The Victim (38 page)

‘Do not take your eyes off the gaff, because they’re bound to realise something’s missing soon. Don’t both fall asleep, for fuck’s sake,’ Eddie warned.

He put his phone back in his pocket and smiled at his grandchildren. They’d calmed down a bit in the past hour, but he could still see the look of fright in their eyes.

‘Want some Coke and crisps? If you promise to behave yourselves, I can untie your hands for ya.’

‘I need to go a toilet,’ Georgie said in almost a whisper.

‘Pull over, Raymondo, somewhere that’s got trees or bushes.’

Georgie wasn’t amused. ‘Why can’t I go in a normal toilet?’

‘In case you try and do a runner again,’ Eddie replied, as he undid the rope around her hands.

‘I wanna pee an’ all,’ Harry said.

‘You take him, Gal, and I’ll go with her,’ Ed ordered, as Raymond pulled the van over.

‘You ain’t coming with me,’ Georgie said, scowling at her grandad.

‘Don’t worry, I’ll turn me back,’ Eddie promised as he grabbed her by the hand.

Five minutes later, toilet duty was over and both kids were back in the van. Harry was munching on crisps and Georgie was sipping a can of Coke.

‘So, what’s our mum like then?’ Georgie asked unexpectedly.

‘Your mum’s kind, loving, generous and pretty. In fact, she looks a lot like you,’ Ed told her.

‘Have we got any more brothers or sisters?’ Georgie asked.

‘Yeah, you’ve got a little brother called Brett. You’ll meet him when we get home.’

‘We’ve got a sister called Shelby,’ Harry added in a stroppy tone.

‘Do either of you actually remember your mum?’ Eddie asked.

Harry frowned, then shook his head.

‘I do, but only a little bit. Why ain’t she ever come to see us?’ Georgie asked. She was interested now, but also very confused at the same time.

‘Tell ’em the truth, Dad. Don’t lie to ’em,’ Ricky urged.

Eddie took a deep breath. He wanted to be as diplomatic as possible. ‘Because when you were young your dad ran away with your nan and grandad and he took yous two with him. Your mum looked for you, we all did, but none of us could find you.’

‘How did ya find us now then?’ Georgie asked.

‘Because we kept looking until there were no more places left to look,’ Eddie replied, not wanting to mention Katie.

Harry blew his empty crisp bag up and burst it with his hand.

‘Fuck, that made me jump,’ Raymond complained.

Harry grinned. ‘Nanny Alice says our mum is a proper old shitcunt and she said our mum got put in prison for trying to murder our dad.’

Eddie stared his grandson in the eyes. Frankie was going to have far more aggravation with him than she was with Georgie, that was for sure. He decided to play the boy at his own game. His Auntie Joan had taught him a valuable rule when he was a boy: ‘When in Rome, do or act as the Romans do, boy,’ she used to quote regularly. He smirked at Harry.

‘Your Nanny Alice is a nasty piece of work. She’s an evil, twisted old hag.’

Harry dropped his gaze and looked at his hands instead.

‘We’re gonna need to fill up with derv, Ed. We’re on the M6 now, so I’ll stop at the next services. If anyone wants a piss or some food, sort it now,’ Raymond informed everyone.

‘What did Stu say?’ Ricky asked his father.

‘That truck’s still there and the other tosser is probably still in a boozer somewhere.’

Gary rubbed his hands together and grinned. ‘Lovely jubbly! Now we’re on the M6, we’re home and dry, lads.’

Jed O’Hara was absolutely seething as he drove along like a bat out of hell. His brother’s Toyota Land Cruiser had a three-litre engine, was as nippy as anything, yet he still hadn’t caught up with Mitchell.

‘Ring the old man again, see where he is. Tell him we’re on the M6,’ Jed ordered his brother.

Billy rang Jimmy’s number. ‘He’s still on the M74, he said he’ll be on the M6 in about ten minutes,’ he told Jed.

‘Has he seen that blue van, ask him?’

‘No, he ain’t.’

‘Tell him to put his fucking foot down, then,’ Jed said angrily.

Stuck in the fast lane behind someone who was only doing eighty miles an hour, Jed held his hand on the hooter. ‘Get out the way you prick,’ he screamed.

‘What did you say that number plate started with?’ Billy asked a few minutes later.

‘BJJ,’ Jed replied.

