The Know (17 page)

She tried to wake her little friend and, failing to do so, helped herself to a few things, among them a ring from Joanie’s dressing table and fifty pounds in fivers from Jon Jon’s wardrobe. She left the flat as quietly as she’d entered it, unsure of what she was going to do with the money and the ring but pleased nevertheless that she had acquired them. Like her mother, she always had her eye on the main chance.

 
Paulie and Joanie were in a pub in Essex. They had ordered a bar meal and were chatting together about the parlour. He was glad she was on her way back to work because he was getting fed up with policing the place himself. The girls were nervous of him for a start, which was how it should be, of course. But it didn’t make for a good atmosphere in the place itself. Plus he was a great believer in the old adage, you don’t have a dog and bark yourself. As he privately and sometimes publicly referred to his girls as dogs, he thought it was rather fitting.

He was loath to put anyone else in because it would have caused ructions when Joanie returned. Once a girl had a taste of power it sent her off her head, and as most of them already were off their heads it did not make matters any easier.

Lazy Caroline was due back at work this week as well, after her sojourn in the Greek Islands with a young girl she’d flipped her lid for. He shrugged; it took all sorts, he supposed.

But Joanie was looking so well these days even with all the aggravation she had had. He still wanted her, and for him still to want someone after all this time both amazed and worried him.

He suspected he was getting old. The younger girls these days were determined to give the blokes a good time and pulled out all the stops to ensure they had one. It was bloody wearing at times, especially when a quick dip and a cuddle were his only real requirements. If he wanted sexual gymnastics he would go Up West and pay for them. But the younger brasses all wanted just the one man to shag and would do anything to achieve that end.

It was like being caught in a blue film and he was long past all that poncing around, plus he knew they didn’t really enjoy it, why would they? He was just a means to an end to them.

He was a face and he had a few quid - he was like the
Mirror
pension scheme to them when all
he
wanted was a quick fuck and a goodbye. Was that too much to ask?

He watched Joanie tuck into her steak and chips. She ate nicely did old Joanie, and he saw the looks she was getting from the other men in the bar. She was oblivious to them and for some reason this pleased him.

She was looking well enough, old Joanie, he couldn’t take that away from her. Still, they were supposed to be talking business so they did. He could see how much she was enjoying herself, and watched as the lines of strain gradually left her face. She had had to put up with a lot over the last few weeks and had as usual handled it far better than most people would have done.

She was a survivor was Joanie, and in his heart of hearts he knew that it was just as well. Her life could not have been lived by anyone else. At least not as well as she had lived it.

Later he was going to take her in the car. He liked doing it in the back of a car; it was cramped but it made for a laugh.

And one thing he would give old Joanie: she was always game for a laugh.

She had had to be.

 
Jean Best was knocking on the door of Joanie’s flat when Jon Jon walked up the stairs. She was small, dark, and obviously not from the flats.

He smiled at her disarmingly.

‘Can I help you?’

Jean smiled back at this polite young man and said casually, ‘I am looking for a Ms Brewer, Joan Brewer?’

Jon Jon nodded.

‘That’s my mother. I’m afraid she’s out. Will I do?’ One part of his mind was registering the fact that she was obviously here on some kind of mission, the other half was eyeing the folder underneath her arm. She was Social Services or probation, there was no doubt about that.

He opened the door with his key and invited her inside. He assumed Jeanette hadn’t answered the door to this unknown woman and was pleased with her acumen for once.

‘This is purely a routine follow-up after your sister’s little mishap recently.’

Jean Best was marking her territory and he appreciated that. She was telling him in a nice way that she was only here to observe that his sister was OK and then she would be off. Her voice was soothing and sounded friendly enough to Jon Jon to be believable.

As they walked into the lounge the smile was wiped from both their faces. Kira had rolled over in her sleep and was lying at a crooked angle on the floor. She had taken the contents of the coffee table with her when she had fallen and it was obvious to anyone that this child was out for the count.

Jean Best saw the look of shock on the boy’s face and knew it was mirrored on her own.

‘Jeanette?’

The boy was hollering out the name as he picked his sister up from the floor. She opened one eye and immediately closed it. It was obvious she had been given or had taken something to make her sleep.

‘What is going on here?’

Jean Best’s voice was different now, the authority of years coming to the fore. Jon Jon, nonplussed for once in his life, didn’t answer her. All he could see was how it looked, and he wanted to know where his sister Jeanette was and he wanted to know now.

He stood up and looked at the woman before him. Her face was set and her eyes were like flint. Even her thinning brown hair bristled. She was bending over Kira, taking her pulse and feeling her forehead. The girl slept on through her ministrations.

Jon Jon, taking a decision, asked the woman to leave, explaining that his other sister should have been here with Kira and that he would ascertain where she had got to. It was probable she had gone to look for him, but he made it plain to the social worker that he had only been gone twenty minutes. He knew she didn’t believe him but he also knew she would have trouble proving otherwise.

She finally left, but he knew she would be back and when she was it would mean trouble. Big trouble. But not as bad as the trouble Jeanette was going to find herself in when he got his hands on her.

He rang his mother on her mobile first, and then he rang his sister. Neither of them answered, which did not come as any surprise. He rang up Little Tommy and asked him to come over and watch Kira.

Then he made his way to Jasper’s.

 
Joanie and Paulie were entwined in the back of his Jag, laughing their heads off.

