Chapter 1
A late night visit to the kebab shop, and then this.
"So, do you know her?
Dwaine looked thoughtful for a moment before nodding his head, or at least he knew her as well as anyone else.
"Well, speak up, the questioner was impatient, awaiting a more definitive response, "do you know her or what?
"Yeah, yeah I know her.
"Right, that's all I wanted to know.
Left alone with the corpse he looked at the painted face before him.
Kelly, Kelly Landers, everyone round here knew her.
Looking at her now it was hard to believe she once had boys eating out the palm of her hand.
Now even the overly applied make up failed to make her look attractive, not even thirty, yet looking closer to forty.
The yellowed complexion and pinched features that made the squashed nose stand out all the more.
Worn out and haggard before her time.
Kelly first arrived on the Riverside ten years before after meeting Charlene on the club scene. Dwaine met her through selling heroin, she began seeing a friend of his, Jimmy Copland who was on the fringes of things.
Jimmy was dabbling at the time, a couple of times a week but it was Kelly's first.
People from the area couldn't understand those types getting involved in smack.
What with their cosy little home-lives, never wanting for anything.
Most round the Riverside didn't even know their dad, and those who did usually wished they never.
Yet these middle-class 'drug tourists' would drop in to visit this world.
They'd invariably be ripped off for a while. Then taken under the wing of a seasoned addict or dealer, normally both, who'd use them for mutual advantage till they were of no use. Then there they'd be, all messed up and to ashamed to tell mummy and daddy the deep shit they'd gotten themselves into.
Some sorted themselves out eventually with the help of the aforementioned parents, others stayed forever.
Like Kelly.
Dwaine remembered the day he'd met her, his amusement at the evident shock on her face as she listened to them reminisce about the good old days.
It was about to become part of regular life to her.
A year later Jimmy overdosed and she'd woken up next to the body.
She had a breakdown, eased by taking as many drugs as she could get her hands on.
A few months later she seemed okay and shortly after got with Ruby, another friend of Dwaine's.
Dwaine's realised how much she'd changed one afternoon when stood chatting and she'd casually told him how someone they knew had burst in while she was scoring crack. The incident involved pistol-whipping before the gun was jammed in the dealer's mouth to encourage him to hand over his stash. All Kelly had been concerned about was not being able to score.
He couldn't help thinking about how, when he'd first met her, if the word gun had even been mentioned she'd have needed therapy.
Soon after Ruby had a bad few weeks, unreliable supplier, and being an addict he needed to score like anyone else.
His luck had declined even sharper shortly after.
The new firm he'd gone to was under observation and he was the one scoring when the old bill decided to bring an end to activities.
Ruby ended up with six years and there she was alone.
Looks already faded, ravaged by life experiences. The once petite nose had been squashed across her face, a consequence of getting mouthy with Ruby.
The drugs, along with a bad diet, had left her face pasty and withdrawn. The skin stretched taut across her strong features like burst drum-skins.
Her once jaw-dropping figure wasted away to little more than flesh and bone.
And this after a few years on the Riverside.
She was in trouble.
No-one prepared to do anything for her, she was, a screwed up scammer, anyone, at the first opportunity, was fair game.
Ruby had been a thing of the past within months.
Lawrie Stevens was on a drug-addicted girl like a fly round shit. More often than not they ended up selling themselves and putting cash in his pocket.
Ugly as sin but he always had drugs, and they were always high quality.
Kelly's honeymoon as first Lawrie's new missus, to selling herself in a brothel took about two days. Within a month she was out on the street, working the beat.
Dwaine remembered seeing her, but at the time not giving it much thought.
That was how it was.
Shortly after Dwaine had been nicked himself and locked up, caught with crack and made an example of, eight years.
While away his mum died of an overdose, sold and administered by his school friend, Sam Dwight.
That was when Dwaine decided he'd had enough.
Once released, he'd been home less than an hour when he'd discovered Kelly was a neighbour.
Up she came, offering her services.
Half rate.
Special occasion, they were old friends and he'd just got out.
He'd turned her down.
After that they rarely saw each other.
Now this, three months later.
Kelly Landers lying dead before him, another drug over-dose, another statistic.
Well not quite.
The original police officer returned, accompanied by a detective.
Looking him over Dwaine didn't recognise him either, must be new to the Riverside.
A relieved look on his face indicated he was under the impression he'd have less work.
"So you know her?
"Yeah I know her.
"I don't suppose you know her next of kin?
"As it happens I do.
Dwaine watched the relief flood over the uniformed man's face.
Dwaine looked down at Kelly again, the belt still wrapped round her arm.
She decided to check out the life and experiment only to check in for good.
They say when you died your life flashed before your eyes, Dwaine wondered where, if anywhere, Kelly would have liked the images to stop.
Leaning over he whispered the next of kin in the detective's ear.
The look on the officer's face said it all, he'd heard the stories, to new to put a name to the face.