‘I think their van’s a few motors in front of us; it says BJJ on the plate,’ Billy said pointing towards the middle lane.

Jed veered over to the empty slow lane, then put his foot down. He couldn’t read, so had no idea what the red sign-writing said, but he recognised the layout of the lettering at once.

‘Well?’ Billy asked impatiently.

Jed grinned. ‘Gotcha, ya shitcunts.’

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

Joyce was jumping around the lounge, punching her fists in the air like a deranged football fan whose team had just lifted the FA cup.

‘I wonder if we’ll recognise ’em. Did your dad say what time they’ll be home?’ she asked her granddaughter.

‘He reckons between four or five hours. I’ll have to tidy up, the place looks like a bomb’s hit it. Babs, do me a favour, give the boys a bath and put ’em to bed while I clear their toys away.’

‘I don’t wanna go a bed. I wanna see my brother and sister,’ Brett said sulkily.

Frankie picked her son up and swung him around. ‘You be a good boy, have your bath, put your jim-jams on, and when you’re done, Dom will go and get you and Kelvin a McDonald’s.’

‘I want Big Mac,’ Kelvin shouted, leaping up and down on the armchair.

‘Will Georgie and Harry be having McDonald’s with us?’ Brett asked. Kelvin was his make-believe brother, and he was very excited by the prospect of having a real one.

‘No, not tonight they won’t. They won’t be here until very late, so you won’t be able to see them until the morning. Now up them stairs, before Mummy changes her mind about the McDonald’s.’

‘Where’s Jordan?’ Frankie asked Babs as the boys ran up the stairs.

‘Having a sleepover at his girlfriend’s house, would you believe? He’s at the age now where he don’t need his mamma no more, but yours will need you. I can’t tell you how pleased I am for you, Frankie,’ Babs said, hugging her pal.

‘I can’t wait for them to arrive, but I’m ever so nervous about seeing them again. I bet it’s not all plain sailing, you know. They’re bound to have issues if they’ve been bought up by Jed, Alice and Jimmy.’

‘They’ll probably find it all a bit strange at first, but I bet you, within a month or so, they’ll be in their element living with you. They are so gonna love their mamma.’

Frankie grinned. ‘As long as they love me, I’ll be the happiest girl in the world.’

Eddie rang Gina to ask after the kids and let her know he was on the way home, then focused on his grandchildren again. Georgie had the figure of a voluptuous young woman and it worried him. ‘Who’s this boyfriend of yours, then?’ he asked her.

‘Who’s that you were on the phone to?’ Georgie replied, ignoring his question.

‘My wife, Gina.’

‘So, is she my nan?’ Georgie asked, knowing full well she wasn’t.

‘No, your nan’s dead, unfortunately.’

Harry smiled. ‘Grandad Jimmy says that you murdered our nan and went to prison, the same as our mum did.’

Seeing his father’s eyes begin to cloud over, Gary butted in. ‘What’s happened to that mutt of Joey’s, Dad? Is it still alive?’

‘Yeah,’ Eddie said, eyeballing his grandson with a look that could kill.

‘Don’t him and Dom take it out no more or what? They always used to have it with ’em, but I ain’t seen it lately,’ Gary asked. He knew he was talking a load of old bollocks, but a change of subject was desperately needed. Gary knew his dad well enough to know that Harry had been seconds away from getting a good wallop.

Eddie averted his eyes away from Harry and, much to Gary’s relief, chuckled. ‘The mutt spends a lot of its time in the neighbour’s house now, by all accounts. Apparently, the old girl that lives next door recently bought a male Westie and it was love at first sight. Joey said every time him and Dom try and take Madonna back indoors, she goes ballistic, tries to bite ’em and then howls all night.’

‘Who’s Madonna?’ Georgie asked. She briefly wondered if they were talking about the singer.

‘Your uncle’s Chihuahua,’ Ricky replied, smiling at her.

‘What’s one of them, then?’

About to explain the breed, Raymond’s intervention killed the conversation stone dead. ‘I don’t wanna worry you, lads, but I’m positive we’re being followed.’

Jed O’Hara had done a lot of thinking since Georgie and Harry had been kidnapped earlier. He had another child; one he knew nothing about and had never set eyes on. He didn’t even know what sex it was or its name, for Christ’s sake.

