The Victim (8 page)

Joey knelt down, it had been raining for the past half an hour, so he took the children’s coats off and ordered them to sit next to the fire. Harry was still sobbing and, overcome by emotion, he clung to his Nanny Joyce. Her cuddles reminded him of his mummy.

Joey knelt down and held Georgie in his arms. ‘Who brought you here?’ he asked her.

‘No one. We ran away.’

As Georgie then burst into tears as well, Joey turned to Dominic. ‘What are we gonna do?’

Dominic knelt down next to Joey. ‘This is important, Georgie. Why did you run away? You must tell us what happened.’

‘Because we wanted to see our mummy,’ Georgie cried.

Joyce was the next to break down in tears. ‘How did you find Nanny’s house?’ she wept.

‘’Cause I saw it when I was in Grandad Jimmy’s truck.’

‘Where is Mummy? Don’t wanna live with Daddy no more,’ Harry exclaimed, hiccupping.

Joyce held both children tightly to her chest. They were frozen stiff, the poor little mites. ‘Shall Nanny make you something nice and hot to eat and drink? It will warm your cockles, I promise.’

Georgie and Harry both nodded. They had chucked the rest of their sandwiches away and, after their marathon walk, were now both starving.

Joyce walked out into the kitchen and urged Joey to follow her. ‘What are we gonna do? We can’t keep them ’ere, we’ll get ourselves arrested. Should we ring the police?’

Joey thought momentarily, then shook his head. ‘Not yet. I’m gonna ring Dad, he’ll sort it out.’

Hearing Georgie and Harry chatting in the other room to Dominic, Joyce placed the sausages in the frying pan. She had missed her great-grandchildren so much and perhaps now they had run to her in their hour of need, something good might come out of this. Perhaps the authorities might let her have some kind of access to them.

Joyce made two mugs of hot chocolate and added some cold water so the poor little ha’porths didn’t burn themselves. ‘There you go, me little angels,’ she said, handing the mugs to them.

‘Can we see Mummy soon?’ Harry asked innocently.

‘Mummy isn’t here, love. But she told me to tell you that she can still see you from where she is and she loves you both very much.’

‘Daddy says Mummy is in prison and Nanny Alice says she is an evil old shitcunt,’ Georgie said, not quite understanding the meaning of her words.

‘If anyone is evil, it’s your Nanny Alice, not your mother,’ Joyce said standing up. She could smell the sausages burning.

Joey ended his phone call and walked into the kitchen. ‘Me dad said don’t do nothing till he gets there. He’s on his way.’

CHAPTER EIGHT

Eddie Mitchell rang his trusted solicitor Larry, then hit a ton as he zoomed along the A13. Gina announcing she was pregnant had been a big enough bolt out of the blue, but finding out that his grandkids had run away and turned up at Joycie’s had literally knocked him for six. What was God trying to do? Give him a fucking heart attack?

Hearing his dad pull up outside, Joey opened the front door and ran outside to greet him.

‘How are they? Are they OK?’ Eddie asked, concerned.

Joey nodded. ‘Nan’s just made ’em sausage sandwiches and given ’em a hot bath. They was in a right state when they arrived though, Dad. Their clothes were soaked and they were frozen stiff. They could have been snatched by some pervert or anything.’

Eddie nodded, then put an arm around Joey’s shoulder. ‘Have they said why they ran away?’

‘Yeah, they wanted to see Frankie. They said they missed their mum.’

As tough a man as he was, Eddie felt his eyes well up as he walked into the lounge. Georgie and Harry were sitting either side of Joycie. They both had big white bath towels wrapped around them and were munching on a bowl of crisps that was positioned on Joycie’s lap.

‘Look, Grandad Eddie’s here. Go and give him a cuddle,’ Joyce urged them.

Harry loved a cuddle, so he immediately stood up, and held his arms wide open. He didn’t care that his towel dropped to the floor.

Eddie picked up Harry’s naked little body and swung him around in the air. ‘Hello, me little bruiser, Grandad loves you, you know,’ he said, planting kisses on his face.

Georgie sat motionless on the sofa. She knew she had a Grandad Stanley and a Grandad Jimmy, but she didn’t really remember her Grandad Eddie. She was sure she had heard her mum mention him, but he didn’t look familiar to her.

‘Give your Grandad a kiss, Georgie,’ Joyce ordered.

Eddie sat Harry on the sofa next to his sister, then knelt down in front of the pair of them. Apart from a quick glance when he’d knocked at O’Hara’s house, he hadn’t seen Georgie for well over a year, but still felt hurt that she didn’t seem to remember him. He spoke gently. ‘I know neither of you really know who I am, but that’s my fault because I had to go away somewhere. I’m your mum’s dad, your Grandad Eddie.’

Georgie and Harry glanced at one another. Within seconds, Georgie had worked it all out. ‘What, like my dad is Jed and you are Eddie, Mummy’s dad?’

