'Part Six Chapter IV\r'

'IV\r\nThe police had picked up Krystal Weedon at last as she ran banklessly along the river bank on the genuinely edge of Pagford, good-tempered calling her brother in a cracked voice. The policewoman who approached her addressed her by name, and tried to break the news to her gently, just now she still tried to beat the woman away from her, and in the end the policewoman had almost to wrestle her into the car. Krystal had non noniced Fats melting away into the trees; he did not exist to her both more.\r\nThe police drove Krystal home, alone when they knocked on the front doorsill Terri refused to answer. She had glimpsed them through an upstair window, and thought that Krystal had done the one unthinkable and unforgivable thing, and told the pigs about the hold-alls full of Obbos hash. She dragged the heavy clenchs upstairs succession the police hammered at the door, and only unfastened up when she considered that it had become unavoidable.\r\n‘Whatcha wan? she s houted, through an inch-wide gap in the door.\r\nThe policewoman asked to come in three clock and Terri refused, still demanding to know what they wanted. A few neighbours had begun to comrade through windows. Even when the policewoman said, ‘Its about your son, Robbie, Terri did not realize.\r\n”Es fine. Theres nuthin wrong with ‘im. Krystals got ‘im.\r\nBut then she saw Krystal, who had refused to dwell in the car, and had walked halfway up the garden path. Terris respect trickled down her daughters body to the place where Robbie should have been clinging to her, frighten by the strange men.\r\nTerri flew from her house like a fury, with her hands outstretched like claws, and the policewoman had to lift up her round the middle and swing her away from Krystal, whose aspect she was trying to lacerate.\r\n‘Yeh little bitch, yeh little bitch, whatve yeh done ter Robbie?\r\nKrystal dodged the fight pair, darted into the house and slammed the front d oor behind her.\r\n‘For fucks sake, muttered the officeholder under his breath.\r\nMiles away in Hope Street, Kay and atomic number 32 Bawden faced each other in the gruesome hallway. Neither of them was tall enough to replace the faint bulb that had been dead for solar days, and they had no ladder. All day long, they had argued and almost made up, then argued again. Finally, at the trice when reconciliation come overmed within touching distance, when Kay had agreed that she in like manner hated Pagford, that it had all been a mistake, and that she would try and retrieve them both back to London, her mobile had rung.\r\n‘Krystal Weedons brothers drowned, whispered Kay, as she cut Tessas call.\r\n‘Oh, said Gaia. Knowing that she ought to express pity, further frightened to let discussion of London evenfall before she had her mothers firm commitment, she added, in a ladened little voice, ‘Thats sad.\r\n‘It happened here in Pagford, said Kay. à ¢â‚¬Ëœ on the road. Krystal was with Tessa Walls son.\r\n Gaia felt even more ashamed(predicate) of letting Fats Wall kiss her. He had tasted horrible, of laager and cigarettes, and he had tried to feel her up. She was worth some(prenominal) more than Fats Wall, she knew that. If it had even been Andy Price, she would have felt bump about it. Sukhvinder had not returned one of her calls, all day long.\r\n‘Shell be absolutely broken up, said Kay, her eye unfocused.\r\n‘But in that locations nothing you can do, said Gaia. ‘Is there?\r\n‘Well … said Kay.\r\n‘Not again! cried Gaia. ‘Its evermore, always the same! Youre not her well-disposed worker any more! What, she shouted, stamping her foot as she had done when she was a little girl, ‘about me?\r\nThe police officer in Foley Road had already called a duty social worker. Terri was writhing and screaming and trying to beat at the front door, while from behind it came the sounds of fu rniture world dragged to form a barricade. Neighbours were coming out onto their doorsteps, a fascinated audience to Terris meltdown. Somehow the cause of it was ancestral through the watchers, from Terris incoherent shouts and the attitudes of the ominous police.\r\n‘The boys dead, they told each other. cypher stepped forward to comfort or calm. Terri Weedon had no friends.\r\n‘ engender with me, Kay begged her mutinous daughter. ‘Ill go to the house and see if I can do anything. I got on with Krystal. Shes got nobody.\r\n‘I bet she was shagging Fats Wall when it happened! shouted Gaia; but it was her final protest, and a few minutes later she was buckling herself into Kays old Vauxhall, glad, in spite of everything, that Kay had asked her along.\r\nBut by the time they had reached the bypass, Krystal had found what she was looking for: a bag of heroin concealed in the airing cupboard; the second of both that Obbo had given Terri in compensation for Tessa Walls watch. She took it, with Terris works, into the bathroom, the only room that had a lock on the door.\r\nHer aunt Cheryl must have heedd what had happened, because Krystal could hear her distinctive raucous yell, added to Terris screams, even through the two doors.\r\n‘You little bitch, open the door! Letcha mother see ya!\r\nAnd the police shouting, trying to shut the two women up.\r\nKrystal had neer shot up before, but she had watched it happen some(prenominal) times. She knew about longboats, and how to make a model volcano, and she knew how to vex the spoon, and about the tiny little ball of cotton wool wool you used to soak up the change state smack, and act as a filter when you were plectrum the syringe. She knew that the crook of the arm was the best place to find a vein, and she knew to lay the needle as tied(p) as possible against the skin. She knew, because she had heard it said, many times, that first-timers could not take what addicts could manag e, and that was good, because she did not want to take it.\r\nRobbie was dead, and it was her fault. In trying to save him, she had killed him. Flickering images filled her consciousness as her fingers worked to achieve what must be done. Mr Fairbrother, track alongside the canal bank in his tracksuit as the crew rowed. Nana Caths face, fierce with pain and love. Robbie, waiting for her at the window of his foster home, unnaturally clean, jumping up and down with excitement as she approached the front door …\r\nShe could hear the policeman calling to her through the earn box not to be a piteous girl, and the policewoman trying to quieten Terri and Cheryl.\r\nThe needle slid easy into Krystals vein. She pressed the plunger down hard, in hope and without regret.\r\nBy the time Kay and Gaia arrived, and the police persistent to force their way in, Krystal Weedon had achieved her only ambition: she had coupled her brother where nobody could part them.\r\n'