The Talisman (5 page)

Dora, Mrs Harris’ youngest, swept in with her bleached blonde hair and scarlet-painted nails, teetering in heels so high that Mrs Harris didn’t know how she could walk. She was wearing a new dress, and was in high spirits as usual. She had brought a huge bunch of flowers and a box of chocolates. ‘’Ello, Mum, these are for you . . . Hello, Mrs Stubbs, how you doin’, all right, are you? I’d love a cuppa, Mum.’

Both the older women knew what Dora was up to, you could tell with one look. She even carried her gas mask in a special embroidered bag. She tucked a bundle of pound notes under the tin on the mantel and gave Evelyne a wink.

‘You can take that money back, Dora, I won’t have it.’

‘Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, Mum . . . an’ I got some chewing gum for the kids, here, from their Auntie Dora.’

Evelyne sipped her tea and murmured that she really should be going, but the warmth of the kitchen and Dora’s cheerful chatter made her forget her troubles. ‘So how’s things, Mrs Stubbs? Your two boys doing well, are they? Mum says you got one at university, that’s somethin’, ain’t it? I always said education was worth the trouble, but there again it’s no good tryin’ for it if you’ve not got what it takes. Me? Well, I was never good at nuffink at school. Me fortune’s in me face, isn’t that right, Mum? Gawd ’elp us, is that the time? I gotta rush.’

Dora was up and out before Mrs Harris could say a word. As the door closed behind her, her mother banged on the table with the flat of her hand. ‘I know what she’s doin’, Evie, an’ I know no amount of tryin’ will stop her. She’s with the American airmen, an’ it’s a different one every night. It’s breaking my heart. If her father knew he’d turn in his grave.’

Evelyne stared vacantly ahead, remembering how she had bathed Dora when she was just a baby. That had been the time when she was pregnant with Edward, living with the Harrises. The years had passed so quickly, and now Dora was a woman – and, by the look of her, a very knowing one, most certainly up to no good.

Both women, wrapped in their own thoughts, sighed, and dipped Dora’s black-market biscuits into their tepid tea.

Dora giggled as she was helped over the corrugated iron fence. She swiped at Johnny with her handbag, and said that she’d been in some dives before, but this had to be the worst. Johnny carried her over a puddle and put her down in the passageway. The red bulb cast a warm glow over the dank, whitewashed corridor. ‘Difference is, Dora, this is my place, an’ wait ’til you see the rooms. I got them all done up fine, all we need now are the customers, an’ that’s your job. Come on love, let me show you.’

Dora had to admit Johnny was a fast worker, and she loved him more than ever. She agreed to contact the girls she knew at the airbases, and put them in touch with him. Here they would have free beds, free drinks, and would pay the management a percentage of their fees.

Sid and Alex were put to work on three more of Johnny’s establishments. The two boys worked hard, and Johnny gave them a ‘tenner’ a week. He had to admit the kids really put their backs into the painting, and they were always ready and willing to do anything he asked. Alex was particularly good, and one day when he helped to cash up the evening’s takings, Johnny was amazed at how fast the boy could handle figures. ‘Eh, son, how old are you?’

Alex lied and said he was eighteen, and Johnny gave him an extra couple of quid, saying he might be useful when it came to doing the books. The following week he took Alex with him on his Friday round-up, and was very impressed. The boy was as sharp as a tack with money, even suggesting a couple of ways for Johnny to make extra cash. For instance, he and Sid could make up a few sandwiches, deliver them to the brothels, and they could charge a ridiculous amount to the girls and their clients.

So Sid and Alex added a string to their bow, and business was good enough to buy them new suits and shoes, and flash ties and fedoras like their idol, Johnny.

One of Johnny’s bouncers at the Angel club had taken Alex under his wing, and they would work out at the local gym. Alex’s skinny body filled out with weight training, and his personality changed with it. He liked the look of his body now, the frame tight and muscular.

He and Sid had been up to the West End to ‘kit themselves up’, as Sid put it. They had visited all the menswear stores, and had even been down Jermyn Street. Sid couldn’t believe the way Alex lingered outside one of the posh tailors in Jermyn Street. ‘Do us a favour, yer don’t want nuffink like that! I mean, it’s like old-fashioned, ain’t it? An’ look at the price, just look what they got a nerve askin’ fer a ordinary suit what you wouldn’t be seen dead in.’

Alex liked the suit, liked the plain styling of it. But his money wouldn’t run to the navy pin-stripe. He recognized the difference in the cloth, never mind the cut, when they paraded in front of Tooley’s Menswear’s window and saw a brown suit. He wished he had stuck to the dark blue, but Sid had been so persuasive, insisting the brown suited him. ‘Well, what yer fink? Couple o’ smarties, eh?’

