The Feud (49 page)

‘I’m telling them everything. You and Dad are animals and I hate you both,’ Frankie bellowed.

Raymond slapped his hand around her face. She was in terrible shock and needed to snap out of it, else they were all going down. ‘You say nothing, Frankie, do you hear me? Nothing.’

‘Where’s my mum? I want my mum,’ Frankie sobbed.

Untying the last bit of rope, Eddie held his distraught niece in his arms. How was he meant to tell her that her dad had killed her mum? As the sound of sirens approached, he pleaded with Frankie to do as he had asked. ‘There’s been an accident, Frankie. I’ll explain later. Don’t say anything to the police,’ he said, as he jumped out of the car.

Both the police and paramedics were taken aback by the sight that greeted them. They were obviously trained to deal with these situations, but neither service had ever seen a woman with so many bulletholes in her body. Eddie was now out for the count, and was bleeding profusely.

‘Is he still alive?’ Raymond asked, as Eddie was rushed into the ambulance.

‘He’s still got a pulse, but we need to get him to hospital immediately. He’s lost a lot of blood,’ the paramedic replied.

Seeing the stretcher being brought out of the trailer, Frankie lost the plot. ‘What’s going on?’ she screamed, as she got out of the car and ran towards the amubulance.

As Frankie tried to dart inside the trailer, a policeman grabbed hold of her. The police had been so shocked by the scene they had encountered, they hadn’t even realised Frankie was there. ‘Where’s Jed? Where’s my mum?’ Frankie yelled.

‘You can’t go inside. It’s a crime scene,’ the policeman told her gently.

Raymond led his inconsolable niece back to the safety of the car. He had to tell her the truth before the coppers did the honours. Sitting Frankie in the passenger seat, Raymond crouched down and held her hands. ‘Mummy’s dead, Frankie. I’m so, so sorry,’ he said, as another ambulance and more police back-up arrived.

‘Mum’s not dead. What about her baby? She can’t be dead,’ Frankie whimpered.

‘It was an accident, Frankie. I’m sorry,’ Raymond responded, hugging her fragile body in his arms.

As white as a ghost, Frankie shook like a leaf. ‘I want my mum, I need to see her!’ she screamed hysterically.

The police came over to tell Raymond and Frankie that the ambulance was waiting to take them to hospital. ‘You’ll be treated for shock. We’re going to need to take statements from both of you later,’an officer informed Raymond.

Raymond nodded. He had already told the police that he had brought Frankie here to see her mum and found Jessica and Eddie both shot. ‘It’s obvious someone wanted to kill them, and thought they’d succeeded,’ he told the shell-shocked copper.

‘I want Joey. Ring Joey for me,’ Frankie wailed, as she was helped into the ambulance.

Raymond sat opposite her with his head in his hands. How the hell was he meant to tell his mum and dad that both Jessica and the baby were dead?

Unaware of the carnage, Jed was sat drinking a beer and soaking his sore feet in a trailer over in Basildon. Fearful of losing his life, he had run for miles barefoot. He had heard the gunshots as he had scarpered across the fields, but had no idea of what had actually happened. Finally, he had come to a main road, had found a phone box and rung his cousin, Sammy Boy. His feet were ripped to
pieces and when Sammy arrived to collect him, he could barely speak through the pain.

‘Do you want another beer? How do ya feel now?’ Sammy asked him.

Gratefully accepting the can, Jed opened it and drank most of the lager in one go. ‘I feel like shit, but I need to find Frankie. I want you to drive me to her house and if she ain’t there, then you’ll have to take me back to Tilbury.’

‘It’s a bit risky if they’ve got shooters, ain’t it?’ Sammy asked him.

‘If Frankie ain’t indoors, I’ll go to mine and get one of me dad’s guns,’ Jed replied.

Sammy handed him a fresh pair of socks and some trainers. ‘Come on then, let’s go.’

Many miles away, Joyce, Joey and Stanley were all of a panic as they headed towards Basildon Hospital.

‘There’s been a terrible accident – you need to come quick. Frankie’s asking for Joey, so bring him with you,’ was all Raymond had told them.

Joey couldn’t stop crying, ‘Whaddya think has happened, Nan?’ he wept.

‘I don’t know, darling,’ Joyce said, squeezing his hand. Raymond was pacing the corridors when he spotted his parents walking towards him. The doctors were worried about Frankie. She had been that hysterical, her blood pressure had shot through the roof and they had now given her a sedative to calm her down.

Joyce and Stanley glanced fearfully at one another as they spotted the huge police presence. ‘Is it Jess? Has she lost the baby?’ Joyce sobbed, as she was led into a nearby relatives’ room.

