Читать книгу Queens of Crime: 3-Book Thriller Collection - Kimberley Chambers, Jacqui Rose, Jacqui Rose - Страница 25

Nancy was just about to take her tea-break when Rhonda dashed towards her waving her arms like a lunatic. ‘What’s up with you?’ Nancy asked, bemused.

‘It’s that Michael! He’s just walked in the shop!’ Rhonda exclaimed, unable to contain her obvious excitement.

‘What shop?’ Nancy asked, dumbly.

‘This shop, you div! He’s up by the till. I said I was coming to find you.’

‘I can’t talk to him now. What am I meant to say? What do you think he wants?’ Nancy asked, her heart beating wildly in her chest.

‘He wants you, you daft mare. And you will speak to him. Come on,’ Rhonda said, linking arms with her pal and dragging her towards the till.

Michael smiled as Nancy walked towards him. ‘No need to be so nervous. I don’t bite,’ he joked.

‘What do you want?’ Nancy asked, staring at her sandals. She was far too nervous to look Michael in the eyes.

‘I wanted to know if you would be kind enough to accompany me to the pictures tonight?’

‘Yeah, ’course she will, won’t you, Nance?’ Rhonda said, nudging her friend who was currently standing there like a stuffed dummy.

‘Er, all right then. I’ll meet you at Ilford station at seven, if that’s OK?’ Nancy mumbled.

Michael grinned. Nancy had been quite shy when he had met her at the fair the other day and seemed even more reserved in her work environment. He hated loud girls, and found Nancy’s obvious awkwardness rather endearing. ‘Sounds perfect. See you at seven then, darling.’

When Michael strolled out of the shop, Rhonda jumped up and down excitedly. ‘He really likes you, Bren, I can see it in his eyes. I bet you end up marrying him.’

Vinny smiled as his son fed the ducks the last of the loaf of bread. ‘Shall we have a sandwich ourselves now, boy? Bloody starving, I am.’

‘So am I, Dad. Where shall we park our arses?’ Little Vinny said, putting his hands in his trouser pockets as he walked next to his father.

Vinny chuckled. His son seemed to have a memory like an elephant and remembered every saying going. Parking one’s arse was one of Vivian’s favourites. ‘Right, let’s sit here, shall we?’

When his son flopped down on the grass next to him, Vinny handed him a ham sandwich, then decided to get the little talk out of the way before he ate himself. ‘Now, I don’t want you to think I’m telling you off,boy, because I’m not. Just think of it more as a bit of fatherly advice. I know you was excited yesterday because it was your birthday, but you really can’t go through life punching, kicking and pushing people like you do.’

‘But you told me to stick up for myself when I started school. You said if anyone hit me, I was to hit them back,’ Little Vinny reminded his father.

‘If somebody hits you, you should hit them back, boy. But, you shouldn’t hit people for no reason. Look at yesterday for instance, when you pushed that little boy and cut his head open. If you behave like that at school, you won’t have many friends, and you’ll get in trouble with the teachers.’

Used to his father worshipping the ground he walked on, Little Vinny’s lip began to wobble. ‘I didn’t push Jacob. He fell over and cut his head,’ he insisted.

‘Do not lie to me, boy. I saw you push him, so did your Uncle Michael.’

‘No, I never.’

Furious at being lied to, Big Vinny grabbed his son roughly by the arm, put him across his knees and gave him a good clump on the backside. ‘Don’t you ever fucking lie to me again, do you hear me?’

Thrilled by Roy’s engagement, Queenie and Vivian had been busy discussing his forthcoming wedding. Queenie liked Colleen. She was good for her Roy and as a couple they were extremely well-suited.

‘Where’s Brenda? Is she talking to you yet?’ Vivian asked. Brenda and her suitcase had turned up on the doorstep at twelve o’clock last night and Queenie had given her daughter a bloody good wallop for worrying the life out of her by coming home so late.

‘Nope. Still in her room, the obnoxious little mare. Who the bleedin’ hell is this?’ Queenie looked out of the window to see who was knocking on her door. ‘Oh Jesus, it’s the police. I hope one of the boys haven’t been nicked,’ she said, panicking.

‘I’ll answer the door,’ Lenny shouted, running down the stairs.

