Schemer (45 page)

Frustrated that the driver in front hadn’t realized that the traffic lights had turned from red to green, Steph put her hand on her hooter. She had no idea who this Mrs Woodcock was, and all she could do was hope that the woman didn’t involve the police. Tyler was a good boy at heart. He was very protective of her and Dannielle, and having never really had a father figure in his life, had taken it upon himself to play the man of the house. With a bit of luck, once Mrs Woodcock realized that Tyler suffered from ADHD and Steph apologized profusely, that would be the end of the matter. In Stephanie’s eyes, her son wasn’t a violent boy. He might be a little bastard at times, but other than that, he was just extremely misunderstood.

Pam roared with laughter as she caught up with today’s episode of
Loose Women
. It was Pam’s favourite TV show ever, and she loved listening to the antics of the female presenters. Carol McGiffin was Pam’s favourite of the panellists. She was always talking about getting drunk and falling over, and she so reminded Pam of her sister, Lin. Lin would be fifty next month and her son David, who had thankfully been born without dwarfism, was now nine. Lin had promised when she had fallen pregnant that she was going to be a fantastic mum, and up until recently she had been. However, six months ago, Lin’s partner Keith had died of liver failure, which had sent Lin spiralling back to the clutches of alcohol herself. Keith was the only proper relationship that Lin had ever had and Pam’s heart went out to her little sister. She knew what it felt like to lose the only man you had ever loved, but Lin needed to learn that the answers to her grief didn’t lie at the bottom of a bottle. Dealing with the loss itself was the only true way to move on in life.

Pausing
Loose Women
, Pam went into the kitchen to make herself a cuppa. Due to her obesity, she had given up her job in the baker’s a few months ago. Her GP had warned her that if she carried on the way she was, she wouldn’t make old bones. Food had always been the one thing in life that Pam could not say no to, therefore working in a baker’s was no good for her at all. That’s why she couldn’t say too much to her Lin about her drinking at the moment. Everybody had their vices in life, didn’t they?

About to reach for the biscuit tin out of habit, Pam heard the phone ring and darted into the lounge. ‘You all right, Steph? Were you run off your feet at the salon again today?’

When Stephanie explained that Tyler had threatened to stab someone, Pam said what any decent mother would say. ‘Calm down. I’ll be over within the hour.’

Over in Hornchurch, Angela was sitting in a restaurant called Jailhouse Rock. There was a fat bloke on stage who imagined he looked and sounded like Elvis Presley, but watching him prance around like a penis,
so
wasn’t Angie’s cup of tea.

‘Do you like it in here, Mum?’ Aidan asked, hoping that she did.

Angela smiled, then nodded. She might have been an awful mother years ago, but she idolized her son now, and if he was happy, then so was she. Angela had moved to Greece ten years back with her pal Roxy. She had loved getting away from England and her family at the time, and the first contact she had made with her son again was when she had turned up at her mother’s door three years later. Pam had been furious by her unexpected visit. She had called Angela every name under the sun, accused her of being the worst mother ever to walk the earth, and had implied that she had run off with Wayne. It had taken Angela more than a week to convince her mother that she had nothing to do with Wayne’s disappearance. Then, when she had returned to Greece, she had kept in regular contact with her son. Angie wasn’t one for writing letters, but she had rung Aidan every week and sent expensive birthday and Christmas presents his way.

Angie had been back in the UK permanently for just over a year now. Roxy had married a Geordie fella she had met, who had been working as a holiday rep in Greece, and she now lived in Tyneside. Angela had discovered true love for the first time herself while working in Greece. She had fallen head over heels for the extremely wealthy son of a Greek shipping tycoon. Theodore was five years younger than Angela. His name meant ‘Gift of God’ in Greek mythology, and to Angela that is exactly what he was. Theo, as she liked to call him, was six foot two, had jet-black greased-back hair, an air of power about him, and a body to send shivers down any woman’s spine. As a lover, he was a genius, and Angela would have married him at the drop of a hat – if only he didn’t already have a Greek wife and two small children.

Their affair was intense and extremely passionate, and even though Angela had ended it twice, neither she nor Theodore could keep away from one another. It had been Theo’s idea that he buy Angela a flat and she move back to England. He said that if his parents were ever to find out about their relationship, his mother would disown him and would force his father to sack him from the family empire.

