The Victim (31 page)

Not in the best of moods anyway, Frankie decided to be brutally honest for once. ‘I’m really sorry, Kerry, but everytime I see you it just brings all the bad stuff back to me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m thrilled that you still have your boys, but seeing them upsets me too much. It reminds me of Georgie and Harry, and whenever I see you, I think of Jed and Sammy as well. I wish I didn’t, but I do, mate.’

Kerry put the bottle of wine on the side and stared at Frankie. The hurt expression in her eyes was clear to see and Frankie felt awful when tears started to stream down Kerry’s face. ‘I’m really sorry you feel that way, Frankie, and to say you’ve hurt me is an understatement. I shall leave you in peace now, and I won’t contact you any more. If we can’t be friends that see one another, there’s no point in us staying in touch at all.’

‘I don’t want us to lose touch completely. You’ll always be my friend and I can never thank you enough for all the stuff you said at my trial. Please let’s not fall out over this,’ Frankie begged.

Kerry picked up her car keys and walked towards the front door. She had come here today to find out what the hell was going on and now she had, it was time to leave.

‘Good luck with the rest of your life, Frankie. With an attitude like yours, you’re gonna need it.’

‘Are you OK, sweet child?’ Babs asked as the front door slammed. She had been in the living room and had heard every word of the conversation.

Frankie shrugged. ‘I’m a bit sad, but I’ll be OK. I hate being reminded of Jed and Sammy, so a clean break is best all round, I suppose.’

Babs had always liked Kerry and didn’t agree at all with the way Frankie had just treated the poor girl. Deciding to keep her thoughts to herself for now, she smiled. ‘Shall we have a glass of wine and cheer ourselves up?’

Frankie grinned. ‘Yeah, sod it. Why not?’

Knowing that Georgie and Harry’s birthdays usually turned into a melancholy piss-up, Eddie got Stuart to pick him and the kids up in his motor.

‘Why you not drive, Dad? You gonna get drunk?’ Aaron asked bluntly.

‘I can’t get drunk while I’m looking after yous two, but I shall have a few, boy,’ Eddie replied. Since Georgie and Harry had been abducted, he and Frankie had always spent their birthdays together and got rat-arsed. Christmas Day was the same; without the alcohol they just couldn’t cope on these sad occasions.

‘What’s in the bag?’ Eddie asked, pointing at the pink gift bag that was sitting in the footwell next to his legs.

‘A gift for Frankie,’ Stuart replied.

‘What is it, then?’

‘A pair of cowboy boots. She spotted ’em in Brentwood town centre last week when we were walking past a shop, so I went back the next day and bought them for her. I thought it might cheer her up, especially on a day like today.’

‘You’re a star, Stu, and I wish you and her would stop arsing about and get it together,’ Eddie replied.

‘She don’t look at me in that way, Ed. Jed put her off geezers for life, I think, and I don’t wanna spoil our friendship by complicating things.’

Eddie raised his eyebrows. He was well aware that Stuart was in love with his elder daughter, even though he would never openly admit it. ‘If you don’t make a move, you’ll never know how Frankie feels about you, will ya? Think about it, Stu, she’s a pretty girl and if you don’t snap her up, somebody else will.’

By the time her dad arrived, Frankie was on a proper downer. Gary and Ricky had unexpectedly turned up with their dimwit, silly-voiced wives and everytime either of the girls opened their very Essex-sounding mouths, Frankie felt like clumping them one.

Gary and Ricky had been destined to be playboy bachelors for the rest of their lives until they’d met identical twenty-one-year-old twin sisters, Nicole and Amy, in a London nightclub in the summer of 1999. At the time the girls had both been working as successful models, but since marrying Gary and Ricky in a joint wedding in the Bahamas last year, both Nicole and Amy had jacked in their careers at the insistence of their respective husbands. They now spent their days shopping, lunching and pampering themselves at health farms and beauty parlours.

Frankie had hated her brother’s wives on sight. They were incredibly thick, had skinny-minnie figures, long blonde hair, false boobs and the most stupid laughs and voices that Frankie had ever heard. In fact, they really put a capital D into the expression ‘dumb blonde’.

‘You all right, babe?’ Eddie asked when Frankie opened the door with a face like thunder.

