Читать книгу Tainted Love - Kimberley Chambers - Страница 11

‘Morning, Queen. Silly-boy lemon’s strutting up and down the garden again with his holster and cowboy hat on.’

Queenie chuckled. She and her sister Vivian lived next door but one to each other, and the neighbours in between them were a proper pair of notrights. They were harmless enough though and provided Queenie and Viv with hours of entertainment.

‘Got a houseful today, Viv. Little Vinny’s coming, Michael’s bringing the boys, Vinny and Ava will be here – an’ he’s invited Jay Boy and Jilly.’

‘The more the merrier,’ Vivian replied. She actually wanted to add, bar one, but chose to hold her tongue. Her and Queenie had made a pact to stop dragging up the past and instead concentrate on the future.

‘Answer that for me, Viv.’

Vivian picked up the phone, had a short conversation, then returned to the kitchen. ‘It was Michael. Albie’s had a fall. He’s OK, but Michael didn’t want to leave him today, so I said it would be all right for him to come for dinner an’ all.’

Slamming her potato peeler on the kitchen counter, Queenie turned to her sister, eyes blazing with fury. ‘I don’t want that womanizing old tosspot round ’ere, thanks very much. You had no right to tell Michael he was welcome. It’s my bloody house and it’s gonna be overcrowded as it is.’

Vivian sighed with annoyance. Queenie and Albie had split up donkey’s years ago, yet still her sister wouldn’t let bygones be bygones. ‘Make me laugh, you do. Ain’t it about time you practised what you preach? If I can be adult enough to breathe the same air as that murdering bastard of a son of yours, why can’t you at least be polite to poor Albie?’

Seething, Queenie turned her back on her sister and took her anger out on the saucepans, banging them about like drums.

‘Well?’ Vivian spat. Lenny had been her only child. A wonderful, loving lad who’d never let his learning difficulties hamper his life. Unfortunately, Lenny’s life had been wiped out at the tender age of twenty thanks to Queenie’s eldest son. Not only had Vinny Butler taken her innocent boy to a knocking shop, he’d driven them home while out of his nut on drink and drugs and smashed the bastard car to smithereens. Vinny being Vinny, he’d walked away without a scratch, but her beloved son hadn’t been so lucky. Poor little sod had been virtually beheaded.

‘Me, make you laugh! Well, let me tell you a few home truths: you make me laugh twice as bleedin’ much. “Poor Albie” indeed! You hated the bastard when I was married to him. Called him every name under the sun. I’ve met some two-faced fuckers in my time, but you’re top of that list, Vivian Harris. Molly would still be alive if that disgusting old toad hadn’t stuck his John Thomas up Judy Preston’s snatch. Now piss off back to your own house. How dare you put that vile excuse of a man before me! Me and you are finished. You’re no sister of mine.’

Michael Butler had just got out the shower when he heard the front door slam.

‘It’s only me, Michael. I happened to be passing, so thought I’d pop in to see if you or the boys needed anything,’ Katy shouted out.

Michael gritted his teeth in annoyance. Sunday was Katy’s day off and he certainly hadn’t entrusted her with a key so she could come and go as she pleased. He dressed hurriedly and bounded down the stairs. ‘Pop up the shops for me, boys. I’m out of cigarettes. Tell Bob they’re for me.’

‘I’ll go if you want?’ Katy offered. She liked to make herself indispensable.

‘Nah, they’ll go,’ Michael replied, handing Lee a fiver.

Waiting until the boys were out of earshot, Michael asked, ‘So what you doing ’ere on a Sunday? It’s meant to be your day off.’

Not prepared to admit she’d missed Michael so much that she’d driven past purposely in hope his car would be there, Katy pretended she was on her way to visit a friend. ‘We’re going out for lunch,’ she added.

‘Same ’ere. I’m taking the boys out. Was meant to be going round my mother’s, until it all kicked off.’

‘Oh my God! What’s happened?’ gasped Katy, putting her hand over her mouth for full dramatic effect.

‘Oh, nothing major. My mum had a row with my aunt, that’s all. You best get off then. As soon as the boys come back, I’m making tracks.’

Katy drank a mouthful of tea, then stood up. ‘I might be popping to the club tonight with a friend. Please don’t worry, she doesn’t know about us.’

Wanting to yell ‘There is no fucking us!’ Michael instead nodded dumbly. Why was it men could separate love and sex yet women couldn’t?

Vinny Butler laughed as his grandson tried to chase Fred around the garden. He’d mastered the art of walking, but not running yet.