Angela was reasonably happy with the way things had turned out. Theo flew over to England at least twice a month and would spend at least three or four days with her at a time. He also paid her rent, bills, and gave her two thousand pounds a month living allowance. Obviously, being so in love with Theo, Angela would rather be with him every day of every week, but she could not live without him and beggars couldn’t be choosers. At thirty-three years old, Angie was far too old to be doing erotic dancing any more, and she now quite enjoyed being a lady of leisure. Whenever Theo was in London, he would take her to Harrods or Harvey Nic’s and buy her whatever she wanted. He had also bought her a brand-new Mazda sports car for her to cruise around in.

‘Shall we order some food now? And I don’t want no arguing about the bill, tonight is on me,’ Aidan said in a manly tone.

Angela smiled. She might have her mum to thank for bringing her son up, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t still be proud of him. Aidan was eighteen now, and with his jet-black hair and bright green eyes, was an extremely handsome boy. He had a very Irish look about him, but unlike Jason, who was a shortarse, Aidan was just under six feet tall. He was also a gym freak, and for a young boy had a wonderful physique. Whenever Angie went out with her son, she was well aware of the admiring glances from groups of young girls, and that made her as proud as punch. Aidan had left school at sixteen and had taken a job as a trainee mechanic. The company he worked for had sent him to college two days a week and he had recently passed his exams with flying colours. He was no longer an apprentice now. Aidan had been offered a permanent position just last week, which was why he’d insisted on taking his mum out for a meal tonight.

‘I’ll let you pay for everything, but only if you let me treat us to a bottle of champagne first. It’s my way of saying how proud I am to have you as a son,’ Angela said, jovially.

Aidan beamed from ear to ear. He knew both his nans were rather vexed over how close he now was to Angela, but he didn’t care. For years he had craved his mother’s love and attention; now finally he had it.

Pam got off the Central Line train at Loughton and walked towards Stephanie’s house. Her daughter’s beauty business had been such a roaring success that Steph had managed to buy herself a posh four-bedroom house just a few minutes’ walk from the station. Pam was extremely proud of her eldest daughter’s achievements, but she would never stop wishing that Steph would find a nice man to share her life with also.

Tyler was a real bloody handful and, in Pam’s eyes, the guidance of a level-headed man was exactly what her grandson needed at this point in his life. Pam let herself into Steph’s house with her own key. ‘Sorry I’m a bit later than I said I’d be. I waited ages for both bleedin’ trains. Where’s Tyler now? What happened with the woman?’

Stephanie and Dannielle were seated side by side on the red leather sofa. ‘Let me get you a drink, Nan? Do you want a cup of tea?’ Dannielle offered.

‘No, we’ll have wine,’ Stephanie replied, her face etched with worry.

When Dannielle returned with a bottle of Chardonnay, Stephanie urged her daughter to go upstairs and get herself ready. Danni had finished her final exams this week and had now officially left school. She had chosen to follow in her mother’s footsteps and go on to beauty college, which Stephanie was extremely pleased about. Her daughter already worked in her salon as a Saturday girl and had a natural talent and interest in the job. Dannielle was tall, slim, sexy, and stunning, and when she finished her college course, Steph planned to buy her daughter her own little salon. She might even surprise Dannielle with the keys on her eighteenth birthday if all went to plan.

‘Are you sure you don’t mind me going out, Mum? I’m happy to stay in, if you need me here?’

Stephanie smiled at her daughter’s thoughtfulness. Danni’s best friend, Mimi, had extremely wealthy parents who had organized a big bash for the girls’ leaving party this evening. It wasn’t a school prom – Danni had that to look forward to in a couple of weeks’ time – but this was a lovely gesture and an important night in her daughter’s life. ‘Go and get yourself glammed up and off you go. Nanny’s going to stay here tonight, so she’ll be with me when your naughty brother decides to show his face.’

‘So, what happened then?’ Pam asked, when Danni left the room.

