Maura's Game (27 page)

Then Garry came out and said, “You better get in here, Maura, he’s ready to spill his guts.”

She didn’t answer.

“Who’s that on the blower? And what’s wrong with you, Maws? You look as sick as a fucking parrot, girl. What’s up?”

She passed him the phone and he listened. He looked at her with sad eyes then turned the phone off and ground it beneath his foot.

“Fuck him. And fuck her, the little whore. They ain’t worth it, Maws. But at least it answers a few questions.”

“What do you mean, Gal?”

“Later, Maws. Let’s sort this ponce out first.”

She nodded then walked back into the room and forced away all her hurt and disappointment.

It wasn’t the first time she had had to do it and she knew that it wouldn’t be the last. Family came first. Michael Ryan had taught his sister well.

Chapter Fourteen

Vic watched as his latest hideaway was overrun by Ryan scum. It made him laugh to watch them all running about like big tarts. He had been hiding in an old converted barn in Ingatestone. There was nothing in the place to tell them anything. Except the message he had left for them. He had spray painted on the wall: Ha-fucking-ha.

Every time he thought of it he smiled.

He was having everyone watched, and as soon as he knew they had descended on Jack mob-handed had bailed out. Now he studied them through binoculars, busy on their wild-goose chase, and it afforded him a bit of pleasure.

He lay in the long grass and wished he had had the sense to bring a rifle with him. He could have picked them off one by one. He was one step ahead of them all the time and that knowledge pleased him.

He took out his wallet and looked at a photo of his Sandra. She was lovely, and he missed her more and more by the day. There had been something about her; they had connected in a way he had never connected with a woman before. They had understood each other perfectly.

The Ryans would all pay for her death, and he would make himself a few quid into the bargain. Sentiment was no reason to stop work, was it? Life had to go on in some respects. Even if it was an empty life.

He was whistling through his teeth as he watched the commotion below him. His 1000-cc motorbike was well hidden down the hill so he would leave once the coast was clear.

He liked bikes, the helmets gave you anonymity. And that was something he needed these days.

Tommy dropped Carla off at her house and declined her offer of coffee. She had shagged him raw and he had to admit to himself he could not cope with her demands again today.

She pouted like a little girl and he half-laughed as he said, “Leave it out, Carla. I am knackered.”

“We could just have a coffee and a talk.”

He shook his head. Talking was the last thing on his mind where she was concerned. Her idea of a conversation was about something she’d read in Hello!. Hardly the stuff of a stimulating exchange.

“Not today.”

Still she sat in the car staring at him and he suddenly realised she was not going anywhere. Carla thought they were at the famous impasse. He felt his heart sink to his boots. Her eyes were hard, like pieces of green glass. Why had he never realised that before?

“What’s going to happen with us, Tommy?”

She had that little girl voice back again. The voice that did not sit well with her age or obvious experience. He stiffened in his seat. He had been expecting this but not just yet. This was quick, considering he was trumping one of her relatives as well.

“What do you mean?”

His voice was neutral and had the note of dismissal in it that women like her had been hearing for hundreds of years.

“I mean, Tommy, when are you going to tell Maura?”

He smirked.

“Why would I want to tell Maura? I love her.”

The pain was evident on her face as she said, “Really? So what’s going on between us if you love her so much?”

He laughed again.

“We were only having a friendly shag, Carla, remember? Those were your words, love, not mine.”

She lit a cigarette and took a deep pull on it.

“No. Sorry, Tommy, I was under the impression we were together. I know it will be hard telling Maura. I’ll do it if you want?”

Her words implied that he was frightened of her aunt and that was why he wouldn’t tell her. He also realised she would enjoy telling Maura. Nothing like family loyalty in the Ryan household evidently.

“Listen, Carla, you can tell who the fuck you like but it won’t change the fact I was shagging you, love. I am known for it, can’t resist a bit of skirt, and that is all you were. No more and no less. So put away the wedding catalogues and get a fucking grip.”

