East End Trouble (12 page)

L
ater that day
, Dave Carter lived up to his word and went to visit Charlie’s mum, Doris Williams. The Williams’ lived in a two-up two-down on Bread Street. There was a large basement beneath the house that Doris let out to a lodger.

Doris had become very efficient and good at making money. As many East End women had before her, Doris has been forced to find a way to earn an extra bit of money to support her and Charlie after her husband passed. Not that he’d been much use to them when he’d been alive. Even when he’d managed to hold down a job for longer than five minutes, he’d been busy drinking his earnings away.

She had a reputation in the area for being a bit of a money grabber. But Dave Carter realised that this was only born out of necessity. He was determined that Charlie’s mother would want for nothing while he was in prison. He still felt incredibly guilty that it was his own brother’s fault that Charlie was in this predicament in the first place.

As if she’d been waiting behind the net curtains, Doris opened the door on Dave’s first knock.

“Mr. Carter, what a pleasure to see you. Please do come in,” she said.

She led the way through a dark hallway, which smelled of beeswax polish, and into the small front room.

There were two armchairs set out by the fire and one hard backed chair.

“Please, take a seat,” Doris said primly, pointing out one of the armchairs.

As Dave eased himself into the chair, Doris said. “I’ll just put the kettle on and make us a pot of tea.”

Dave had a lot to do today, and he wished he could refuse the offer of tea, but he knew ceremony was important to Doris, and she would feel most put out if he didn’t stop for at least one cup.

As Doris bustled about in the kitchen, Dave leaned back in the seat and looked at a photograph on the mantelpiece. It was of Charlie, taken a couple of years ago. He stood proudly by the brick wall outside the house, smiling widely. He really was her pride and joy. Dave felt another pang of anger and regret over Gary’s actions.

Doris bustled in, carrying a tray with two china cups and a matching teapot.

“Milk?”

“Thank you.”

Dave noticed that one of the dainty cups had a chip on the rim. Doris was careful to make sure he got the one without the chip.

Dave smiled at her as he took his cup of tea and vowed to himself that he would make sure that Doris was all right.

“I wanted to pay a visit, Doris, because I want you to know that your Charlie is a good boy. He’s been caught up in this mess through no fault of his own. The police are trying to wrongly pin a charge on him.”

Doris leaned forward eagerly in her seat, her face glowing. “You mean he is innocent? Oh, Mr. Carter.” She pressed a hand to her chest. “I’m ever so relieved. I was worried he’d got himself into so much trouble.”

Dave gave her a small smile and then sipped his tea. Charlie Williams could never be described as innocent, but he wasn’t a bad kid, and Dave was telling the truth when he said it wasn’t his fault that he’d been caught.

Carefully avoiding the issue of innocence, he said, “I’ve hired him a brief, and it won’t be long until he’s out. I’m confident of that. I’m going to do whatever I can to help him, and that includes helping you, Mrs. Williams. I hope you don’t take this the wrong way, but I would like to contribute a little something every week to make up for Charlie’s absence. I know it can’t be easy with him inside.”

Doris’s eyes teared up. “Oh, Mr. Carter, you are a good man. I told Charlie you wouldn’t see us go without.”

After he had left the Williams’ house, Dave was feeling very pleased with himself. It had gone smoothly. He was glad Doris was a sensible woman and had agreed to accept the money. Sometimes people could be proud and refuse. But Doris Williams knew what it was to be poor. She wasn’t silly enough to let her pride get in the way and complicate something as straightforward as money.

He’d only walked to the end of Bread Street when he came face-to-face with a very angry looking woman.

She stormed right up to him and poked him firmly in the chest. At first, Dave was so shocked he couldn’t do anything. It had been many years since anyone had dared to confront him in such a fashion.

He studied the woman’s face, and then the pieces fell into place. It was Frank’s wife, Maisie.

“I want to know what you’ve done,” she demanded shrilly.

“Maisie, isn’t it? Frank’s wife?”