Frankie had been pregnant with their third child when she had stabbed him and got sent to prison. At the time, Jed had had every intention of trying to get custody of the baby once it was born, but Sammy’s murder, plus Frankie’s threats, had changed all that. In the end, Jed had been left with two choices. Number one was live, do a runner and keep Georgie and Harry for ever. Number two was risk getting murdered, locked up, and lose his kids for good.

The situation was a no brainer and since the night Jed had left Rainham, he’d blanked his then unborn child completely out of his mind. His parents had done the same and the child had never been mentioned since, but now Eddie Mitchell had tracked them down, Jed’s feelings had changed towards it.

‘Move over then, the van’s gone in the slow lane. You just nearly drove past it, you dinlo. What the fuck you doing?’ Billly shouted.

‘I’m thinking,’ Jed said, as he put his foot on the brake and swerved into the slow lane.

Billy chuckled. ‘What about? Getting the kids back or murdering that mug, Mitchell?’

‘Neither, I was thinking about me other chavvie, you know the one I’ve never seen.’

‘What you thinking about that for?’ Billy asked bemused.

‘Because it’s mine and I’ve decided, once this is all over and we’ve finished off Eddie, that chavvie is coming home with me.’

* * *

Raymond looked at the fuel gauge and grimaced. ‘We’re on the fucking red. I’m coming up to Kendal services; we’re gonna have to fill up,’ he said anxiously.

‘I bet it’s Dad come to take us back,’ Harry whispered to his sister.

Georgie nodded and squeezed his hand. Part of her had wanted to see her mother, even if it was only for a brief visit, but on the whole she couldn’t wait to get home to Ryan. She’d only been gone a few hours and was missing him already.

‘How we gonna play this, Dad?’ Ricky asked.

Eddie had had his thinking cap on for the past five minutes. He’d had a feeling the O’Haras would come for the kids, which was why he’d ordered Terry and Stuart to stay in Glasgow, but he hadn’t reckoned on it being this quick. ‘Do you know anyone who has a silver Land Cruiser?’ Ed asked his grandchildren.

Both glanced at one another and shook their heads. Their Uncle Billy drove one of those, but they’d been taught at an early age to keep their mouths shut.

‘What should I do, Ed?’ Raymond shouted out.

‘Pull in and drive straight to the pumps. There’s fuck-all they can do on a packed garage forecourt, is there?’ Ed replied.

‘Say they’ve got you-know-what?’ Ricky asked his father. He didn’t want to say too much in front of the kids.

‘Then they shoot at us and probably blow themselves up at the same time,’ Eddie said jokingly. He was acting more blasé than he actually felt and was cursing his decision not to bring any guns up to Scotland with him.

Desperate to be reunited with his father, Harry sensed an opportunity and clutched the crotch of his tracksuit bottoms with both hands. ‘I need a wee again,’ he said.

Eddie ignored his grandson and leaned over the passenger seat to try and get a look at the Land Cruiser in the wing mirrors. For obvious reasons, Ed had asked Flatnose to get hold of a van with no windows in the back, which was a bind now they were being followed.

‘Right, we’re at Kendal services. I’m pulling in now,’ Raymond shouted out.

‘You ain’t gonna hurt my dad, are ya?’ Georgie asked tearfully, as Gary took two baseball bats out of a navy-blue sports bag and handed one to Ricky.

‘We only ever hurt people who hurt us,’ Gary replied quite truthfully.

‘Where’s it gone? I can’t see it now,’ Eddie asked Raymond, as he stared in the wing mirror.

‘They followed us off the slip road, but I still couldn’t see who was driving. It’s too dark.’

When Raymond pulled onto the garage forecourt, Ed clambered into the passenger seat. He turned around to face Ricky and Gary. ‘I’m getting out with Raymond. Yous stay with them two and watch ’em like a hawk.’

Jed O’Hara parked the Land Cruiser out of view at the exit of the service station. ‘Give us the shooter,’ he said to his brother.

Billy’s hand shook as he handed him the gun. Unlike Jed, and his deceased brother Marky, Billy had always been the runt of the litter when it came to bravado and he knew it. ‘You can’t just shoot ’em in the garage. You’ll get us both banged up,’ he said.

‘Just shut it and give me the bullets,’ Jed ordered.

‘The bullets are in the gun, ain’t they?’

Jed glared at his brother. He was a sod for playing pranks on people himself, but Billy joking at a time like this just wasn’t funny. ‘Don’t mess about, Bill. My chavvies are in that fucking van.’

