Maura's Game (13 page)

Sheila and Lee were getting the children ready for school. Lee was going to drop them all off in his brand-new people carrier. They needed it. Five sons and a daughter were a handful for anyone, and Sheila had only just relented and got herself a mother’s help. The girl was young, pretty and willing in more ways than one. As she smiled at Lee over the heads of his two youngest sons he felt the urge to tell her to fuck off, but Sheila liked her and wouldn’t have a word said against her.

His wife had been different since Janine’s death. Terry’s murder had bothered her too but she’d always accepted that Maura might have trouble at her door. It had never occurred to her that they might be in danger too. Now she was harder, more protective of the children, and as much as he loved her Lee found it all very wearing. It had taken the birth of their fifth son Jerome to get her to come back home and even then she had only consented when he had found a house like a fortress.

But he had complied with her wishes because he loved her so very much and adored his children with a passion. Sheila had remained a bundle of nerves for a while but when Roy had finally fallen out of his shopping trolley it had been she who had visited him and helped him get back on his feet.

She had also become very close to Lee’s mother, and that bothered him, because he knew Sarah worked behind the scenes to try and make her children into what she wanted, as opposed to what they were.

Sheila really believed that the people-carrier had bullet-proof windows, and instead of this making him smile it made him sad. She was as paranoid as Roy now. She was also letting herself go, something he’d never thought would happen. After all the kids he had to expect a bit of a difference in her body, but she ate like a horse now and it was showing on her.

It was her attitude that bothered him most, though. She talked to him as if he was stupid and it was wearing him down. Twice he had been on the verge of telling her to shut her trap but had stopped himself in time. She had the power, and knew it, and used it. What had happened to his lovely little wife?

He knew his eldest son was starting to rebel under his mother’s ministrations and felt for the boy. He also knew that Gabriel wanted him to stick up for him but he couldn’t, not if he wanted to keep his wife and children by his side.

He would talk to Maura about it all. He had to get it off his chest and she was the best bet. Garry would just advise him to give Sheila a right-hander though maybe he had a point. After all, they ran their empire through fear and Lee knew it was a great leveller. For today, though, he just did what was required and kept his mouth shut. What else could he do?

Tommy Rifkind was driving down the M1 at over a hundred miles an hour in his favourite from his fleet of flash cars a metallic blue Rolls-Royce Corniche. He was looking forward to tonight. He was going to meet Maura’s mother for the first time and felt that was a real step forward. He knew he was meeting her because it was a surprise party and not because Maura had arranged it, but the fact Lee had invited him spoke volumes. He was now classed as officially part of her life and that was exactly what he wanted to be.

Joss Campion was sitting in the passenger seat looking nervous. He hated it when his boss wanted to drive himself because he thought Tommy was a crap driver and said so on many occasions.

“Fucking slow down, willya?”

His Liverpool accent was even more pronounced with fear running through his body.

Tommy laughed.

“Now remember, you, best behaviour round her mother’s. No drinking and slurping like you usually do and no fucking swearing! She’s really religious by all accounts.”

“You’ve said this fifty times already.”

Tommy laughed again.

“You need telling, Joss, you know what you’re like. Remember how my wife used to carry on about you?”

Joss grinned and his face looked far less frightening.

“I miss Gina, don’t you?”

Tommy slowed the car to seventy-five and said sadly, “Course I do. More than I ever thought possible. But she’s gone and I’m still here and life is for the living, mate.”

“If you had the choice, Maura or Gina back, who would you choose?”

Tommy put his foot down again and answered with a shout.

“Don’t ask such fucking stupid questions.”

He was annoyed and Joss knew he was. But they both knew the answer and Maura wasn’t in it.

Garry kissed his girlfriend Mary lustily and she kissed him back with all the fervour of a seventeen-year-old girl.

Garry was amazed at how much he liked her. From the first time he had seen her lap dancing in his club he had known he would possess her and had set out to do just that. Even her extreme youth had not put him off; in fact, it was a big part of the attraction.

