Patsy.

Vic flicked off the headlights of his anonymous but near-new BMW as
he turned slowly off the main highway and into the dim shadows of
Railway Lane. Here, where the streetlights seldom functioned and only
occasional pools of light splashed out from the doorways of unhygienic
fast-food outlets and shady video shops, any unexpected shaft of bright
illumination was likely to send the local inhabitants melting back into
the all-concealing shadows.

Peering to left and right, Vic slowed almost to walking pace. The
wipers tossed aside the greasy film of drizzle on the windscreen as the
fat tyres scrunched over the myriad shards of glass, the encrusted
debris of a hundred abandoned takeaway boxes. Vic wasn't innocently
seeking some address, nor was he visiting the grim area as part of some
academic exercise: he wasted no time pondering the strange symbiotic
relationship between derelict railway buildings and the illicit trades
of the night. There was one thing on his mond: one only..

He halted, and in response an unobserved figure detached itself from
the gloom of an alleyway. One glance at the tight black outfit and
blonde wig told Vic all he needed to know and he put his foot
down.

Maybe Patsy wasn't even working this patch tonight? No, that would be
too cruel. As Vic contemplated the awful possibility, a near-anorexic
girl that he knew vaguely tottered out into the gutter and squinted
towards him. He slowed, and the passenger door was jerked open.

"You lookin' for business?" the girl asked mechanically as she worked a
massive wad of gum around her mouth.

"You always chew that stuff?" Vic asked, though he wasn't in the least
bit interested in her answer.

"Yeah. Freshens my breath. Wouldn't you?"

"Maybe. Is Patsy working tonight?" Vic asked desperately. It wasn't
what the hopeful girl had wanted to hear.

"Sure, but she's busy right now. I can do whatever you want.
More."

"I doubt it," Vic snapped nervously. "I'm only interested in
Patsy."

"Yeah, 'cos she's fifteen, you old perv?" The mask of respectability,
which had sat oddly on the emaciated young tart, slipped completely as
Vic slammed his foot to the floor. Kicking the door shut, Julie lashed
out and left a dent in Vic's rear wing with her once-expensive shoe
before stomping angrily back to the relative safety of the
pavement.

Vic swept off round the corner, sweating profusely. The girls weren't
difficult to find in this area, not if you weren't choosy, and he
strongly suspected that someone, somewhere, had long ago decided to
turn a blind eye to the problem. Someone who lived a long way from
Railway Lane, of course. As he slowed outside the shuttered video shop,
a knot of shadowy figures sauntered into the road: booted, over
made-up, skirts hitched up to reveal as much as possible.

He didn't need to look at the legs, the holed stockings - he scanned
the faces rapidly, and didn't see what he was looking for. He
accelerated away, and the bored-looking women, each desperate to earn
what they could, how they could, melted away like ghosts.

Vic hated all this: the deception, the routine lies at home. And now,
if that stupid kid had marked the car, there would be even more
explaining to do. Nessa didn't deserve this, never had. She'd stuck by
him for almost twenty years now, living on beans and cheap fish fingers
while he struggled to build up the printing business from nothing.
She'd not complained.. not enough, anyway, and Vic was only too aware
of what he owed her. God, he thought, if only she knew where he
actually spent these nights out with the lads..

But, how could she not find out? Some day, an anonymous envelope would
plop through onto the mat, some official letter informing him that the
car had been caught on video somewhere it shouldn't have been and
awkward questions would need to be answered. Very tough questions, if
they actually caught him with Patsy: they'd soon find out that she was
well underage. Social services would be involved and no doubt he'd be
branded a pervert in open court before ending up on some sex offenders'
register for life. It was all just too pathetic, certainly, but he knew
only too well that he couldn't stop now.

He could already make out the main road lights in the distance as he
slowed to scan the final unlit alleyway. Yes.. the squeal of his sudden
braking made the busy couple look around. There was no mistake..
without thinking, Vic burst from the warmth of his car.

"Patsy! Patsy, stop!"

"Sod off," the pallid, frustrated customer growled, jumping back and
hurriedly fastening himself up. "Here, is this a bloody set-up? What's
yer game, yer little bitch?"

"Nothin'!" Patsy shrieked helplessly as the unexpected blow to her
temple sent her sprawling back into the pile of stinking bin liners,
scattering foul rubbish everywhere.

"Come on, then!" Vic hissed breathlessly, though he had little chance
in a fair fight. "Take on somebody your own size."

"Right." Vic wisely, instinctively stepped back as the customer's wild
swing failed to connect.

"You want some, old man?" the clearly inebriated customer taunted Vic,
sensing his advantage. Gaining in confidence, he advanced across the
waste ground towards his terrified opponent. "You wanna watch, eh?
Can't manage it yerself, eh? What yer reckon?"

