Chapter 34: Elliot - The Foster Child

I shove my hands in my pockets and study the graffiti-covered block of maisonettes in front of me. I hope Rocky does live here. I bet there’s no lift but even if there is I won’t take it. Stairs are safer.

I’ve parked my car around a few minutes’ walk away in an undercover car park, which is a good job as I wouldn’t fancy leaving it here, I think it would be stripped by the time I got back.

I don’t know if Rocky is in, or the number of his flat. I’m going to have to knock on a few doors. I go into the block of maisonettes and wrinkle my nose. It smells of urine, alcohol and weed. I make my way to the stairs, and as I go through the mucky double doors I turn around and as luck would have it Rocky is walking through the entrance, heading for the lift. I race up the stairs, stopping at the first stairwell to see if he steps out the lift. It carries on. The next floor then. I take the second flight of stairs, two steps at a time but when I reach the stairwell and peer through the grimy glass the lift is open and there’s no sign of Rocky. Damn. I open the stairwell doors and run out into the corridor, looking around frantically. Do I go left or right? I decide to take the right and hurtle down the corridor. Then I see him, going into a flat, three doors along. I stop, pressing myself against the wall in case he turns around. He doesn’t. He carries on into the flat and closes the door.

This is it. I take a deep breath, trying to summon up my inner Lee, the one that would face anyone and fight until his last breath. I’ve got to convince Rocky that I mean business. If he senses any weakness I’m done for.

I stride towards the door and hammer on it until it opens. ‘No fucking need to—’ Rocky starts to say but I push him inside and kick the door shut behind me with my foot then slam him against the hall wall.

‘Lee—’

He recognises me instantly. So he’s been stalking me all right.

‘What the fuck are you playing at, Rocky? Why are you sending me those bloody Christmas cards and doing all the other stuff?’

Rocky brings his knee up into my groin and I release my hold as I stagger back. Now he’s the one pinning me against the wall. ‘You’ve done all right for yourself, so I reckon you owe me a share. You betrayed me,’ he snarls.

‘I saved the effing man’s life. If I didn’t you’d have been facing a murder charge.’ I summon all my strength and shove him off me. He hits the opposite wall and staggers a bit. I rub my neck and glare at him. ‘You stole the car! You were the one driving! And I got sent down too, so how’s this my fault?’

‘We could have got away with it if it wasn’t for you. Always had too much of a conscience, that’s your trouble.’ He gasps, bent over, hand on his back.

‘It’s been twenty-five years, Rocky! Why now for fuck’s sake?’

‘Because I didn’t know how well you’d done for yourself until I saw that photo. Didn’t even know where you were. I thought you’d be just getting by like me, but no you’ve managed to get yourself a nice career as a dentist and live in the Cotswolds.’

How does he know this? ‘What photo?’

‘That woman you live with, her daughter goes to the same university as my niece, and she saw it on Instagram. All sitting around in the pub in the Cotswolds you were. “Visiting my mum and her boyfriend for the weekend”, she put.’

Lori. She’s always posting on Instagram. She must have put the location too.

‘So then I looked up your missus’s FB and find out you’re a dentist.’ Rocky sneers. ‘I bet no one in that posh village or your dentist surgery know about your past. And that you’ve done time.’ He pulls himself upright. Flexes his shoulders. ‘Ten k will make sure they never know.’

‘I’m not giving in to blackmail, you bastard.’

He leers. ‘If you don’t, when you wake up on Christmas Day your life will never be the same again. Everyone will know who Elliot Brookes really is. Fancy taking a chance on what that will do to your business? I bet your missus will soon scarper when she finds out who you really are.’

Anger boils in my veins, surging through my body. I clench my fists and step forward. ‘I’m not paying you a fucking penny. And I’m not standing by and letting you ruin my life either.’

Rocky squares up to me, his mouth twisted. ‘Reckon you can take me on, do you? Come on then!’