Dangerous Lady (51 page)

‘Joss, would you rather I put the saucer on the floor for you?’

Joss hung his enormous head like a child.

‘Sorry.’

‘I apologise, Maura. Joss’s mother never quite managea to get him completely house trained, you see.’

She laughed. ‘That’s all right. My brother Benny was much the same.’

‘I’m glad you understand. My wife won’t have him in the house.’ Tommy smiled. ‘Well, Maura, down to business. I have a little proposition to put to you.’ She nodded. ‘I’ve acquired some information on a bank in South London. The pull from it will be around two hundred thousand. As usual we’ll give you twenty per cent, on the usual terms.’

Maura licked her lips as she thought.

‘How many cars would you want?’

‘Two. One a high-powered vehicle, the other a nondescript Volvo estate. You know the type of thing, a family car.’

Maura nodded. ‘OK. I’ll put the word out on the street. I can supply “shooters” if you need them.’ Tommy shook

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his head. ‘In that case, all I’ll need is the times and the date. And I do ask that you keep the violence to a minimum. It’s not just you, Tommy. I tell all “blaggers” the same thing.’ He smiled.

‘This will be as sweet as a nut, as you cockneys say. You’ll be given the information seven days before the off.’

‘Great. That was short and sweet!’

‘I try to please. By the way, I’m so sorry about Geoffrey, Maura. So soon after Michael.’ He opened his arms in a gesture of helplessness.

‘Yeah, well. These things happen. I’m in full control now and nothing has changed really. I’ll run the streets as they’ve always been run. I won’t take any nonsense.’

Tommy was quite aware of the underlying threat and nodded as if he was answering a question.

‘I respect that, Maura, and you have nothing to worry about from me and mine.’

She laughed heartily, but when she spoke, her voice was icy cold.

‘I know.’

Tommy felt a prickle of fear on the back of his neck. In Liverpool he was the Daddy. What he said invariably went. He prided himself on not being frightened of any man, yet this tall, beautiful and intelligent woman sitting opposite scared the life out of him.

He had never wondered, like many people, why Maura was not married. There were rumours that she was a lesbian, but he knew different. It was simply that the man who would take her on, her and all that she entailed, had not been born yet. . He cleared his throat. -

‘Did you receive the wreaths I sent?’ ‘Yes. Michael would have appreciated it. He always likedi you, Tommy.’ ‘I expect you miss him.’ ” M

‘Oh, yeah, I miss him.’ She stood up abruptly to let him know that the meeting was over. She held out her hand! and he shook it gently.

‘I’ll be in touch then.’

‘OK.’

Joss smiled at Maura as he left and she forced herself to smile back. When they had left the office she lit herself at cigarette and, opening the drawer in her desk, took out a photo of Michael and herself. They had been having a drink in the club downstairs and Leslie had snapped them laughing together. It turned out to be a beautiful photograph and she had had it enlarged. She sat staring at Michael’s handsome face. Oh, she missed him all right. Desperately. ,”

m

Sarah Ryan sat at her kitchen table sipping a cup of steaming hot tea. In front of her, spread out on the table, were the papers from a file she had found in Geoffrey’s old bedroom. He must have hidden them there at some point before he died. She knew that she had been meant to find them. Written in them, in Geoffrey’s large bold script, was all the information he had gathered about Michael and Maura over the years. As Sarah read them a seething rage gathered inside her. Now she knew why Geoffrey was dead. Four sons she had buried, Anthony when he was no more than a baby. What was she to do with the information in front of her? She could take it to the police now and get it over with, but it incriminated all her sons, both living and dead. She had heard through the grapevine that Roy was now Maura’s number two, whatever that meant. Janine ha

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told her all about it a few days ago. She sighed. If she did take this little lot to the police, the whole family would be put behind bars.

She picked up the papers and took them upstairs to her bedroom. She hid them in her wardrobe. She would leave it for a while until she had thought it all through.

She looked out of her bedroom window and down on to the street. She saw Margaret walking along with her mother. If only Maura had turned out like her, Sarah would be a happy woman. If only she had not met up with that bloody policeman, that Terry Petherick. If she had got herself pregnant by anyone else, it would all have blown over. Then a thought struck her. That’s who she could take the papers to if the day ever came when she decided to make them known to someone. She smiled to herself nastily. That would keep it in the family, so to speak. If she was going to expose her daughter, then that’s who she would expose her to!