‘I ain’t messing with ya. All you said was get the gun; you didn’t say anything about bullets, did ya? I thought it was already loaded.’

Absolutely furious, Jed whacked his brother over the head with the now useless weapon. ‘How’s the gun meant to work without any fucking bullets, you thick, useless cunt? Dad keeps the bullets separate in case the chavvies ever find the shooters,’ he screamed.

Billy held his hands over his head in case he got clumped again. ‘I’m really sorry, Jed, but I didn’t know that it weren’t loaded. Dad might tell you everything, but he treats me like a dinlo and never tells me nothing.’

‘That’s ’cause you are a fucking dinlo,’ Jed said, turning the key in the ignition.

‘Where we going now? They ain’t come out the service station yet,’ Billy said, as Jed zoomed back onto the motorway.

‘Ring Dad and give me the phone,’ Jed yelled.

Billy did as his brother asked. ‘You got bullets, ain’t ya? Where are ya now?’ he asked his father. On learning his dad’s gun was loaded and he was only about twenty miles behind him, Jed breathed a massive sigh of relief.

Raymond was surprised to see no sign of the Land Cruiser as they left Kendal services. ‘Perhaps we got it wrong,’ he said to Eddie, who was now sitting in the passenger seat.

‘Nah, whoever it is will reappear, mark my words,’ Ed replied.

Two miles down the M6, Ed’s wise words were proved right, as Raymond recognised the Land Cruiser sitting on the hard shoulder. ‘What’s the plan now?’ he asked his boss.

‘Turn the radio up,’ Ed ordered. He had some ideas, but didn’t want the kids to hear what he had to say. He leaned towards Raymond’s left ear. ‘It’s gotta be Jed and Jimmy in that motor. I reckon we should lead ’em over to the salvage yard and finish the job tonight.’

‘Do you still keep the shooters there? ’Cause I’ve a feeling the O’Haras might be armed,’ Raymond whispered.

‘Let me make some phone calls and I’ll talk to you in a sec,’ Ed replied.

He rang Gina first. ‘You all right, Ed? Not at a disco, are you?’ Gina joked, as she heard the sound of Destiny’s Child blaring out in the background.

‘I need you to pack some stuff for you and the kids and go and stay at your mate Claire’s for a couple of days.’

‘What?’ Gina asked in amazement.

‘Look, we’ve got a problem this end. Nothing serious, but I don’t want you in the cottage alone tonight.’

‘I can’t go now. I’ve just bathed the kids and Rosie’s in bed already. I’ll go first thing in the morning,’ Gina said.

‘No you won’t, you’ll go tonight. Get your stuff packed and get out of there ASAP! Understand?’

‘OK,’ Gina replied. The seriousness of Eddie’s voice told her all she needed to know and she began to panic. ‘You will be all right, won’t you?’ she asked, trying not to cry.

‘Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine. Just do as I told you and ring me as soon as you get to Claire’s, OK?’

Gina told Ed she loved him, ended the call and burst into tears. If anything happened to her wonderful husband, she just knew she would die of a broken heart.

Stuart was next on Ed’s must-ring list. ‘I take it there’s no movement your end?’ he asked, knowing deep down it was a dumb question to ask.

‘Nope, been sitting ’ere like two stooges, me and Tel. Jed’s truck ain’t moved and Jimmy still ain’t back.’

‘Right, change of plan. Head back to Essex as fast as you can. I’ll give you more instructions on the way,’ Ed ordered.

‘I thought you wanted us to stay up ’ere and follow Jimmy and Jed,’ Stuart replied, bemused.

‘Too late. They’re already following us.’

The hardest phone call for Eddie to make was the last one. ‘I wish I hadn’t told Frankie I had the kids with me. She’s fragile enough as it is and if she hears we’re being followed, she’ll lose the plot,’ Ed whispered to Raymond.

‘Don’t tell her. Just say we’ve broken down or something,’ Raymond suggested.

Eddie paused before he punched in the number. He had never involved Joey in anything underhand before but for the first time ever, he desperately needed his son’s help.

Frankie was just writing down the order for their Chinese takeaway when the phone rang. ‘Someone answer that,’ she shouted, as she bent down to pick up Brett’s Big Mac and fries. The messy little sod had just knocked his dinner off the tray and was now crying because it was scattered all over the carpet.