‘No you won’t, nose ointment. You let Auntie Queenie do it,’ Vivian ordered her son.

‘What’s up?’ Queenie asked, when she opened the door. There were two officers standing there looking rather sombre.

‘Is Vivian Harris here, Mrs Butler? I’m afraid we have some rather bad news for her.’

‘Whatever’s wrong?’ Vivian asked, running into the hallway followed by Lenny.

‘I’m afraid it’s your ex-husband, Mrs Harris. Unfortunately, Mr Harris was involved in an incident outside the Brewery Tap public house in Barking late last night. He suffered a stab wound to the chest and even though the ambulance got there extremely quickly, I’m afraid he couldn’t be saved.’

‘Is my dad dead?’ Lenny asked, bursting into tears.

Vivian clouted her son around the head. ‘Shut up. We didn’t even like the old bastard.’

When the two officers glanced at one another, Vivian smiled at them. ‘Well, thank you for popping round to tell me. You can go now.’

After dropping his son off, Vinny headed to the club. He and his brothers had got the upstairs looking like a palace now and all three of them lived there together. ‘Where’s Michael?’ Vinny asked Roy coldly. He still hadn’t forgiven his brother for springing such a surprise on him yesterday.

‘You ain’t still got the hump because I’ve got engaged, have you? Just because I plan to get married, doesn’t mean that I won’t still be dedicated to the club.’

Vinny gave a sarcastic half-laugh. ‘Dedicated to the club! Don’t make me chuckle. Colleen had you under her thumb even before you stuck a ring on her finger. You’ll have to ask her permission to have a shit now you’ve popped the question.’

‘Don’t talk bollocks, Vin. Colleen ain’t like that. She’s a good girl who understands how important our business is to us. Surely it must have occurred to you that one day I would want to settle down and in time have children? It’s what most men do, so can’t you just be fucking happy for me for once?’

Vinny unwillingly shook his brother’s hand. ‘Congratulations. Now, where’s Michael?’

‘Gone out. All ponced up he was in his best suit. Reeked of aftershave an’ all. Gotta be another new bird on the scene if you ask me.’

Vinny snarled. ‘Well, it better not be who I think it is, because if Michael has disobeyed my orders, there will be big fucking trouble.’

Queenie had just put the dumplings in her rabbit stew when the doorbell rang. Vivian had taken Lenny back to her own house, Brenda had gone out, so Queenie ordered her grandson to open the door for her.

‘Who are you?’ Little Vinny asked the tall, glamorous dark-haired lady.

‘Who is it?’ Queenie shouted out.

The woman crouched down so she was at eye-level with Little Vinny. Unable to stop herself, she stroked his rosy cheeks.

‘Get off me,’ Vinny said, pushing her hand away.

Queenie ran to the front door, ordered her grandson into the lounge, then glared at the woman. ‘Who the fuck are you?’ she asked.

‘Look, I don’t want no trouble, but it’s breaking my heart not being able to see him,’ the woman replied.

‘Not being able to see who?’ Queenie asked, expecting the woman to say one of her son’s names.

‘My son. I’m Vinny’s mother.’

Nancy felt sick with anxiety when she spotted Michael leaning against the station wall smoking a cigarette. He had a smart dark-grey suit on and looked so stunningly gorgeous, she felt like turning around and running back to the safety of her home.

Michael grinned as he spotted his date. She looked amazing in her lime green halter-neck catsuit. ‘You look really beautiful, Nancy,’ he told her meaningfully, before he kissed her politely on the cheek.

‘Thank you,’ Nancy replied coyly.

‘Look, I was thinking, and please feel free to say no if you don’t want to, but seeing as this is our first date, I thought it might be nice if we went for a meal instead of the pictures? I thought we could chat in a restaurant and get to know one another a bit better. What do you say?’

‘OK. But can we go to a different area? My parents are local shopkeepers and I can do without being interrogated by their customers.’

‘’Course we can! Let’s jump in my car and see where it takes us, shall we?’

Amazed that Michael owned a car, Nancy smiled. ‘Yes, I’d like that.’

After receiving the phonecall from his mother, Vinny shot round to her house like a bat out of hell. He couldn’t believe after all these years that Karen had the nerve to show her face. He’d paid her good money to stay out of his son’s life, so how dare she turn up like a bad penny?