From her blonde hair to her red-painted toenails she was the epitome of all he had hated in women previously, and yet it was this that most attracted him now. She was a slag and he knew she was a slag; she had been round the turf more times than Red Rum. It was the taming of her that appealed to him. Even when he gave her a clump she took it and didn’t turn on the tears. She was so desperate for him to love her that she was willing to put up with anything.

And he was obsessed with her: with her little breasts that she was desperate to have surgically enhanced, and with her limited intelligence. He couldn’t keep his hands off her yet he still wanted her to work. He knew she wanted him jealous enough to stop her having to dance five nights a week. She hated the pole dancing and she hated the lap dancing. It had been a means to an end and he knew he was the wallet on legs she’d always had in mind. Now it was common knowledge she was Garry’s bird no one wanted her to dance for them anyway.

She stamped her little foot when he told her she was working tonight and Garry laughed harder and kissed her again. He sneaked a look at his watch and decided he could squeeze in a quick fuck before he went out for the day.

Once he entered her he was lost. She knew it was the only hold she had over him and used it shamelessly.

“It’s good, eh, Gal?”

He groaned his pleasure and then shattered her dreams by whispering in her ear as he pulled himself out of her, “Like a fucking Dyson down there, girl.” Slapping her rump, he roared, “Now I am bastard late, thanks to you!”

But eventually he finished off what she had started and that made her feel a tiny bit better.

Carol Parsons was really pleased to see the man at her front door.

“Hello, Benny.” The joy in her voice was more than evident.

“Why didn’t you use your key?”

He’d moved her into his own place three months ago and Carol still couldn’t believe her luck.

“I saw a strange car outside so I thought I’d better knock in case I was interrupting something.”

Carol’s face dropped.

“Don’t be silly, Benny. It’s me brother Trevor’s mate, he dropped off a laptop for me.”

Benny raised his eyebrows.

“A laptop? That’s a new one.”

Carol was nearly crying.

“Please, Benny, not now.”

A tall blond boy with a handsome face and an athletic build walked out into the hall. Benny disliked him on sight.

“All right, mate?”

Benny shook his head sadly.

‘ “All right, mate?” Is that all you can say when I come to my house and find you here with my bird?”

The boy went white with fright.

“Hang on a minute…”

Carol had had enough.

“Go home, Paul. Just go home, there’s no reasoning with him when he’s like this.”

Benny thought that his ears were deceiving him at her words and the way she said them.

‘ What did you say?”

Paul walked down the hall. At the front door he turned back and said to Carol, “You sure you’ll be all right here on your own?”

The cattle prod caught him in the side and he dropped to the floor like a sack of potatoes. Then Benny started to give him a kicking and Paul, still stunned, could not defend himself. Carol’s screams brought Abul inside the house. He dragged Benny away from the prone young man and forced him into the kitchen.

“Stop it, Benny! Stop it, for fuck’s sake, before someone gets the filth.”

All that could be heard was Carol crying, her sobs loud and terrified. Abul was holding his friend to his chest, calming him with his words.

“She’s a good girl, Carol. You know she is. You have to stop this jealousy or you’ll lose her. Now calm down and try and make some sense of all this.”

Benny was trembling with anger and suppressed rage.

“I will fucking kill him and her. If I find out she’s been playing me I’ll chop her fucking head off…”

“What the fuck you on, Ben? How much coke have you snorted this morning, eh? It’s making you worse than you are, and you are one paranoid fucker as it is. Now go in there and sort that girl out, she’s in a right state.”

Benny knew his friend was talking sense but the thought of Carol alone with another man was more than he could bear.

“Why did she do it? She knows what I’m like…”

Abul took a deep breath before answering.

“She’s a normal girl, Benny, and you can’t hide her from every man in the fucking world. Not even you can do that.”

Her pitiful sobs seemed to become audible to Benny for the first time. Pulling himself free he went out into the hallway. He took Carol into his arms and walked her gently to the bedroom.

“I’m sorry, Cal. Fuck me, I am so sorry. I can’t help it… I love you so much, darling. You know how I am about you? I’m crazy for you. I will make it all right, I promise, I will make it all right.”

