The Take (48 page)

'I am so sorry, Jimmy. I swear that to you, mate.'

Jimmy didn't answer him.

'Please, Jimmy, say something. Please say something.' Freddie was begging, a first for him as Jimmy knew better than anyone.

Jimmy sighed and turned to face him, and when he finally spoke his voice was flat. 'I can't tell you what you want to hear, Fred. I am sorry, but I can't. You told me about him a long time ago, and I was sorry for you, really sorry. But this ain't a fucking rabbit or a neighbour's dog, bad as that was. This was my baby and I can't let this go. I am sorry, mate, but I can't.'

'I am sorting it, Jim, I swear.'

It was the word 'sorting' that did it. They were always sorting things. It was their job, what they did for a living. But you couldn't sort out the death of a child, a death that had been caused by another child.

Except Little Freddie wasn't a child, he never had been. He was an animal, a mad bastard. Until now Jimmy had not really cared about that, but then why should he? He was Freddie's son. Why would Jimmy have ever thought he could encroach on his own life and family like this?

That boy had been an accident waiting to happen, and now it was too late.

'What you going to do then, Freddie?'

Freddie was quiet. He was so quiet, it was as if he were a different person, as if all his life had been leading up to this moment. And who knew, thought Jimmy, maybe it had been.

'He'll be gone soon, I promise you. He'll be gone.'

Jimmy laughed half-heartedly. 'Gone, Freddie? In what way? Dead gone? What?'

Freddie was silent once more. He was trying to gather his thoughts but it was hard, so hard. He wished he had not snorted so much gear. It was point nine, the best you could get and he had been hoovering it up like it was going out of fashion.

'He can't help it, Jimmy. I told you that before, he can't help it.'

Jimmy dropped his wife's hand and it fell on to the bed with a soft thud. Then he grabbed Freddie by the scruff of his neck and pulled him towards him roughly so they were eye to eye, and he said through gritted teeth, 'You brought up an animal. Someone was going to pay for his madness in the end, and you knew that. I have sat here and remembered you learning him to swear, and learning him to fight, and it hit me what you did to him. That boy never had a chance, Freddie, you and Jackie made sure of that. You thought it was funny when he attacked his sisters, when he didn't sleep at night and watched those violent films all the time. You created him, and then suddenly he was a
big
kid and he wasn't so fucking funny any more, was he? He was in trouble with the school, with the courts, and you
still
didn't get him any help. You left him to it, and now he has killed my baby and you know he has.'

He threw Freddie away from him then, as if frightened to keep up any kind of contact with him. As if he was tainted.

'We don't know that for sure…'

Freddie was desperate to try to make some sense of it, find some other explanation.

Jimmy shook his head at Freddie's denial. 'Jimmy Junior would never have dreamed of putting that bag on his head. Why would he? And it was
tied
there to keep it in place. The police will be back, Freddie, you know that because it was tied under his little chin. Joe told me that, because he was the one who ripped it off in the end to save Lena seeing it. The bag was stuck to his little face. That took
time
, Freddie. It was a fucking premeditated act. My little Jimmy couldn't tie his
shoelaces
, so how would he have managed to tie that bag up under his own little chin, eh? The
cunt
, why did he do it, Freddie? Why?'

He was nearly crying again. He was so angry and so sad and he was trying so hard to keep a lid on his emotions.

Freddie shook his head. 'I don't know, Jimmy, I really don't know.'

'You have a lot to answer for, you have
so
much to answer for, Freddie.
Stephanie. Lenny
. I gave you a pass every time, and now this is the upshot, ain't it? You and him are like two peas in a pod, you have no care for anyone or anything. It's only my Maggie lying here that is stopping me from screaming the truth from the roof tops, because she would never be able to cope with knowing what had
really
happened. I don't know if I can, either. All I do know at this moment in time is that Maggie must
never
know what happened, that her little boy had been forced to put that bag over his head. It would
kill
her.
I
can't handle it, Freddie. I keep picturing it in my mind. My little Jimmy would have trusted him, would have wanted to please him, he was
scared
of him. But I am warning you now. If I even catch a glimpse of your boy, he will know what fucking scared really is, because I will not be responsible for my actions.'