‘No I ain’t. Gary and Ricky have bought them two silly tarts with them, and Nanny’s half-pissed already and keeps having a go at grandad. I only wanted a quiet day and every bastard’s turned up. There ain’t even enough chairs for people to sit on.’

Eddie wasn’t the biggest fan of Gary and Ricky’s wives either. He liked a woman with a brain, and Nicole and Amy unfortunately didn’t own one between them. Still, they made his sons happy, so they couldn’t be all bad.

‘Calm yourself down, they won’t stop long,’ Eddie responded, hugging his daughter to his chest.

‘Frankie, look at my wabbit,’ Rosie said, waving a bright pink fluffy toy.

Frankie bent down, picked up her little sister and smothered her in kisses. Rosie was absolutely adorable and her presence never failed to cheer Frankie up, however bad her mood. Aaron was cute as well, but he could be a boisterous little sod at times and was forever breaking Brett’s toys, which pissed Frankie off no end.

‘Brett and Kelvin are in the garden if you wanna go and play with them,’ she said, ruffling her little brother’s hair.

As Aaron ran off, Eddie nudged Stuart. ‘Where’s the bag?’

‘I’ll get it out the car later,’ Stuart said. He didn’t want to make himself look like a knob by giving Frankie her present in front of the whole of her family. He’d rather do it later when most of them had gone home.

Babs helped Frankie pour everybody a drink. ‘Have you got to pick Jordan up later?’ Frankie asked her friend as she clocked her pour herself another one.

Babs smiled and shook her head. Her elder son, Jordan, was fourteen now and football-mad. He played for a local team on a Saturday and today his friend’s mum was dropping him home for her.

Joey thanked Babs for his drink, then turned to his father. ‘The O’Haras’ house looks well posh now. Me and Dom had a good nose at it as we drove past earlier. It’s all been painted and they’ve laid new grass all around the front. Whoever bought it is obviously a keen gardener, as they’ve planted trees and all sorts. Did you ever find out who the bloke was that supposedly sold it, Dad?’

Eddie glanced at Gary and Ricky. The O’Haras’ gaff had been sold about a year after their disappearance, and finding out that it wasn’t in Jimmy’s name and instead was in the name of a traveller from Birmingham called Johnny Bullock was a real kick in the teeth for Ed and the police. It was Larry who had got hold of the inside information on Bullock, and Ed and the lads had gone to Birmingham to pay him a little visit. Neither they nor the police had had any luck finding him, though, as he’d also done a disappearing act.

‘No. We’re still looking for him, though, and I’m sure if we find him, he’ll lead us to Jimmy. I’ve got loads of people on the lookout. In fact, I had a phone call from an old pal who has links to Wolverhampton yesterday. He gave me the address of a remote site there where a geezer called Bullock lives. Ray and Terry are gonna check it out on Monday for me.’

‘You should have seen Baldwin clump that flash bastard that cut us up the other day, Dad. The geezer flew about four feet in the air; he was a big old lump an’ all,’ Ricky said, laughing.

Eddie grinned. Gary and Ricky had been extremely dubious when he’d first taken Baldwin on, but Terry was loyal, hard working and over the years had become a great addition to the firm. In fact, he had one of the best right-handers on him that Eddie had ever seen in his life.

‘Did I hear my Raymond mentioned?’ Joycie asked, walking into the lounge with yet another brandy and Baileys in her hand.

‘Yeah, I was just saying Ray is shooting up to the Midlands for me on Monday,’ Eddie replied.

‘What a terrible son that boy’s turned out to be, ain’t he, Stanley?’ Joyce shouted out.

‘Did you call me, dear?’ Stanley asked, running into the lounge like a naughty schoolboy. Even after all these years he still never felt comfortable sitting in the same room as Eddie. He was always polite to him for Joycie’s sake, but he would much rather play with the children in the garden than breathe the same air as the man who had brutally murdered his daughter.

‘Yes, I did. I was just telling Eddie and the boys what a terrible son our Raymond is. Never visits us, does he? And even if he does pop in, he’s always got that monster of a child with him. What a spoilt little bastard that is.’

