Sorcerer (10 page)

‘You mean, big Mick with the hairy chest that he likes to show off by working topless when the weather’s hot?’

Jack grinned. ‘That’s him. I was always desperate to get my hands on him’.

‘You are so bad, Jack’

‘Oh don’t look at me like that, Doreen. The opportunity has come along for this stale old man to get his hands on a bit of rough trade and I’m taking it’.

‘Well I can’t say I approve, Jack’.

‘Well I can’t say that it keeps me awake at night worrying whether or not you do approve, Doreen’ retorted Jack, firmly. ‘You’re my friend and I love you but I don’t need your approval’.

‘Good job considering some of the things you’ve been up to over the years’.

‘I’ve never broken the law’.

‘No but you’ve sailed pretty close to it’.

‘Well as long as I have you as my moral parachute I won’t die when I hit the ground’.

‘You are a dirty old bugger’.

‘Yes, that’s just what Mick says too’.

‘What about this Mick’s wife?’

‘What about her?’

‘Well don’t you feel any conscience about her?’

‘Why? I’m not married to her so she’s not my responsibility. Anyway, I see her in the village. She works in the flower shop. I get quite a kick from going in there and chatting about life, love and the pursuit of happiness when all the time she doesn’t know what I’m getting up to with her husband’.

‘Jack!’

‘Well if she wanted to get licked out by one of the local lesbians then what would it matter to man or beast?’

‘Oh I’ve heard it all now’.

‘He parks his van at the end of the lane and walks up to the house’ Jack revealed, knowing how much he was goading Doreen. ‘It’s so exciting’.

‘But at the risk of repeating myself, Jack what about his wife?’

‘It’s not about her, Doreen. It’s about him having sex when there’s no possibility of it leading to a child he can’t afford to bring up but which she’s decided she wants. It’s about him going home with a smile on his face and his balls empty. He wants a sex life and she doesn’t really want anything more than a sperm donor who she can control through nagging. He’s not exactly Mr. Mastermind. I mean, he reads the Daily Express for God’s sake. But he does have a rather wonderful tool and a real bloke’s attitude and body to go with it. She puts about as much feeling into their sex life as I do into eating a yogurt. She talks down to him like he’s one of the children. He has to ask permission to go to the pub for God’s sake. It’s the classic northern working class reality of family life that’s gone on for centuries and when guys like Mick get married they not only get a wife they get a replacement mother as well. I’m just offering him a break from being that kind of straight man. I’m giving him back some of what he’s lost to her and her needs’.

‘And do you think it’s really like that for Mick?’

‘I’ve heard it from him and so many married men in his position’.

‘And you’ve had quite a few of those’.

‘Yes, I have, because they’ve needed something I can give them and it isn’t just married women who suffer in silence, Doreen’.

‘Phew. Stop for breath, will you. Anyway, how did it get started with Mick?’

‘He liked to wander about with his top off as you observed yourself and one day he said that his back was aching. I said he needed a massage with some hot oil. It kind of went from there’.

‘You are shameless’.

‘Maybe so’ said Jack who was getting rather irritated by Doreen’s stance. ‘But can you just remind me how long you and Roger have been married?

‘You know how long. You were at the wedding’.

‘Right, thirty two years. Now the two of you are very lucky to have found the strength in a relationship that leads to it lasting that long so don’t you dare look down your nose from the top of Mount smug on those of us who haven’t been as lucky and have to take whatever we can when we can. Okay?’

‘Sorry’.

‘It’s alright but … well I just get a bit tired of friends in happy, secure relationships telling me I should feel ashamed for having some fun when I’m the one who spends every night alone’.

‘I do understand you get lonely, Jack’.

‘Well then you should be able to understand the whole Mick situation. I never show it but I hate it when he leaves. I end up going up to bed as pissed as a fart after he’s gone home because I take solace in the bottle’.