Freddie was crying silently and Jimmy could see him wiping away his tears, but he felt nothing for him or his suffering.

'I've sorted it, Jimmy, I swear to you that I've sorted it.'

Jimmy wanted to laugh again, but he didn't have one laugh in him, and he doubted that he ever would again. This wasn't something that could ever be sorted.

'Just go, Freddie, will you? I don't want to be around you any more.'

Freddie didn't argue with him, he stood up and walked quietly from the room. Jimmy didn't even bother to watch him go.

This was the end of his life, and his wife's life. Oh, they would carry on as normal eventually, they had to. It was what happened after something like this, but that would be it. They would be going through the motions, that was all. No more and no less.

Dianna was scared. She was still seeing her Danger Man and he was still mucking her about. She had slipped away to meet him and he had not arrived.

Now, here she was waiting by the side of the road in the dark and she felt certain that he was not going to turn up. He had done this to her before, and she should be in the pub with her family now, where she belonged. They had experienced a terrible tragedy and she should be with them, not out here waiting for a man who treated her like dirt. Terry Baker was like a drug. She needed him, wanted him and without him she felt as if she was nothing.

She had waited over an hour for him, and she had finally had enough. Now she just wanted to be back inside with her family, in the warmth of the pub and sharing their grief together. She was wrong to have left them at all.

She started to walk back slowly. Her heels were high and her feet were killing her, and she was nearly back at the pub when he pulled up.

She decided to ignore him. Just once, she felt she had the right to make him come after her. She walked inside with her head held high and her feet giving her serious gyp.

Terry Baker followed her inside, and it was the biggest mistake of his life.

Roxanna and Kimberley were talking about her pregnancy, and Kimberley was a little bit jealous, but only in a nice way. She envied her sister her life. Dicky was a real diamond and anyone with half a brain could see that he worshipped her sister. Kim didn't have a man. She was still trying to keep herself clean, make a life for herself and she was doing that well enough to please everyone.

The death of little Jimmy had made them all reassess their lives in one way or another and the girls were talking about Roxanna's baby because they couldn't discuss the tragedy any more. It was far too upsetting. The thought of poor Mags having to wake up and find out it was true was playing on both their minds. Dianna came back inside and they nudged one another. They knew Dianna had a fella, but no one could get anything out of her about him.

Jackie was completely gone, and she shouted out gaily, 'Here, Di, where you been, then?'

Dianna smiled and went over to her mother. She noticed that Patricia was also the worse for wear.

'I just popped out for some air, Mum, that's all.'

Jackie laughed her dirty laugh that annoyed the girls with its innuendo. 'Is that what they call it now, Pat? I've come up for air a few times. So have you and all, I bet, Freddie can go all night!!'

She was shrieking with mirth now and Dianna could have clumped her. Imagine her saying that to Pat, as if they were all girls together. Terry must have heard what she had implied about her own child too, and this upset her.

Pat laughed with Jackie as was expected, but she didn't really think it was funny. She had enough on her mind without listening to this crap, but she had to stay. She wanted to see Freddie, hear what had happened from him. She actually needed him for once and this was a real departure for her.

'Hello Terry!' Jackie's voice was loud, and it was friendly.

Terry Baker walked over to the bar and said jovially, 'Is that Jackie Summers as was?'

It had been so long since anyone had called her by her maiden name, and tonight Jackie was pleased to hear it.
Jackie Summers
.

It seemed like a lifetime since she had been called that.

'Terry Baker! As I live and breathe.' She looked round at her daughters to show them off. Now they were off her hands she enjoyed people seeing these good-looking girls of hers. She knew she had no right to take any of the credit at all really, but that didn't stop her.

'Here, girls, this was my first boyfriend. We was in the juniors and I went out with him to make your dad jealous.'

They were laughing together and Dianna wanted them to drop down dead, she wanted them to disappear. She could tell Jackie, her mother, had been on the okey doke, as Terry was himself. Like her mother, once he had snorted a few lines he got outrageous, he forgot what he was saying and, more to the point, who he was saying it to.

