The Fight for Lizzie Flowers (17 page)

‘Frank was in hospital?’

‘Until they decided to offload him.’ Gertie reached out for the banister to lean on. ‘Brought him in an ambulance and took him upstairs. The poor sod can’t walk. As if a
trouncing wasn’t bad enough they put a knife in his shoulder.’

‘Oh God, Gertie!’

‘A few inches lower and he’d have had his chips.’

Lizzie stood in silence. Had Frank upset someone so much they wanted to kill him? Secretly, she had begun to believe he was trying to go straight.

‘Does Danny know?’ she whispered to Gertie.

‘He ain’t been round.’

‘I’ll get Bert to tell him.’

‘He should come and see his brother.’

‘Yes,’ Lizzie agreed when she saw that Gertie was so exhausted that even standing up was an effort. ‘Looking after an invalid must be very tiring.’

‘I’m doing my best. But he’s as weak as a kitten from loss of blood. The doctor gave him some pills, but they don’t help much with the pain. You’d better go
upstairs and see for yourself. Second door along the landing. I’ll get some tea on for Polly.’ She made her way slowly back to the kitchen.

Lizzie went reluctantly up the stairs to the bedroom. She was dreading what she would find when she got there.

Frank didn’t stir when she walked into the bedroom. He was lying on his back with his arms at his sides. Bandages covered his bare chest and as she drew closer she saw
the sockets of his eyes were a sickly yellow and swollen.

‘Frank?’ She stood at the bed.

His gaze found her. Flicking out his tongue he licked his dry lips. ‘Blimey, if it isn’t an angel.’

‘Frank, what happened?’

He swallowed, making a strangled noise. ‘Got done over, didn’t I?’ His eyes rolled to the wooden chair beside the bed. ‘Sit down, gel.’

‘I can’t stay long.’

‘Don’t matter. It’s nice to see someone.’

She sat on the chair. ‘You look terrible.’

‘Thanks.’

‘Are you in trouble again?’

‘No, I told you, I’m going straight.’ His voice was a hoarse whisper as he put his hand to the bandages on his chest. Closing his eyes, he made a choking sound. As he moved,
Lizzie saw the dressings were stained.

‘So who did this and why?’

‘Gawd knows.’

‘I don’t believe you.’

‘No, I suppose you don’t,’ he mumbled, ‘but it’s the truth.’

‘Gertie said you were knifed.’

‘Yeah, too right I was.’

‘So you’re lucky to be alive.’

He blinked his puffed eyes.

‘Did they rob you?’

‘Yeah, one of them grabbed Dad’s watch,’ Frank said hoarsely. ‘He gave it to me when I started my job. So’s I’d never be late.’

‘Was it the one he wore in the shop?’ Lizzie remembered Bill’s watch. He’d worn it for years. The clock face was extra large with big, bold figures.

‘Yeah. Wasn’t gold or nothing. But it had a nice leather strap. When I told the law this, they was quick to put it down as thievery. Tidied up their books nicely.’

‘Are they still looking into it?’

A faint smile touched his cracked lips. ‘Yeah, in the other direction.’

Lizzie sighed. ‘Gertie says you can’t walk.’

He rolled his eyes. ‘My back is done in. I’ve got a sore arse from lying in bed and Dad has to help me when I pee. I’m about as much use as a pork pie at a Jewish
wedding.’ Frank stopped talking as Polly’s laughter drifted up from downstairs. ‘How is the kid? I’ve missed seeing her.’

‘She’s had a cold. Or else we’d have been round sooner.’

‘You’d have had a fright if you’d seen me last week.’ Frank managed to turn his head. ‘Did Flo’s baby make it?’

Lizzie nodded. ‘The doctor said she has to keep her feet up.’

‘She won’t like that, knowing Flo.’

For a moment they were silent until Lizzie spoke again. ‘Do you have any idea at all who your attackers could be?’

Frank’s pale eyes stared back at her. ‘There was three of them. Two big ’uns and one smaller than me.’

‘And you didn’t see their faces.’

‘They jumped out and surprised me.’

‘Have you made any enemies recently?’

Frank tried to laugh, but coughed instead. ‘I’ve got plenty to choose from.’

‘I mean, someone who might pay someone else to do this?’

Frank lay quietly until he rasped, ‘There was something about one of the voices.’

‘Did you recognize it?’

‘No, I was too busy trying to get me oar in.’

Lizzie sat back and sighed. Frank brought so much on himself. Was this the other side of his repentant coin? she wondered. ‘I’m sorry to find you like this, but I’ve got to go
now.’ She went to stand up but he lifted his hand.