Vinny had ordered his mother to send Little Vinny upstairs to his bedroom, then invite Karen in and keep her there. When he let himself in with his own key, he was dismayed to see Karen sitting on the sofa next to Little Vinny who was happily showing her all his birthday presents. ‘Take Vinny upstairs now, Mum. I need to talk to Karen alone,’ Vinny barked.

‘You said my mum was dead. You’re a liar too, Dad,’ Little Vinny said accusingly.

‘Just get upstairs, boy. I’ll explain everything later,’ Vinny demanded.

‘No,’ Little Vinny replied. He was ever so confused. He had always wanted to have a mum like all the other kids at school had, and this mum who had turned up today seemed quite nice.

‘Get up them fucking stairs now,’ Vinny bellowed, grabbing his son’s right arm and yanking him off the sofa. He hated being disobeyed at the best of times.

‘Don’t do that! You’ll hurt him,’ Karen said, appalled.

‘Come upstairs with Nanny,’ Queenie urged, trying to pick up her grandson.

Little Vinny wriggled out of his nan’s grasp. ‘I wanna see my mum,’ he sobbed.

Seething with Karen for upsetting his little boy so much, Vinny decided to let his son know exactly what she was really like. He crouched down, grabbed Vinny by the hand and pointed towards Karen. ‘That woman there isn’t good enough to be a mother to you, boy, and do you want to know why?’

Little Vinny nodded.

‘Because she sold you to your daddy. That’s how much she wanted you.’

Karen was crying now. ‘It wasn’t like that, son. I had to go away. But, I’m not going away any more, I promise you that much.’

When Little Vinny ran up the stairs and Queenie followed him, Karen suddenly felt nervous. It had taken a lot of guts and planning to come back to Whitechapel, and she couldn’t bottle it now. If she was to have regular contact with her son, then she needed to stand up for herself. It was the only way forward.

‘You got some front turning up here. What you after? More dosh?’ Vinny asked, shutting the lounge door.

‘No, I don’t want your money. All I want is to have contact with my son, Vinny. I don’t want to take him away from you. I just want to see him on a regular basis. He is absolutely adorable, just like I knew he would be and as his mother I have a right to see him grow up.’

‘You lost all your rights as a mother when you took my fucking money and bolted. Now, you have two choices. You can either walk away now and live, or continue this bollocks and die. The choice is yours, so what is it to be, Karen? And don’t think I won’t kill you, because I will.’

‘I know you will, which is why I have already sought legal advice and been to the police, Vinny. They have everything logged on record and if I go missing, or my mutilated body is found, you will go down for the murder. I have made damn sure of that.’

The mention of the police being involved put the fear of God into Vinny. His main source of information on the inside had retired from his position as Chief Inspector last year, and even though he still gave Geary a back-hander for any odds and sods he needed, now he was all legal he had no reason to have the Old Bill on his payroll any more.

‘So, can I see our son from time to time?’ Karen asked. She had noticed the look of fear on Vinny’s face when she had mentioned the police, and was pleased that she sounded so confident, because her insides actually felt like jelly.

Vinny flopped onto the armchair opposite Karen. He knew he had been lucky to get away with topping Dave Phillips and there was no way he could chance getting rid of Karen himself if the bitch had already spoken to the police. The thought of doing life in prison and not seeing his son grow up was unbearable, so instead of strangling Karen and watching the life seep out of her like he wanted to, Vinny forced a smile. ‘I suppose it’s only right with you being his mother that you see him. It has to be on my terms though, and I don’t want him going out on his own with you until he gets to know you better.’

Thrilled that Vinny had actually seen sense, Karen nodded her head. ‘I understand that, but I would love my mum to meet him. Perhaps I could bring her round to your mum’s house?’

Much to his displeasure, Vinny forced himself to smile again. ‘Look, why don’t I book a nice restaurant and your mum can meet him over lunch?’

Karen was suddenly suspicious. Vinny was being a bit too nice for her liking. ‘OK. What day shall we arrange it for?’ she asked. There was nothing Vinny could do to harm her in such a public place.

