Leonie was singing as she tidied up her Garry’s flat. She had not been this happy in her whole life. Garry made her feel good about herself and she appreciated that so much. She was used to men who wanted her for all the wrong reasons.
By the time she was fifteen she had already learned about the power a good body could command if used in the right way. It had been her dream to be a stripper or an exotic dancer of some sort. The lapping had suited her down to the ground, but now she was feeling a little jaded from it all and saw Garry as a fit alternative.
He had money and kudos, two requisites that she was adamant a man should have before she would give them the time of day, but he was also kind to her and treated her with respect. She guessed, rightly, that she was the first person he had ever treated in this way and that also pleased her. It proved to her she was special. Garry had told her she was often enough.
She might even have a baby to cement their relationship and guarantee a few quid if it all fell out of bed at some point. A girl had to look to the future, and Leonie had always prided herself on her business acumen.
She loaded the dishwasher and as she did so heard the front door open. Smiling, she went through to the lounge and saw a large man standing there. She looked past him, expecting to see Garry behind him. The dark-haired man looked vaguely familiar.
“Who are you? Where’s my Garry?”
Her voice was strong but there was an underlying tremor in it.
The man carried on staring at her from deep blue eyes.
“Will you answer me, please?”
She was frightened now. This was the downside of being with someone like Garry, and it had been the same with Jack. Their enemies were automatically your enemies.
“Where’s Garry?”
Benny’s voice was soft, but far from reassuring.
She shook her head.
“I have no idea, he doesn’t discuss his movements with me.”
“I bet he’s shown you a few movements though, eh, love?”
Leonie was annoyed now. She turned huffily and went back into the kitchen. Benny followed her.
“You got a number for him?”
She shook her head.
Benny, fed up with all the poncing around, grabbed her by the hair and forced her head back on to her shoulders. It was extremely painful.
“Owl What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
He sighed.
“Have you a mobile number for him?”
She shook her head once more. Benny shoved her away from him none too gently then walked back into the lounge and started to search the place. He finally found a mobile in her bag and scrolled through the address book.
Nothing.
She was far too cute to put actual names in there.
He began ringing the numbers one by one. Leonie watched him from the kitchen. He was trouble all right and she’d just realised this was one of Garry’s relatives. Heaven forbid she should ever meet an enemy.
Mickey Ball was watching as Vic listened on his cellphone to his tearful auntie telling him about the severed ear that had arrived at the house minutes before. He saw the veins protruding from Vic’s forehead, the way he was pulling his lips back over his teeth like a rabid dog about to pounce on its victim.
“The fucking scumbags! Terrifying old women now, are they?” He kicked out at a chair that was near him and sent it careering into Mickey’s legs. He thought about protesting, then thought better of it. Allies against the Ryans they might be but the last thing he wanted to do was antagonise Vic Joliff when he was in this state.
Sarah sat with Lee while Maura and Garry started on the first stage of their plan. Lee looked haunted and she knew Sheila would be giving him hell over recent events and the possible repercussions.
“You OK, son?”
He shook his head.
“Not really, Mum.”
She could hear the tremor in his voice.
“Is everything all right with Sheila?”
He sighed.
“It isn’t, Mum, if you want the truth.”
Sarah watched him smoke his cigarette and decided he looked not only old but deeply troubled. Her daughter-in-law was a handful who led this good son of Sarah’s a dance. Sheila didn’t know when she was well off. She had six children, another on the way and a husband who adored her as well as working his arse off for all of them. She was too hard on her man, and if she wasn’t careful he would find himself an alternative face to look at on the pillow of a morning.
“Is she giving you grief?”
“Since the head incident she’s been like a maniac, Mum, and in some ways I don’t blame her. It even gave me one up.”
“Jasus, I think about it all the time me self Sure, that Benny is a fecking case and no mistaking. In a way I’m glad that Janine is dead or this lot would have killed her for sure.”