“I can’t take any more, Benny. I’ve known Paul all me life, he’s Trevor’s best mate and goes out with my sister. What will I tell the family when they find out about all this? You know what me dad’s like, he’ll go bloody mad.”

It was on the tip of Benny’s tongue to say fuck her father and her family up hill and down dale, but he stopped himself. His innate cunning was taking over. Instead he said, “I’ll make sure Paul doesn’t say a word, OK? I will apologise to him, give him a drink and make sure he keeps it to himself. I promise it will be sorted.”

She looked into his handsome face and wondered how she could still love him like she did, knowing he was as mad as a hatter. But when they were together, just the two of them, he was different, he was kind and he was loving. Well, most of the time anyway.

“Is he badly hurt, Ben?”

He knew he had won when she asked him that and hugged her to him tightly.

“Course not. He’s fine.”

He could hear Abul helping the boy up the hall, and prayed that he hadn’t hurt him too much.

“Promise me that this will stop, Benny? Please, promise me that this will stop? Especially now with everything…”

“We’ll have the best wedding of them all, you’ll see.”

“It’s not just the wedding, Benny. I’m pregnant.”

She watched the joy suffusing his face and her heart lifted. But she had pictured herself telling him when they were happy together, lying in each other’s arms. Not after a bout of violence perpetrated in their own home.

“A baby, Cal? A real one?”

She nodded.

“A crying, screaming, real-life one.”

He hugged her tightly and then immediately loosed his grip on her.

“Sorry, Cal, I didn’t mean to squeeze you like that.”

She smiled sadly.

“I’m not going to break, Benny. But I can’t have this upset while I’m pregnant, OK? I can’t be frightened and upset like this any more ..

.”

Her voice was trembling with tears and with one of his lightning changes of mood he swept her up and laid her gently on the king-size bed. Then, going out to the hallway, she heard him humbly apologising to Paul and asking him to keep it quiet. For some unknown reason his hearty voice made her feel worse, and as she looked round the large and beautiful bedroom it occurred to her that this luxury bungalow was nothing but a prison, one from which with the child now inside her she could never, ever escape.

“No good will come of tonight, I’m telling you, Dennis.”

Marge’s voice was loud as usual and Dennis, her long-suffering husband, was already on autopilot.

“Her mother is doing this for no other reason than to cause aggro. I know her of old.”

She bustled around her country pine kitchen with her usual determination, her startling make-up already in place at ten in the morning and her large bulk encased in a long flowing kaftan.

“Come to bed, Marge, let’s have half an hour while the kids are out, eh?”

She laughed.

“You can’t shut me up like that any more, the change has put paid to all that, darling’. I would rather have a cup of tea. Me and Boy George, mate. About all we have got in common though, eh?”

Dennis laughed. He loved his feisty little wife, she was everything to him. Even her moaning was music to his ears. She was loyal and he adored her, even if she did tip the scales at sixteen and a half stone, and wore eye shadow that wouldn’t look out of place on her idol Boy George.

“I love you, Marge.”

He meant it and it showed in his voice. She walked over to him and hugged him to her.

“And I love you, you bald-headed old tosser.”

They kissed as they always did when together for more than five minutes.

“Fifty, eh? Maura fifty. She don’t look it, though.”

“No, she don’t, Den, but she feels it. I love her, you know that. But for all her clothes and her money and her big houses, she ain’t got what we got: three nice kids and each other. I know her better than anyone and she would swap it all in the morning for what we’ve got.”

Dennis poured them both another cup of tea.

“She’s got that Tommy now, though, he seems all right.”

Marge blew her lips out and made a very unladylike noise.

“I don’t like him, Den. Don’t know why, I just don’t trust him. Funny, ain’t it? I should be over the moon she’s found someone else, and I would be if it was anyone but him.”

“You and your feelings about people.”

She sipped her tea and sat at the scrubbed pine table that held centre-stage in her new kitchen.

“I still feel guilty about Terry. If we hadn’t fixed her up with him things might have been very different…”