Roxanne took the cash from Stephanie and Selina and smiled as she counted it. They’d managed to get their stash sold in no time at all and she shared the triumphant smile spread across their faces. Although they were young, they were resourceful. Stephanie and Selina had said that their scheme was crawling with druggies looking for their next fix and that they had older siblings who would be able to sell to the people that Stephanie and Selina wouldn’t be able to handle if they got a bit rough. Roxanne had warned them that if they fucked her over on this, it would be the last thing they ever did. In truth, Roxanne had faith in them. They were a lot like her when she was their age. The job she’d tasked them with was the same as the job she’d done before she’d left for Spain. It was one of the reasons she and Charlene had left Glasgow. Of course, Charlene had got to live the life they’d planned for themselves. Roxanne hadn’t and had returned to Glasgow. But when she did, she’d sworn to herself that she wouldn’t go back to those jobs, she would rise to the top. Meeting Jake had only accelerated that.
‘My sister Kelly sold most of mine,’ Stephanie said. ‘She said she’d be up for doing it again but she’d want to meet you first.’
Roxanne looked at Stephanie, her interest piqued. ‘Well, give her a call and bring her here then.’
Stephanie smiled widely. ‘That’s the thing, you see. She’s outside waiting on me. She’s quite impulsive. When she gets an idea in her head, she kind of runs with it and—’
Roxanne held up her hand and Stephanie stopped speaking. Roxanne opened the back door to reveal a girl standing outside. She was smoking a cigarette and Roxanne noted the lines at the corners of her eyes, how shifty she seemed.
‘Kelly?’ Roxanne asked.
‘Aye,’ Kelly replied, taking a step forward.
Roxanne stood in the doorway and regarded the girl for a moment before moving to the side and allowing her to step into the small salon kitchen.
‘Kelly, this is my boss, Roxanne,’ Stephanie said, as though they were all about to sit down in an official interview. Roxanne stifled a laugh. She liked Stephanie. There was something about Kelly that didn’t sit well with Roxanne though, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it.
‘Your sister said that you helped her out with some sales?’
‘Aye,’ Kelly replied. ‘Some of the folks in my scheme are older than her. I didn’t want her getting in trouble with some of the chancers, you know?’
‘And you can handle yourself better than Stephanie can?’
Kelly knitted her brow, in an ‘of course I can, you idiot’ kind of expression. ‘Well, she is twelve years younger than me. And I know the tricks of the trade to dodge the polis. Had to do it a million times before and not once have I been caught.’
Nodding, Roxanne pulled her mouth into a thin line. ‘You’re very sure of yourself, Kelly. I like that.’
‘Have to be in this line of work, don’t you? You have to pick off the weak ones to keep yourself out the jail.’
Roxanne couldn’t disagree. She would have to think about what to do with Kelly. Perhaps give her a bigger run than her younger sister. Maybe Stephanie could punt Jake’s own cannabis grow, rather than the class A drugs.
Terminating the interview so abruptly that she could see Kelly was shocked, Roxanne bent down and pulled a pay-as-you-go mobile out of the holdall on the floor and handed it to Kelly.
‘What’s this?’
‘It’s what I’ll use to contact you on. Don’t use it for anything other than taking calls from me. Don’t give the number out, don’t switch it off and do not put it on silent. I need to be able to get hold of you at any time and if I can’t…’ Roxanne left the words to hang between them.
Kelly nodded and turned to her sister Stephanie who said, ‘Just do what she says and we get paid. We get to feed ourselves, keep the flat. It’s better than what Maw’s doing for us now, what she’s ever done.’
Something clicked in Roxanne’s head then, as to why Stephanie seemed older than her sixteen years. She’d had to fend for herself for a long time, the same way that Roxanne had when she was that age and younger. Her own mum – ‘the village bike’ as she’d later found out she’d been nicknamed – was only interested in earning enough money to buy herself booze and drugs for the weekends when Roxanne was a kid. It seemed that growing up on the scheme was a way of life for Kelly and Stephanie, as much as it had been for Roxanne back in the day. Kelly was tough and she saw a little bit of herself in there.
These were the type of people that Roxanne could pull in to do the job. These were the kind of people who would want to do it. It was fast, easy money so long as they kept their heads low.
Kelly turned to Roxanne, a controlled expression on her face. ‘You call, I’ll answer. We need the money, so you don’t have to worry about any fuck-ups on our end.’
Roxanne nodded. She was glad to hear that kind of attitude. She needed girls like this for the job and if Kelly did well, then Roxanne would ask her if she knew of any others who would be up for the challenge. As much as Roxanne didn’t like Cole, there was every possibility that this arrangement could see her and Jake become very wealthy.