‘I should ’ave got the blue.’

‘Bleedin’ hell, I never known a man go on more about ’is gear than you, Alex. The brown’s very nice, an’ yer can’t see yerself from the back. It’s a lovely cut, an’ the Slim Jim tie’s fantastic.’

Unlike Sid, he had chosen plain shirts, one white and one cream. He alternated them, inspecting them each time they came back from the laundry. Sid had offered him a pair of cufflinks, the sort Johnny would wear. They were theatrical masks with red chips of glass for eyes. Sid thought they were real class, but Alex refused them. Instead he bought a pair from Woolworth’s. They were plain rolled gold, and he was very careful not to get them wet in case they went green.

Sid watched Alex as he carefully tied a tea towel around his waist and rolled up his shirtsleeves before cutting the sandwiches for the club. He sliced the bread carefully. ‘You just gonna look at me workin’ then, Sid? Ain’t you got the butter ready yet?’

Sid set to work, managing to get margarine on his sleeve as he slapped it on the bread. Alex had finished cutting bread and while he waited for Sid, he combed his hair and studied his face in the mirror.

‘Alex, what was you in Oakwood fer? Was it thievin’ like the rest of us? Yer never tell me when I ask, but what was yer in fer?’

Alex had learned fast how to impress. ‘Murder – I killed a bloke. Now, you got those sandwiches ready?’

Sid’s jaw dropped and he hurriedly packed up the food. ‘Christ, if old man Taylor snuffed it, you’d better stay well clear of the cops. Won’t be no reform school next time fer you, Alex, you’ll do time, real time, in prison.’

When Sid delivered the sandwiches, wanting to impress Johnny he told him what Alex had said. Johnny feigned indifference. ‘That right, Sid? Well, I always said the boy had somethin’. Maybe he should start looking out for me instead of that boozed-up Harry – I’ll talk to him.’

That night Johnny approached Alex with a proposition. Now they were making the rounds together every Friday, he wondered if Alex would like to start working even closer, on a day-to-day basis. He needed people he could trust. Alex was quick to agree.

Alex’s education gained a great deal as he went from house to house with Johnny, meeting all the girls Johnny and his gang controlled. They were all shapes and sizes, even, to Alex’s amazement, a black girl and two Chinese. They all seemed to dote on Johnny. Alex was seventeen years old and still a virgin, but no one would know it.

Sid was growing jealous of Alex. He was still making the sandwiches and running small errands for Johnny. When he complained, Johnny grinned and said if he wanted to do something more ambitious there might just be something suitable. ‘I need a lookout, little warehouse we’re gonna knock off, so stand by and I’ll give you the nod when I need you.’

Sid couldn’t wait to tell Alex, implying that Johnny had been keeping him under wraps for bigger things. Alex polished his two-tone shoes and listened, then said quietly, ‘I wouldn’t do it, Sid. Collecting cash from the girls is one thing, but getting involved in robbery is another.’

‘You mind yer own friggin’ business, Mister Big Shot, Mister Know-It-All . . . Johnny dropped me the wink that I might end up a partner in the business, so you just keep yer nose out of it. You do your job an’ I’ll do mine.’

Alex slipped his shoes on, saying nothing. He had outgrown Sid and he knew it. At the same time, he knew he owed Sid a lot. Without him he would never have met Johnny.

Alex took the takings to Johnny, forgot to knock on the door, and apologized when he saw that Johnny was in bed with a girl. ‘Sorry, Johnny, I’ll come back later.’

‘Not with my money you won’t, get yer arse in ’ere, help yerself to a drink an’ I’ll get me trousers on.’ Johnny wandered around stark-naked, and Alex flicked an embarrassed glance at the bed. Dora lolled back and yawned. Alex poured himself an orange juice.

‘Now, that’s what I like to see, dedicated – see, Dora, offer the lad a drink an’ ’e takes an orange juice! Good on yer, son. Alex, say hello to Dora.’

Alex knew who she was, Mrs Harris’ girl, but he flushed at her nakedness and looked down at his shoes.

‘Aw, bashful, ain’t ’e?’

Dora hadn’t the slightest idea who Alex was, it had been ten years since she had seen him. His face had altered, anyway, his broken nose had been flattened in the fight with Mr Taylor.

‘Put something round yer tits, Dora, can’t yer see you’re embarrassin’ the lad?’