A sombre-looking policewoman urged them all to sit down.

‘Where’s Frankie? Is she OK?’ Joey asked, shaking.

Raymond begged the policewoman to let him break the terrible news to his family.

‘What’s going on, son?’ Stanley asked, his face stern.

Raymond let out a cry. ‘Jessica’s dead,’ he sobbed. ‘Dead! What do you mean, she’s dead?’ Joyce asked incredulously.

‘There was a shooting. No one knows exactly what happened, but Jessica’s dead and Eddie’s being operated on as we speak.’

As Joey let out a piercing scream, Joyce collapsed with shock. Stanley stood up and, as his legs buckled, sank to his knees. ‘I always knew that bastard would be the death of my Jessica, I always knew it,’ he howled.

Nearby, in the operating theatre, Eddie’s heart had just stopped beating. ‘Cardiac arrest. Start resuscitation,’ shouted one of the surgeons.

Everybody crowded round. It was touch and go for Eddie Mitchell.

Still unaware of the chaos, Jed and Sammy Boy headed straight to Frankie’s house and were surprised to see her driveway swarming with police officers. Jed told Sammy to stay in the car.

‘Wait here while I ask the gavvers what’s going on,’ he said as he slammed the car door.

‘You can’t go in there. No one’s allowed in there,’ said a copper, standing by the gate. He had been ordered to guard the property while his superiors searched for clues.

‘What’s happened? I need to see my girlfriend, she lives here,’ Jed said bluntly.

‘There’s been an accident, that’s all I can tell you,’ the copper replied.

Jed was never one to be fobbed off. ‘Me and my girlfriend are getting wed. She’s having my baby, so I need to know she’s all right. Can you try and find out where she is for me?’

Turning his back to Jed, the young officer spoke into his walkie-talkie. His girlfriend was also pregnant, so he felt some empathy towards Jed. ‘Your girlfriend’s OK. She’s at Basildon Hospital.’

Jed sprinted back to the car. ‘Basildon Hospital, as quick as you like,’ he yelled at his cousin.

Back at the hospital, Joyce had been treated for shock. Seeing Joey and his father in absolute pieces, Raymond left the room. Their tears were pure and raw and Raymond felt as guilty as hell.

Outside, he punched the wall. He couldn’t live this life any more. He pictured Jessica’s face. It seemed so surreal that he would never see her or hear her infectious laugh ever again. Memories of the past came flooding back to Raymond. He remembered Jess struggling to learn to ride her bike without stabilisers. How she took the piss out of his obsession with Marc Bolan. She’d been so supportive when he’d joined that band, and even stuck up for him when he’d worn eyeliner. Raymond sat on a plastic chair and toyed with his emotions. Grassing Eddie up to the police was a no-go. Many people would have done, but not Raymond – he was too loyal. He knew how much Eddie had loved Jessica. It was an accident, a mistake. Ed’s life would be destroyed after this. It was a pure mishap and Raymond would never tell a soul about the horrendous true happenings. As long as Frankie and Jed kept quiet, the police would just think that Jessica and Eddie had been attacked by somebody else.

Seeing a copper staring at him, Raymond went back
inside the hospital. Joey was curled up on the floor like a baby. ‘Get up, Joey, come on, mate,’ Raymond said, crouching down next to him.

‘Leave him alone. This is all your fault, you and that other fucking hoodlum. With the lives you and him led, something like this was always bound to happen and it did, to my beautiful Jessica, who did nothing to deserve it. I hate what you’ve become, Raymond, and I’m ashamed to call you my son. Get out. Go on, get out, I never want to see your face again,’ Stanley shouted, pushing his son towards the door.

Shocked at the venom in his usually mild-mannered father’s voice, Raymond ran from the room.

With no room in the hospital car park, Sammy parked his motor in one of the spaces marked for staff only.

Jed had had his thinking cap on during the journey. He guessed from the police presence at Frankie’s that something sinister had happened, so he had prepared himself a story. ‘If the gavvers say anything, then I’m gonna say that you picked me up from Tilbury at six o’clock this morning. Me dad’ll go mental, ’cause he owns that fucking land. Me truck’s there and it’s registered in his name, so the gavvers are bound to wanna question him. Thank God I burnt them photos yesterday, Sam. Can you imagine the can of worms they could have opened?’

‘Are you sure you burnt ’em properly?’ Sammy asked worried.

‘Positive. I checked,’ Jed replied confidently.

‘Can I go and see my Joycie?’ asked a red-eyed Stanley.

‘And can I see Frankie now?’ Joey asked, distraught.

Neither asked about Eddie, as neither really cared how he was.