‘Oh Mum, it was awful. That Mrs Woodcock was such a nice woman. She said that she’d heard that Tyler had behavioural issues due to an illness and that was the reason she’d come here rather than involve the police. Tyler had the knife with him at school, apparently. Mrs Woodcock’s son, James, is in the year above Tyler and she said they accidentally bumped into one another in the corridor yesterday. James admitted that when Tyler was abusive towards him, he swore back at him, but he said that although there was a slight bit of pushing and shoving, no real violence actually occurred. Mrs Woodcock said that James thought that was the end of the matter, until Tyler waited outside the school for him today with a knife in his hand. He followed James, then told him that if he didn’t apologize, he would stab him until he did.’

Pam put her hand over her mouth. ‘Gordon Bennett! That’s awful! Is this woman gonna tell the school?’

‘No, but she has told me if Tyler threatens her son in any way in the future, she will involve the school and the police. She has another son who was in Dannielle’s year called Jack. Danni said that her and Jack are quite good friends, so perhaps that’s another reason why Mrs Woodcock didn’t involve the authorities. I know if one of my kids was threatened by someone with a knife, I’d be straight on the phone to the Old Bill, wouldn’t you?’

Pam nodded. ‘So where do you think Tyler is now? Has he not been home at all since this afternoon?’

‘No. The little bastard probably knows he’s in trouble, that’s why he’s avoided coming home.’

‘Do you think we should go out and look for him?’ Pam asked, concerned.

‘Not yet. I rang around his friends’ mums. Tyler was round his mate Brad’s house earlier, but they’ve gone out again. He’ll be home around ten. The little sod always strolls in about that time when he’s done something wrong,’ Stephanie replied confidently.

Pam’s heart went out to her daughter. She knew what it was like to have one good and one bad child. ‘Don’t worry about things too much, Steph. When Tyler gets home, me and you will give him a proper good talking-to. He’ll grow out of this violent stage he’s going through. It’s probably just his hormones playing up. He is a teenager now, ain’t he?’

Stephanie sighed. The learning difficulties Tyler had experienced as a young child had improved immensely over the years. He was by no means as bright as most of the boys in his class, but his teachers had told Steph that he had a real talent for drama and art. Unfortunately for Steph, the domineering side of her son’s nature seemed to be getting worse. This was the fourth time in the past year that she had suffered the humiliation of another child’s parent knocking on her door to complain about his behaviour. Tyler bullying other children was something Steph had got used to hearing about but, to her knowledge, he had never threatened anybody with a knife before.

Pam put her arm around around her daughter’s shoulders. ‘Chin up, babe. Ty ain’t all bad, you know that.’

Stephanie shook her head in total despair. ‘I hope you’re right, Mum. For all our sakes, I do.’

Marlene checked her appearance in the full-length mirror and, not happy with the red miniskirt, decided to change her outfit once again. She was fifty now, and if there was anything she despised in life, it was getting bloody old. Marlene had been living back at her old house opposite Pam for over two years now. Chantelle had got back with her Indian boyfriend, Ajay, and they now lived in Wolverhampton where Ajay had family. Rumour had it, Ajay had upset a few big-time drug dealers around the Ilford area, and he and Chantelle had scarpered for their own safety. Marlene rarely saw her daughter these days, but once a week they would chat on the phone. Chantelle’s eldest two children, AJ and Tyrone, were both now banged up. They had been part of a robbery that had gone dreadfully wrong and a man had died in the tussle that followed. Both lads had been sentenced to three years in a young offender’s institution and were only three months into their stretch. Chantelle’s other son, Daryl, was twelve now, and was by all accounts an extremely talented footballer.

Deciding to go with the red miniskirt after all, Marlene quickly got changed again. Hearing her phone ringing, she ran to pick it up.

‘Hi baby. So sorry, but I’m running about half an hour late. Is that OK with you?’ Dennis asked politely.

‘Yep, that’s fine. I’ve not even started dinner yet, so you just get here when you can.’ Marlene had only been seeing Dennis for the past fortnight and this would be his first visit to her house. That is why she had offered to cook, and had cleaned the place from top to bottom this morning. Years ago, Marlene had been quite happy to live in squalor, but not any more. Having a cleaner whilst living with Jake the Snake in Spain had given her a taste for cleanliness, and since her son Barry had bought this house off the council for her to live in, Marlene was determined to make it look as nice as she possibly could. She hated those nosy pair of cows, Pam and Cathy, who lived opposite her, and making her house look better than theirs was something that now pleased Marlene greatly.