Blood Brothers (39 page)

Alice tried to run outside, and when the policewoman grabbed her back, she fell into her arms, sobbing like her heart would break. ‘Please…get my babies back…he wants to hurt them, and they’re so tiny.’

‘We will. He can’t have gone far, and they’re after him now. You let me take you home now. Your family will need to know what’s happened. All right?’

Alice didn’t want to leave. ‘I need to stay. I need to be here when they bring them back.’

Eventually, it was Nurse McDonnell who persuaded her. ‘We had your father’s number, and I’ve telephoned him,’ she told Alice. ‘He’s aware of what’s happened, and he says he’s on his way to fetch you right now.’

By the time Ronald arrived, Alice was in pieces. ‘Come on, sweetheart.’ He thanked the policewoman. ‘I’ve got her now,’ he said. ‘Her grandmother’s waiting for her at home.’

When the policewoman explained that they were fearful that Frank Arnold might go after Alice too, Ronald agreed that the policewoman should accompany them.

Settling Alice in the back of the car with the policewoman beside her, Ronald got into the driving seat and quickly left, relieved to be getting Alice away from the heightening chaos.

Back at the Police Station, the woman from the pub was adamant that the man who had stared at her was the same man who they were looking for. ‘I saw him,’ she said. ‘It played on my mind. In the end, I rummaged in the drawer and got some old newspapers out that I keep for lighting the fire. It’s him! It’s Frank Arnold, I tell you! He got on this barge and went away, but it was definitely him…look!’

Taking the newspaper cutting out of her pocket, she showed it to the policeman ‘That’s the man I saw…Frank Arnold…I tell you it was him!’

She now had his interest, ‘Are you absolutely certain this was the man you saw getting on to that barge?’

‘It was, I tell you! He got on the barge and he went away.
Painted dark brown it was, with blue all round the windows. It was him I tell you!’

She was still talking, when the police clerk ran off to fetch a senior officer.

Having grabbed both babies and shoved them into one cot, Frank had run like the wind, dodging and diving, keeping low as he scurried down the back ways and alleys. Breathless but jubilant, he clambered aboard the barge. ‘I’ve done it!’ he laughed and sniggered. Placing the cot on the bed, he stared at the tiny infants squashed up to each other, and seeming no worse for their ordeal.

‘Little bastards!’ There was no pity in his heart; no love or compassion for these helpless infants. Only revenge and hatred, and a black heart filled with murder. ‘She’ll suffer now, won’t she eh? Oh, but I won’t do you in…oh, no. I’ll just let you lie there and starve to death, and if you start bawling, I’ll just have to stuff your mouths up, won’t I, eh?’

Going to the window, he glanced out. ‘They’ll never find me,’ he gloated. ‘How will they know where I am, eh? They won’t! They’ll be looking here and there, and all the time I’m down here, in this dark little corner, far enough away so they can’t even see me.’

He stood for a full minute, just looking down at the infants. ‘Who do you belong to, eh? Me, or Joe?!’

Going to the cupboard, he flung open the door and searched for the bottle he had put there earlier. When his hand alighted on it, he drew it out. ‘Ah. A drop of this will do me for now.’

Popping the cork out, he tipped the bottle to his lips, gurgling and spluttering as the fiery liquid spilled from his mouth.

He sat down beside the cot, looking and smiling. ‘She wants
you, but she can’t have you, because now I’ve got you. She can never have you…because all she deserves are years of pain and regret. When you die, it’ll be her fault, not mine.’

He took another slug from the bottle, laughing and singing and poking the babies until they cried.

In the midst of song, he thought he heard a noise outside. ‘What the devil’s that?’ He got up and peered out the window and then he saw them…dark blue uniforms creeping up the towpath looking for him. Looking for the bastards.

Snatching the cot, he climbed outside. ‘That’s him! That’s Arnold!’ A chorus of angry voices shattered the night air.

From the back of the growing crowd, Jimmy brought Joe gently forward. ‘Take it easy, Joe,’ he urged. ‘I wish now I’d never let you persuade me to bring you. I should never have told you.’ There were times when he opened his mouth before he engaged his brain, and this was such a time.

When Joe heard what was happening, he had to be here. He had to confront his brother…make him see sense.

His gaze went to Alice. She looked wretched. Contained in the arms of a burly policeman, she constantly fought to surge forward, her face soaked with tears as she called out to Frank, ‘Don’t hurt my babies. Please don’t hurt them.’

Out of his head with booze, Frank climbed to the back of the cabin. ‘Come another step nearer and I’ll throw them in the water!’ He took another step back. ‘I mean it!’

The order went out, ‘Back off!’

Then one of the officers inched forward, his hand up to calm the situation. ‘Just give me the babies,’ he said quietly. ‘Listen. You’re frightening them. You don’t want to be hurting them, Frank. Just come down and we’ll talk.’

‘Keep back!’ Shaking his fist he warned, ‘If you come one step closer, I’ll drown ‘em, I will!’

