Two hours later, a social worker called Erica Spindler arrived. Despite being quite young, she had tired eyes and a beaten-down look. A Legal Aid lawyer arrived soon after, who told Pip that as it was now after nine o’clock at night, police questions could wait until tomorrow and that Mrs Spindler had found a place for her to stay.
‘I’m not going,’ Pip said. ‘I refuse.’
The lawyer, Mr Da Silva, was already halfway to the door. ‘Look, you need to go with Mrs Spindler. There is nowhere else.’
‘If you’re my lawyer, you have to do what I say, and I don’t want to go with Mrs Spindler.’
‘Don’t be difficult, Pip,’ Mrs Spindler said. ‘It’s just for the night.’
‘If the cops give me my money back, I can stay at a motel.’
‘Be reasonable. You’re ten years old.’
Mr Da Silva slipped out the door before Pip could stop him, and she was left with the social worker.
‘I’ll stay here tonight. They have cells with beds in police stations. I’ve seen them on TV.’
‘Pip! You are coming with me and that’s final. Now, hurry!’ She pulled Pip up and marched her to the door. ‘It’s late and Sandie is waiting.’
Silently, furiously, Pip shook her arm off and walked under her own steam out of the room, down the corridor and past the desk with her head held high.
‘Over here.’ Mrs Spindler hurried her outside and into the street where she opened the rear door of a small car. She made sure Pip was buckled in before she got into the driver’s seat and pulled away from the kerb.
Pip had no idea where they were going. Nothing looked familiar. At one stage she saw a sign for Randwick, but she didn’t see anything that looked like the racecourse. It was dark outside and it had started to drizzle and soon she couldn’t see anything at all.
‘Where are we going?’ she asked.
‘I told you. We’re going to Sandie’s. It’s the best we can do tonight.’
‘I mean, what suburb?’
Mrs Spindler sighed. ‘Mascot.’
That was near the airport, Pip knew. She thought it would be a long walk to find her way back to Elliott Street, but she was a good walker, she could do it.
When the car slowed and pulled off the road, Pip prepared to bolt. But instead of pulling up in a driveway, Mrs Spindler drove into an underground car park and pulled up in a space near the lift with Pip’s side to the wall. She was like a rat in a trap.
Mrs Spindler was clearly smarter than she looked, and kept a hand on Pip’s shoulder as she ushered her into the lift and pressed the third-floor button. They emerged in a dirty yellow corridor where a sickly light flashed on and off. Mrs Spindler stopped at Number 336 and rapped sharply.
The door was opened almost instantly, but not by a grown-up. Pip stared up into the coffee-coloured face and dark eyes of a girl of about fourteen.
‘Hello, Lara,’ Mrs Spindler said. ‘This is Pippa.’
‘It’s Pip. Hello.’
Lara glared at her and said nothing.
A bulky woman with greying frizzy hair came towards them, drying her hands on a towel. ‘There you are,’ she said. ‘Pip, is it? I’m Sandie. Hope you don’t mind sharing with Lara. There’s only two bedrooms, you see.’
Pip shrugged. She didn’t like the thought of sharing, but as she wasn’t going to be here very long, it didn’t much matter.
Lara, though, minded a lot if her face was anything to go by.
‘Now, do you have a bag? Any pyjamas?’
Pip shook her head.
‘I’ll phone you tomorrow,’ Mrs Spindler said to Sandie on her way out. ‘Be a good girl now, Pip.’
Sandie didn’t look like a nutter as she showed Pip into a small bedroom dominated by a set of bunk beds. Clothes were strewn about the floor as there seemed to be no cupboard or chest of drawers. Sandie bustled about, tut-tutting as she pushed the clothes into piles with her foot.
‘I told you to tidy up, Lara.’ Sandie picked something up from the floor.
‘Whatever,’ Lara said sulkily. ‘No! No, you can’t give her my clothes!’
‘These pyjamas are too small for you in any case,’ Sandie said, handing them to Pip. ‘Now hurry and get changed. It’s ten o’clock and you should both be in bed.’
She bustled out, leaving Pip with Lara.
‘Gimme those!’ Lara snatched the pyjamas from Pip’s hands. ‘You’re only here because she needs the money, but I was here first!’
‘Why are you here?’ Pip asked.
‘Got nowhere else, have I? Just like you.’
Pip was about to blurt that she did have somewhere much better than this, if only she could get back there, but she stopped herself just in time.
‘Have you always lived here?’ she asked instead.
‘Since I was six.’
‘That’s a long time.’ Feeling sorry for Lara, Pip studied the beds. If she stayed tonight, she would have the chance to tell Lara that sometimes it was okay for kids to not do what grown-ups wanted them to do if it felt wrong. Sleeping here would also mean she didn’t have to try to find her way home in the middle of the night. ‘Which is yours?’ she asked.
‘Both!’
‘Which one can I use for tonight?’
‘Neither. Why don’t you rack off?’
‘Okay.’ Pip felt her throat get tight and achy, the way it did when Spiro whispered stuff about her to the other kids in her class. But if Lara didn’t want her here, Pip was happier to leave sooner rather than later, so she walked out of the bedroom and into the corridor. At the end, she could see the flickering light from a TV and hear Sandie talking on the phone.
‘Welfare just dropped off that kid from the news. You know the one, had the cops chasing their tails.’
Pip crept closer and peered around the door until she could see Sandie wedged into an armchair, eyes on the silent TV.
‘It’s only for a day or two, worse luck,’ Sandie continued. ‘Could do with the cash.’
Pip could hear a muffled reply coming from whoever Sandie was speaking to.
Lara was right, then. Sandie’s friendliness was only a front. It made Pip feel very angry – and very alone, but she was used to that by now.
With the last of her courage, she turned and walked out of the flat, into the lift and onto the dark street.