McQueen's Agency (27 page)

He was lighting another cigarette when the door opened. Edna couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw Eddie standing there.

Reg let out a loud laugh. ‘Well, well, well. If it isn’t lover boy from the grocer’s shop. The skinny guy.’

Eddie came over to the chair and told Edna to leave but she pleaded with him, ‘Just go, Eddie. He’ll hit you and I don’t want you hurt.’

Eddie said, ‘Oh, I don’t think so. His kind only hit women.’

Enraged by this remark, Reg put his head down and charged at the young man. Later, when Edna recalled the incident, she couldn’t believe her eyes. As he lunged at Eddie, the lad seemed to grab him and Reg landed on the floor with a loud thud. Huge mounds of dust flew up and mingled with the cigarette smoke.

Picking himself up, Reg gave another charge and once more he hit the floor, but this time he banged his head against the wall.

Eddie grabbed Edna’s hand and they both ran out of the door. ‘He’ll come after us,’ said Edna.

‘No, he won’t. Anyway I’ve got the van.’ As they drove away, she felt so relieved that she had escaped relatively unharmed. The blood had seeped onto her frock but it was just a superficial cut she thought.

‘What did you do to him, Eddie? He’s a big man.’

‘I go to martial arts class every week. We learn self-defence.’

‘He’ll be enraged and come looking for you. He’s got a very nasty temper.’

Eddie said nothing and concentrated on his driving.

‘How did you know where I was?’

‘You showed me the address, just as I hoped you would. Do you know he’s been watching you for days? Dolly alerted me about him and I’ve been keeping an eye on him.’ He looked at her stained frock. ‘I’d better take you home.’

Edna didn’t want Billy to see her like this. ‘Can you go in ahead of me and warn my mum?’ she asked.

When they reached Paradise Road, Eddie went up the stairs while she remained in the van. Then he came down again with Irene in tow. Her mum was upset and angry.

‘I’ve sent Billy downstairs to play with his pal.’ She leant inside the van and helped Edna out on to the pavement. ‘Look at the state of you.’ She tried to smile but her eyes were full of rage.

‘Here, son, help me up to the house,’ she said to Eddie and he put a strong arm around Edna’s waist and half carried her to the house.

Edna’s cut wasn’t too bad. It had bled a lot but it was superficial and Irene bathed it in warm water.

Irene said, ‘I have to thank you for helping Edna. That Reg is a bad lot and I’ve never liked him. I think you should go the police about him, Edna.’

Edna said no. ‘I have to remember how good he was to Billy and me after Will died. It was when he wanted the relationship to go further that he turned nasty.’ She twisted her handkerchief in her hands as if remembering that time. She smiled at Eddie. ‘The ironic thing is I almost married him when Billy was eighteen months old. Then one night we were coming out of the La Scala picture house when this young lad with a rucksack on his back came up to me. He wanted directions to Victoria Road so I told him where to go. Reg said nothing at the time but further up the road he accused me of flirting with the lad. He gave me a hard slap but immediately apologised for it. Then it happened again on another occasion followed by the same apologies. Then he threatened to smack Billy and that was the end for me. I told him I didn’t want to see him again and although he hung around for a couple of months, I haven’t heard anything from him for the last three and a half years. He’s been fighting in Korea, he said, and now he’s off to a job overseas, so I hope he’s gone for good.’

Edna walked down the stairs with Eddie. ‘I know you said I showed you the address of this job today but why aren’t you at work, Eddie?’

‘I asked Albert for the day off. I said I had to go to the dentist so no one knows about any of this.’

‘Thanks again.’

‘Oh, before I forget, Dolly is coming to see you tonight. I hope you don’t mind but she was worried about you.’

‘She’ll get on well with Mum and I’ll be pleased to see her.’

After he left, she went back upstairs and burst into tears. Irene let her cry, as she needed to get all this out of her mind and she was furious at Reg for causing all this mayhem. Edna said he was going abroad but Irene was worried he could cause trouble before then.

Dolly arrived not long after teatime. She brought a Dinky car and a comic for Billy who immediately started playing with the car, putting it in his little garage.