He could see the tears glistening in her eyes.

“You are a bastard, Tommy Rifkind.”

He smirked again.

“So I have been told by better women than you, love.”

With that she jumped from the car and he copped an eyeful of her knicker less bum. As she let herself into the house he realised he was up shit creek and definitely without a paddle of any kind. He could almost hear Joss saying to him, “I told you so.”

He sat outside for a few more minutes, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel. If he’d thought he was in trouble before, he was up to his neck in it now.

When he pulled away he didn’t even notice Abul tailing him.

Kenny had brought a doctor in for Jack who needed one badly. He had refused hospital, even a friendly private one, and so Kenny had rung an old associate who was now stitching Jack up neatly and quickly.

“You are a cunt to yourself, Jack,” Kenny told him.

He didn’t answer, just gulped at his fifty-year-old brandy once more.

“Why didn’t you tell them what they wanted to know? No one would have thought any the less of you. Now look at you. You look like you’ve been hit by a car.”

Jack finally spoke.

“What are you, Kenny, me fucking dad? They are fucking animal scum and they are wankers…”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you are a prick if you think you can get one over on them. For crying out loud, Jack, these are the Ryans. Do you honestly think anyone is going to take them on lightly? Even Vic ain’t got the rep for that. Swallow your knob and let this be a lesson to you. Give it a few weeks and then make your fucking peace, for all our sakes. Every fixer in the smoke will know about this within hours, Garry will make sure of that. He ain’t going to let there be a repeat performance, is he? Vic will be stonewalled. That’s if they ain’t already got him.”

“Vic is having everyone watched.”

“Who by?”

Jack grinned.

“That would be telling, wouldn’t it? All I will say to you is the apple don’t fall far from the fucking tree.”

Kenny rolled his eyes to the ceiling.

“You must have had a right bang on the head if you’re talking in riddles. Get an X-ray, you mad bastard.”

Jack chuckled to himself.

“The Ryans have a big shock coming to them.”

Kenny didn’t answer; he had already heard enough. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know anything anyway. This was all over his head as it was. The less he knew the better as far as he was concerned. He had his daughter to think about.

They fell quiet. The doctor, who had listened with half an ear, would repeat this back to Benny or Garry, Kenny was sure of that. A few quid was a few quid and he had been struck off for drunkenness and being too friendly with the women patients. He needed all the poke he could get and this conversation would enable him to get drunker than he had been for a long while.

He carried on ministering to Jack with a half-smile on his booze-reddened face.

Maura and Roy were at Le Buxom. It was early evening so it was quiet. The girls were just arriving and their chatter drifted up the stairs. Laughter and camaraderie, it made for a good atmosphere. It was friendly and it was unthreatening. Unless the punters wouldn’t pay the wildly inflated bill, of course, then it could get positively terrifying. Maura remembered the first time she had seen the bouncers in action. A bolshy punter was sitting on a chair in the basement and all the doorman would say over and over again between punches was, “Pay the lady.”

The punter paid and she learned a lesson for life. Everything had to be paid for. No matter what you might think.

Still, Maura liked the atmosphere here, it was friendly and easygoing. No fear of any of the girls trying to kill anyone. Except each other, of course, and that happened only occasionally and almost always over a punter.

It amazed her that the club still did big business; she had thought the lap dancing would have put them away. It did for a while but the punters had soon drifted back. A guaranteed fuck always won hands down with the men who frequented this place. The club was in as much demand as ever.

She watched as Roy tried to work out the takings on a calculator and felt a surge of affection for him. She didn’t want him to know about Carla. She wasn’t sure yet what she was going to do about it herself.

That Carla could do this to her! It was almost unbelievable like Marge doing it to her. Maura would never have believed it possible if she had not heard it with her own ears.

It was Roy she worried most about. Carla would be without their protection now, she could hardly expect it. But Roy could not cope with any more hurt, they were all aware of that. She watched him stare at the calculator then cancel his sums and start once more.

“I love you, Roy.”