‘Okay, so have your fun as long as it puts a smile on your face’ said Doreen who was concerned that, reading between the lines, Jack was falling for Mick in a much bigger way than he probably should. ‘Now, what else do you have to get in here?’

‘Well nothing, really. I’ve got the new jacket I wanted and you know how I detest browsing’

‘Then I think we should go down the pub’

‘I thought you had more stuff to get?’

‘Yeah, but I can’t be bothered anymore. There are too many people about and I need wine’.

‘Shall we ask them to open up the place an hour early one day next week exclusively for you so that you don’t have to trip over the common man and woman as you go about relieving yourself with Roger’s credit card?’.

‘Fuck off you!’

‘No, because it’s your round at the pub’.

‘Well I’m going shopping with our Vicky next week’ said Doreen. ‘I’ll drag her round’.

‘Oh that’s good’ said Jack. ‘It’s always nice to take someone shopping who can’t afford to spend anything like as much as you can. That always makes me feel so superior and is such a morally upright thing to do. So caring and considerate. How is your sister Vicky by the way? Still on benefits whilst you and Roger never have to worry about money again?’

‘I really will smack you in a minute. Come on, a bottle of some description has got our name on it’.

‘Do you fancy popping into the flower shop on the way? There’s a lovely girl who works in there. Devoted to her husband and children but sadly, she hasn’t given her husband any head since the day he asked her to marry him and now he goes elsewhere for it’.

The pub they headed to was one of the oldest such establishments in Hale and the food menu benefitted from the fact that they’d employed an actual chef as opposed to a waiter who could use a microwave. The restaurant section at the back, behind the main bar, was somewhat elegantly decked out in white linen tablecloths and plain white plates and bowls. They decided to order a bottle of Chablis to drink whilst they perused the menu.

‘I hope you know what you’re doing with this Mick’ said Doreen.

‘I don’t’ Jack answered. ‘But isn’t that what all the fun is about?’   

Doreen thought that Jack was a real paradox. He was her most trusted friend, a man to whom she would trust her life and that of her husband Roger. He was the businessman with the hard side that Doreen had never wanted to know everything about. He’d built himself a fabulous home even though it’s modern, minimalist décor conflicted with Doreen’s taste for the more classic, traditional, cluttered sort of style. And yet he had the devil in him when it came to sex. She feared it would end up being his downfall, especially when she knew that deep down Jack would give his right arm to find a soul mate. But she also knew why he was so rattled today. 

‘Jack, have you done anything about the death of Mary Griffin?’

Jack looked up from his menu. ‘Like what, exactly? Arrange a resurrection?’

‘Don’t be flippant, Jack’.

‘Well honestly, Doreen, what did you expect me to say?’

‘Well I don’t know’ said Doreen, in a loud kind of whisper. ‘But you were more involved with the family than most other people know about, Jack’.

Jack swirled some wine round in the bottom of his glass. ‘I’m leaving well alone’.

‘Jack, the woman is dead’.

‘Yes, and you know what she did when she was alive. That’s why I won’t be going to pay my respects’. 

SORCERER EIGHT

Gabby felt like she deserved an explanation from her mother so she decided to go round and see her. She knew that her mother was now staying with Griffin and that she’d have to face that monster but it was necessary. Her mother appeared at the door in a white bathrobe. It was past eleven in the morning. 

‘Mum? Where the hell have you been? Did you get my messages?’

‘Yes I got them all. Come in’.

Jenny led her through to the kitchen where she filled the kettle at the sink.

‘Mum, what are you doing here?’

‘I’ve left your Dad, Gabby’.

‘To move in with that pervert? Are you out of your mind?’

‘Can I remind you that the pervert as you refer to him is your grandfather and isn’t guilty of what he’s been accused of?’

‘Oh and you know that do you?’

‘Gabby, where’s your family loyalty?’

‘And where’s yours to your own husband who you haven’t been to see in hospital?’

Jenny paused. She did feel guilty about not going to see Ed.

