The Graft (51 page)

No one ever saw the consequences of their own actions, felt sorrow for what they inflicted upon complete strangers. Because it was all about them and
their
needs and
their
wants. This man had introduced his boy to this place and this life, and as far as he was concerned he had done Sonny a big favour. Saved him from the squalor of the public toilets.

Tyrell looked around the narrow balcony and saw a piece of wood. It looked like it had once been a chair leg. Picking it up, he poked the man hard in the face with the end of it, leaving Winters in no doubt now about what he was capable of.

‘Your life is worth fuck all to me, right? And at the moment it is me you have to answer to. If your memory is so short you have already forgotten hanging over that fucking balcony then you deserve all you get. Because I will throw you over there meself without a second thought.’

Tyrell brought the chair leg down across Winters’ shoulders with all the strength he could muster then, and in his state that was considerable.

‘You better talk, cunt, because the way I feel now my mate in there won’t be in it if I start, you hear me?’

Gordon Winters was caught now. This man really was on the edge. He knew he had to decide who he was going to protect. And, like most people, he decided it was going to be himself.

‘You’ll let me go, right? If I tell you I walk away, yeah?’

Tyrell grinned.

‘We’ll decide that when you start talking. And I warn you now, I have a built-in shit detector, you hear me?’

Gordon Winters knew when he was beaten, and he knew he was beaten now. This dreadlocked man with the black eyes and the vicious demeanour was suddenly scaring him.

‘I had nothing to do with what happened to him, you have to believe that.’

This time the chair leg hit him on the side of his face. The cold made the pain worse because it was freezing outside now.

‘What - you mean the burglary?’

Winters was on a roll. He wanted to get it all over with as soon as possible.

‘Of course, what else?’

‘Well, if you weren’t behind it, you must know who was?’ The man nodded then and Tyrell relaxed a little.

‘So someone did send him to that house?’

Winters nodded once more, his bloodied face a picture of self-pity and subdued anger.

’A bloke called Gary Proctor sent him.’

The name stunned Tyrell for a few seconds but he soon recovered. This was turning out even better than he had hoped. He knew there had to have been something behind his boy’s destruction and finally he was going to find out what it was.

 
Nick came into the kitchen, and his mother saw that he was drunk.

Drunk and frightened.

He walked towards his wife and tried to put a hand out to her. Tammy threw her arm out and struck him with such force he was almost knocked off his feet.

‘You bastard!’

There was so much hatred in the words that Nick didn’t know how to react.

She glared at her husband and, hawking deep in her throat, she spat at him. ‘No wonder you never wanted me.’

It was always about her, never about anyone else. His old animosity rose once more, even as his fear at her knowing terrified him.

She pointed at the photos on the table. ‘Bit too old for you, ain’t I?’

She was breaking before his eyes and in a small part of his brain he was genuinely sorry for her.

’A fucking nonce. A nonce under my roof, and I never knew.’

She was talking to herself now. ‘You’re as fucking bad, lying for him, letting him think it was all
normal
. You hated your father and yet you brutalise little kids. No wonder you became a hard man, who would ever have believed it, eh? Nick Leary, a fucking kiddy shagger. You scumbag fucking piece of dirt.’

Tammy was out of the chair in seconds and as she launched herself at him he shoved her hard in her expensively enhanced breasts. She flew across the kitchen, hitting her face on the Aga and landing awkwardly on the stone-flagged floor.

As he walked towards her, Angela stood between them. ‘That’s enough.’

He laughed then, a harsh sounding, sarcastic laugh.

‘Get out of my fucking way, woman. You’re another one, a fucking leech hanging on to me all me life.’

He shoved her out of his way and, going to Tammy, he pulled her up from the floor. Tammy looked at the man she had loved all her adult life. But she knew him now, really knew him and she realised then with a jolt that she felt nothing for him. It was as if someone had flipped a switch and any feelings she had had were gone. It was like being released from prison. All those years she had wanted him, needed him so much and yet suddenly he was nothing to her any more.

‘What are you going to do then, Tams?’

His voice was quiet, almost normal and, looking at him, you would not believe that he was exactly what his mother had said he was. A child molester, a nonce.

She could really see him now, see the slackness of his mouth and the paunchiness of his body. She could see him for what he was. Finally his guard was down and his acting would never fool her again. It was a liberating experience and she savoured it, savoured the little hint of fear in his voice as he asked her the question. Then instead of answering him she said softly, ‘What was Sonny Hatcher doing in those photos? He is a lot younger looking but I can see it’s him.’

It was as though a bomb had exploded in the room.

‘Was he one of your little friends and all?’

Nick stared at her.

‘Making up another story, eh? Well, I ain’t your fucking mother so it will take a lot more than a few well-chosen words to shut me up, mate.’

Her anger was taking over now and it was obvious to all three of them that her fear of him was gone.

Nick smiled then. It was a smile that showed off the handsomeness of his features. It made him look almost benign. Then he walked away from her and, picking up the brandy bottle, he put it to his mouth and half emptied it in a few swallows.

‘You killed that boy, didn’t you? He was
meant
to come here that night, wasn’t he? By the looks of that picture you knew him well, knew him very well.’

She wiped her face with her hands, wiping the blood from the corner of her eye where she had hit the Aga.

‘I got rid of him the same way I get rid of anyone who stands in my way.’

It was a threat.

‘So you two better think on, hadn’t you? Because you are both starting to aggravate me.’

He was goading her once more and the coldness in his tone shocked both his mother and his wife.

‘How did you think you would get away with it all, Nick?’

He pulled on the brandy once more and said cockily to his wife, ‘But I
did
get away with it, didn’t I?’ He was deadly serious. ‘What are you going to do now then, Tams? Grass me up?’ He grinned again. ‘I don’t think so. I know you better than you know yourself.’