“Yes, that’s right. And I’m not about to let you get away with this!”

Dave frowned. He had no idea what the stupid cow was going on about. “Sorry, Maisie, you’ll have to explain.”

Maisie’s face was red and shiny, and she had clearly been crying recently.

“You know exactly what I mean! Don’t try and pretend you don’t. You tell me what you’ve done to my Frank, or I’m going to the police.”

Dave grabbed Maisie by the elbow, escorting her along the street.

“What are you doing?” Maisie cried out.

“We need to talk,” Dave said. “There’s a cafe just at the end of Salmon Lane. We’ll talk there.”

Once they were safely in the cafe, sipping cups of tea, Dave said, “Now, tell me what all this is about.”

Maisie set her cup of tea down on the table with trembling hands. “Frank’s missing,” she said quietly. “Have you done something to him?” The look she gave him was so raw and pleading that Dave’s heart went out to her.

He leaned forward and put a hand over Maisie’s, but she snatched it away. Dave realised she suspected that he had done something to Frank.

“I need you to listen to me, Maisie, love,” Dave said. “Frank hasn’t turned up for work. I wasn’t worried because I thought it was due to the disagreement we’d had.”

Maisie glared him. “What disagreement?”

Dave leaned back in his chair and sighed. This was going to be difficult.

“I’ve been noticing that Frank has been getting a little worse recently. His trembling has increased, and I was worried about him at work. I offered him a job, overseeing the expansion of my workshops. As you know, motorcars are getting popular around here, and I want to expand. I told him I needed someone like Frank, who I could trust to be in charge of the operation. Unfortunately, Frank didn’t see it that way. He’d thought I was trying to get rid of him.”

Maisie looked down at the table as though she were processing what Dave had said.

“I thought he was just spending some time at home thinking things through. I hoped he was going to come back to work.”

Maisie shook her head. “He didn’t tell me about any of that. He came home, acting very strangely, and he went straight out again. I haven’t seen him since.”

Dave frowned. That wasn’t good. He had a very bad feeling about this.

“And nobody else has seen him?”

Maisie shook her head and looked miserably down at the table. “No, I’ve asked people at our local. I even went to see his brother in Mile End, but no one’s seen hide nor hair of him.”

Dave leaned forward and patted Maisie’s hand. This time, she didn’t snatch her hand away. “Try to keep calm, Maisie, love. I’ll see what I can find out for you.”

L
inda checked
herself quickly in the hall mirror on the way out to work. She tucked a stray strand of hair back into her ponytail. Her eyes were still red, but that couldn’t be helped. She’d cried herself to sleep last night.

She took a deep breath and reached for the handle on the front door. She was shaking at the thought of seeing Kathleen at Bevels. But she didn’t have a choice. She had to go to work.

“Bye, Mum,” she said, shutting the door firmly behind her and marching down the steps.

When she turned the corner, she stopped dead.

Donovan was standing there with a bunch of carnations in his hand. He shoved them at her.

“These are for you,” he said, his eyes scanning her face, looking for some sign of forgiveness.

Linda clamped her mouth in a firm line and shoved the flowers back at Donovan. He had a bloody cheek, thinking flowers would work after everything she’d seen.

“Get out of my way. I’m late for work,” Linda ordered.

When he didn’t move, she simply walked around him, striding along as fast as she could.

Donovan followed at her heels, chasing after her, “I’m sorry, Linda. You have to forgive me.”

“I do not!” Linda said. “I will never forgive you.”

Donovan reached out and put a hand on her arm, but Linda shook him off.

She was walking fast, but Donovan had much longer legs, and he could quite easily keep up.

“I couldn’t resist it, Linda. I’m only a man, and she offered herself up on a plate. But I don’t like her, not really. It’s you I like.”

Linda ignored him and kept walking. She wouldn’t turn her head and carried on pretending he wasn’t there.

“I’m not stupid, Linda. I know you’re ten times the girl she ever will be.”

That was the last straw. Linda whirled around and used her handbag to whack him on the arm. “You are stupid, Donovan. You really have no idea, do you?”

