Get Even (36 page)

Sharon was eyeing Ray with suspicion in her blue eyes. He was smiling at her disarmingly and waiting for the onslaught that he was sure would be coming in the near future.

Pregnancy suited her; she had really bloomed, as the old saying went. Her skin looked almost luminous and her thick blond hair seemed to glow like gold. God, he loved this woman.

‘Why were you and Reggie in Manchester again?’

He wanted to smile at her words; she really had no guile.

He shrugged. ‘Reggie didn’t go. I thought he was supposed to but I had got it wrong. Why?’

She screwed her eyes into slits and sighed lightly, trying all the time to calm herself down. If she lost her temper she would blow it, she knew she would.

She shrugged nonchalantly. ‘What exactly were you
doing
in Manchester? That’s supposing you
were
in Manchester, of course.’

He looked her directly in the eyes and he said seriously, ‘I can’t tell you that, Sharon.’

She was taken aback by his words and the way he had delivered them.

‘I beg your pardon?’

She was at the beginning of outrage and they both knew it. He went to her and held her gently by the shoulders and, looking at her, he said in complete honesty, ‘I really can’t tell you anything. If I did tell you I can guarantee you would regret ever asking me about it. That is as much as I
can
tell you, Sharon. You have to trust me on this.’

She looked up into his beautiful, dark eyes and believed that he was being honest with her. She could not help but be suspicious of his absences. What woman wouldn’t be? She had two sons and was heavily pregnant to boot. She had a man she thought she could trust with her life and now the doubt was creeping in. After Lenny she couldn’t go through that heartbreak again.

He sensed her uncertainty and, holding her to him gently, he said sincerely, ‘I wish I could tell you about these trips, I really do. But there are some things in our world where you are better left in ignorance. Believe me, I’m not trying to play you, Sharon.’

A voice inside her was telling her that she should accept what he said at face value. But another voice in the back of her mind was asking what was so terrible he could not tell her about it? What skulduggery was he involved in that required so much secrecy? One worry just seemed to replace another.

He kissed her tenderly and caressed her swollen belly. ‘Like I would want anyone else. Haven’t I got everything I need right here?’

She allowed him to hold her and pet her but worry still lingered in the back of her mind.

Lesley Scott looked in the
Barking and Dagenham Post
and saw her two grandsons’ photograph from the boxing. They had been for the ABAs. She drank in the picture of them, and prayed once more that her daughter-in-law would pay the price for destroying her family.

The boys were her Lenny’s doubles, especially young Lenny. It was like looking at her beloved son at the same age. When she thought of the trauma and heartbreak that bitch had brought into their lives she felt almost capable of murder. She heard her husband calling to her and she quickly poured him a glass of orange juice and went through to her front room.

Big Lenny was a shadow of his former self, and it showed. The weight had dropped off him, and he looked almost skeletal, sitting on the sofa watching his endless video collection. He was like a child now – all the life was gone from him and he was pitifully grateful to her for the smallest kindness. Gone was the vibrant man she had married all those years ago. In his place was this complete wreck who now had a catheter in to drain his urine, who had been left unable to walk without a stick and who had difficulty stringing a sentence together. Another victim of that Sharon Conway. Lesley could not bear to call her Scott; that name was far too good for the likes of her!

That girl had wreaked havoc on her and her family and it was hard to live through each day knowing that. They were pariahs now in their community, and even bingo was a closed door as no one would sit with her any more.

She felt the sting of tears, and forced them from her rheumy eyes. She too had aged dramatically since her husband’s accident – she always thought of it in those terms. The shame of his actions ate at her like a cancer. She knew that the rumours about her Lenny attacking his dead son’s wife had been rife at the time. Ray Donovan was looked on as a hero now, taking on those two boys and being a father to them. Well, he was not their father and never could be! They were
her
flesh and blood.

She glanced at the clock and was pleased to see it was nearly time for seven o’clock Mass – she liked the evening services and the early morning ones. They weren’t as busy and she didn’t run into people who were once classed as friends. The loneliness of her life had made her even more bitter towards Sharon; and she had heard a wedding was likely. That had upset her more than she had thought possible.

