Читать книгу The Trap - Kimberley Chambers - Страница 14

Queenie spent the morning of her birthday putting up her Christmas tree and decorations. Vinnie had organised a small party for her at the club later, which had been Lenny’s idea.

‘What you doing now, Mum?’ Brenda asked, when her mother climbed up the stepladder.

‘Putting these paper chains across the ceiling to make it look a bit more festive.’

‘Mum, you know your birthday party?’

Securing the paper chain with two drawing pins, Queenie stepped down from the ladder. ‘Yes.’

‘Would it be OK if I invited my friend Nancy?’ Brenda asked hopefully.

Queenie smiled. ‘Of course you can, angel. You’d best invite her little brother as well though. You can’t invite one without the other.’

Over at the club, Vinny had been up since dawn getting things ready for his mum’s birthday party. ‘About fucking time you showed your face and I hope you’ve got rid of that slag,’ Vinny said as his brother appeared looking dishevelled.

Roy sighed. He didn’t often allow birds to stay upstairs in his bed. Once or twice a month, top whack. Yet every time he did so, Vinny would always have something to say about it. Deciding to stand up to his brother for once, Roy glared at him. ‘The slag as you so politely called her went home a couple of hours ago. What is your problem, Vin? I’m a single eighteen-year-old fella, so why is it a crime for me to get me nuts in here and there?’

‘No-one said it was a crime, Roy, but you knew how important it was to me that we made Mum’s birthday special this year. After all the shit she has been through recently, don’t you think she deserves to be treated like the Queen?’

‘Of course I do.’

‘Grab hold of the end of that banner. I want to put it on the wall facing the door,’ Vinny said.

‘Where’s Michael?’ Roy asked.

‘You tell me. Went to some silly Mod party after we let him leave early last night. He’s probably still under the covers with some slag as well.’

‘What time is Mum’s present arriving?’ Roy was desperate to change the subject.

‘Twelve on the dot and we need to be there to see her face when she sees it, which is why I needed you to get your arse out of bed early today.’

‘Look, I’m sorry. But please, can we just forget about this now, Vin? We don’t wanna spoil Mum’s party, do we?’

‘Yep, let’s forget about it, but in future, Roy, business and family before pleasure, eh?’

Roy nodded. ‘Of course.’

Johnny Preston was not a happy chappie. Vinny Butler ran the firm, the other brothers were nobodies compared to him, everybody knew that, yet catching Vinny on his own was proving to be a difficult task.

‘Can’t we just confront Vinny and Roy? We can take the pair of them on,’ Dave Phillips suggested.

‘Nope. I only deal with the organ grinder. No point involving the monkey. We’ll get him on his own, Dave. Patience is a virtue,’ Johnny replied as he drove past the club. ‘I wonder what’s going on in there? There’s a bird turned up with balloons now. Perhaps it’s his mummy’s birthday and the incestuous freak is throwing her a party.’

‘He reminds me of that geezer in the film Psycho, but I can’t remember his name,’ Dave added.

Johnny burst out laughing. ‘Great call, me ole cocker. Vinny Butler, the East End’s answer to Norman Bates.’

Mary was busy wiping down the tables when young Brenda wandered into the café. ‘Hello, love. Nancy’s upstairs with Christopher. Pop up and see her if you like.’

When Brenda ran up the stairs, Mary went into the kitchen to remind her husband of the conversation they’d had the other day.

‘Don’t worry. I won’t say anything rude to the awful child,’ Donald said cuttingly.

‘Mum, Dad.’ Nancy ran into the kitchen with Christopher and Brenda by her side.

Noticing that her daughter’s eyes were shining with excitement, Mary smiled. ‘What is it? Do you want to go out to play?’

‘No. I’ve been invited to a party and so has Christopher. It’s Brenda’s mum’s birthday.’

Donald frowned. If it was Queenie Butler’s birthday party then her sons were bound to attend and there was no way his daughter and son were mixing with that motley crew. ‘You and Christopher are far too young to be attending adult parties, Nancy. I’m sorry, but I will not allow you to go.’

‘Oh, please, Dad,’ Nancy begged, her lip trembling. She wanted to cry but didn’t want to make a show of herself in front of Brenda.

Mary glared at her husband and then turned back to her distraught daughter. ‘Where is the party, love? And what time is it? You’re too young to be out late at night.’

‘It’s not at night, Mrs Walker. It’s being held this afternoon in my brother’s snooker club. My brother says it has to end by teatime because he has to open the club to his punters of an evening,’ Brenda explained.

Donald sneered at Brenda’s use of the word punters. She sounded like a docker or a navvy. Her speech was so unfeminine for a little girl.