Eddie smiled. ‘That’s right, and being your mum’s dad makes me your grandad.’

Georgie smiled and then hugged him. If this man was her mum’s dad, then she liked him.

‘Can we see Mummy now?’ Harry asked again.

‘Hopefully you can soon, but you have to do what I tell you to do, is that OK? Will you do that for me?’

Georgie and Harry both nodded excitedly. They couldn’t wait to see their mum.

‘In a little while a man and a lady are going to come here. You must tell them that you ran away from home because you miss your mum so much. The lady will ask you some questions and you must tell her that you don’t like living with your dad, Nanny Alice and Grandad Jimmy. Tell her you want to live with Nanny Joyce, Uncle Joey, or me.’

‘Will she take us to see Mummy then?’ Harry enquired.

‘Not tonight, but hopefully very soon,’ Eddie replied.

‘Why did Mummy leave us?’ Georgie asked sadly.

Eddie stroked her long, dark hair. ‘Your Mummy didn’t leave you. She would never do that because she loves you and Harry more than anything in the world. Something happened between your mum and dad and the police took your mummy away for a little while.’

Georgie chewed her fingernails. ‘Is Mummy in prison? Daddy says she is and Nanny Alice says she’s an old shitcunt.’

Eddie could barely believe what he was hearing. He was no angel, but how could any grandmother teach her four-year-old granddaughter that type of language? ‘Your Nanny Alice needs her mouth washed out with soap. Tell the lady that as well, Georgie, tell her what Nanny Alice said about your mum. Don’t forget, will ya?’

‘She said Mummy is an old shitcunt,’ Harry repeated proudly. Neither child was old enough to understand the meaning of such awful language.

‘Good boy,’ Eddie said, patting Harry on the head. Larry and the social worker would be here soon, and they needed to get this right. ‘Now, I want you to pretend that I’m the lady and when I ask you a question, you are to answer it like I told you to. Can you do that for me?’

Both children nodded.

‘So, why did you run away from home?’ Eddie asked.

Joyce, Joey and Dominic all smiled at one another as the children repeated what Ed had told them to say. Georgie was especially convincing, as she answered every question in detail with the answers her grandfather had given her.

‘Was that your idea or Larry’s, Dad?’ Joey asked, impressed.

‘A bit of both really, but it was Larry’s idea to get the social worker involved. She’s got a lot of sway, apparently.’

‘I can’t believe the O’Haras ain’t knocked here. I mean, surely they know the kids are missing,’ Joyce said, perplexed.

‘They’re scum, what do you expect?’ Eddie replied.

Dominic turned to Georgie and Harry. ‘Where was your dad, nan and grandad when you ran away? Were they all at home?’ he asked.

Both children shook their heads. ‘Nanny Alice and Grandad Jimmy went out and Daddy was in the front room with Sally, making funny noises,’ Georgie replied.

Eddie glanced at Joey, shook his head and knelt down again. ‘Tell the lady that as well. Tell her that when you ran away, Daddy was making funny noises with his girlfriend in another room.’

Georgie grinned and nodded eagerly. She really liked her Grandad Eddie; he was cool and treated her like a big girl. ‘Can we live with you, Grandad?’ she asked hopefully.

Feeling himself getting all emotional again, Eddie stood up. Anything could have happened to those kids today, absolutely anything. Say some nonce-case had spotted them and abducted them? The O’Haras wanted shooting and the fact that they’d put his grandchildren in danger made Ed want to be the one to pull that trigger even more.

‘Where you goin’, Grandad?’ Harry asked as Eddie bolted from the room.

‘Toilet,’ Eddie lied. The truth was, he was struggling to hold back the tears and it wasn’t in his nature to show weakness, not even in front of his own.

Alice O’Hara was inconsolable. Crying one minute, screaming, ranting and raving the next. She was losing the plot, especially with Jed, and Jimmy knew it. They’d all spent an hour searching on foot, but there was neither hide nor hair of Georgie or Harry. It was as though the kids had disappeared into thin air. Knowing they had to widen their search, Jimmy had now called reinforcements in. His nephew Sammy had already arrived and his son Billy was on his way and was bringing another four blokes from his site with him. Pat Murphy had offered to help as well. He’d got here within minutes of Jimmy’s phone call, as he only lived down the road.

‘Don’t just fucking stand there, then!’ Alice screamed at everyone.

Jimmy grabbed hold of his wife and held her shaking body close to his chest. ‘We’re just waiting for Billy boy, love, and then we’ll jump in three or four motors and we’ll find them. They’ll be OK, I promise you that.’

‘You promised me Marky’s funeral would be OK and look what happened there. As for you,’ Alice yelled, breaking free from her husband and punching her youngest son in the side of his head, ‘you ain’t fit to be a father, you selfish, no-good cunt.’

As Sally tried to cuddle him, Jed pushed her away. He blamed his girlfriend entirely for what had happened. It was all her fault; he’d been happily watching the telly with the kids until she’d started rubbing his cock. She should never have done that, not when she knew he had to look after Georgie and Harry.