She saw Lee trying to stifle a laugh and felt a moment’s anger at him. That was her children’s answer to everything, laugh about it. No matter how bad it was they found a joke in it. And some of the things they did were not funny; Benny decapitating a young man on the threshold of his life was anything but funny in her opinion. Disgusting, violent and depraved certainly, but not funny. Not at all.
“Benny isn’t all the ticket, son. Even Sheila must understand that much.”
“She ain’t interested, Mum. Wants me out of all this, and if I don’t agree then she wants a divorce. Garry and Maura know the score, they’ve left me out of things for a while, but with all this shit with Vic…”
He shrugged.
“How are the boys?”
He smiled now, a genuine smile.
“They’re great. And the babes… oh, Mum, she is adorable.”
She saw the love in his eyes and heard it in his voice. She grasped his hand in hers.
“Then go home, son. Maura and Garry will understand if I explain.”
He grinned and looked so handsome then with his trademark Ryan black hair and deep-set blue eyes. They were a good-looking family, there was no doubt about that, and in her own way she was proud of each and every one of them. Even Maura made her happy since their reconciliation.
“Go on, get away home. You have a large family to take care of and I have a feeling on me that things are all going to get very difficult before it’s resolved.”
“I can’t, Mum, I wish I could. I’m as sick of it all as you are but even Roy has been drafted in for this final confrontation. I just hope it’s all over soon and with the minimum of fuss, eh?”
She nodded, aware that she was wasting her time. He would do what he had to and wouldn’t listen to her, no matter what she said. That was one thing she had learned over the years.
Lee, however, was actually watching over his mother though Sarah was not to know that. When the ear arrived at Vic’s auntie’s, which it should have done by now, there was going to be murder done. Vic was going to be looking for all the Ryans and he would find them. Vic had a habit of getting what he wanted. But then, so did Maura.
Lee just hoped it would all be over soon so he could go home to his family. Once this was through he was going to get out. Sheila was right, it was all too much now. Their lives were in danger, and their kids’. It was time to break away from it all and get back on the old footing with his beloved wife before it was too late.
Kenny met Maura at Thurrock services and as he climbed into her car he was half-pleased to be in her company once more and half-worried about whatever mayhem she was about to cause. He was gratified she wanted him with her, though. It must show she respected him if nothing else.
She smiled at him and he saw that she was looking far more confident than when he had last spoken to her.
“Where we going?” he asked.
“Vic’s auntie’s. See if he swings by there to comfort his old mum.” Kenny’s blue eyes looked doubtful. He had nice eyes, Maura found herself thinking. A different shade from the Ryan blue, clearer and paler. Not weak though. There was nothing weak about Kenny Smith. He had a very direct way of looking at you. Kenny inspired trust in people. She supposed it was something he’d had to cultivate in his line of work, but found it reassuring nevertheless.
“I think you should wait for him to get in touch, Maura.”
“I can’t, Kenny. I really can’t sit around waiting for that ponce any longer. Word is out that we are finished and it’s going to cause us a lot more problems if we don’t nip this in the bud once and for all. Someone tried having over one of the betting shops, and that in itself speaks volumes.”
He listened attentively. She liked the way he did that instead of always trying to put in his sixpenn’orth like Tommy and her brothers.
“Another thing. It was two of Joe the Jew’s boys who tried to rob the shop. Interesting, don’t you think? They’ve got the inside track from someone and it ain’t me. I knew that old ponce was hiding something all along. He’s in with Vic, I can smell it.”
Kenny closed his eyes momentarily as he realised this was it, what he’d been dreading. It was all about to come down on them and Maura would be right in the firing line.
She glanced sideways at him. Once again his face wore its professional mask of inscrutability. His shaven head, prominent scar and heavy body promoted the impression of a hard man, a bully boy. But Maura knew that inside he was a decent man. She was also shrewd enough to understand that his bad boy looks would attract a certain kind of woman. Kenny looked just like a man in his line of work should look, and that would give some of his admirers a real buzz. They probably wouldn’t have been half so impressed if they knew about his softer side, the one Maura was beginning to appreciate more with every day that passed.