Donovan gaped at her in shock. He’d never seen Linda angry before.

Linda continued, “Kathleen is pregnant, you fool. She just wants an idiot like you to pass off as the baby’s father!”

Linda was gratified to see that those words had finally got Donovan to shut up. He was opening and closing his mouth like a goldfish, so Linda turned around and marched on to Bevels, leaving Donovan staring after her.

She felt a slight twinge of guilt for sharing Kathleen’s secret but quickly extinguished it. Why should she care about Kathleen? Kathleen quite clearly had no regard for Linda at all.

F
rank the Face woke up
, his body stung all over, and the scent of blood was thick in his nostrils. He wasn’t sure how long he’d been lying there alone. He’d been drifting in and out of consciousness, willing himself to die. But it hadn’t happened. The pain told him that much.

He winced as he tried to sit up. He blinked his bleary eyes and looked down at his arms. They were covered with thin slivers of cuts. He shuddered as the memories came back to him.

Martin Morton had enjoyed using the large sword to slice thin layers of Frank’s skin. He was careful not to make the cuts too deep, so Frank didn’t bleed out. The sadistic bastard had wanted to keep him alive.

It felt like Martin had carefully worked away on him for hours. They’d tied him to the chair before Martin set to work. Even Big Tim had turned pale as Frank’s entire body had turned scarlet with blood.

It had mostly dried now, crusting on his skin, and it cracked as he moved.

He couldn’t remember them leaving, or even remember them untying him from the chair. Frank thought he must have passed out.

Frank struggled to get to his knees. The floor was freezing cold.

He had to get out of there. London was not safe for Frank the Face anymore. It wouldn’t be long until Dave Carter found out what he’d done. His reaction would probably be worse than Martin’s.

Dave didn’t have the same sadistic streak as Martin, but Frank knew he’d have his throat slit within the week once Dave found out he’d betrayed him.

Feeling thoroughly sorry for himself, Frank heaved himself to his feet, clenching his teeth against the stinging pain of the thousands of cuts all over his body.

He made his way outside, blinking in the bright morning sunlight. He took a deep breath, breathing in the fumes and familiar scent of London, trying to get rid of that horrible lingering smell of blood.

He knew what he had to do now. He was going to have to leave London for good and leave his family behind. He hoped that Dave would feel compelled to look after Maisie and bung her a few quid. He couldn’t take her and the kids with him. It simply wasn’t practical.

Once Frank had settled on his plan, he set off for the corner of Jellows Road. He stepped inside the phone box and dialled the police.

“I want to report a murder,” Frank said. “Frank Briggs has been murdered at the old meat factory on Jellows Lane.”

Before the police officer on the other end of the phone could ask any questions, Frank had hung up.

This was it now. There was no going back. He bit down hard on the inside of his mouth. He was going to miss Maisie and the kids like mad, but they would be far better off without him.

With any luck, the police would find the blood on the floor of the old factory and assume he’d been murdered there, and his body dumped somewhere else.

Frank stepped out of the phone box and staggered down the lane; he still had his wallet in his trousers, and there was enough money in there to get him to Victoria where he could get on a coach. He didn’t know where he was heading yet. He would just take the first coach he saw, as long as it got him far away from London.

A little old lady, who’d been walking towards him, suddenly saw the state of his skin and scuttled over to the other side of the road, giving him a terrified look.

Frank pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and tried to tidy himself up the best he could. But it was no good. The blood was dried on. He would have to wait until he got to Victoria and then use the bathrooms there.

He looked up at the watery sun in the sky and realised that this was the first day of the rest of his life.

W
hen Linda got to Bevels
, she was scolded by Mrs. McClair for being late. She could feel Kathleen’s eyes on her from across the room, but she studiously ignored her.

She apologised to Mrs. McClair and then quickly slid into her seat behind her sewing machine.

Kathleen leaned forward and tried to get her attention. “Psst,” she said. “I’m sorry, Linda. Truly I am.”