Hot under the collar, Alex still tried to avert his eyes, but felt himself drawn to Dora’s perfect breasts. Johnny laughed, and immediately knew it was a mistake. He saw Alex tighten, clench his fists. ‘Can I talk in front of her, Johnny?’

Johnny nodded as he pulled his socks on.

‘You really think it’s a good idea to use Sid on this caper next week? He’s only a kid, you know.’

Johnny stamped into his shoe. ‘Nobody’s makin’ him do it, Alex, it’s his choice, unless you want the job, do yer?’

‘No way, I’m nobody’s lookout, Johnny . . . here you go, fivers one packet, tenners the next, the ones in the big pack.’

Johnny caught the packets of money. ‘You’re a strange one, Alex, you know that? You got brains. What you after, eh? Somethin’ bigger? More’n a few cases of booze, yeah?’

Alex gasped as Dora casually flung off the bedclothes and wrapped a silk dressing gown around herself. He knew he was flushing bright pink so he made a hasty exit, saying he’d see Johnny later.

‘Where’d you find him, Johnny? He’s a good-lookin’ kid.’

Johnny was checking the accounts. As usual, Alex had done them in meticulous detail and he wasn’t ripping Johnny off, which made a change. ‘Never mind the kid, get yerself dolled up, Dora, and sharpish, I got a party of Yanks comin’ in ternight.’

He splashed cologne on his face and straightened his tie, and she threw off her gown and walked into the bathroom. She could see there was no point talking to him any more now, it was back to business. She ran water into the cracked washbasin and sighed; she wished Johnny didn’t make her work every night.

‘I’m off, sweetheart, clean yerself up, ta-ra!’

Dora stared at her lovely face in the fly-specked mirror, then rinsed out the face cloth and washed herself.

She was dressed up to the nines when she went to the basement club in Hackney. The place had been really smartened up, not like most of Johnny’s dives. This one had had real money spent on it, and there were quite a few punters already coming into the small bar. She saw Alex again, and smiled, asked if he’d like to join her for a drink before business started. He said he couldn’t, he had to go and collect from one of the other places.

‘Another time then, okay?’ Somewhere in the recesses of her mind she had a vague idea that she knew him from somewhere, but she forgot about it as the air-raid sirens sounded and the lights dimmed. They all waited to see if they would have to go to the shelter, but the all clear sounded quickly and the partying began.

Alex made the rounds. Everything Johnny was involved in was makeshift, all his properties were derelict, even the small office was a temporary affair. He lived in a small bedsitter next to the office. After his daily collections, Alex would go to Johnny’s office and work on the accounts. He had his own key and came and went as he chose. One afternoon he had just closed the door when he heard a voice from the bedroom. ‘That you, Johnny?’

Alex flushed as Dora appeared, wearing only a bra and panties. She was smoking as usual, and her hair was hanging loose like Veronica Lake’s. She looked around for an ashtray and Alex dived across the room to hand her one.

‘Well, ain’t you the gent, thanks. Why don’t you come an’ sit with me, it’s hours before I gotta work. Come on, you ain’t shy, are you?’ She smiled at him, puzzled. ‘I know you from somewhere, an’ I just can’t put me finger on it. You ever met me before?’

Alex knew exactly who she was, but he shook his head. She got up from the bed and came over to him, standing there in her brief underwear with her hands on her hips. She had the palest skin, unblemished, pink, and he wanted to touch it. But he kept his eyes lowered, staring at the tips of his polished, two-tone shoes. She started to laugh, but he wouldn’t look up, and suddenly she sat on his knee, simply sat down astride him, and held his face. ‘I’ve been wanting to do this since the first time I saw you.’

She cupped his face in both hands and kissed him, lightly and swiftly, and it took his breath away. He could smell her perfume and face powder. ‘Why don’t we move three paces across the room to the bed?’ she said.

Alex could hardly form the words, he coughed and said something about Johnny – what if he was to walk in? Dora hopped off his knee and locked the door. She strolled over to the bed and unhooked her bra. Standing with her back to him, she tossed it aside and lay on the bed, lifting her arms to him invitingly.

‘I can’t, I can’t.’ He went to the door and reached for the lock, but instead he flipped off the light and stood in the dark waiting until he could make out her shape clearly.

‘I’ve never been with a woman, Dora, I don’t know what to do.’

Dora took his hand and began to undress him. He moaned, but he didn’t know what to do with his hands, they hung at his sides. She unbuttoned his shirt, loosened his tie, and whispered that he didn’t have to do anything, just relax and she would teach him everything he needed to know.