With Jimmy’s help, Joe now wended his way through the police. He called up to his brother, ‘Don’t do this, Frank.’
His voice was calm, while inside he was in turmoil, wishing he had the strength to launch himself at this man who was his own flesh and blood. ‘You’ve done some very evil things in your life Frank, but you must not harm those babies. Come down, Frank. Come down. Those innocents have done you no harm.’

Suddenly Alice was at his side, and as he looked down on her, he could feel her pain. ‘Go back,’ he murmured, but she would not.

The official’s voice called out to Frank, ‘Be sensible, man! So far you’ve not murdered anybody. Let’s keep it that way, shall we?’

He dared to take a small step forward, and as he did so, Frank took a step back. He was dangerously balanced on the edge of the barge. ‘THE BITCH HAS TO SEE THEM GO DOWN…’ He gave a low wicked laugh. ‘I want to see her face when they disappear under the water.’

Now he was waving his fist and shaking the cot, working himself up into a rage. When he began laughing he went backwards and lost his footing. The cot went up in the air. One small bundle rolled back to the floorboards, the other went with him, backwards and down, into the murky depths.

Everything happened at once. When a frantic cry went up, Joe kept Alice back. One policeman ran to collect the child from the cabin floor, while two others threw off their jackets and shoes and dived into the murky depths.

In Joe’s arms, Alice prayed like never before, as they could only stand helplessly while the policemen came up several times for air. The water was deep and dark, and it was difficult to see.

When they finally surfaced, one of them had the cot in his fist.

As he handed the cot up to the helping hand, he shook his head, a look of sadness in his eyes.

Some time later, the divers moved in.

It took a while, but eventually, they found two bodies. One was Frank Arnold. The other was the baby.

Once they knew the whole story, people said it was poetic justice.

Acting on information and other suspicions, the police later discovered another body in the murky dark waters further away; that of Jack, the bargee.

Some said that with the drowning of Frank, Jack had taken his revenge, but that the tiny innocent had been caught up in the evil that was Frank Arnold.

O
N A GLORIOUS
June day, in the church at Husborne Crawley, Joe stood tall and proud as the music started. He wanted to look round but he made himself wait, because this was a moment he wanted to keep in his heart forever.

When finally he did look round, he saw her walking up the aisle towards him, and no man could have been prouder. Alice was about to become his wife.

At long last, after many trials and much heartbreak, they were together, and it was a bittersweet moment.

But there was one, very precious matter to tend to, before they made their marriage vows.

Smiling, Alice walked up to him, and together they went with the priest to the font at the side of the altar, where they christened the boy with the brown eyes, ‘Michael Ronald Arnold’.

After the christening, his grandfather Ronald took the boy, while Joe and Alice made their vows. Mandy was there, all dressed up and looking pretty in her bridesmaid dress. Pauline and Maureen had dressed to the nines for the day, but throughout they kept their distance. No one expected anything different.

Afterwards, Alice and Joe went into the small churchyard on the hill, where they stood beside the tiny resting place cradled amongst the rhododendrons.

Alice laid her bouquet and, kneeling there, she prayed that the good Lord would hold her lost baby in His arms and keep him safe.

Then, with feelings of joy and sadness, she walked down to the arch, with her husband at her side, and their son Michael, safe in his embrace. ‘I love you, Alice Arnold,’ Joe whispered. ‘I love you too,’ she said, and they held each other for a precious moment.

Later, back at Tom and Nancy’s cottage, Tom came up to Alice. ‘I’ve been a silly old beggar!’ he said.’ I didn’t believe it was you who kept me in our beloved little home. You even chose to bring the celebrations back here. I owe you everything. And I gave you nothing.’

Alice hugged him. ‘You gave me more than enough,’ she said. ‘You gave me the man I love, and now we have a son, and people who love us. We have a house of our own, thanks to Edward Baxter, who bought another cottage especially for us. So, Tom, what else could anyone else want?’

Another voice intervened. ‘Nothing at all!’ Nancy said, and then she told everyone to go out to the barn and start up the dancing. ‘And for them that don’t want to dance, the food’s waiting,’ she said. ‘So, go on! Get to it!’

Merry music echoed through the air, until the early hours of the morning.

Outside, away from the noise and the crowd, Joe and Alice strolled awhile. Joe smiled down on Alice. ‘I’ve loved you forever,’ he murmured.

‘Somehow I always knew you and I belonged together,’ she confided softly.

There was a long moment of silence, when they looked back on all that had happened. ‘It’s been a bitter journey at times,’
Joe said. ‘There were moments when I thought this day would never happen.’

He took her in his arms with a kind of fierceness. ‘I will always look after you,’ he promised. ‘I won’t ever let anyone hurt you or the baby, ever again!’

‘I know,’ she said.

This was not the end.

It was just the beginning.

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Published by HarperCollins
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2010

FIRST EDITION

Copyright © Josephine Cox 2010

Josephine Cox asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

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