Turning to ask the prone Patsy her opinion was a fatal error: snatching
up a half-brick, Vic lunged forwards with a strength born of
desperation and sheer anger, smashing the brick without hesitation into
the unprotected side of the younger man's head. Vic's would-be
assailant slumped into the rubble as a mist of his blood spattered
across Patsy's face and flimsy dress. She screamed as Vic fell to his
knees, shaking, raising the sticky red brick above his head and
bringing it down full into his prone adversary's face.. and
again..

"No!" Vic's arms were pinioned from behind as he flailed wildly. "You
kill him! Him not worth it!"

A group of curious onlookers had burst from the nearby takeaway,
dropping their greasy kebabs in their haste to prevent what looked
suspiciously like a murder. Two men wrestled Vic to the ground as a
pair of girls attempted to comfort the violently sobbing Patsy and
extricate her from the foul mess: one fastened up her thin coat while
the other carefully gathered up her pathetic handful of screwed-up
banknotes. Vic slumped to the ground, his anger fully spent.

"Christ, get an ambulance!" someone shouted, rising from beside the
young man with blood dripping from his fingers. All too soon, the
street was filed with ear-shattering sirens and flashing blue
lights.

*****

Vic found little to say as he waited stolidly for the interview to
begin. Ray, his solicitor, had recently arrived from his club and was
looking anything but pleased at being called out to such a
sordid-sounding case. A hard-faced policewoman entered and went through
the formalities.

"I'm Sergeant Wade, and this is Constable Hammond, You realise, Mister
Forester, that you're a lucky man?" she asked in a bored tone. "One
more blow and we'd be dealing with a murder case."

"Yes. Sorry you've been bothered."

"A lot of people have been bothered! Us, social services, the hospital.
The man you attacked is in a bad way, but apparently he should pull
through. You realise that we're almost certainly looking at a lengthy
custodial sentence here, even though it's a first offence?"

"Yes." Vic couldn't look his tormentor in the face.

"Your wife's on her way, I understand. If you think this is bad, just
wait until you try explaining all this to her."

"She'll understand," Vic mumbled hopefully. Nessa had stood by him so
many times, maybe she'd still listen. Wade and Hammond, meanwhile, were
exchanging knowing smirks: wives didn't understand, not in their long
and varied experience they didn't. This man was in for a shock.

"We know this area," Hammond added. "And the girls down there too. My
informant tells me that you're relatively new. Just after the one girl,
right?"

"That's correct, yes."

"A very pretty girl, Patsy, I'll admit. Do you know how old she
is?"

"Fifteen last month." A stunned hush fell on the room. "The twelfth, to
be exact."

"It's not often I'm surprised, Mister Forester," Sergeant Wade said
quietly. "But you must be the first one we've had in here who didn't
swear blind that the girl looked older than she was."

"Maybe," Vic shrugged as his solicitor frowned and exhaled loudly in
despair. He wasn't going to be able to do much this time..

"I'd be careful," Ray whispered.

"I'll tell you what we know," Hammond said briskly. "The girls have
been talking to us. They always do after an incident like this, if at
no other time. You only go with the one girl, and you like to keep her
all night. Pay whatever she asks, she says. I'd call that bordering on
obsession, wouldn't you?"

"Maybe it is, yes." Vic looked broken, defeated.

"I'm also told that you're one of these people who only want to talk.
Not actually do anything. Wouldn't it be cheaper to buy a hardcore
video or go to a shrink, if you've got some kind of a problem getting
it up?"

"I've got no problem!" Vic shouted, his eyes flashing angrily.

"Sit!" Wade commanded and Vic obeyed without argument. "You've got no
problem? Well, you have now. I have to inform you that you'll be
wasting your time looking round Railway Lane for Patsy when you come
out. Patsy's social worker tells me that she's so traumatised by
tonight's events that she's unlikely to risk going on the streets
again. You've seen the last of her."

"Thank God, it's over." Vic buried his face in his hands as the others
looked quizzically at each other.

"So it's over," Wade continued. "It'll save you some money, anyway.
Tell me, how did you come to meet this girl in the first place?"

"I got a phone call at work, telling me what she was up to."

"From Patsy? I don't understand."

"No, no," Vic whispered. "That's right, you don't understand at all.
The call was from Julie, Patsy's mother. She was absolutely desperate
for help."

"Her mother?" Wade and Hammond exchanged glances.

"There's something crucial you don't know," Vic sighed. "Julie and me,
we used to be good friends. Very good friends, you know?"

"And your wife didn't know?"

"Not yet. This would be around sixteen years ago.."