A sort of urban gothic(ish) story

[Draken]

A blast from the past. Wrote it in the early 90s.

Broom Grove

Dark lent a menace to Broom Grove all of its own. The dispassionate concrete slabs of its Seventies pre-fab architecture, the steel shutters of the few remaining shops, the futile rows of broken street lamps all combined to make it a place of gloom and shadow. And then there were the kids. Scores of them, prowling menacingly in packs, slouching in the piss-stained recesses of boarded-up shop fronts, walking around with exaggerated swaggers as they swilled their cheap canned lager, swearing and laughing raucous laughs.

It was impossible to like them, and impossible not to be afraid of them. Alicia told herself that she of all people must not judge. Unwanted at home, unwanted in the workplace: their only encounters with parental emotion most likely a good hiding, their only encounters with the forces of law and order most likely the same. She told herself that every time she was summoned to Broom Grove police station to defend them from the latest charge of squalid thuggery, but still she despised them. She had to disconnect her emotions from her work: she was a duty solicitor, this was her job, and compared to most she was very well paid for it.

Broom Grove police station stood out from the rest of the district, if only because of the intact state of its barred windows and beacon-bright exterior lights. She drove her Renault into the high-walled car-park to the rear and entered, after presenting herself to the closed circuit camera, through the back door. She headed straight for the cells, nodding to a couple of non-uniformed staff in passing.

“Alright, Alicia love,” greeted a familiar voice as she pushed through the door into the holding area. It was Sergeant Ellis. Coppers like Ellis always gave her back her appetite for her work: people like him could not be left to administer what they thought of as justice.

“Evening sergeant,” she replied evenly. “What have we got tonight?”

Ellis rolled his eyes theatrically. “You tell us. Real joker, won’t give us his name.”

“What’s he in for?”

“Affray and assaulting a police officer.”

“Another criminal mastermind safely behind bars....”

Ellis’s ruddy complexion flushed a deeper red. “Not a problem for you over on the posh side of town I dare say, but round here there are decent folk that won’t leave their homes for fear of tossers like him. And he’s not just your normal tosser either: he’s only been around a week, nobody’s seen him before. He’s stirring up the rest of the little sods, no mistake. They flock to him. Right little ring leader he is.”

Alicia sighed. “Just let me see him.”

*

Her latest client was sat on the bed in the cell, legs drawn up before him, head resting on knees. He looked to be seventeen or eighteen. He had black shoulder-length hair that fell in curls and wore two or three days’ stubble. He was dressed all in faded blue denim. What she really noticed though - in fact what literally stopped her in her tracks for a moment - were his eyes. He looked up at her and they sparkled. There was no other word for it. They shone with an intelligence and depth and knowingness that she had never seen before, least of all in the blank stupidity of her normal Broom Grove clientele. But beyond that, deep down in those intense brown orbs, their kindled devilment, arrogance and - she was sure of it - contempt.

She pulled herself together instantly. “My name is Alicia Barnes. I’m your legal representative. I’m here to help you.”

He looked up at her and smiled.

“What is your name?” she asked.

“Johnny,” he replied. His voice was soft, almost lilting.

“Johnny what?”

Again he smiled. “Who’s Johnny?”

She took a deep breath. “Johnny, you’re not helping yourself. You can trust me: anything you say to me is in confidence. Between you and me.”

“Between a man and a woman,” he said, his eyes gazing through her.

She sighed. “Why are you in here Johnny? Can you tell me why you think the police arrested you?”

“No lies impress the court,” he answered with a shrug.

“That’s right Johnny, there’s no point lying. So what happened?”

He leant back against the cell wall, disinterested. “If the boys wanna fight you better let them,” he said.

He was talking in riddles, and enjoying her bemusement. She felt a flush of anger.

“Listen,” she said, her tone harder now. “This is not the nick to be a smart-arse in, I’ll tell you that now. Help me to help you.”

He looked her in the eye and the soft voice became serious for the first time.
“If you've done all there is to do, ain't nothing left for you. Just walk away.”

“In my opinion this young man is not fully mentally capable,” stated Alicia to Ellis. “I want that to go on the record.”

He grinned patronisingly. “Of course, love, of course. But might I humbly suggest that as he was plenty mentally capable enough to lead his pals on a wrecking spree and then belt PC Harper one, he might just be trying to pull a fast one? He might be talking cack but anybody can do that, love, can’t they? Not for me to suggest that you’re not infallible, of course - but you’re not.”

She refused to rise to him. “This needs to be decided by an appropriately qualified person, not you or I.”

“And so it shall, love. Appropriately qualified persons? I can’t get enough of ‘em in my nick. But for now, if you don’t mind, I think we’ll interview your client, if it’s all the same to you.”

*

The interview was conducted by Harper, the arresting officer. He was an old style hard-as-nails plod whose black eye presumably bore witness to the “assaulting a police officer” charge. Alicia had no problem with Harper - he was gruff but straight as a die and strictly by the book. Unfortunately Ellis sat in and soon started to boss the questioning.

Johnny - he still refused to give a surname - sat with the same air of amused disinterest he had shown in the cell. His answers were elliptical, evasive, almost poetic at times. She could see Ellis getting redder and redder. At times she warned the sergeant that his questioning was becoming repressive, but otherwise she tried not to antagonise him further. He was getting wound up enough as it was. Bad things were said to happen away from prying eyes in Broom Grove nick, and Ellis was rumoured to be involved in many of them.

Eventually he gave up. “Interview terminated at 01:27,” he snarled into the tape recorder. He punched the STOP button angrily, then he stood up and leaned across the table, his florid face just a few inches from Johnny’s.

“Listen sunshine, I know your game. You’ll talk, one way or another.”

“Talk, talk,” replied the teenager mockingly. “All you do is talk.”

Ellis’s eyes flashed and his lower lip quivered with fury. Harper stood up quickly, evidently knowing what was coming next. He put a restraining hand on his sergeant’s shoulder. “He’s not worth it sarge. Rise above it.”

Ellis looked around at Harper and seemed to regain some composure. He stepped back from the table. “You’re right, constable, he’s not. Book him back into his cell.” The sergeant left without a further glance at Johnny or Alicia, the door slamming shut behind him.

“That was bloody stupid,” she berated. “Haven’t you listened to a word I’ve said? Why won’t you do as I advise?”

Johnny looked up at her, face solemn but eyes sardonic as ever. “You’re not the girl you think you are,” he answered.

She shook her head. “Forget it.”