It took all of Linda’s willpower to ignore her and focus on setting up her machine.

She was on waistbands today, so she quickly threaded her machine with the blue cotton and began to sew. Luckily, Linda was an excellent seamstress, and she could have done this particular job with her eyes closed because right now her eyes were filled with tears and everything was very hazy.

The morning passed agonisingly slowly, and Linda developed a headache. She hadn’t gotten enough sleep last night because she’d been so upset.

Despite the fact she was so distracted, Linda’s ears pricked up as she heard Kathleen’s name mentioned by a couple of girls on the other side of the room.

“She should have kept her legs together.”

“My mother says no good will come of her. She’s ruined for life now. Stuck at home with a screaming baby and no husband. Can you imagine the shame?”

Linda drew in a sharp breath. How had they found out so quickly? Despite her intentions to ignore Kathleen, she turned around in her seat to see whether Kathleen had also heard the whispered gossip.

Kathleen’s face was pale as she turned her head and looked at Linda with a baleful gaze.

Linda tried to harden her heart. It served her right. Kathleen Diamond had betrayed her in the worst possible way.

But despite her anger at Kathleen, Linda couldn’t help feeling sorry for her old friend. This little bit of gossip was only the start. Things would get a lot rougher for Kathleen from here on in.

She would need all of her friends about her for support, but Linda wasn’t ready to forgive her. Not yet.

K
athleen angrily rearranged
the fabric on her sewing station. Linda was completely overreacting. It wasn’t as if she’d been engaged. Linda had only just met Donovan. As far as Kathleen was concerned, Linda was being ridiculous.

Every time Kathleen tried to catch her eye, Linda looked away. It wasn’t like her at all. Linda had always been the one person she could rely on, and Kathleen didn’t like feeling that she was now on her own.

At lunchtime, Kathleen decided to approach Linda. She picked up her handbag and stopped in front of Linda’s workstation.

“It’s nice and sunny outside,” she said. “Shall we take our sandwiches over to the park. It might be the last chance we get before winter.”

Linda slowly raised her eyes to meet Kathleen’s.

Kathleen was quite taken aback by the fierce glare Linda gave her. She pursed her lips together as if she was afraid she was going to say something she’d regret.

“Come on, Linda. You know I didn’t mean to hurt you, and if you think about it, I’m sure you’ll see you’re overreacting.”

Linda looked around the room and saw that all the other girls were looking at them.

“Not here,” she said, grabbed her handbag and stormed out of the machine room.

Kathleen quickly followed her past Mrs. McClair’s desk and headed for the stairs.

Once they got outside, Kathleen shivered. She’d been in such a rush to chase after Linda she’d forgotten her coat.

She wrapped her arms around herself, trying to keep warm.

She was regretting suggesting the park now; she was far too cold.

Linda’s warm, woollen coat made her look twice the size she really was, Kathleen thought.

When Linda turned back and saw Kathleen following her, she huffed out a breath in frustration. Then she slowed her walking pace and gave Kathleen a sideways look. “For goodness sake, Kath, where is your coat? You’ll freeze. You shouldn’t be so silly, not in your condition.”

Kathleen scowled. She didn’t appreciate being reminded of her condition as Linda put it.

“I’ll go back and get my coat,” she said. “But will you wait for me here. We need to talk.”

Linda shook her head. “No, we don’t need to talk, and I’m not going to wait for you. I’m sorry, Kath, but you really hurt me, and I’m not going to forgive you.”

After Linda turned and walked off towards the park, hurrying after another couple of machinists from Bevels, Kathleen stood on the pavement shivering and watching her friend.

She couldn’t believe it. Linda had never spoken to her like that before. She’d always been there, good old, reliable Linda.

Kathleen felt her lower lip wobble, and she felt very sorry for herself as she turned around, heading back into Bevels to go and get her coat.

It didn’t occur to her that she was the one in the wrong; she truly believed that Linda was overreacting. She didn’t understand how the girl could be so cruel, especially considering everything that Kathleen had been through recently.