Dolly told Irene that Edna was being missed already. ‘Nancy turned up this morning, late as usual and scowling. I think that lassie has seen too many gangsters’ molls in the pictures and likes to think she looks like them. She says she has a smouldering look but she has a pained expression, like she’s lost a half crown and found a tanner.’

‘There was a wee queue waiting to pay for their messages and what do you think wee madam was doing?’

Edna and Irene said they didn’t know.

‘Filing her nails and putting on her lipstick. Totally ignoring us all. Well Albert shouted at her and told her to get her backside off the chair and start manning the till. She just gave him her usual snooty look and ignored him. He was heard muttering, “I’m going to get Edna back.” Well, what do you think of that, Edna? We all want you back.’

Edna was touched but she said, ‘I’m not sure what I want to do, Dolly. I might have to give up my job and look for something else but I’m not sure. My head’s in a mess.’

Dolly patted her hand. ‘Just you get back to normal, lass, and take as long as you like. You’ve had a terrible shock with that awful man, but don’t let him ruin your life.’

Irene said, ‘I’ve said the same thing, Dolly. If she lets him ruin her life then he’s won.’

‘I’ve got Eddie to thank for helping me. I didn’t know he did martial arts.’

Dolly said, ‘He’s been a member of the club since he was a laddie. I always used to tell him it would come in handy one day and it has.’

Edna knew she would have to go to the office and explain everything to Molly but she had made up her mind to leave the agency. She had brought nothing but trouble and worry in her wake.

She was also worried what Reg’s next move would be. She knew he wouldn’t be happy at Eddie for showing him up in front of her. He was a proud man and she knew he would get his own back in some way.

She hoped this job he was boasting about was imminent. If that happened then he would be away and life would become normal again. Wouldn’t it?

At the moment when Edna was worrying about his reaction, Reg was in his dingy bedsit flat in Ann Street, seething with anger at Edna and the skinny guy who had made such a fool of him.

He stubbed out his cigarette into an overflowing ashtray. Who would have thought a skinny guy like that could put him on the floor? And as for Edna’s rejection … well, he would leave that for now.

He was going back to Palestine with a firm who dealt with security for businesses abroad. Back to the Holy Land. Or, as he and Will had called it, the ‘Unholy Land’, where there had been so much carnage between the Jews and the Arabs.

He tried to forget about his time in Korea and the horrors of war over there. He had been injured with shrapnel before the ceasefire and had spent two months in hospital. But he was over that now and all he had on his mind now was revenge.

His small bag was packed, his rent paid up to the end of the week and he had returned the key for the scrapyard. He had decided not to rent it after all, he told the young lass on the desk; a pretty girl who looked at him admiringly. This had boosted his confidence and he almost asked her out to the pictures, but no, there would be time enough for that later.

Molly was still dealing with the country house sale. Kenneth and Joe must have bought the entire contents she thought but it was good to be busy. Kenneth didn’t go over to the shop that afternoon and as far as she knew neither did Lena.

Molly hadn’t seen Lena for a few days and was worried that something was badly wrong with her but Kenneth had said she was in bed with the ‘flu.

Christie, Joe and Mike were kept busy delivering items to customers but Kenneth never left the house. He spent most of the day upstairs and Molly saw him carrying trays of food and pots of coffee to Lena’s room.

When the phone rang, she thought it was for Lamont Antiques but it was Mary on the other end of the line. ‘I’ve got Edna here. She wants to speak to you.’

Molly knew there must be something wrong and when she heard Edna’s voice she was proved right.

‘I’m sorry to bother you at your work, Molly, but there’s been a bit of trouble again.’ She went on to tell her the entire sorry tale. When she was finished she said, ‘I’ll finish at the end of the week, Molly, as you have enough to cope with without all this hassle.’

Molly told her to wait at the office and she would be over as soon as she could get away. She thought Kenneth wouldn’t mind her going a couple of hours early.

Leaving the office, she stood at the foot of the stairs and called up, ‘Kenneth, can I have a word?’ There was no reply and everything was silent. She knew he was there because he had passed the door a short while earlier. She called out again but there was still no answer.

She decided to go out to the sheds and speak to Joe. Christie was alone and busy stacking paintings against the far wall.