He looked up at her, surprised and pleased at her words.

“I love you too, darling. What’s up, Maws?”

She was surprised at the question.

“Why should anything be up? Can’t I tell me favourite brother I love him?”

He linked his fingers together and then leant on the desk.

“Is this anything to do with Carla and Tommy?”

She saw fear combined with sorrow in his eyes and felt her heart go out to him once more.

She nodded.

“She don’t mean it, Maura.”

“How do you make that out?”

He sighed.

“I’ve watched her over the years. Janine blanked her. You took her under your wing. All the boys treated her with the same haphazard affection they gave the old man. She feels lost, I think… lost and unsure of herself “Oh, really?”

Maura was annoyed now and in no mood to listen to this.

“So she was unsure of herself, was she? Didn’t stop her dropping her drawers, did it?”

The sarcasm in Maura’s voice pierced him to the core.

“And you forget, Roy, she lived off me. I gave her everything she needed or wanted, including love and affection. I treated her like me own child, which is more than you or her mother did. Now suddenly she looks like she wouldn’t be out of place downstairs. She’s sleeping with the same man that I am sleeping with. How do you suggest I sort this one out?”

“Don’t hurt her, Maura…”

She was really upset now.

“Thanks a lot, Roy.”

He shook his head quickly.

“I mean, don’t be horrible to her. She needs you whatever she might think. She needs you like she always did and always will. Her trouble is, she wants to be you.”

“You have been watching one too much Oprah Winfrey shows if you don’t mind me saying. This is cheap magazine psychology. Carla is a treacherous little whore and she knows it. She knew what she was doing, Roy. She is forty-five years old, for fuck’s sake. She ain’t a little kid any more, though she acts like one. Even Mother has commented on the change in her.”

He nodded.

“Precisely. Think about it. Forty-five and she’s still not mature. Still thinks that if you ain’t got a man you’ve failed. She has never even had a job.”

Maura’s eyes widened as she shouted at him, “And whose fucking fault is that then? Mine, I suppose. Blame me for everything, shall we?”

Roy sighed heavily.

“What I am trying to say is, Maws, put yourself in her place and then you might understand her. She’s jealous of you and all you have achieved.”

“Well, I paid the price for all my so-called achievements. They didn’t come fucking cheap and you know that as well as I do.”

He looked at her without speaking.

“She was over-protected all her life. Treated like she was some kind of queen. Well, I have had it with her now.”

“What about him?”

Maura laughed bitchily.

“Who? He’s already forgotten. It’s ancient history now, Roy. They can both get fucked.”

“You stupid-looking git!”

Joss was so angry that Tommy was for the first time ever afraid of him.

“You know what this means, don’t you, Tommy? Your wandering cock has finally stuck you in deep shit.”

Joss shook his head in abject disbelief.

“You had a woman most men would have given their right nut for, and you did the dirty on her with her own niece and honestly thought you could get away with it?” He shook his ugly head once more.

“You are a prick and you must know that, Tommy.”

The fact he swallowed what Joss was saying confirmed it. He just sat in the car with his head in his hands.

“What am I going to do?”

Joss laughed.

“You tell me, Mr. fucking Big Knob. You’re the one who got yourself in this mess, you get yourself out of it.”

He got out of the car.

“Where are you going?”

“To see Maura, of course. Try and make things easier for me, if not for you. I want her to know she’s had my loyalty if not yours this past six months.”

“You are joking?”

“Am I?”

Joss walked to his own car without a backward glance and Tommy sat there in utter amazement. He had really fucked up this time.

He had loved Maura, resented her at times admittedly but he had cared for her, and as Joss said, what on earth had made him think he could get away with it? With any of it, come to that?

Billy Mills walked into Maura’s club like a prince. The girls loved him and once word had gone round that he was inside they all made their way over to him. Billy smiled like a benevolent monarch, and kissed their hands, and called them all ‘darling” or ‘my love’. He treated them with respect, and as always with working girls that went a long way. They lapped it up.