Kathleen walked back inside the large room, weaving between the sewing workstations, and grabbed her coat.

Before she could put it on, she realised she wasn’t alone in the room.

All of the girls had gone to lunch, but there, standing in the doorway blocking Kathleen’s path, was Mr. Bevel himself.

Mr. Bevel rarely addressed the girls. He preferred to keep himself holed up in his office, and left Mrs. McClair in charge of the day-to-day supervision of the girls.

Kathleen swallowed uneasily and gripped her coat in front of her. “Mr. Bevel?”

Mr. Bevel was a short man. Kathleen guessed he was only around forty, but he was almost completely bald. He had a nervous disposition, and his eyes were darting about, looking at everything in the room apart from Kathleen.

“Ah, Miss Diamond. Kathleen, isn’t it?”

“Yes, that’s right, Mr. Bevel.”

“Ah, I see. Well, this is rather awkward. I don’t like to have conversations like this, but I’m afraid, in this case, it’s necessary.”

Kathleen frowned and wished the man would get to the point. What was necessary?

“I’m afraid I’ve heard the most scandalous rumours about you. I thought the best thing to do would be to ask you if they were true.”

Kathleen’s eyes widened. How on earth could Mr. Bevel know she was pregnant? Or was he talking about something else? She didn’t want to reveal the truth if she didn’t have to. But she was unsure how much Mr. Bevel really knew.

Kathleen’s heart was thundering in her chest.

“Of course, if these rumours are completely unfounded, I apologise unreservedly, but I’m sure you understand that I have to ask.”

“Ask what?” Kathleen’s voice was very shaky.

Her fingers were white as she gripped her coat.

“I’ve been informed that you’re pregnant, and according to our records, you’re not married, are you?”

Kathleen’s cheeks burned as her gaze fell to the floor. This was so humiliating.

This was not how she imagined her life turning out.

“So it’s true?” Mr. Bevel queried.

Kathleen didn’t trust her voice to speak, so she simply nodded.

Mr. Bevel was silent for a moment and then he said, “Ah, well, I see. I’m terribly sorry, but I’m afraid I’m going to have to let you go. People talk, you see, and I can’t have a girl with loose morals around setting a bad example for the other girls. I’m sure you understand, don’t you, Kathleen?”

Kathleen looked up then and glared at the horrible little man. Loose morals? Bad example to the other girls? She wasn’t half as bad as some of them. She was just one of the ones that got caught! Bloody men. It was all their fault, Kathleen thought, scowling at Mr. Bevel.

“Perhaps it’s better if you pack up now, to avoid a scene when the other girls come back from lunch,” Mr. Bevel said.

“Better for who? It’s certainly not better for me, is it? Just when I need reliable money coming in, you’re turfing me out.”

Mr. Bevel looked horrified that Kathleen could retaliate. He’d expected her to go quietly. He began to bluster and turned bright red.

“Well, you can stick your job. I don’t need you. I don’t need anyone,” Kathleen said, rushing to her workstation and making sure she’d taken every single personal belonging out of the drawer under her desk.

“You’re going to regret this. Mark my words,” Kathleen spat at Mr. Bevel, pointing at him.

She grabbed her belongings and stormed past him, leaving Mr. Bevel open-mouthed in horror.

As she clattered down the stairs, tears stinging her eyes, cheeks burning with humiliation, she burst out onto the street and ran straight into Linda.

“Kath?”

Kathleen turned on her. “I’ve been fired. Are you happy now? Is that enough punishment to satisfy you?”

Linda’s big, brown eyes grew wide with pity.

Kathleen dropped her handbag on the floor and shrugged on her coat before picking up the bag again. She walked off, pushing past Linda and a couple of the other girls from Bevels.

Kathleen didn’t need anyone’s pity. She was Kathleen Diamond, and she would show all of them. No one treated Kathleen like that and got away with it.

One way or another, she was going to make sure they’d all be sorry.