She clasped her hands together in a gesture of prayer and whispered: ‘Oh, Jesus in Heaven, in the Kingdom of goodness and light, help me to make the right decision.’

There was one thing that Sarah was sure of: Maura was capable of anything, even capable of hurting her own mother if she had to …

Janine was sitting drinking coffee with Roy. The years had not been kind to her. She looked much older than forty-eight and her face held a permanent frowrj. Benny Anthony burst into the kitchen.

‘Hello, Dad!’ He was surprised to find his father at home and it showed in his voice.

‘Hello, son.’ Roy’s voice was warm. ‘No school then?’

‘Nah. There’s a teachers’ strike on.’

Janine butted in to their conversation.

‘Get upstairs and do some of your homework. Your dad’s busy.’

Benny’s face dropped.

‘Oh, Mum!’ He was whining. ‘I hardly ever see me dad.’

Janine’s voice rose in a screech. ‘You do what I tell you!’

Roy cut her off. ‘For crying out loud, Janine! Keep your hair on.’

She leapt from her seat. ‘Oh, that’s right! Shout at me in front of Benny. Go on, Roy. Turn him into an animal like you and that stinking sister of yours.’

He sighed. ‘You’re beginning to sound like a broken record. Do you know that? The same old shit is dug up and pulled out, day after day.’

Janine was standing in front of him. Her face was a mask of hatred.

‘You won’t get your claws into him.’ She pointed to where Benny was standing watching the fight between his parents. ‘Oh, no. Not you or that whore of a sister of yours. She’s already turned my Carla against me. I’lljee you both dead first!’ She ended on another screech.

‘Calm yourself down, you dozy bitch. You’re frightening the boy.’

Janine began to laugh.

TheI Me frighten him? That’s a laugh. His father’s working for the biggest whoremonger and murderess in London and you accuse me of frightening the boy! Are you sleeping with her, Roy? I heard that Mickey was.’

He got up from his seat and slapped her across the kitchen. She fell to the floor, a large red mark already appearing on her face. She put her hand to her cheek silently, afraid now of a Roy she did not know.

‘You stinking bitch! That’s the last time you badmouth rrie or my family. Do you hear me? How the hell have I

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stood you all these years, with your miserable face and your slutty ways? Well, you’ve ballsed yourself right up now because I’m going. I’m gonna leave you to pickle in your own juices, Janine, and I’m taking the boy with me.

‘As for our Carla … you dumped her, darling. You dumped her on me mother. So where you got your information from I don’t know. And Carla left my mother’s because my mother is like you. She wants to own people and Carla won’t be owned.-Neither will I from now on.’

Janine slowly pulled herself up from the floor.

‘You’ll take my son nowhere, Roy. I mean it. I’ll go to the police … I swear it, Roy. I’ll do for you.’

He stared at her, disgusted.

‘You would and all, wouldn’t you?’ His voice was quiet.

‘Yes, I would. You’ll never turn my son into a Ryan. Not in a million years. I’d see you dead first.’

Roy picked up his briefcase and walked to his son. ‘Don’t worry. I’ll be back to see you in a few days.’

Benny was crying and threw himself at his father. ‘Oh, please don’t go, Dad! Don’t leave me here with Mum and Nanny Ryan. I hate them … I hate them!’

Roy pulled the boy close and looked at his wife. ‘See what you’ve caused, you bitch. SEE WHAT YOU’VE caused!’

Janine was staring at her son as if he had grown another head. Then, forcing herself to move, she went to him and tried to pull him from his father’s arms.

‘No, Dad. Please! Don’t leave me here with her. I want to go with you. Please, Dad. Please don’t leave me here.’

As Janine tried to pull her son away from his father, Roy turned and punched her as hard as he could in the face.

‘Get your bloody hands off him!’ Roy was shouting again.

Janine had been knocked backwards by the force of the

blow, grabbing the edge of the kitchen table to save herself from falling. Her nose was bleeding profusely and she could feel her eye beginning to swell.

