The Traitor (53 page)

Petrified by her uncle’s behaviour, Georgie obediently led Harry outside the house. Sammy pushed the door to, and smiled at the fright on Val and Joanne’s faces.

‘So, where is the slag?’ he asked Joanne.

Joanne shrugged. ‘I don’t know, honest I don’t.’

Sammy edged closer to the two terrified women and waved his finger in both their faces. ‘Don’t even think of calling the gavvers, will ya? ’Cause if you do, I swear I will come back and mutilate the pair of ya.’

Laughing at the looks on their faces, Sammy winked and walked away.

Eddie sat down in an interview room opposite DI Blyth. After a lot of screaming and shouting, she had finally agreed to give him five minutes of her time.

‘Thanks for seeing me. Frankie’s my only daughter and I can’t help her if I don’t know exactly what’s happened. I recognise you – didn’t you have something to do with my trial?’

Blyth nodded. ‘Yes, I was the one that ferried Frankie to court. For personal reasons, I was transferred over to Chelmsford two years ago.’

‘So, is Jed alive?’ Eddie asked nervously.

‘Jed is currently being operated on in Basildon Hospital. He was stabbed twice with a bread knife and his injuries have been described as life-threatening.’

Eddie ran his fingers through his hair and leaned back on his chair. ‘Listen, I dunno if you’ve got kids yourself, but I know what my Frankie’s all about. My daughter wouldn’t hurt a fly and she wouldn’t even know how to stab a steak, let alone her boyfriend. She ain’t violent, it’s not in her nature.’

DI Blyth shrugged. ‘Frankie has already admitted to attempting to murder Jed and I just hope for her sake that he doesn’t die.’

Eddie stood up and paced up and down the room. ‘Is she here? I need to speak to her.’

‘She was here, but she isn’t now. She was in shock and didn’t feel too well, so she has been escorted to Broomfield Hospital for the sake of her baby.’

Feeling both anxious and incompetent, Eddie slammed his fist against the wall. ‘My solicitor will be here in a minute. He’s gonna represent Frankie, sit in with her while she does her interview.’

As Eddie Mitchell looked at her, DI Blyth felt a slight twinge of guilt. She had insisted that Frankie wasn’t in a fit state of mind to be interviewed, but she had been overruled by her not-so-sympathetic DS.

‘I am so sorry, Mr Mitchell, but the interview has already been concluded. I advised Frankie not to speak without a legal representative, but she was very insistent that she didn’t need to be represented.’

Eddie crouched down and held his head in his hands. ‘Frankie, what the fuck have you done?’ he whispered.

Back in Rainham, Joey was doing his best to console his drunken grandmother.

‘Cursed this family is and it’s all my bloody fault,’ Joyce ranted, as she topped her glass up with yet another sherry.

Stanley raised his eyebrows at Joey and put his forefinger to the side of his head to insinuate Joyce wasn’t the full shilling.

Joey sighed. He had phoned his father but there was no answer, and he had also rung Basildon police station, which he believed was the nearest one to Wickford. They informed him that his sister wasn’t there. He was at a loss as to what else to do for now and he had no number for Frankie’s friend, Kerry. The only thing he could do was wait for Dominic to arrive. His boyfriend had just left work, was always good in a crisis and he would know exactly how to handle matters.

Joyce took a gulp of her sherry. ‘If only I hadn’t opened the door that day, my Jessica would still be alive and Frankie wouldn’t have murdered Jed.’

Stanley had had a gutful of his wife spouting rubbish. He almost wished he was still round Pat the Pigeon’s house.

‘Whatever you going on about? You silly old bat.’

‘The gypsy. The one that cursed me on the doorstep years ago when I refused to buy her lucky heather. Gone downhill ever since, my life has, that and the day I married you, you bald-headed old bastard.’

‘Don’t have a go at Grandad, Nan. None of this is his fault,’ Joey said, annoyed.

Joyce snorted. ‘Don’t be sticking up for him. He’s got some old tart on the firm. Coming home here smelling of some old whore’s perfume. I ain’t putting up with it, I deserve better.’

Joey looked at his nan in amazement. ‘Don’t be silly. Who would want Grandad?’

‘That’s what I thought,’ Joyce said, bursting into tears.

Stanley stood up and stomped out of the room. He would rather spend the night in his pigeon shed than have to hear one more word from Joycie’s argumentative mouth.