Eddie burst out laughing. As per usual, after a few bevvies Joycie was as blunt as blunt could be. In this case she was right, though. Chelsea was now six years old and was Polly and Raymond’s only child. She’d been totally mollycoddled since she was a baby and was given everything she wanted. Raymond and Polly had recently had three attempts at IVF and Ed just hoped that one day it would work, because if it didn’t there was little hope for Chelsea’s future.

‘I don’t think it’s Raymondo, it’s the bloody mother. Ray was telling me Polly even bought Chelsea a designer handbag recently. I mean, what the fuck does a six-year-old want a designer handbag for?’ Eddie said, sticking up for his pal.

‘Who you talking about?’ Frankie asked as she walked into the room with Babs.

‘Chelsea. Do you wanna sit down?’ Stuart asked, standing up, and offering Frankie his chair.

About to sit down, Frankie saw Nicole stick her tongue in Gary’s ear and at the same time put her hand on his groin. ‘Excuse me. We’re meant to be having a family get-together to mark Georgie’s thirteenth birthday, not a fucking orgy,’ she said.

Joey, Dom, Stu, Babs and Eddie all laughed. Stanley and Joycie looked at one another in disgust. Slobbering all over one another in public was something they’d never done, even when they were courting.

‘Can we go now, babes?’ Nicole whined at Gary. What Frankie had said had gone in one ear and straight out the other. She couldn’t help it if she had a high sex drive, could she?

‘Yeah, we need to make a move, guys. We’ve got to get our nails done and have a sunbed before we start getting ready for the party tonight,’ Amy added.

Gary and Ricky stood up and both gave their sister an awkward hug. ‘Keep your chin up today. I know it’s difficult, girl, but we’ll never give up looking for Georgie and Harry for you. One day we’ll find ’em, I know we will,’ Gary promised her.

Frankie saw her brothers out and went to check on the kids in the garden. The house her dad had bought for her and Babs to live in had five bedrooms and a massive garden, so there was plenty of room for the kids to play happily in.

‘Sing to me, Frankie,’ Rosie shrieked, running towards her. She was a sturdy little girl with chubby little legs to match and as she neared Frankie she held her arms out to her. Taking hold of Rosie’s hands, Frankie had tears in her eyes as she remembered singing the same song to Georgie when she was her sister’s age.

‘Ring a ring o’roses, a pocket full of posies, atishoo, atishoo, we all fall down,’ Frankie sang.

Rosie giggled as she fell onto the grass. ‘What a matter?’ she asked, realising her big sister was crying.

‘Nothing. I’m just being silly because I love you so much,’ Frankie replied, scooping Rosie into her arms.

The rest of the day was full of laughter and tears. Most of the laughter came via Joyce, especially when Eddie said he was sorry to hear the Jaguar had been written off and asked Joyce if they were going to buy another car.

‘Not on your nelly. That dirty old pervert nearly killed me! He can’t drive no more, he’s bleedin’ senile,’ came Joycie’s humorous reply.

The sadness was all centred over conversations about Georgie and Harry, and there wasn’t a dry eye in the room when Frankie asked, ‘Do you think when she’s sixteen, Georgie will try and track me down? Or do you think she’s totally forgotten who I am?’

At nine o’clock everybody bar Stuart and Dominic were quite inebriated. The Chinese takeaway had been greedily eaten by all and Jordan had just taken Brett and Kelvin up to bed.

‘Oh dear, I feel ever so giddy, Stanley,’ Joycie said, laying her head on her husband’s lap.

Stanley immediately jumped up. Joyce had laid her head right near his crotch area and any woman’s head that came within a foot of his John Thomas would always dredge up terrible memories of what Pat the Pigeon had done to him that time.

‘I’ll drop you and Joycie home, Stanley. Come on, Joey, time to go,’ Dominic said, shaking his boyfriend’s shoulder.

‘Where’s Madonna?’ Joey asked, half asleep.

‘We left her with our neighbour, you pillock. Now stand up will you?’ Dominic said sternly.

‘I’d better make a move now an’ all. You all right to drop me off home, Stu?’ Eddie asked.

Stuart nodded.

‘You carry Aaron and I’ll take Rosie,’ Eddie said, nodding towards his kids, who were both sound asleep on one of the armchairs.

‘How’s Auntie Joan now, Dad? She weren’t well last time I saw you and I meant to ask after her earlier,’ Frankie enquired, as she followed her father towards the front door.