The Body on the Moor by Nick Louth

Author:Nick Louth
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Canelo Digital Publishing Ltd
Published: 2021-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

It was Saturday morning two weeks before Christmas. Julia and Destiny were in Guildford town centre together on a charity shop clothing expedition, but with a first stop to pick up a reconditioned smartphone for Destiny, whose old one had virtually died. Things had changed. Julia was letting Destiny stay in her flat overnight and when she was around, but wouldn’t let her have the keys. Julia kicked her out in the morning when she went to work. The shed had been kitted out with a chair, a battery-powered light, a new sleeping bag and some pillows. Destiny could go there any time.

Destiny was still very nervous about being out in public, even though Julia thought she was well disguised. She was swaddled in a big white winter coat Julia had lent her and had the faux fur-lined hood up over a blue woolly hat. She had ditched her old trainers and was wearing some high heel boots they had found for three pounds in the British Heart Foundation shop. The boots had a paint stain down the back, but Julia reckoned a little white spirit would restore them. A second-hand pair of jeans, a zipped suede skirt, and child-size rugby shirt cost less than a tenner in total. New purchases, for less than twenty pounds in total, included a complete set of new underwear from Peacocks, along with a pair of pyjamas and some thick colourful socks.

When Julia picked up a pleated skirt at Age UK and held it to the light, Destiny said: ‘I’m not wearing that.’

‘It’s for me, what do you think?’ Julia held it against herself and sidled up to a mirror.

‘S’all right, I spose. Why don’t you buy new stuff?’

‘I can’t afford it, Dezzy.’

‘What do you mean? You’re a rich lawyer, aintcha?’

‘You might be surprised how little I earn. I did a trip up to Woolwich Crown Court a couple of weeks ago, for which I worked out I was paid forty-seven pence an hour, after expenses.’

‘Huh? That’s shit pay.’

‘The basic rate for a plea and mitigation is okay, but takes no account of overheads. It took me over four hours to get there and back, and I had to deduct my train fare.’

‘You should work in Tesco’s. The pay is better, and you can nick loads of stuff.’

Julia gave her a withering glance. ‘I went into this to uphold the law.’

‘I’d never bother to steal any of this crap,’ Destiny muttered, flicking through a rail of jumpers and cardigans. ‘When I was on drugs, me and Caz went up to London and did perfume. She did the distract, and I grabbed the stuff.’

‘Were you caught?’

‘A few times.’ She chuckled. ‘But generally it ain’t hard, most of the security guards can’t even run, big fat blokes about as nimble as a three-legged sideboard. By the time they caught me, I’d usually passed the gear to me butter—’

‘What’s that?’ Julia had heard a lot of street slang but this was a new one on her.

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