He picked up the phone from the table and held it out to her. ‘Here you are, Tams, ring the filth, go on. Bring it on, girl! Go for it. But remember, if I go down, I take you both with me, because you would be finished around here. Remember that. All your so-called mates would be in their element, seeing you brought so low. I ain’t just a murderer, I am a fucking nonce, girl. You would be a fucking laughing stock.’ He knew in his heart that she would not do it. Tammy didn’t have finer feelings or any kind of principles. All she knew was how to look after number one and she was an expert at that. She had had to be.

Nick was ranting now. ‘He was like you, Tammy, my Sonny Boy. A fucking leech! Always wanting me, but I hadn’t wanted him since he was a kid. I used him like I used you. He got me what I wanted and I paid him for that but, like you, Tams, I shoved a mercy fuck his way and kept him sweet. He actually thought we would play happy families, see, and I let him think it, like I did with you, and I wiped him off the face of the earth and that is what I will do to you if you push me, see?’

Nick looked sinister now, his face twisted angrily with aggression and defiance. ‘I was
protecting you
, Tammy. You, the kids, me
mother
. I was protecting you all from him and his fucking hanging on all the time.’

The two women realised that he actually believed what he was saying. He was now trying to justify what he had done and his wife and his mother exchanged glances as he stood between them looking for all the world like an innocent man.

‘What about the little kids then, son? How do you justify them?’ Angela pulled him round to face her and she slapped him with all her might across the cheek. ‘What have I bred? Listening to you just then it would have been so easy to forgive you like I’ve always forgiven you. But now I know you are nothing. You are scum, son. And Tammy doesn’t need to phone the police, because I will. I will do it and gladly.’

The cocaine had made him aggressive and, smiling at her, he said gently but viciously, ‘I was more worried about you finding out, Mum. Do you know that?’

He flicked his head towards his wife as he said louder, ‘Now her, I couldn’t really give a fuck about. But you? Well, I was always a mummy’s boy, wasn’t I? You saw to that, didn’t you? But Tammy was only ever a means to an end, and like the fucking albatrosses you both are, I have had the pair of you hanging round my neck for the best part of my life. Is it any wonder I like the uncomplicated,
innocent
world of children?’

Tammy felt the brandy rising up from her stomach and she ran to the sink and retched until her tummy was empty. But the sickness was still there.

Angela’s voice was loud as she said, ‘You used us all, that was why you wanted me here in the first place, isn’t it? You knew Tammy didn’t want me here yet you insisted. Telling me you had bought the house for me—’

‘It got you here, didn’t it?’ He was laughing once more. ‘I have fuck all on my conscience where you are concerned, Mother.’

Nick looked at his wife. ‘Or you, for that matter. I gave you the world on a plate and you know I did.’

‘What about the little kids? Aren’t they on your conscience then?’ Tammy’s words were low and bitter. ‘The little kids you’ve destroyed because you are a fucking weirdo. What about Sonny Hatcher? Is he on your conscience?’

He shook his head sadly.

‘I loved Sonny, as a matter of fact. He was everything I had ever wanted in a lover.’

Tammy laughed then. ‘Till he grew up and you murdered him.’

Nick started to walk around the kitchen once more as he spoke. ‘Gary Proctor was filling his head with shit behind my back, Sonny was always after me for more and more money and I had had enough of it. I had what I wanted in a rat house in London and I tell you both now I ain’t ashamed of my preferences. That is what you can’t seem to get on board. I
like
what I do, I get enjoyment out of it. I love my life!’

‘You need help, son, and the police will make sure you get it.’

He shook his head as if she had said the funniest thing he had ever heard.

‘Fuck off, Mother, and take that sick cunt with you.’

‘Your father always said you were bad, rotten to the core and he was right, wasn’t he?’

Nick’s eyes were stretched to their utmost now.

‘Back to him, are we? Ask poor fucking Hester how she feels about him, Mum. Ask her about her feelings for once. Like you, she can’t bear the thought of anyone finding out the truth of it all.’

It was strange but even in her heartbreak she knew he genuinely loved his sister.

He was pouring himself a brandy then as he said, ‘I liked my life, Tams. Whatever you might think I kept this shit away from you. I bankrolled the lot, Sonny included. I let you do what you liked, Tams.’

‘We were just a blind no more and no less, Nick.’

It was the truth and he couldn’t deny it. He knew his life was over now. The life he knew anyway.

‘Sonny was going to blow us
all
wide open, and so he had to be sorted. With Gary, I set him up. He thought he was going to rob me and get money from the insurance company, see. It was so easy. Murder is much easier than people think, you know.’

He was talking matter of factly now. ‘No one is who you think they are, Tams, me mother is proof of that, ain’t you?’ He was looking into her eyes now. ‘It was better for all of us if Sonny was gone, see. I regretted it, but it was better for everyone. I swear to you both that I didn’t really want to do it, but what else could I do?’

Tammy looked around the beautiful home she had never really appreciated, saw poor Angela’s face, saw the disgust on it and knew it was mirrored on her own.

‘You are nothing but a child molester.’ Angela said it quietly and with conviction. ‘You are your father’s son all right.’

’Am I?’

He smiled once more at her, snorting through his nose with his laughter.

‘Well, you always wanted him more than you wanted us, so don’t try and come the old fucking soldier with me! You would still shag him when he wanted you to and his mates as well.’

He turned to Tammy as he said loudly, ‘She was worse than you in her younger days, old holy Joe, she’d fuck him and his mates, it was like our whole lives were about sex and sexual innuendo and she was as bad as him because she let him do it to us.’