‘Do yourself a favour and go back to your father’s tonight, Sally. I ain’t in the best of moods, OK? If you hadn’t have come round ’ere today, none of this would have happened.’

Sally looked at Jed with an incredulous expression on her face. None of this was her bloody fault. How could he even say that when the reason her beautiful son was dead was because of him?

‘You bastard! My Lukey boy died because somebody was trying to shoot
you
. How can you blame me for this, Jed? After everything we’ve been through, how could you be so callous?’

‘Don’t you dare blame that girl,’ Alice yelled at Jed.

Desperate to get back into his mother’s good books, Jed did what he was best at and lied. ‘You don’t know the fucking half of it, Mum. I told her to leave me alone, but she kept touching me in front of Georgie and Harry. I didn’t want them to see all that shit, that’s why we went upstairs. I mean, I ain’t had sex for weeks, so what was I supposed to do?’

Jed had always been the apple of Alice’s eye and she was now glad she had an excuse to stop hating him and blame somebody else. ‘Go home, Sally, and don’t fucking come back until you learn how to behave,’ she screamed viciously.

Jed pushed Sally towards the front door. ‘Wait at the end of the drive. I’ll order you a cab and ring you tomorrow.’

Sally was in floods of tears. Her dad was right, the O’Haras were scumbags and Jed was a lying, cheating, no-good bastard.

Seeing his brother Billy pull into the drive, Jed waved his hand for him to stop, then ran over to Sally.

‘I’ll bell you when the chavvies are home,’ he said, attempting to peck her on the cheek.

Sally turned her head and, seeing Jed for what he really was for the first time ever, boldly spat in his face. ‘Drop dead, you shit-bag. And I swear, if you ever try to contact me again, I will make sure my dad fucking kills you!’

Larry Peters arrived at Joycie’s at 9 p.m. He had represented the Mitchell family and had been on their payroll for many decades, hence his quick response to Eddie’s phone call. When asked by some of the snobs in his profession about his relationship with the notorious clan, Larry liked to describe himself as a family friend. He had been especially close to Harry, Eddie’s father, and had been devastated when Harry had met his maker in such awful circumstances.

Larry turned the ignition off, got out of the car and opened the passenger door for Carol. Larry had known Carol Cullen for many years. She had done him a few favours in the past and vice versa and he knew she was the right person to be involved in an incident like this. If anyone could pull some strings for him in social services then that woman was Carol.

Eddie opened the front door, shook Larry’s hand and was then introduced to Carol. ‘Thank you so much for visiting us at such short notice. My grandchildren have had the most awful ordeal and I’m very concerned over their future well-being. They miss their mother enormously,’ he said, laying it on as much as he could.

Carol shook his hand, then walked into the living room and smiled at Georgie and Harry.

‘Hello, my name is Carol. Wow, don’t yous two look nice and snug with them big bath towels wrapped around you?’

‘Can you take us to see our mummy?’ Harry blurted out.

Carol hated making promises if she couldn’t keep them. ‘Hopefully, I can organise a visit so you can see your mum, but first I need to ask you some questions, is that OK?’

Georgie and Harry both nodded. Their grandad had now told them numerous times what they had to say and his words were firmly drummed into their little brains.

‘Do you mind if I speak to the children alone? It’s the usual procedure,’ Carol asked Eddie.

Larry had prewarned him that Carol would probably ask to speak to the kids alone, so Eddie nodded and he, Dominic, Joey and Joycie left the room.

‘I hope they remember everything you told them,’ Joyce whispered.

‘Of course they will. They ain’t silly kids, especially Georgie. Bright as a button, she is,’ Eddie said confidently.

Larry joined the quartet in the kitchen. ‘Did you have a chat with ’em, like I told you to, Ed?’

Eddie nodded. ‘So what happens next, you know, after she’s spoken to ’em?’

‘I briefed Carol about everything that has happened in the children’s lives on the way down here. Once she has finished speaking to them, she will inform the police that they are here, so it gets noted. I have a feeling that when the O’Haras realised they were missing, rather than involve the police, they have probably been searching for them themselves. You know what travellers are like, Ed, they hate the police and everything they stand for. If my theory is right and they haven’t contacted the authorities by the time we do, that will go very much in our favour to getting some kind of access. I should imagine the children will almost certainly be allowed to visit Frankie on a regular basis. She is their mother, after all. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I am in desperate need of a visit to the lavatory.’

‘Where’s Stanley, Joyce? Out the back with them birds of his?’ Eddie asked.

Joyce had barely given her husband a second thought for the past few hours. She wasn’t worried – she knew Stanley too well – and was positive he would be back home in the next couple of days with his tail between those knobbly knees of his.

‘Stanley’s stomped off in one of his tantrums, the silly old bastard. He found out that I’d met you in the Bull that time and threw all his toys out of his pram,’ Joyce replied.