‘Oops-a-daisy,’ Queenie said, picking the child up.

Oliver Butler held his great-granny’s face in his tubby hands. ‘Foo, Nana, foo.’

‘He’s only asking for grub again. No wonder he weighs a ton, the cheeky monkey,’ Queenie chuckled. She was still livid about her sister’s betrayal and harsh words, but was determined not to let the argument spoil her day.

‘Give us him ’ere, Nan. I got a whiff of something nasty. It’s either him or you’ve had the accident,’ Little Vinny chuckled.

‘I’ll put arsenic in your dinner, you, if you carry on,’ Queenie joked. She was genuinely proud of the way her grandson had turned out. He’d been a horror as a child and a teenager, causing her no end of grief, but meeting Sammi-Lou and becoming a father had been the making of him.

Vinny Butler sat next to Sammi-Lou. ‘Not long until he makes an honest woman of you now, eh?’

As Sammi-Lou Allen excitedly chatted about her forthcoming wedding, Vinny listened with a wide grin on his face. His son had been an embarrassment to him as a youngster, especially when he’d gone through that skinhead stage and knocked about with that weirdo Ben Bloggs. Thankfully the lad had changed beyond recognition. He now worked with Vinny in the Holborn club and had proved himself to be an asset to the business, with an astute brain on him.

It was as well for Little Vinny that neither his father nor his grandmother had any idea that he’d done more than act up a bit and run wild during his teenage years. And there was no way Sammi-Lou would be happily making wedding plans if she knew she was marrying a child killer. And God help Little Vinny if his father ever found out that the three-year-old he’d throttled to death was his own little sister.

Michael and Albie Butler were in the Royal Oak.

‘Why didn’t the boys come with us?’ Albie asked.

‘I couldn’t drag ’em away from the pool table, so I left ’em a tenner for a pizza. Keeps ’em out of trouble, that cabin I had built.’

Albie smiled. ‘I’m so glad you ain’t moving out of Barking, boy. I never said it when you put the house up for sale, but I wouldn’t arf’ve missed ya.’

Michael squeezed his old man’s hand. Unlike Vinny, he’d always been close to his father. Now sixty-six, Albie’s once thick hair had thinned a bit over the years, but it was still jet black. He kept himself smart, always wearing a suit, and despite everything he’d been through he hadn’t lost the cheeky twinkle in his eyes.

‘How’s Bella, son? You spoken to her lately?’

‘No, I left her alone after she said she needed some space. She rung me last week, but I didn’t call her back. Done me up like a kipper, she did. Vinny said she wouldn’t return from Italy and he was right. I don’t even believe her nan was dying. She obviously just got cold fucking feet.’

‘You don’t know that for sure and you shouldn’t listen to your brother. You know what Vinny’s like. When has he ever been in love, eh? Do what your heart tells you. Bella adored you; I could see that the night of the party. You need to call her back, see what she wanted.’

‘Bit late now. Got meself in a right pickle, I have. The boys’ nanny turned up at the club one night about a month back. I’d had a drink, she had virtually no clothes on, and … well, you know the rest.’

‘Oh dear. Katy’s a bit young for you, isn’t she?’

‘Twenty-one. Becoming a proper pest, she is. Keeps turning up at the club, staring at me with those puppy-dog eyes. She’s got it bad, and I’m never gonna feel anything for her. After Bella, I doubt I’ll ever feel anything for a bird again. More grief than they’re fucking worth, women.’

‘Mind she don’t trap you like Judy Preston did me. Can’t you tell her that I’m gonna help you out indoors and you don’t need her any more?’

‘Not that easy, Dad. The boys adore her. It’s been good for them to have a woman pottering about the house again. I’m just going to have to let her down gently, and hope she still wants to work for me.’ He shook his head ruefully. ‘My mistake, I let me dick do the thinking instead of me brain.’

Albie chuckled. ‘Like father, like son.’

Having given birth to three sons who’d made her so proud in life, Queenie was the first to admit her daughter was a terrible disappointment. Brenda had turned into an overweight lush and a crap mother, which was probably why Queenie had bonded so well with Jay Boy’s girlfriend. In Queenie’s eyes, Jilly was the daughter she’d never had.

‘Jilly wants your mum to give her away when we get wed,’ Jay Boy whispered in Vinny’s ear as they watched the two women chatting nineteen to the dozen in front of the telly.

Vinny looked at his pal in amazement. They had first met in Pentonville prison. They’d bonded immediately, and the chirpy Liverpudlian was now Vinny’s right-hand man at the club. ‘You’re kidding me. That will make my mum’s year.’