‘I had to leave your father’.

‘Mum, he’s had a breakdown’.

‘I can’t do anymore for him, Gabby. I’m sorry but I just can’t’.

‘He needed you, Mum’ said Gabby. ‘He really needed you’.

Gabby broke down and cried. Her mother came to her and tried to hug her but Gabby pushed her away.

‘How could you leave him like that, Mum?’

‘Because I’d had enough! I couldn’t take another day of trying to get through to him. I’ve been doing it for twenty years and I’m exhausted. I’m worn out, Gabby, and I can’t take anymore. You’ll just have to understand’.

‘Oh and it’s all about you, isn’t it? You are a selfish cow’.

‘Gabby, do you mind not speaking to me like that. I am still your mother’.

‘Oh don’t you dare play the big parent thing with me, Mum. You’ve lost that right. And do you know why he’s been difficult all these years? Because of that filthy pervert you’ve got into bed with!’

George then came into the kitchen, also dressed only in a robe.

‘Oh speak of the devil and he shall appear’ said Gabby. ‘So here he is. The family child abuser’.

‘Jenny, I couldn’t let you take that onslaught on your own. Now, Gabby, just calm down and … ‘

‘ … calm down!’Gabby shrieked. ‘You’re the reason my Dad is in the state he’s in’.

‘Look, Gabby, I don’t know what he’s told you but … ‘

‘ … shut up! You make my skin crawl!’

‘Gabby, that’s enough!’ Jenny demanded.

Gabby slapped her mother hard across her face. Jenny gasped with shock and pain and George moved towards the two women but was stopped in his tracks when Gabby held up her fist towards him.

‘You come any closer and so help me I will kill you’ said Gabby.

Jenny was so stunned she couldn’t speak.

‘Look, Gabby, you’re clearly upset’ said George, trying to sound as soothing as he could. ‘But you need to calm down and listen to reason. And you need to respect your mother’.

‘Respect my mother? She’s nothing but a slapper’.

  ‘Oh you’ve been well and truly got at’ said George.

  ‘By the step-son you abused?’

  ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ asked Jenny, still stroking her reddened face.

  ‘I’ll let your boyfriend explain that one’ said Gabby. ‘Let him explain to you what he did to Dad’.

  Jenny turned to George. ‘What is she talking about?’

  ‘The same pack of lies Ed has been using to make excuses for himself all his life’.

  ‘Oh?’ said Gabby. ‘Lies are they? Just like all those boys from Pembroke House who went through Hell thanks to you? Are you going to say they’re all liars too?’

  ‘George can defend himself against any mud that’s thrown at him, Gabby’ said Jenny.

  ‘Oh I wouldn’t sound so smug if I was you but if a child abuser is the latest must-have accessory for the woman who feels she missed out on all the parties, then, as they say, fill your boots’.

  ‘Gabby, please, you’re breaking my heart!’ Jenny pleaded.

  ‘ … tough! Deal with it! You were so desperate you jumped into bed with your own father-in-law, a man who’s been accused of physically and sexually abusing teenage boys. Think about that when he gives you an orgasm, Mum’.

‘Gabby, that is disgusting’.

‘No Mum, what is disgusting is that you’ll let him anywhere near you’. She then turned to George. ‘Why don’t you do the world a favour and just drop dead’

Now that Ed Lake was in the psychiatric unit of Wythenshawe hospital following his breakdown it wasn’t possible for him to be interviewed until the medical staff gave their okay. So Jeff and Rebecca could divert their attention to interviewing others in the rapidly growing case against George and the now deceased Mary Griffin.  

When they got to 19, Burlington Drive, Hale, they found a sort of upmarket terraced semi in a tree lined street that actually looked quite decent, thought Rebecca. At the front there was a bay window at both ground and upstairs levels and a small yard with a wall around it that was about three meters high. Across the road was a high school. It must make the area quite busy in the mornings and late afternoons, thought Jeff.