‘I think it’s OK for Nancy and Christopher to go to the party, Donald, as long as they are back here by six, don’t you? The snooker club is only around the corner, isn’t it?’ Mary said, giving her husband the evil eye.

‘Yesss! I love parties,’ Christopher shouted, clapping his hands with sheer delight.

Nancy was thrilled by her mum’s remarks and both girls jumped up and down with glee.

With a face like a smacked arse, Donald glanced at his wife, then his children. ‘Do whatever you bloody well like,’ he spat.

Queenie and Vivian glanced at one another in amazement as the two delivery men brought a big wooden object inside.

‘Aw, Queenie, ain’t it grand? It’s one of them posh radiograms,’ Vivian whispered in her sister’s ear.

‘But we ain’t got no records to play on it,’ Queenie whispered back. Her only access to music was the radio she had in the kitchen.

After thanking the delivery men, Roy walked into the lounge with a cardboard box. ‘Put one on, Vin,’ he ordered his brother.

When the tones of Mrs Mills blasted out of the speakers, Queenie and Vivian looked at one another in delight.

‘Oh, ain’t it wonderful,’ Vivian said, grinning at her sister.

‘Bloody amazing,’ Queenie replied. No longer did she have to put up with Albie and scrub his skid-marked pants until her hands bled so that when she put them on the washing line the neighbours wouldn’t think they were a dirty family. Instead, she had a fabulous radiogram with Mrs Mills’ LPs to entertain her and Vivian on these cold winter nights. Queenie stood up, put one arm around Vinny’s neck and the other around Roy’s. ‘Thank you so much, boys. Not just for the radiogram, I mean for everything.’

Queenie Butler felt like the luckiest mum in the world when she walked into the club and saw the effort her wonderful sons had gone to on her behalf. There was a big banner wishing her a happy birthday, balloons, a buffet, a DJ, and most importantly friends and family members. ‘Aw, this is wonderful, boys,’ Queenie said, grinning at each of her three sons in turn.

Vinny sneered when she rested her gaze on Michael. Instead of being there to help him organize the bash, his youngest brother had only just turned up. ‘Don’t be thanking him, Mum. Unlike me and Roy, Michael did sod all to help.’

‘Oh, don’t have a go at him, Vinny. He’s only a baby still,’ Queenie said, stroking Michael’s cheek fondly.

‘No, he isn’t a baby, Mum, Michael’s a big boy now and for not turning up early like he was supposed to this morning, he will have his wages docked.’

Not wanting to get into a spat with his elder brother, Michael gave his mum a birthday hug. ‘You look ever so nice today. That suit looks mint.’

Queenie grinned with pride. She and Vivian always liked to think of themselves as the best-dressed women in the East End and today Queenie was wearing her ultra-modern apple-green skirt suit.

‘Hi, Michael. Sorry I’m a bit late,’ said a pretty girl with long blonde hair.

‘This is my girlfriend, Linda, Mum. You didn’t mind me inviting her, did you? I really wanted yous two to meet.’

When Queenie clapped her hands with glee and started fawning over the girl, Vinny stomped off in a temper. How dare Michael take it upon himself to invite some tart to the party without even asking his permission first. Talk about take a liberty.

Back at the café, Mary was getting more annoyed by the second at her husband’s childish behaviour. Donald had barely uttered a word to her since she had allowed the children to go to Brenda’s mum’s party and the silence was becoming unbearable. ‘Two ham, egg and chips, Donald,’ she said, walking into the kitchen.

Donald didn’t answer. Instead he just took the ham out of the fridge.

‘I am getting immensely sick of you acting like a ten-year-old, Donald. Even our children are more mature than you are. Nancy and Christopher have only gone to a little party, for Christ’s sake. They will be back by teatime. It’s boring and unhealthy for them to be cooped up in here with us all the time.’

‘I don’t mind them going to normal people’s parties, but you know how I feel about that family, yet you still allowed them to go. That Brenda is a horrible child and I hate our Nancy being involved with her.’

Desperate to make things right again between them, Mary put her arms around his waist. ‘I know what you mean, love, but we can’t wrap the kids in cotton wool. They are old enough now to choose their own friends.’

Donald sighed worriedly. ‘More’s the pity, my dear. More’s the pity.’

Queenie Butler had thoroughly enjoyed her birthday party. She and Vivian usually kept themselves to themselves, but Vinny had invited a few of the neighbours and apart from Sheila Jackson’s husband, Kenny, who was drunk and becoming a fucking nuisance, it had been a lovely day.

‘Shall we bring the cake out now?’ asked Vivian.

Vinny didn’t reply. He was too busy watching Kenny Jackson make a tit of himself. Vinny didn’t like Kenny one little bit, and had he known Sheila would bring her husband along with her, he wouldn’t have invited her in the first place. ‘That prick is asking for trouble, Roy,’ Vinny hissed.

