Our Vinnie (22 page)

‘
Titch
?’ His mind was whirring now. ‘What’s Titch got to do with anything?’

Lyndsey’s mouth opened and closed then opened again as if she was about to speak. He waited, but she couldn’t seem to get any words out. None at all.
Why
?

‘I said,’ Vinnie said again, ‘What has Titch got to do with anything?’

‘Nothing. I –’

‘Don’t lie to me, Lynds.’ He crouched down now, feeling the hairs on the back of his neck prickle. What the
fuck
had been going on? ‘I mean it. What the fuck has been going down here?’

It seemed a real effort of will for his sister to formulate the next sentence. ‘Look, he pays us, okay?’

‘Pays you for what? What’s he done?’

‘For keeping quiet –’

‘About?’

‘Vin, I just
told
you.’ She looked at him as if he was the stupid one. ‘About Titch.’

‘What
about
Titch?’

‘About what he’s done.’

Vinnie felt an icy calm begin to descend on him. ‘And what
has
he done?’

‘Well, she says rape, but –’

‘
Rape
!’ The icy calm deserted him. Had he just heard what he heard? He stood up again, stiff-legged, mouth agape.

‘Rape?’ he said again. ‘You’re telling me he’s fucking
raped my little sister
?’

Lyndsey waved the joint in front of her. ‘Well, she says rape, like I say but, Vin, honest, I just think he groped her. How would she have known,
really
? You know what she’s like – she –’

Lyndsey didn’t manage to finish the rest of what she was saying as Vinnie had grabbed her by her cardigan and hauled her to her feet. ‘
Raped
her? When? Where? When the
fuck
did all this happen?’

‘Ages ago – Vin, will you fucking put me down please! Back when you went –’

‘When I went?’

‘Just after you got sent down. I think it was –’

‘You mean three fucking
years
back, he did this?’ What the
fuck
– that would have made her
11
!’

‘Vin, please,’ his sister whined. ‘You’ll wake the kids up!’

‘I’ll wake more than the kids in a fucking minute, Lynds. You mean you’re telling me you shits have been blackmailing that bastard for three fucking
years
?’

She shook her head wildly, still clinging on to the last of the smouldering roll-up. ‘God, no!’ she said. ‘We didn’t know anything about it, honest! This has only been in the last three or four months, since when he tried it on again –’

‘Tried it on
again
? What the fuck!’ He let go of her and she flopped back down on the sofa and started to snivel.

Vinnie clasped one fist in the other, fighting a powerful urge to punch her. ‘Yeah,’ he said, ‘and you know why? Because he
got away with it the first fucking time
, that’s
why
!’

‘I told you, Vin – we didn’t
know
. She didn’t tell
anyone
!’

‘You fucking
liar
!’ he said, opening his fist and slapping her hard across the face.

His hand stung. His head hurt. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. His little sister raped. His Josie – fucking
raped
! An image sprang to his mind that he couldn’t shake away. The shower block. Broken boys. That fucking twisted cleric. And then Josie. That monster, Melvin.
And him not there for her.

He stepped away from Lyndsey for fear of slapping her a second time. It was like a physical impulse he was struggling to control. Thank fuck Robbo wasn’t there right now. Thank fuck for that at least. ‘And what you’ve done,’ he said slowly, ‘You messed-up piece of shit – what you and that
cunt
of a boyfriend of yours have done is tap him for cash. Not do the right thing – the pervert
raped your fucking little sister
, Lynds! – not killed him or maimed him but tapped him for fucking
money
!’ He stood over her breathing heavily. ‘You make me sick.’

Lyndsey looked up at him miserably. ‘Shit, Vin – what the fuck difference does it make now? It’s done, isn’t it? And this, like, this
stops
him at least, doesn’t it?’

Vinnie shook his head, disgusted, not wanting to hear her, not wanting to even look at her. His mind was reeling. He needed to think.

‘You don’t say a word, okay?’ he told her. ‘Not to Titch. Not a
word
. I mean it, Lynds – and if I find you’ve been over to him for more money, I’ll do fucking life for you, I mean it.’

‘I won’t, Vin.
We
won’t. I promise.’ She stood up unsteadily then, and for a moment Vinnie thought she was going to try and put her arms around him. Fuck that, he thought, stepping back, revolted by her.