‘Stay a bit longer,’ he pleaded. ‘There’s something I need to say.’

She sat on the edge of the chair. ‘What is it?’

‘Could you get a message to Danny?’

She stiffened. ‘Gertie already asked.’

‘I want Danny to know I’m sorry.’

‘You’ve said all that before.’

‘I’ve never given him cause to be proud of his brother,’ Frank said, catching his breath. ‘Not even as a kid. I was never in Danny’s league. He was good at
everything, shone like the Bethlehem Star. He was the barrow boy that everyone loved. I was the dimwit in the shop, shovelling the spuds.’

‘That’s how it seemed to you.’

‘That’s how it was.’

‘You could have made good. Same as Danny if you’d tried.’

‘I know, I’m just saying, I wouldn’t blame Danny if he didn’t call over. But I’d like him to.’

‘I’ll get Bert to pass on the message.’

Frank turned and flinched. ‘Don’t you see him?’

‘I’m too busy trying to make a living. There’s a crook trying to muscle into Ferreter’s shoes.’

Frank stared at her. ‘What’s his name?’

‘Leonard Savage. Do you know him? He seems to know you.’

‘No, honest to God, I don’t. What’s he want?’

‘Protection money, of course.’ Lizzie wondered if Frank was telling the truth. Could it be Savage’s men who’d attacked him? Had Frank done some running again and not paid
his debts?

‘Lizzie, I swear I don’t know him.’

‘Have you done jobs on the side while you’ve been at the hospital?’

‘On my life, I haven’t.’

‘I’ve got to go now.’ Lizzie had heard all this before.

‘Don’t leave,’ Frank croaked, trying to sit up.

‘Why should I stay?’

‘Because I think a lot of you and want you to know I’m on the level.’

‘That’s not funny, Frank.’

‘The God’s truth is I knew you were special from the moment I saw you at the market. You didn’t see me. I’d just helped Danny fill up the barra and was on my way back to
the shop. You was talking to Dickie Potts, the old bloke who sold newspapers. Danny told me who you were and I thought, that’s the girl I’m going to marry. But Danny got there first. I
knew you’d never look at me. Not while Danny was in the picture. I—’

‘So you persuaded Babs to destroy Danny’s letters,’ Lizzie interrupted angrily. ‘How could you do such a thing? You told me he was marrying someone else.’

Frank licked his lips. ‘I know, I’m sorry.’

‘What good is sorry now?’

He dropped his head back on the pillow. His eyes still held hers. ‘I ain’t even told Dad this. But there’s something else. You see, I’d hear these voices inside me head.
And I’d try my best not to listen to them. But they always won in the end. It wasn’t till I was in the nut house that they stopped.’

Lizzie frowned. ‘What sort of voices?’

‘Bad ones, telling me to do things . . .’ He stopped, his eyes staring vacantly. ‘That’s what the electric shock did. They shoved this needle in my arm and put an
electric current through me. For months the torture went on. In the end I didn’t struggle. I let ’em do it. And I took the pills. And now there’s no voices any more.’

‘So you’re saying these voices told you to hurt people?’

‘That’s why I drank. To cover ’em up.’

‘So you’re claiming the liar, cheat and villain in you has disappeared? You ain’t the same man who waited in my shop to light a fuse – and if it hadn’t misfired the
blast would have blown your own family to pieces?’ She hadn’t realized she was trembling as she gave vent to her feelings. ‘You robbed us of a life that might not have been
perfect, Frank, but we could have made a home together. We could have had our own babies. Children to give our love to, as you now say you love Polly. If you’d got off your backside we could
have made the shop turn a profit and Bill could have taken it easy. But you went your own way. A bookie’s runner was better than being a husband and father. When we got married, Frank, I put
the past behind me and my feelings for Danny. You and me, we took vows. I kept them, because you were my husband. You forgot you had a wife.’

Lizzie stood up, marvelling at the fact he had so much pity for himself and had not a drop to give her.

‘Christ, Lizzie, what can I say?’ He tried to reach out.

‘I’m going now.’

‘Tell Danny, will you?’

She looked into his eyes. Then turning quickly she walked out of the room. Her legs were heavy, drained of strength. Why did Frank keep putting her through all this? Why did she allow him to get
to her? Why hadn’t she walked out of the room before he’d started with all his excuses?

Slowly she made her way along the passage. For all her anger at Frank, there was Gertie and Bill to consider. They were trying to look after an invalid when neither of them was in good
health.