The nurse nodded. ‘Take no notice if they’re still woozy. It will just be the medication we’ve given them,’ she told them.

Joey sat down next to his sister’s bed. ‘What happened, Frankie? Talk to me,’ he pleaded, as he stared into his sister’s haunted eyes.

Frankie squeezed his hand. She wanted to tell him the truth, tell him that Raymond had kidnapped her, but she was still sedated, in shock, and unable to speak properly.

A few doors away, Stanley clutched Joyce’s hand. She was still sound asleep, but Stanley was sure she could hear him. ‘You should have listened to me all them years ago, Joycie. If Jess hadn’t married Eddie, we wouldn’t be mourning our daughter’s death. We should have put our foot down when she was seventeen and she first met him. I always knew he was a villain, a wrong ’un, and still I let her marry him. How are Frankie and Joey ever gonna get over this, eh, Joycie? Their lives are ruined and so are ours. I hope that bastard doesn’t wake up. He deserves to die, not our Jess. I hate him, Joycie, I really do.’

Joyce’s eyes flickered open. ‘You were right all along about him, Stanley. I’m just sorry I didn’t listen to you,’ she mumbled.

Unable to read properly, Jed kept stopping staff to ask them whether he was going in the right direction.

‘Go straight down the end of this corridor, then turn left,’ a nurse told him.

As Jed and Sammy ran around the corner, they came face to face with Raymond. ‘Where’s Frankie? What’s happened?’ Jed asked him.

Raymond led Jed away from the Old Bill. ‘This is all your fault, you pikey cunt. My sister’s dead
because of you. What are you doing up here anyway? Just do one, will ya?’ Ray said viciously.

‘If you don’t tell me what’s happened, I swear I’ll cause a fucking riot,’ Jed yelled.

Seeing the Old Bill had reappeared, Raymond realised that he had no option but to tell him. ‘Frankie’s not injured, but her mum’s dead. Eddie’s been shot as well. I don’t know how he is ’cause no one will tell me.’

Jed looked at Raymond in astonishment. ‘What happened? How did Jess die?’

‘I don’t fucking know,’ Raymond spat.

Seeing a copper walk over to them, Raymond put his arm around Jed’s shoulder. ‘Say nothing about what went on. Go and see Frankie and make sure she keeps schtum as well,’ he whispered.

Jed nodded and went in search of his girlfriend. The copper walked up to Raymond. ‘Your brother-in-law’s OK. I think he’s in recovery.’

Raymond took a deep breath. ‘Thanks for letting us know.’

‘How is she, Joey?’ Jed asked as he sat on a chair next to Frankie.

‘She’s sedated. She’s still in shock. What are we gonna do, Jed? My mum’s dead,’ Joey sobbed.

As Jed stood up, Joey threw himself into his arms. Jed didn’t know what to do. He was positive Frankie’s brother was an iron and he didn’t really want to touch him. ‘Move out the way, Joey. I wanna talk to Frankie,’ he said awkwardly.

As Jed held her hand, Frankie opened her eyes. ‘I’m sorry about your mum. I’ll look after you from now on, I promise I will. Is the baby OK? Have they checked you out?’

‘I’m having a scan in the morning. Please don’t leave me, Jed, stay here with me,’ she whispered.

‘I’m going nowhere,’ Jed assured her.

Eddie Mitchell woke up in the early hours. At first his brain was fuzzy, but within minutes he remembered everything. ‘Jessica! Jessica!’ he cried, the tears rolling down his cheeks.

The Irish nurse walked over to him. ‘You’re going to be OK, Mr Mitchell. You had a nasty bullet wound and lost a lot of blood, but you’re in the best place here. We’ll have you back on your feet in no time.’

‘Are the police still here?’ Eddie asked groggily.

The nurse nodded. Eddie was in a private room and the police were waiting outside the door. ‘Can you tell ’em to come in. I have a confession to make,’ Eddie whispered.

Raymond stood outside smoking another cigarette. The whole episode had been a nightmare and had made him take stock of his life. He had already planned what he was going to do. He was going to propose to Polly, settle down and go straight. What he had seen in that trailer had put him off violence for life and he would never forget the sight of his sister’s mutilated body lying on that floor for the rest of his days.

‘Are you OK, Uncle Raymond?’ Joey asked, as he walked up to him.

Joey felt like a spare part now that Jed had arrived, and he couldn’t wait to leave the hospital and grieve in peace. Raymond put his arm around Joey’s shoulder. ‘I think I should ring your uncles Paulie and Ronny to tell ’em what’s happened. They can tell Reg and Auntie Joan. They’re all gonna find out, anyway.’