‘Straight up. Jilly’s dad is dead and she doesn’t get on with her own mum. She told me last night she wants your mum to do the honours.’

Vinny was about to tell his mum the good news when the doorbell rang and Queenie leapt up to answer it.

‘Daddy, Fred’s being rude. He’s got his dingle-dangle out again,’ Ava giggled, tugging her father’s arm.

Hearing a commotion in the hallway, Vinny ignored his daughter and dashed to his mother’s aid. ‘What’s up?’

‘Tell Vinny what you told me,’ Queenie ordered, ushering her daughter’s tearful children into the house.

‘Mum and Dave were drunk, and they were fighting. They smashed all the furniture up. Then Mum fell over when Dave hit her and we couldn’t wake her up. We were scared she was dead, so we ran to the phone box and called an ambulance. Then we got on the train and came here,’ eight-year-old Tommy explained.

‘Mum’s head was bleeding. We was worried the police would come and take us away,’ Tara added.

Vinny glanced at his mother. Both were thinking the same thing. Neither had any time for Brenda, but she was family. Flesh and blood counted for everything and so did keeping up appearances.

Michael Butler poured another Scotch and pressed play, then rewind, then play again on his answerphone. It was the message Bella had left him last week, and he’d listened to it over and over again.

He was trying to make up his mind whether to take his father’s advice and return the call when he was disturbed by a tap on his office door.

‘Katy’s here,’ said Gerry the bouncer, sticking his head round the door. ‘Said she needs to speak to you about Daniel and Lee.’

‘OK, send her in.’

The club was booming to the sound of Page Three bird Samantha Fox’s ‘Touch Me (I Want Your Body)’ as Katy walked in. Michael had no doubt that she wanted him to touch hers again. She was virtually fucking naked. ‘Where’s your mate?’ he asked.

‘She wasn’t well, so I came alone,’ Katy lied.

Well on his way to being slightly more than merry, Michael couldn’t help but take note of Katy’s pert breasts.

Aware of what the man of her dreams was staring at, Katy felt her confidence soar. ‘Aren’t you going to offer me a drink?’ she asked, sitting on his lap and rubbing his thigh.

Michael sighed as his erection grew. What was a man to do?

Unaware that their father was currently in an extremely compromising position with Katy Spencer, Daniel and Lee Butler were currently discussing what they would like to do to certain parts of her anatomy.

‘First thing I’d do is to take her bra off and suck them big titties,’ Lee giggled.

Leaping off the chair, Daniel grabbed hold of his crotch making thrusting movements. ‘I’d ram this straight up her, I would. Dad fancies her an’ all, I think. I’ve clocked the way he looks at her.’

Lee shook his head repeatedly. ‘No way. Dad’s far too old for Katy. He still likes Bella. I honestly reckon Katy fancies me, ya know. Why else would she lean across the table like she did the other day? She even winked when she realized I’d seen her lils. That must mean something, eh?’

Daniel grabbed his brother in a playful headlock. ‘You’re making that up. I was sat at the table with ya, and I never saw her bazookas. If Katy fancies any of us, it’s me. She well wants me to put my Hampton in her mouth.’

Laughing, Lee tussled with his brother. ‘You wish. In ya dreams.’

Queenie Butler drank her sherry in one fell swoop. First the row with Viv, then Brenda getting seven bells knocked out of her. Today had been truly awful.

Not long after Tara and Tommy had arrived on her doorstep, the Old Bill had turned up. Brenda had been taken to hospital, was extremely drunk and also battered and bruised, they’d informed her.

Vinny had wanted to go straight to the hospital, then hunt down Brenda’s bloke, ‘Dagenham Dave’ as the family called him. Queenie had known the first moment she’d ever laid eyes on the man that he was a drunken loser, just like Albie. Unable to stomach Brenda when she had booze inside her, and desperate to avoid her beloved son acting on impulse and landing himself in trouble, Queenie had insisted they visit Brenda tomorrow. It had taken some doing, but she’d managed to persuade Vinny to stay at hers tonight. He was upstairs now, settling Tommy, Tara and Ava down.

Queenie mumbled plenty of blasphemes as she poured herself another drink. On the advice of a neighbour, she’d had that drunken old priest round last Christmas. Fat Beryl was Catholic and had sworn Father Patrick could get rid of all evil spirits.

Well, the exorcism the silly old Irish bum had performed hadn’t worked, had it? The Butlers were still cursed. Always had been and always fucking would be.