She didn’t though. She staggered far enough to grab the back of the armchair by the doorway, and then she threw up.

He didn’t stay to help her clear it up.

Chapter 17

Josie lay in her bed and wondered what the time was. She remembered that it was Wednesday, but since school had broken up last Friday she’d lost track of the days. All she knew was that she was bored out of her brains. There seemed to be nothing doing anywhere. And no money to do it, even if there was. Their spell of wealth certainly hadn’t lasted long.

It had all been a bit of an anticlimax, Vinnie coming home, as well. Everyone was either busy, or in a mood, or – most of the time, it seemed – both. God, she couldn’t wait to grow up and
do
something with her life. As it was, she didn’t even have anything to get up for. Frustrated and irritable, she tugged the blanket tightly up under her chin, trying to keep warm that little bit longer, before the moment came when she’d have to get out and put her feet on the freezing lino on the bedroom floor.

How she wished she’d been born into a different family. How she wished she could be one of those posh kids off
Crossroads
. They even had tellies in their bedrooms, they did! She tried to imagine the luxury of being able to lie in your bed and watch telly at the same time; you wouldn’t have to get out of bed at all then, not for the whole of the school holidays.

But she wasn’t a posh kid and she knew she’d have to get up eventually – if for nothing else than to light the fire. The house was freezing and without the fire lit, it would only get colder. So it might as well be now. She was wide awake, and in a mood that wasn’t going to improve. She flung the covers off and leapt in the direction of the wash pile, grabbing her woolly cardi and wriggling into it in a matter of seconds. One thing she was an expert at, she thought to herself ruefully.

With no sound in the house, she was surprised when she came down the stairs, both to feel an unexpected hint of warmth coming up to meet her, and to see her mother.

June was in her usual position, facing the mantelpiece mirror, above a fire that, to Josie’s surprise, had already been long lit. She was dressed and applying lipstick – her usual violent shade of red.

‘You shit the bed or something, Mam?’ Josie asked.

‘Cheeky mare!’ her mother retorted. ‘It’s bloody 11 o’clock, madam. Half the day gone already. Anyway, go on back upstairs and get dressed. I’ve just been up the post office and our Lyndsey needs you up there.’

‘Up the post office?’

‘No, you dozy cow. I’ve just seen Lyndsey
in
the post office. She needs you round hers, and quick smart, please.’

Josie frowned. Why? What’d she have to go round Lyndsey’s for? She’d been up her sister’s twice this week already, and on both occasions, though she’d come specifically to help out with the little ones –
as a favour
– she’d had this weird sensation they didn’t want her round there. Probably got some new scam on the go. That was her reading of it, anyway. Or some other dodgy goings-on, with one of Robbo’s divvy mates or other. So she’d been only too happy to take the hint.

‘What for?’ she asked her mother. ‘Only I’ve got stuff on already. And since she’s been such a narky cow with me, I don’t see why I should anyway. Why should I jump to attention just because
she
says so? I’m not her
slave
. I’m not just put on the earth to be at her beck and call!’

June shot across to the chair in which Josie had now plonked herself down and flicked her across the head with the tea towel she’d been dabbing her lips with. ‘You’ll do as you’re bleeding told!’ she said as Josie ducked. ‘And like it, too. You’ve got to go round, anyway. She’s gone and got herself knocked up again by that div. So she’s got to go and get rid of it, hasn’t she?’

Yeah
, Josie thought,
just like that last one
.

‘What, again?’ she said sarcastically.

‘Yes,
again
,’ her mother conceded, sighing. ‘He’s fucking simple, he is, that one. Anyway she’s got to get to hospital –’ she glanced up at the clock – ‘inside the hour, and she needs you to stop there for a couple of nights to see to the kids for her.’

‘Stop over?’ Josie protested. She did
not
want to do that.

‘Yes, stop over. But not for long so stop your moaning. She’ll sign herself out day after tomorrow. So you won’t have much to do.’ June flapped a hand towards her. ‘Now go and get dressed, will you?’

Josie hadn’t thought her mood could get any worse, but now it had – God, two nights alone with that perv Robbo? It wasn’t fair. She glared at June. ‘Why me? Why not Vinnie? He’s missed the kids. He told me. He’ll do it, Mam, I’ll bet you.’