DI Blyth insisted on picking Frankie up from the hospital herself. The girl had been fully checked over and both she and the baby had been declared fit and well.

As DC Burkinshaw followed her along the corridor, Blyth turned to him. ‘I’m going to drive Frankie back to the station alone; you go with one of the other officers. We need to chat, woman to woman.’

About to argue that driving a potential murderer back alone wasn’t in the rule book, Burkinshaw quickly shut his mouth. DI Blyth had that ‘don’t mess with me’ look on her face.

Once inside the car, Blyth explained to Frankie that her father had been to the police station and had spoken to her.

‘What did he say when you told him that I’d stabbed Jed?’ Frankie asked.

Blyth glanced at Frankie. She was fiddling frantically with her hands and rocking slightly in her seat and Blyth couldn’t believe that the doctors had passed her as fully fit.

‘He was shocked, and very upset that you hadn’t taken my advice and had a solicitor present for your interview. I don’t think you are very well, Frankie. If I turn this car around now and drive back to the hospital, you can tell the doctors that you feel strange and muddled and we might be able to scrap that interview you did and do a new one when you feel a bit better.’

Frankie shook her head. ‘I’m fine, honest. Can I ask you something?’

Blyth nodded.

‘Is Jed dead yet?’

Blyth looked at her. ‘No. Why? Do you want him to be?’

Frankie shrugged. ‘I just want my children to be safe and they will never be safe while Jed’s alive.’

Knowing she was now getting somewhere, Blyth bumped the car onto a kerb. ‘And why is that, Frankie? What has Jed done to your children?’

Frankie gnawed at her already bitten fingernails. ‘Can I ring my friend when I get back to the police station? You did promise me.’

Blyth handed Frankie her mobile phone. She was desperate to understand what had turned a sweet, innocent girl into a violent lunatic.

‘You can use this, but you mustn’t tell anyone back at the station. I’m not allowed to let you use it and if you tell on me, you’ll get me into all kinds of trouble.’

‘I promise I won’t tell,’ Frankie said, snatching the phone off her.

It was Joanne who answered.

‘Don’t tell her Sammy’s took the kids,’ Kerry whispered, frantically waving her arms. Frankie had enough on her plate and she wanted to break the news that the children had been snatched as gently as she possibly could.

Kerry grabbed the phone. ‘Frankie, I’ve been worried sick about you. Where are you now?’

‘I’m still with the police, but don’t worry, I’m fine. Jed’s not dead yet, which is a shame. Where are the kids? Are they OK?’

Frankie sounded strange, very unlike her normal self, and instinct told Kerry not to say she had no idea where the kids were.

‘The kids are fine. Listen Frankie, you have to tell the police about the tape, you’ve got to tell them everything.’

‘No, I can’t. And you must promise me, Kerry, that you never mention it to anybody.’

Kerry was bemused. Frankie sounded as though she was high on drugs or something. ‘You must tell them, Frankie. If you don’t, they won’t understand what you did and why you did it.’

‘I’m not going to tell ’em, I can’t, and one day I will tell you why, but I can’t really talk properly now. You won’t say anything about it, will you? Promise me, Kerry, that you won’t.’

‘I promise that I won’t say anything unless you want me to,’ Kerry replied sadly.

Frankie smiled. ‘Put the kids on, I want to talk to them.’

Kerry looked at Joanne. They had rung the police, told them that Sammy had taken the children and they were waiting for someone to come round. The police hadn’t seemed particularly concerned when they had heard that Sammy was the father of two of the kids and the uncle of the other two. Kerry and Joanne didn’t mention that Sammy had been violent earlier. They were too frightened of any repercussions.

‘The kids are out,’ Kerry said.

‘Where? Who with?’

‘Me mum. She’s took ’em to McDonald’s,’ Kerry lied.

Frankie was bitterly disappointed. She had been so looking forward to speaking to her children; she needed to tell them how much she loved them. Her eyes filled up with tears.

‘I need you to look after them for me until everything’s sorted, Kerry. Can you do that for me? I will give you my dad’s number, he will give you some money and help you out.’

Kerry started to cry. ‘Of course I can. Can I come and see you, Frankie? When are the police letting you go?’

Frankie ended the call without giving an answer or saying goodbye. She tearfully handed the phone back to Blyth.