‘Son.’ Roy shook the hysterical boy. ‘I promise you that I’m not going to go anywhere. I’m gonna stay.’

Janine opened her mouth and Roy pointed at her. ‘One more word out of you and I’ll commit a fucking murder. Yours! I’m staying here. This is MY house! Get it? I can’t leave this boy here alone with you, he hates you as much as I do. You’re nothing but a silly, vindictive bitch. You move to the spare room as from tonight, and if I ever get wind that you’ve tried to take this boy away from me, or this house, I’ll bury you.

‘I should have put a stop to your gallop years ago, with your sluttish ways and your delusions of grandeur. I’m sick to death of you! So now you know.’

Roy held his son tightly. He should have put his foot down years ago. Instead he had let her have it all her own way, just to keep the peace. Well, no more.

‘Come on, son. We’ll go and get a McDonald’s, shall we?’

Roy knew that Benny lived for McDonald’s. At this moment he would have given his son anything to stop the racking sobs that were shaking his body.

He put his arm across his son’s shoulders and walked from the room. Janine’s face hardened. If it took her the rest of her life she would get even with him for this.

In the car, Roy let Benny’s sobs subside before he spoke to him.

‘I’m sorry that I hit your mum, son. I lost me temper.’

‘I ha … hate her. I hate … her and Nanny Ryan.’

Roy sighed. What a state of affairs! That would teach him to break his usual habits. He had gone home for a quick coffee and five minutes’ peace. Instead he had

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opened up a complete hornets’ nest. His son hated not only his mother but his grandmother as well.

Benny sniffed and wiped his nose on his sleeve. ‘I do, Dad. They never leave me alone. You’re never there so you don’t see them. They’re both at me all the time.’

‘Well, I can promise you this much, son. I’ll be there for you in the future.’

Benny tried to smile. ‘When I grow up, I want to be just like you, Dad.’

Roy bit his lip. Good job Janine couldn’t hear him. He grinned.

‘We’ll see, son. We’ll see.’

Chapter Thirty ‘I’m telling you, Sarah, that’s what happened.’ Janine wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. ‘He walked out with little Benny and they didn’t come in till late.’

‘And Roy actually raised his hand to you?’

‘Yeah. Look at my face. Then when they finally came in he said that if I didn’t toe the line he would take Benny and move into Maura’s.’ Janine was crying again.

Sarah put her arm around her shoulders. ‘He didn’t mean it, love.’

Janine pushed her away. ‘Oh yes he did! I know he did.’ She put her face into her hands. ‘I have to get my Benny away from him otherwise Maura will get her claws into him and that will be that. Benny already thinks that the sun shines out of her …’

‘Listen, Janine. For all Maura’s faults, and God knows there are many, she wouldn’t harm the child.’

‘Not now maybe. But in the years to come, she will, She’ll have him in the family business. And I couldn’t stand that, Sarah. Not my Benny. My baby. He’s eleven now, but what about when he’s seventeen or eighteen? That’s not far away, is it? First he’ll go on the protection rackets. Then she’ll have him in the betting shops. Then tile hostess clubs. Where will it all end? I don’t want my son shot like yours. Can’t you see that? I don’t want to be

taken to the morgue to identify my son’s remains.’

‘Calm yourself down, Janine, that’s not going to happen,

‘How do you know? You’ve already buried four sons!’

Sarah was silent as she digested the logic of Janine’si

argument. And she had to admit to herself that the girl

was right. If little Benny went the same way as his father

and uncles … And aunt. Oh, yes, she mustn’t forget her

aunt… that is what would happen.

The other boys were all living with girls. Only Leslie has married his. They would all have children, the Lord willing, and what would be the end result? They would eventually take over where their fathers left off.

‘Listen, Janine. I promise you now that that will never happen to Benny. Not if I have anything to do with it.’

She made another of her famous pots of tea and finally,

after calming Janine down, sent her back to her own

house. Alone, Sarah thought about what Janine had said

It was odds on that Benny would eventually go into the

so-called ‘business’. All the grandchildren would, unless

Maura and the others were stopped. It

Her husband had had control of the boys when they

were younger. He had taught them how to lie, cheat and

steal. How to be ‘hard men’. Now look where it had got

them. Four of her sons had been brutally murdered. Not