Junk - Melvin Burgess [82]
‘And what about the other one?’ asked the copper. The ambulanceman just looked at him, and then at me, and I thought the worst at once…
‘Where’s Gemma, where’s Gemma? Gemma, Gemma!’ I yelled, and I was struggling to get through the door. The copper grabbed me and pinned me to the wall, my feet off the ground, but I carried on shouting and pushing. But then I heard her…
‘I’m all right, Tar, I’m okay…’
Straight away this woman’s voice said, ‘Shut your gob!’ A really hard woman’s voice, she must have been a real bitch. Gemma shut up but it was done. I knew she was there and I knew she was okay. I could have wept with relief after seeing Col…
The copper was really pissed off. He shoved me against the wall, hard. But it was his own fault. He only asked that stuff about ‘How’s the other one?’ just to wind me up.
‘You could have told me she was okay, it wouldn’t have done you any harm,’ I said.
‘Stupid little toe rag,’ sneered the copper.
Then I had an idea and I yelled out at the top of my lungs, ‘The stuff’s mine, Gems. Okay?’
The copper was furious. He grabbed hold of me and gave me a real shake, and the woman on the other side of the door screamed, ‘Shut his fucking mouf!’
‘Clever little git, aren’t you,’ hissed the copper, and he had a really nasty glint in his eye. He’d have loved to poke me one. I reckon the only reason he didn’t was because the ambulance-men were outside the front door listening.
Soon after that they led Gemma out into the hall and took both of us into the police car. I saw the woman who spoke to her; she had a face like a white mask, horrible, vicious-looking. They marched us out to the car and, it was strange, guess who I saw watching on the pavement opposite? Skolly… the bloke who first took pity on me and put me in touch with Richard.
I felt so embarrassed. I hadn’t exchanged a word with him, not even to say thanks, since I left the squat three years ago. I nearly did once. We were coming home late at night from this party and we bumped into him and some other bloke. He’d been out on the beer by the look of him, lurching down the path with his hands in his pockets. I recognised him at once. I think he was about to have a go at us for bumping into him, even though it was his fault really, but then he saw Lily in the lamplight. She was wearing her usual party gear – the string vest. It took whatever he was going to say right out of his mouth.
I was about to say hello, but Lily took one look at him and started screaming, ‘Beer Monster! Beer Monster!’ We all ran off as if he was something horrible, screaming, ‘Beer Monster!’ I remember hoping he didn’t recognise me.
Down the nick the police were a lot better. The desk sergeant was quite kind, an older guy. But it didn’t make any difference because I got questioned by these two thugs who arrested me. They were horrible. The big one kept coming in and shouting and snarling at me. I remember getting spit on my face from where he was leaning right over the table and yelling. I wiped it off with my finger and I thought, Cop gob, but I didn’t dare say it.
Then he’d go out and the other one would come in and pretend to be all nice and friendly. He called me David and sat down next to me ‘for a little chat before my friend comes back from his tea break…’ They were trying to find out names and addresses, where we bought the stuff, who from, that sort of thing. I kept my mouth shut, of course.
I knew what they were at – Mutt and Jeff. You’re supposed to be so scared by the nasty one that you tell everything to the nice one. The funny thing was, the nice one was too stupid to make a good job of it. He couldn’t bring himself to be nice. After all it was him who’d called me a toe rag. I kept asking for a fag and he’d say, ‘In a minute David, in a minute…’ But the fag never came and it soon became clear it wasn’t coming. He couldn’t help it. It was just too hard to do. They’d taught him Mutt and Jeff, but they’d forgotten to teach him how actually to be nice.
But it still worked. Funny, isn’t it? I really had to hold myself back, especially when the