She absent-mindedly touched her husband’s ravaged face and went back to the kitchen. Then, taking the scissors, she carefully cut out the article about her grandsons to add to her scrapbook. They would come looking for her one day, she was sure, and, when they did, she wanted them to know that she had never forgotten them. Then she got ready for church, rosary already in her coat pocket and missal in her handbag. She set out, as she did twice a day, to pray for the destruction of the girl who had brought her family so low. How, she asked her God, could He let that whore prosper, knowing the evil and the damage she had done? But the wheels of God grind slow, and one day He in all His glory would see fit to punish that bitch of hell. All Lesley had to do was be patient and wait.

Micky and Jack were happily reminiscing about the old days, and Jack had forgotten what great company Micky could be when he was in a good mood. Micky Biggs had a wonderful, warm personality that Jack was sure accounted for his success with the opposite sex.

‘Then, Jack, fucking Petey Brewer vomited – projectile vomited – all over the poor PC’s fucking shoes. I was on the floor! Anyway, suffice to say he couldn’t wait to be rid of us, and we walked off towards Vicky Park with all the poor fucker’s takings from the betting shop!’

Jack was nearly crying with laughter.

‘Foolishness of youth and drink. We took the money back next day and apologised. Nice old fucker he was. Jewish. Forgave us and then let us pick out some sweets!’

Jack was laughing again.

‘Couple of years later I used to sell chorred fags to him!’

Jack poured them both more whisky and Micky sipped his gratefully, savouring the smoky taste.

‘Anyway, Jack. As nice as this has been, I want to ask you a favour.’

Jack nodded.

‘I hear you have access to a man who can settle scores for a price.’

Jack smiled. ‘I have. And it ain’t cheap, Micky.’

Micky sighed as if to say that he wouldn’t expect it any other way. ‘It’s that cunt George Thomas. He has been on my fucking case for ages to bring him in on a deal, the nature of which you don’t need to know. Anyway, I did as he asked and now the cunt has not only tucked me up, but he has also earholed me out. So, as you can imagine, I am not a happy bunny.’

Jack nodded once more but his face was very serious now. George Thomas was not a man to cross unless you had a mob handy, Jack knew that much.

‘I don’t want to go to war with him. As you know, my old woman’s just given birth and I realise that I might be better off disabling my opponent. Which is what brought me to your door.’

Jack was nodding his head once more. His grizzled old features looked concerned but, in reality, he was wondering how much Micky would be willing to pay to disable a Face like George Thomas. He took a large sip of his Chivas Regal before saying quietly, ‘As I said, it ain’t going to be cheap, Micky.’

Micky Biggs grinned widely. ‘I had a feeling it wouldn’t be. I will pay whatever you want. And up front too, to show my goodwill. I want him fucking maimed – unable to carry out his business for at least a year or eighteen months. I also want his eye out. Not both, I ain’t a vindictive man, as you know. But I want one eye popped, that is a certainty.’

Jack looked at Micky and then said, ‘Old saying, Micky. “In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.”’

Micky laughed delightedly. ‘Fuck that, Jack. In my kingdom
I
am the fucking ruler and I rule that that ponce needs to be taught a severe lesson. Of course, I had nothing to do with it. Which is why I am coming to you humble and with an open fucking chequebook.’

Jack smiled. ‘Leave it with me and I will see what I can do. I need to discuss it with the person concerned.’

Micky Biggs was happy enough with that and he said as much. ‘You’re a diamond geezer, Jack. I will leave it all in your more-than-capable hands.’

Sharon was lying in bed with Ray, listening to him snoring softly. She wondered if she would ever be able to sleep alone. Knowing he was beside her made her feel safe and very happy. He made her feel secure and the love she had for him was so colossal in its intensity that, at times, it frightened her. She had been let down by Lenny; it was hard to accept that your husband had another woman, but another man put a completely different complexion on things. You could fight against another woman, but another man? It was the ultimate insult; it had made a mockery of everything she had held dear. That was something she thought of on nights like this, when she was awake and sleepless.

The baby was moving around inside her and she smiled. Definitely nightclub hours with this one. She caressed her belly and felt a rush of love for this new child.

She could not wait to meet it. That was why she didn’t want to know the sex – she wanted a surprise.

She thought back to earlier in the day and Ray’s words. He had been sincere, she was convinced of that. He wasn’t a good liar, her Ray – not to her anyway. She knew when he was being honest. But his words had chilled her. What was he doing that she was better off in ignorance? Oh, she wasn’t a fool. She had grown up in the world they lived in, and she accepted that world. But there had been something in his eyes that had filled her with dread. It was like he was telling her to step away as if there was a bomb in the room.