June started gathering bits of make-up and throwing them in her handbag. ‘For Christ’s sake will you stop arguing with me for once and do as you’re told? Of course Vin can’t do it. He’s a
bloke
, Josie. Blokes don’t know the first bloody thing about kids. You should know that! Now get up those fucking stairs before I take my hand to you!’

Josie stormed up the stairs and slammed her bedroom door for good measure, expelling what scant heat had managed to venture up there.
Bastards
, she thought, rummaging for yesterday’s jeans and a blouse and tank top. They treated her like dirt, the lot of them. She yanked a drawer out for socks and slammed it back in as loudly as she could. If she was lucky she’d wake her brother and her father up as well. Serve them right – both in their pits. Both snoring. Both nursing hangovers from last night, probably.

Bastards
. Everyone had a life except her.

There was a taxi pulling up at Lyndsey’s as Josie approached ten minutes later, which her sister, carrying a small suitcase, was hurrying out to. She looked drawn and pale and stooped and Josie felt an unexpected pang of guilt about her earlier rant. No wonder Lynds had been so moody. It all made sense now. It must be pretty shitty to be her, Josie decided, having to go and have another abortion, but the last thing Lynds needed was another baby to take care off – specially living with that low-life of a boyfriend of hers. If she had a decent bloke she wouldn’t have to scrabble around so much just to live, would she? Mind you, Josie reasoned, if she had a decent bloke she wouldn’t be in this mess in the first place. Certainly wouldn’t be wasting what little money she did have on bloody drugs. She trotted the rest of the distance, making a pact with herself that she would never ever let any of that happen to her,
ever
.

‘Thanks, mate,’ her sister said as she drew level. ‘Thanks for doing this. They’re up and dressed. They just need something to eat, that’s all.’

Josie could see the three of them, lined up in the front window, already waving. Poor mites, she thought, feeling guilty all over again. How could she not want to take care of them?

‘They’ll be fine,’ she reassured her sister as she climbed stiffly into the back of the taxi. It wasn’t all bad, Josie thought – least she’d be off that shit she smoked for a couple of days.

‘Just keep an eye on them for me,’ Lyndsey said. ‘You know what that divvy’s like – he’d let them run wild. He’s still in bed, by the way. Just shout if you need him for owt, won’t you? I’ll try to sign myself out tomorrow, if I can. If not, the next day, promise.’

Josie shut the car door and waved her off. That would be the last thing she’d do, she thought, as she walked up the path to her waiting nieces and nephew. Shout for Robbo? Not in a million years. He could stay in bed for the whole two days as far as she was concerned. And he’d just better watch himself around her, that was all. She felt her shoulders stiffen, and her fingers curl into knuckles. She wasn’t scared of him, she told herself. Why would she be? He was an idiot. Any crap from him, and he’d fucking know about it.

The children, predictably, were going off like bottles of pop. ‘Auntie Titch, Auntie Titch, Auntie Titch!’ they all chorused. ‘We’re so excited you’re coming to stay!’

‘Might be,’ she corrected little Sammy, as she swung her around. ‘If I have any nonsense off any of you, I’m going straight back to Nan’s. Okay?’

They all promised they’d be angels – which they were with her most of the time anyway – and with no sign of life from the idiot upstairs, she made them lunch with what she could find in the cupboards – eggs, beans and toast. Then, hearing suspicious sounds of activity overhead, told them to get down and go and find their coats.

‘Are we going to the park, Auntie Titch?’ Robbie wanted to know.

‘Yes, we are,’ she said, ‘and chop-chop, or we’ll miss all the best swings.’

‘Off out?’ came a voice. She looked up from buttoning Lou’s coat. It was Robbo, standing at the top of the stairs in only his underpants.

Revolting, Josie thought. How could her sister let that thing go near her? ‘We’re just off to the park,’ she told him, grimacing as he stood and scratched his balls. ‘We won’t be long.’

‘Oh, be as long as you like for me!’ he called down gaily.

She didn’t have a clue what he was on about – she rarely did – but when he started stumbling down she hotfooted it out of the door with the children. No length of time would be long enough, frankly.