‘Here, Joanie, do you remember years ago when we went in the woods that time and the filth shone a light in the car and you shouted out, ‘‘I ain’t getting out of this car until I get paid’’?’

She burst out laughing again.

‘Their faces! They were a picture.’

He hugged her to him, feeling her skin against his hand. The warmth of it. The softness. In the half-light she looked younger, and he saw the girl she had been all those years ago when she had first come to work for him. Even then she had had something about her, though he had never ascertained exactly what that something was. All he knew was he liked her, liked being with her.

‘We better get moving, girl.’

He didn’t attempt to move as he said the words so Joanie stayed put. She loved the feel of him as much as he loved the feel of her.

‘Thanks, Paulie.’

He grinned down at her.

‘What for?’

She smiled.

‘For being here this last few weeks.’

He kissed her gently on the forehead.

‘We’re mates, ain’t we, Joanie? That’s what friends are for.’

He was telling her not to take any of it too seriously; distancing himself verbally and physically. It was what he had always done and she wondered why she didn’t just leave it.

As he let go of her he pretended to stretch. The pretence did not fool either of them. Joanie got dressed in silence; the atmosphere in the car had changed again.

She sighed deeply.

She should have kept her mouth shut and then they would still be lying here enjoying the quiet and each other’s company. Now they were speeding back to reality and it was all her fault.

Her own big mouth would always be her downfall.

 
Bethany was asleep when Monika came into the house. She was crashed out on the sofa, looking very young. Monika, feeling an unaccustomed twinge of guilt, decided to carry her to bed. As she picked her up she clocked the ring and the fifty pounds underneath the cushion the girl was using as a pillow.

Bethany was woken roughly then the whole sorry tale was told. Monika, however, wasn’t interested in her daughter’s foray into thieving, she was more interested in the fact that Kira the wonder child had been left in the house alone. Miracles would never cease.

Still smarting from previous events, she set the rumour mill running almost immediately. Joanie had left her Kira, the one with the learning difficulties, alone.

It was, for Monika, sweet revenge.

Joanie had her kids, her job, now she even had that fat ponce at her beck and call. Her, Joanie, a brass who was no better than Monika was herself. Yet everyone liked her, had always liked her.

Well, Monika had found a chink in her armour and she would use it, let people know that Joanie wasn’t as snow white as she made herself out to be.

After all, who the hell did Joanie Brewer think she was?>

The sad part was, Monika knew that whatever else Joanie Brewer might be, she was ten times the mother she herself could ever hope to be and that was what rankled the most.

Monika’s elder daughter had nothing to do with her and soon Bethany would follow suit. It was a hard life for women like her, and she had made it harder still by taking absolutely no interest in anything other than herself. That, unfortunately, was how it had always been. Her kids raised themselves and Monika sat back with a drink in her hand and left them to it.

 
Joanie walked into the block of flats feeling happy with her evening out. Even though it had been slightly marred by her own silly comment, she had still enjoyed herself. She could smell Paulie all over her and was loath to bathe it away. She loved being with him, and knowing that a few words out of place had brought things to an abrupt end hurt her. She should remember that to be close to Paulie, you pretended you were anything but. He liked her to act as if she was just a mate. A good mate admittedly, but a mate nonetheless.

As she let herself in she was smiling broadly. He had told her to come back to work tomorrow night bright and early. He thought she was doing a good job with the parlour and she was pleased that she was doing so well. If she could sort out the kids and her private life as well she would be truly happy. But until then she would concentrate on work, on getting in there tomorrow and making a go of the place, once and for all. In fact, she was looking forward to it.

Jon Jon’s face as she walked into the lounge told her that things had just taken a turn for the worse.

‘What’s going on?’

His mother’s voice was resigned. Looking at her, Jon Jon felt sad for what he had to say.

‘Jeanette left her on her own. I think she’s given Kira some kind of pills, I can barely wake her up.’

Joanie was struggling to comprehend what was being said to her.

‘Jeanette what?’

Jon Jon sighed as he explained once more.

‘Jeanette, our Jeanette, has drugged our Kira?’

The disbelief was there again, along with devastation at what she was hearing. Jon Jon explained it all in greater detail.

‘Where is she?’

Joanie’s voice was flat-sounding, almost muffled by anger.

‘She’s gone, Mum.’

Joanie looked puzzled.

‘What do you mean, gone?’

He shrugged and said harshly, ‘Gone. I threw her out.’

Joanie screwed up her eyes as she said incredulously, ‘You what?’

Jon Jon sat down beside her.

‘She is out, Mum, and she ain’t coming back here. Not now, not ever. She stepped over the line tonight, the two-faced little bitch! A social worker came . . .’

He saw his mother’s face blanch. She was shaking her head.

‘No, Jon Jon, they didn’t see Kira had been left on her Jack Jones? That’s all we fucking need!’

He explained how he had told the woman he had only been gone twenty minutes, that he was the responsible adult who was taking care of his sister. He tried to settle his mother down with reassurances but the truth couldn’t be disguised.

‘She
drugged
Kira?’

He nodded.

‘That’s what it looks like, Mum. I found four Temazepam in her bedroom drawer. I assume she got them off her piece-of-shit mate over in the maisonettes. Another cunt who’ll be getting a visit from me.’

His words made Joanie think of where her daughter must have gone.

‘Jasper?’

It was a question but the fear she felt was in her voice as she uttered his name.

‘Don’t worry, Mum, he’s OK. If he wants her that bad, he can have her. I’m taking all her gear over there in a minute.’