Fighting Back by Cathy MacPhail Page A

I couldn’t even meet his steely gaze.
    Finally, he turned from us.
    ‘Don’t we even get a thank you?’ Mum just didn’t know when to shut up.
    ‘All I am going to say is this,’ he looked from me to Mum. He was exasperated with her. ‘I don’t want you anywhere near the Laffertys’ house when we take them out. I want no banners, no cheering. I don’t want to see you anywhere near the place.’
    ‘You need have no fear of that, whatsoever!’
    As soon as they were gone, Mum put her arm round my shoulder and led me back to our flat. The neighbours never said a word. Mum couldn’t take that at all.
    ‘Aren’t any of you going to say anything?’ They stared at her in a stony silence. ‘The Lafferty brothers are going to be arrested. Do you understand that?’
    One by one they stepped inside their houses, andquietly closed their doors. They knew what we didn’t understand even then.
    The worst was yet to come.
    ‘You are a wonderful woman!’ Ali said as soon as Mum and I entered his shop next morning. ‘Life here has been nothing but excitement since you two arrived here.’
    Excitement, I thought, I could well do without.
    ‘You should have witnessed the commotion last night,’ he went on. ‘The Laffertys were brought out of their house, struggling, screaming abuse at the police. Then they were thrown into the van, and taken away. Quite a bit of excitement, I can tell you, as word got round the estate!’
    Mum basked in this attention. She’d had it from no one else.
    That got me thinking. Did Ali fancy my mum? He was certainly a more suitable boyfriend for her than PC Grant. He was a good-looking man, and he had a lovely set of teeth. He was forever showing them off.
    And he was giving her so much attention now.
    ‘It was Kerry really,’ Mum insisted, smiling at me. ‘If it weren’t for her we would never have considered searching the bins.’
    ‘You are a wonderful woman too!’ Ali said.
    And again I felt so guilty. Ming deserved this praise, not me. I wondered if I could tell them, just Mum and Ali? I could trust them. Ming could trust them. And really what did it matter now, that the Laffertys had been arrested?
    I knew the answer to that in the split second that I thought it. The door of Ali’s shop flew open and in she came. Ma Lafferty. For once her hair wasn’t pulled back tight from her face in a ponytail. It flew behind her, making her look like a madwoman.
    Her eyes went wild when she saw my mum.
    ‘You!’ she screamed. ‘You’re responsible!’
    Mum didn’t deny that. Her smile was triumphant. ‘Yes. We are.’
    Ma Lafferty’s gaze darted to me. ‘You think you’re so smart, don’t you? You think this is over, don’t you?’
    Ali stepped forward then. ‘Out of my shop, Mrs Lafferty. You know you are barred from here.’
    ‘I’m going,’ she said, already backing out. ‘I only came in to give you a warning.’ Her finger pointed straight at Mum. ‘Watch your back, dearie. Because I’ll get you. Don’t ever forget that. I’m not finished with you yet.’

Chapter Twenty-Five
    ‘Well, it’s really all thanks to you,’ I told Ming. ‘Can’t I tell them now it was you who told me?’ I was excited after all that had happened and had sought him out at the Wee Hippy.
    ‘SSSH!’ He looked around quickly, afraid someone might have heard me. ‘You think that’s it finished?’
    ‘Goodness, Ming, Chopper and Chas have been arrested. They won’t get any bail. They’re off the estate. What more do you want?’
    He blew out his cheeks in exasperation. ‘The boys are nothing,’ he began.
    ‘Oh yes?’ I said. ‘You didn’t think that when we met them in the playground.’
    ‘Ma Lafferty’s the worst, Kerry. Don’t you understand that yet? She can always get boys to do her dirty work. But she’s the boss.’
    I leaned against the wall beside him, thinking abouther threat to us. It wasn’t all over. Deep down I knew that.
    He turned and walked away from me,