‘What do you not want your friend to say anything about, Frankie? Please tell me, I want to help you.’

Frankie stared out of the window. Blyth seemed trustable, but what was the point of telling her about the tape when Sammy had run off with it? Without any evidence it was her word against Jed’s and, unless the bastard died, he would easily convince everyone that she was lying.

Frankie put her head in her hands. Telling her dad about the tape was not even on her radar. He would definitely believe her, but Jed was dangerous and she couldn’t risk her dad doing life in prison or, worse still, ending up dead like her mother had.

‘Talk to me, Frankie. Please tell me what’s bothering you,’ Blyth said kindly.

Frankie shook her head. ‘The only thing I can tell you is that Jed is a traitor. The rest is a secret and for my dad’s and my children’s sake, that’s the way it will have to stay.’

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

Aware that Harry was crying again, Alice lifted him up and sat him on her lap. Since Jed had returned from the operating theatre none of the family had left his side, and understandably the kids were getting bored.‘You’re a big boy now and big boys don’t cry,’ Alice said, wiping Harry’s nose with a tissue.

‘Will we be going home to Mummy tonight?’ Georgie asked innocently.

Alice’s top lip took up a snarling position. ‘You won’t be living with your mother any more. She’s evil and she’ll be going to live in prison.’

Seeing the distressed look on Georgie’s face, Alice softened and urged the child to sit on the chair next to her. ‘Don’t get all upset now. You and Harry can live with me and your grandad, and when your dad gets out of hospital, he can live with us too.’

‘You’re gonna have to toughen them up a bit, especially him,’ Shannon said, pointing at Harry.

‘Oh, I will do. Now the doctors have said that Jed’s gonna be all right, he’s bound to get custody of the kids, which means I can have ’em whenever I want. I’ll knock little Harry boy into a travelling mush in no time, you just wait and see.’

Jimmy stood up. ‘Where the hell has Marky bloody well got to? The café’s only ten minutes away and he’s been gone well over an hour now.’

Alice shrugged. ‘I hope he’s on his way back. I’m that hungry, I could eat a scabby horse. Try his mobile again, Jimmy.’

‘I’ve been ringing him. He ain’t poxy answering. If he’s gone home to get his head down without telling us, I’ll have his guts for garters.’

Alice, Jimmy, Shannon, Marky, Billy, Sammy and the kids had all spent the night at the hospital. Since finding out that Jed was out of the woods, their mood had turned from morose to jovial, and Mark had offered to get them some much-needed breakfast from a nearby café.

Alice leaped out of her seat as a nurse poked her head around the door. ‘For fuck’s sake, can’t you just let us have some family time? As soon as my Jed wakes up, you’ll be the first to know.’

When the nurse made a quick exit, Shannon laughed and tickled Georgie. ‘If you ever see that old whore of a mother of yours again, I want you to tell her that Auntie Shannon’s gonna beat the granny out of her.’

‘Just shut it, Shannon,’ Jimmy said angrily.

The kids were distressed enough as it was without his trappy daughter-in-law sticking her oar in.

As Harry started crying again, Alice handed him to her husband. ‘Can you take him for a walk or something? He’s doing my head in with his whining.’

Sammy and Billy followed Jimmy out of the room. Minutes later, Alice grabbed Shannon’s arm. ‘He’s waking up. Dordie, thank you God. He’s gonna be OK. Jed, it’s Mum, can you hear me?’

‘Where am I?’ Jed whispered.

Alice moved her chair and squeezed his hand. ‘You’re in Basildon Hospital, boy. The old whore stabbed ya, didn’t she? Don’t you worry, the police have locked her up now. She’s in a cell, where she belongs.’

‘I’m so thirsty,’ Jed croaked.

Alice had tears in her eyes as she held a cup of water to his lips. ‘You had to have an operation. Internal bleeding you had and a punctured bowel. Laparotomy or something, the doctor called it.’

Shannon stood up. ‘I’m gonna see if I can find the boys, tell ’em Jed’s awake.’

‘Don’t tell them nurses yet. I wanna spend some time with my boy before they start poking their trunks in,’ Alice said.

‘What exactly did the quacks say, Mum? That bitch ain’t done me no permanent damage, has she?’

‘They told us you’ll make a full recovery, boy. No thanks to that evil whore, though. What type of woman tries to murder the father of her chavvies, eh? I hope they give her fucking life.’