“Fucking filthy bitch.”
He was upset after the funeral.
“Fucking filthy wheedling whining bitch.”
I’d taken his kids.
“Fucking moaning stinking filthy bitch.”
He heard a man’s voice in my flat.
“Gus, no,” I said again.
There was an explanation for everything else. Somehow. And I’d listen to it too. If he just passed one test. There was a bag of clothes hidden in his workshop. Either it was innocent or it wasn’t. I had to know.
“Gus,” I said. “I’ve got something to tell you. I brought the kids here because I don’t want them to see the cops at your place.”
And here was my answer. His footsteps hammering on the concrete close, and ringing on the stairs as he ran away until there was silence apart from Shrek and Dillon eating crisps and Ruby still softly crying.
I went to the bathroom and got cool cloths for the children’s faces to wipe away the muck and the tears in one go. I was numb. Hands cold, lips blue, but still my head was fizzing. How did he know where I lived? A week ago he hadn’t known a thing about me. He hadn’t even known my name. And then with a click, another piece of it fell into place. He had known my name. He thought it was Jess. And at long last I knew why.
I was coming back from the bathroom when I heard the sound of new footsteps on the stairs. Soft as it was, Kazek heard it too. And Ruby. He had put her down but he kept his arms around her.
“Daddy?” she said.
But I’d know those crepe soles anywhere.
“Father?” I asked, loud enough for him to hear me through the door. “Before I open up, is there anyone hanging around? Did you see anyone out on the street?”
“Oh, Jessie,” he said. “What manner of mess are you in now? No, there’s no one.”
I opened the door and he took in the tableau. Kazek crouching on the floor, Ruby red-faced and sniffing, me white with shock and still shaky. It was Kazek he came back to.
“Kazimierz Czarnecki,” he said. “We’ve all been looking for you.”
Twenty-One
“Are you a… what’s it called?” asked Ruby, looking at his purple surplice and dog collar. “A Santa?”
“Close enough for rough work,” said Father Tommy. “And who’s this fine fellow?”
“Dillon King,” said Dill, who had come to the living room door.
“So what’s been going on here?” Tommy said. I gave one of the cloths to Kazek for Ruby and put the other one over Dillon’s hot wee face myself.
“Mum,” he said, miserably. Father Tommy raised his eyebrows.
“It’s a long story,” I said. “How do you know Kazek?”
“It’s another one,” said Father Tommy. “And I don’t actually know him. But I’m very pleased to meet him.” He spoke like a headmaster confiscating a catapult. His next words explained why. “Since some of that money you absconded with was mine, my son. Or St. Vincent’s anyway.”