‘Is Joe here?’ she asked

‘No, you’ve just missed him. He’s gone out in the van with Mike.’

‘Listen Christie, something has come up at the agency and I have to leave early. I’ve tried calling up to Kenneth but there’s no answer, so can you give him a message and tell him I’ll be back tomorrow?’

Christie said he would pass it on when he saw either Joe or Kenneth.

‘I hope it’s nothing serious, Molly,’ he said.

‘No, it’s one of my workers. Something has happened with her assignment and I have to be there to sort it out. I’ll see you tomorrow.’

She didn’t want to elaborate to Christie about the problems she was having with hoax calls and, judging by Edna’s story, this was more serious.

As she drove along the narrow road towards the ferry, she was considering her future with the agency. She would have to look at the financial statement and see if it was worth carrying on. The job she had was a good payer but now she had burnt her bridges by leaving. And all because of some domestic situation that was no concern of hers.

When she reached the agency, Edna was sitting with a tearful Mary. When she saw her, Edna jumped up but Molly said, ‘Can you please make a pot of tea for us all, Mary?’

Mary scuttled upstairs, glad to be out of the firing line. She was worried she would get the blame about this latest fiasco but it had been a woman who had called about the job. She wondered if it could have a man who disguised his voice but no, she was adamant it was a woman.

Downstairs, Edna was telling Molly the entire story. ‘I know him from years ago, Molly, and I had my suspicions this was all his doing but he hadn’t been in touch for over three years.’

‘What do you think he’ll do now, Edna?’

‘Well, he’ll want his own back if I know him, but he did say he was going to a job overseas so with a bit of luck he’ll be away again.’

Mary put down the tray with the tea and three cups. ‘It was a woman who phoned, Edna, I’ll swear to that.’

‘It’s not your fault, Mary. He got a stranger, a woman, to call from a phone box to fool you. He was quite proud of his deception, but he is devious.’

‘Do you want to take a holiday and get away with Billy, until you’re sure he’s away?’ asked Molly.

‘I thought you would want me to leave.’

‘No, I don’t. All this isn’t your fault.’

‘Well I’d rather keep working, Molly, if you don’t mind. Billy starts school again next week so I want his routine to stay the same.’

‘Well, leave it with me and I’ll go over the diary with Mary and let you know what’s available.’

Mary showed her the diary. There were some small jobs booked but nothing more than a week at a time.

‘I’ll put Edna on this one,’ said Molly; a vacancy in a small office in Tay Street, initially for one week.

Molly was quite worried, as the diary didn’t show enough work for everyone. She would be finished on Thursday and now felt stupid for saying she was leaving. Maybe by Thursday Lena would be feeling better and she might ask her to stay on but she couldn’t rely on that happening.

It didn’t matter so much if Jean and Betty were laid off until something else turned up and Molly could tackle the other two vacancies. What she needed were other clients like John Knox and Lamont Antiques.

Mary was twiddling her pen, looking at Molly, a bright expectant look on her face. Molly’s heart sank.

‘I know I said I was going to advertise for another school leaver to do the reception work, Mary, and let you go out on agency work, but after this awful affair with Edna I would be worried about your safety. We don’t know if this man, Reg, is still around.’

Mary said she understood. After all, she didn’t relish going into some deserted building with a maniac and she shivered slightly at the thought. It was one thing going to the pictures and seeing Frankenstein terrorising everyone and another being in the same situation for real.

‘As soon as all this blows over and when we get a lot more bookings, then you’ll be going out and about.’

Molly decided to go home. Mary was dealing with anything that turned up at this end and there was lots of work she could do at the house.

Marigold was sitting in the garden when she arrived home and she called over the fence.

When Marigold saw her face, she said, ‘What’s happened, Molly? You look terrible.’

Molly sank back in the roomy garden chair and found herself telling her neighbour about the trials and tribulations of the agency. Marigold was horrified when she heard about Edna.

‘And she says she knows this man?’ she said.

Molly nodded. ‘He’s some army pal of her late husband and quite a controlling person by the sound of it. I hope he goes away and doesn’t come back as I think Edna is frightened of him.’