Frank was like the proverbial cuckoo. He had come back to the only nest that would have him. And filled it.

‘What’s wrong with Uncle Frank?’ Polly asked when Lizzie walked into the parlour. Polly was sitting with Bill, playing dominoes. A currant bun was half-eaten
on the table beside the small wooden bricks.

‘He’s not very well.’

‘Has he got a cold like I had?’

‘Something like that.’

‘Can I go and see him?’

‘Next time,’ said Bill before Lizzie could reply. Looking into her eyes the old man asked, ‘Did he tell you anything?’

‘Not really.’ Lizzie took the plate with the bun and gave it to Polly. ‘We have to go soon. Ask Gertie to put this in a bag for you.’

‘We ain’t finished our game.’

‘Granda will keep the dominoes on the tray for you.’

Polly did as she was told and, when Lizzie was alone with Bill, she said quietly, ‘Are you all right, Bill?’

‘Not so bad, thanks.’

‘And Gertie?’

He sat back with a sigh. ‘She’s up and down them stairs all bleedin’ day.’

‘Bill, do you have any idea who could have done it?’

‘Do you know they left him for dead?’ Bill said, breathing hard.

‘Frank says he’s legit, but can that be true? Does he owe money? Is he back in the rackets again?’

Bill shook his head fiercely. ‘He’s shook off his past, but look what’s happened to him. It just ain’t right, it—’

‘Don’t upset yourself.’

‘Can’t help it. The cowards.’

‘What can I do for you and Gertie?’ Lizzie asked.

‘This ain’t your lookout, gel.’

‘He’s still my husband, whether I like it or not.’

For a while the old man was silent, chewing on his false teeth. Then pushing the tray of dominoes across the table, he heaved a sigh. ‘You know, when the two boys was young they were
solid. But as they grew older, I knew something was wrong. Up here.’ Bill tapped the side of his head. ‘My father would have said Frank was a schlepper. That bad blood ran in the family
as it had with my uncles when they scarpered with the family fortune. And for a while, as you well know, Frank proved him right. You and me both suffered at Frank’s hands. And perhaps we can
never forget. But if it’s within my power to forgive before I leave this mortal coil, then I must try. For the sake of my own soul. As well as his.’ Rubbing the cuff of his woollen
cardigan against his cheek he said in a pained whisper, ‘Not that I ask it of you, my dear.’

Lizzie heard voices in the passage. ‘I ate all me bun,’ Polly called as she bounced into the room.

Lizzie kissed Bill’s cheek. ‘We’d better be going.’

He looked up at her with sad eyes.

As they walked home, Lizzie was listening with one ear to Polly. But Bill’s words were going round and round in her mind. They wouldn’t go away. Bill had confided he was trying to
forgive Frank for the sake of his own soul as well as his son’s.

But was true forgiveness possible?

‘Tell me you’re kidding,’ Bert spluttered that evening as Lizzie served up his meal. ‘This is a joke, right?’

The shop was closed, Polly was asleep and Lizzie had come to a decision. ‘There’s nowhere else for him to go.’

Bert pushed away his plate and took a long gulp of his ale. ‘Why should we have him?’

‘Because Bill and Gertie can’t manage.’

‘Frank wouldn’t lift a finger to help you if you was in trouble.’

‘I know.’

‘Don’t do it, gel. You’ll regret it.’

‘It will only be until he’s back on his feet.’

But Bert was shaking his head firmly. ‘You ever seen a pig fly?’

‘I need your help to bring him over.’

Bert’s shocked brown eyes rolled up to the ceiling. ‘And how we gonna do that?’

‘In the van.’

‘But you said he was flat on his back.’

‘He is. But you and Danny will manage it.’

Bert gawped at her. ‘Danny? Now I am laughing, Lizzie.’

She took Bert’s hand. ‘Can I count on you?’

Bert stared out from his hang-dog eyes. ‘Dunno what Danny will have to say about all this.’

‘Frank claims he was set up. He swears he’s on the level. Something ain’t right here, Bert.’

‘Yeah and it’s Frank.’

‘Danny should hear him out.’

Bert looked at his supper on the table before him. ‘I’ll think about it,’ he grumbled as he stuck his knife into the cold chicken pie. He began to eat ravenously and Lizzie
smiled as she hurried downstairs. She knew that with a little more persuasion Bert would help her.

She found Fowler sprawled out on the settee in the storeroom, snoring loudly.

‘Wake up, Fowler.’

‘What?’ The big man blinked. He grabbed the iron bar beside him. ‘Is it the opposition?’