“It’s all right, Melissa. You’re safe.”
“If Anton finds out what I’ve done. Or Lyra—”
“They’ll only find out once they’re in the dock and facing a stretch. Nobody knows you’re here. Nobody can touch you.”
Melissa shrugged as if she only half believed him.
“All you’ve got to think about is what you do next. Once it’s all done with.”
“What d’you mean?”
“I mean... you don’t have to go back to the streets. There are programs that can help you get out. Addiction treatment, counseling, training...”
“You trying to save me, Tony?” she replied, teasing.
Tony felt himself blushing.
“No... well, kind of. I know you’ve been through a lot, but this could be the break you need. You’ve done something strong, something good. You shouldn’t waste this opportunity.”
“You sound just like my dad used to.”
“Well, he was right. You’re better than this.”
“You really don’t know anything, do you, Tony?” she replied, though her tone was not unkind. “You ever worked vice?”
Tony shook his head.
“Thought not,” Melissa continued. “If you had, then you wouldn’t be bothering.”
“I hope I would.”
“You’d be one in a million,” Melissa replied, laughing bitterly. “Do you know what girls like us do? What we’ve been through to end up like this?”
“No, but I can im—”
“We’ve lied and cheated and stolen. We’ve been beaten up, spat on, raped. We’ve had knives held to our throats, been choked half to death. We’ve done heroin, crack, uppers, downers, booze. We’ve not changed for a week, puked in our sleep. And then we’ve got up and done it all again.”
She let her words hang in the air, then carried on:
“So I appreciate you trying, but it’s too late.”
Tony looked at Melissa. He knew she was telling the truth, but it seemed such a horrible waste. She was still young and attractive—she clearly had a good brain and a big heart. Was it fair to consign her to a lifetime of brutality?
“It’s never too late. Take this chance. I can help you—”
“For God’s sake, Tony. Have you listened to a word I’ve said?” she spat back. “I’m broken. There’s no way back for me—Anton saw to that.”
“Anton’s gone.”
“Not in here he isn’t,” she said, rapping the side of her head viciously. “Do you know what he did to me? What he did to us?”
Tony shook his head, wanting to know and not wanting to know.
“Normally he’d just use his lighter or a cigarette. Burn us on the arms, the back of the neck, the soles of our feet. Somewhere that’d hurt like fuck but wouldn’t put the punters off. That was for small things. But if we’d done something really bad, he’d take us on a little trip.”
Tony said nothing, watching Melissa intently. It was as if she were no longer talking to him, instead inhabiting some dark memory elsewhere.
“He’d drive you out to the old cinema on Upton Street. Belonged to a mate of his—it was a dirty great hole full of rats. All the way we’d be begging him to forgive us, let us go, but that’d only make him more angry. Once we got there, he’d...”