‘How about Wednesday? I’ll give you the phone number of my club, bell me tomorrow afternoon and I’ll have somewhere nice booked. I’ll talk to Little Vinny tomorrow and explain everything properly to him. Sorry for the way I reacted earlier, I was out of order. Just the shock of you turning up out the blue, I suppose.’

‘That’s OK. I’m sorry for turning up like that as well. I never wanted to give our son up in the first place though, you do know that? I was just so scared of you, Vinny. That’s why I took the money and ran. I’ve sorted myself out now though. I gave up the stripping and I now work as a barmaid in a pub in Dagenham. I could be a good mum to Little Vinny now, I know I could.’

Vinny nodded as if to agree with her. ‘Look, I’ve gotta shoot now. I’ve got a meeting with a guy at the club at eight. Do you need a lift anywhere?’

‘No, I’m fine, thanks. I’ll walk to the station, it’s only round the corner.’

Escorting Karen to the front door, Vinny handed her his phone number on a piece of paper and told her to ring him after two tomorrow.

‘Thanks for everything, Vinny, and I’ll see you on Wednesday,’ Karen said, as she walked down the path.

Vinny closed the door and sighed deeply as he leant against it. Plan A had been to brazenly murder Karen, and seeing as it was far too dangerous to do that now, he needed to quickly think of a Plan B.

Once she had got over her initial nervousness, Nancy had thoroughly enjoyed her date with Michael. He had taken her to a steakhouse in Stratford and even though she had been far too excited to eat very much, Nancy had felt very grown-up and had even had a couple of Cinzanos and lemonade.

Nancy had never had a proper boyfriend in the past. She had been on a few first dates with different lads, but had never enjoyed herself enough to bother with a second one. Being with Michael was different. Not only was he the most handsome lad that she had ever seen, he was also funny, interesting and an absolute gentleman. The five-year age gap didn’t bother Nancy one little bit. She would much rather date a man than a boy. Especially one who drove a red Mustang convertible like Michael did. Nancy had nearly wet herself with excitement when she had clapped eyes on his car.

‘Do I go straight on at these lights?’ Michael asked, snapping Nancy out of her deliriously happy daydream.

‘Yes, then first right and you can drop me on the corner. I live in the next road along and I don’t want my nosy parents to know my business. They keep trying to fix me up with their friend’s awful son, Roger.’

Michael chuckled, followed Nancy’s directions, then pulled over near a couple of garages. He’d had a wonderful evening, so much so, he had decided to pay Denise a visit tomorrow to break up with her for good. Obviously, he hadn’t mentioned to Nancy that he currently had a girlfriend. What was the point if he was going to end the relationship?

Michael turned down the volume on the radio to drown out the sound of Dawn singing ‘Knock Three Times’ and turned to face Nancy. He had never been as desperate to kiss a girl in his life. ‘I really had a good time tonight. Can I see you again, Nancy?’

Nancy stared into Michael’s kind green eyes and smiled. If her parents found out she was dating one of the Butler boys she knew they would go ballistic, but as long as she and Michael kept well away from the Ilford area, it was highly unlikely her parents would find out. ‘Yes. I don’t want my mum and dad to find out though, Michael, so we can’t ever go out around here. My parents are very protective of me and Dad is such an old stick-in-the-mud. Apart from boring Roger who I told you about earlier, he would find fault with anybody I dated.’

‘Don’t worry about your parents. They won’t find out about us. What day can I see you again?’ Michael asked. It had occurred to him in the restaurant earlier who Nancy reminded him of. With her luscious lips and long mop of blonde hair, she looked uncannily like a young Bridgette Bardot.

‘I can see you on Wednesday, if you like? That’s my day off this week.’

‘OK. Let’s go out for the day then, shall we? Leave it with me and I’ll think of something special. Is ten too early for me to pick you up? I can meet you where my car was parked earlier, instead of at the station.’

‘Ten is fine. I’d better go now, Michael. I have to get up for work early.’

‘Can I kiss you first?’ Michael asked, amazed by his own words. He usually just went in for the kill, rather than be polite about it.

‘Yes,’ Nancy whispered, her nerves coming back to haunt her once again.

When Michael leant towards her and their lips entwined for the very first time, Nancy forgot all about her anxiety and responded eagerly. Michael’s kiss was perfect, just like he was.