She opened her mouth to speak to him, and her mobile rang. Sighing, she answered the call and recognised Vic JolifPs voice immediately.
Carla and Joey were walking up Lancaster Road. They had a truce at the moment and as they had Benny’s money, had been on a marathon shop. Maura was not going to welcome her niece back into the fold with open arms but there was a definite thaw and that pleased Carla. At least she didn’t feel that constant sickness any more, wondering what Maura was going to do or say next.
Even Joey seemed happier in himself. He was always out these days and because of what she saw as his aberrant sexuality Carla didn’t question him too much about where he went. In truth, she didn’t want to know.
She studied him as they strolled along together. He was a good-looking boy and had always had, if not friends exactly, plenty of acquaintances. He was naturally very outgoing and friendly but she knew he had had grief at school because of his effeminate ways.
The fact he was related to the Ryans had helped put a stop to all that, of course.
The only people he got on really well with were Benny and Abul. Benny took the piss mercilessly but Abul had always given him his time. Not that he would any longer, of course.
It was a shame really that she had not kept in closer touch with the boy’s father. It was only now that he was older that she realised Joey needed a man in his life. But the decision had been taken all those years ago when Malcolm had betrayed her with that stuck-up bitch of a secretary of his, and that was that. Maura and the boys had seen to it that he had never come near or by them again without express permission.
Joey was squealing now as he waved to Nana’s next-door neighbour, an actor who had appeared in many films and always played a gangster or a psychopath. Now, though, he waved and squealed back every bit as loudly and over-exaggeratedly as her son did. If only his legion of female fans could see him and the pretty boys who seemed to be forever coming and going at all hours of the night. Even his cleaner was a Filipino boy with a tight bod and a rather used-looking mop.
She waved to him half-heartedly and he repaid her with a winning smile that could melt the hardest of female hearts.
“She likes you, Mother.”
“Will you stop referring to men as “she”, please, Joey? It irritates me.”
He sniffed loudly.
“Everything irritates you lately.”
Carla knew he was speaking the truth and tried to smile at him. He was glowering at her and she felt sorry because she knew she had hurt him. That she had hurt him many times with her words and her actions.
“Look, Joey, I know me and you don’t see eye to eye…”
He flounced away from her and she followed him up the steps to the front door.
“Please, Joey.”
He opened the front door with his key and went inside. Carla knew she had hurt him again and was sorry. In the kitchen he put on the kettle and she sat at the table, trying to find the words to make everything better. Why couldn’t she be more like Maura, accept everyone as they were instead of pushing them to be how she wanted them to be?
“Look, Joey, things haven’t been that easy for me either, you know.”
He faced her then, laughing, and said, “Oh, really? I would never have noticed if you hadn’t mentioned it! Well, Mother dearest, any problems you are experiencing stem from your own bloody actions. You knew that Tommy was with Maura and you were stupid enough to try and hook him when even I know that men like him are just chasing a bit of strange. You’re hardly a spring chicken, are you? Now you’ve been bummed out you want me. Well, it’s too fucking late, love. I don’t need you, I don’t need any of you, and soon you will all find that out.”
He was looking at her strangely as if he was the proud possessor of a great big secret, which of course he was. She realised that by the smug look that had come over his handsome face.
“What on earth are you on about?”
He smiled mysteriously.
“You’ll find out soon enough. I have a few tricks up my sleeve, Mother.”
“What kind of tricks, Joey?”
He smiled once more, enjoying her consternation.
“As I say, you’ll know soon enough.”
“Life can be very difficult at times, Joey…”
Now he did laugh. The thought of her giving him advice about anything made him crack up. She could save the bullshit for someone who believed it.
“Life? What do you know about life? At least I have a fucking life, which is something you have never had.”
She could see how incensed he was and it actually made her nervous. He had the same quality about him now as Garry had when he was upset. He looked as if he was capable of anything.