‘Why? What’s he done?’ Roy asked. Kenny was a local loudmouth who drank in the Blind Beggar. Roy had never liked him either.

‘He keeps swearing in front of the kids. He’s let a “cunt” fly three times now in front of Mum, and Nancy and Brenda are sitting next to her. Champ is there as well. It ain’t right, Roy. I’m gonna have a little word in his shell-like.’

Knowing what his brother’s temper was like, Roy urged Vinny not to say anything. ‘You don’t wanna spoil Mum’s birthday, do you? Anyway, we’ll be wrapping things up in a bit. It’s gone five now. Who invited Kenny? It weren’t me.’

‘It’s my fault. I invited Sheila, but ’cause that piss-pot is always in the Blind Beggar on Saturday afternoons, I didn’t dream she’d bring him with her. I wanted to tell him to fuck off when he walked in, but bit me tongue.’

Desperate to stop Vinny from kicking off, Roy urged him to look at Lenny. Their cousin had just ran onto the dancefloor and was standing in the middle, wiggling his hips to the Hollies’ ‘Just One Look’.

About to watch his little cousin, Vinny heard another ‘cunt’ sail out of Kenny Jackson’s gob and decided enough was enough. He flew out of his seat, walked over to where Jackson was sitting and tapped him on the shoulder. ‘Tone your language down a bit, Ken. My little sister and her friend shouldn’t have to hear such words. Neither should my mother and aunt for that matter either. You ain’t in the Blind Beggar with your chums now, you know.’

Kenny Jackson looked at Vinny through glazed eyes. He didn’t like the Butler boys, especially Vinny and Roy. It was fast becoming common knowledge that they were a cocky little pair of bastards who were getting far too big for their boots. Knowing how fast news travelled and how much respect he would gain by standing up to Vinny Butler, Kenny decided to do just that. ‘You got some brass neck, you have. The grapevine is a funny old thing, kid, and everybody knows it was you who put your father in hospital because he was rumping some little dolly bird. Yet, you’ve got the front to tell me not to swear. Don’t make me laugh.’

A few of the women and children screamed when Vinny lifted Kenny up by the scruff of his neck and head-butted him. ‘You don’t know who you’re messing with, you cheeky fucker. And who you calling “kid”?’ Vinny spat, as he bundled Kenny towards the exit.

Sheila wailed hysterically when she saw that her husband’s face was covered in blood.

‘Do something, Roy. Don’t just sit there like a stuffed dummy,’ Queenie yelled.

‘Kenny Jackson asked for that, so don’t you be having a go at your Vinny,’ Vivian told her sister.

Young Nancy couldn’t stop crying when she saw Roy and Michael follow Vinny outside. ‘I’m frightened, Christopher. Can we go home now?’

‘Don’t be scared. No-one ever beats my brothers up because they are the hardest men around here,’ Brenda said proudly to her friend.

As some yelling and shoving started between another two men on the table behind, Christopher grabbed his sister’s hand. ‘Come on. Let’s go.’

Mary and Donald had closed for the day and were just doing their daily tidying-up routine when they heard the frantic banging on the door.

‘Whatever’s the matter?’ Mary asked, when she noticed Nancy’s tear-stained face and Christopher’s ashen one.

‘It’s OK. You’re home now. Just tell Daddy what has happened,’ Donald said, glaring at Mary and hugging his daughter at the same time.

‘There was a fight. The man looked like he was dead, didn’t he, Christopher?’ Nancy sobbed.

Christopher nodded. When he and Nancy left the party, Vinny had been outside beating seven bells out of Kenny Jackson. Roy and Michael were unsuccessfully trying to get Vinny away from the man, and when Christopher and Nancy had glanced at Kenny, he was bleeding profusely and looked like he was dead.

‘Oh Donald. I’m so sorry. You were right and I was wrong,’ Mary said, apologetically.

Donald liked to be proved right. ‘I think you need to find a new best friend at school, darling. That Brenda and her family are far too rough for you to be around.’

‘But I like Brenda. It’s not her fault, is it?’ Nancy said dismally.

Mary decided to back her husband to the hilt. ‘Your dad’s right, love. You can still be friends with Brenda at school, but I don’t want you to see her outside.’

‘But why not?’ Nancy sobbed.

‘Because I just bloody said so. The same goes for you, Christopher. I know you’ve been hanging around near that snooker club because Mad Freda saw you and told me. She only lives a few doors away from it, you see. You are not to go near there any more. I don’t want either of you anywhere near them Butlers, OK?’ Mary said sternly.

Thrilled that his beautiful wife’s brain seemed to be in fine working order once more, Donald smiled at her. ‘Thank you, my darling.’