'Nice-looking girls, Jackie, but then you were a looker in your day, eh?'

Jackie ignored the inference that she was a bit battered around the edges, and ordered more drinks for them. She liked Terry and he had been away for a long time on an armed robbery, so she allowed for him talking out of turn. Fifteen years with no one but a load of other men and his right arm could do that to a body, she knew.

Dianna was blushing and she was convinced everyone in the pub knew her secret. All she wanted now was for the floor to open up and swallow her.

'So what brings you here, then?'

Terry shrugged. 'Same thing as you, I assume. A drink, Jackie.'

Jackie smiled. 'Oh, we've been in here for a while—'

He interrupted her and said unpleasantly, 'I guessed that one, love, you're fucking well gone.' He laughed at his own joke. But no one was laughing with him.

Jackie was still unaware of the undercurrent around her, but Paul and Liselle were making eye contact. This could be more aggravation and they knew it.

'Have you heard, Tel?'

'Heard what, mate?' He was all ears now, pretending to be interested in what Jackie was saying, holding out his hands in a theatrical flourish.

Pat and the girls had picked up on him immediately. He was wacked out of his head and he was after a row, was looking for a scapegoat. He was disrespecting Jackie Jackson, and that alone said he had to be on a death wish.

Jackie, though, was oblivious to the fact he was taking the piss. It had not even occurred to her.

'Poor Jimmy Jackson lost his son today.'

Terry frowned as if the weight of the world was on his shoulders, and then he said sarcastically, 'And where did he lose him exactly, Jackie, in the public bogs? In the Amazon jungle, up Jack's arse and round the corner? Where?'

He was staring into her face and he was half smiling a nasty, sarcastic smile that was daring her to answer him.

It finally penetrated Jackie's brain that he was having a rise out of her. She was hurt, and she was upset. He had made a fool of her and she had not noticed it happening, but she knew now that everyone else had.

Dicky was watching carefully and she knew he was waiting to step in. But Terry was an old mate, why would he want to mug her off like that in front of everyone? He knew who her old man was, and to take the rise out of the child's dying would never be forgiven by any of the people within earshot, let alone Freddie and Jimmy when they heard about it. And they
would
hear about it.

She felt a hand gently guide her away from Terry.

'Why don't you take your drink and fuck off, mate, learn a bit of respect?' Dicky was fuming, he wasn't going to have this, especially not off an ice cream like Terry Baker.

Terry turned towards him and said menacingly, 'Why, are you going to make me, then?'

Dianna was mortified. Why was he doing this? Why was he causing all this trouble? She was on the verge of fainting with fright.

'With pleasure, mate. You want a fucking row, you just got one.' Dicky was well up for anything that was going now.

Jackie turned back.

'Stop it, Terry. What's the matter with you? What is your fucking problem?'

He looked at Jackie then and she saw complete and utter disgust in his face as he said loudly, 'Who are you then, Jackie? Who the fuck are you to ask me what's wrong?'

He was poking his finger at her now, and Jackie being Jackie was not about to let him get away with taking the piss out of her, let alone slagging her off like she was
no one
.

As her arm came back to punch him, Patricia grabbed her and pulled her away, and then Dicky went in like a bulldog.

Paul had already cleared the glasses from the bar, and he jumped over it wielding a baseball bat, which he brought down on Terry's head with all the force he could muster. Dicky grabbed it off him and all hell was let loose.

A pole dancer and friend of Jackie's called Pat the Pole, or Pat Fletcher, had also been on the receiving end of Terry's vicious tongue and, being the type of woman she was, she was determined to join in the fray. She aimed a kick that unfortunately hit Dicky instead, knocking him flying. Her shapely legs were her prized asset, and more than one man was pleased to get an eyeful.

Pat's husband, Harry Fletcher, a market trader from Romford, was a man who knew how to look after himself. He prided himself on the fact that he was scared of no man; the only person he was even remotely scared of was Pat's mother, known to all and sundry as Nanny Donna. As Harry jumped in and tried to remove his wife from the middle of the fracas, a large young man called Richie Smith shouted out, 'Leave her to it, Harry, she'll do a fucking better job than you.'