Two Women (6 page)

June felt as if she had been punched in the solar plexus.

‘No, I get the picture now, thank you.’

Picking up his plate of steak and chips, she emptied it into the bin.

‘So when do I go? Or should I say, where do I go?’

Jimmy was sorry to the heart but the feeling he had for Maureen was like a cancer, constantly eating away inside him.

He wanted to be with her all the time, wanted to watch her, see what she was doing. He knew that men liked her, that she attracted them, especially well-to-do men with businesses and careers. He couldn’t quite believe she had chosen him. Now she had he intended to keep her just for himself.

He admired, respected, loved her.

Really loved her.

Poor June couldn’t compete with that.

‘I’ll leave, sweetheart. You can stay here until we arrange something for you, okay?’

June nodded sadly, unable to talk she was so upset.

‘I love you, Jimmy.’

The words forced their way out of her mouth despite herself.

‘I know, Junie, and believe me I’m heart sorry, lassie. I really am.’

‘I could change, try and be different . . .’

Jimmy shook his head at her.

‘You’re lovely as you are, Junie, and someone will love you for that, you’ll see.’

She grinned sadly.

‘Like you did, you mean? What a thrilling thought.’

He walked from the room. She heard the front door open and ran after him, calling his name. As he looked into her face she smiled and said, ‘Merry Christmas, Jimmy.’

Without answering her he left the house. June collapsed on the doormat and cried until she was aching.

The tragic thing was she was telling the truth. She did love him. Still.

 

Debbie was out, her granny was out and her father was out. Susan savoured having the flat to herself.

As her mother let herself in with her key her heart stopped in her breast.

‘Hello, Mum. What’s brought you here?’

She knew already but she would never say so. It was up to her mother to sort it all out and then tell Susan what she wanted her to know.

‘I thought I’d pop round and see me girls, and give them a cuddle.’

Susan hugged her tight.

If all Bella said was true then she might be able to go and live with her mother somewhere. That thought had been keeping her going ever since it had entered her head. To be away from her father was such a wonderful prospect that she felt as if she was having all her Christmases and birthdays together.

As her mother sipped a Scotch Susan prepared the vegetables and they chatted about nothing in particular. An hour later Joey walked in.

Seeing his Junie sitting at the kitchen table made him start. He looked around hastily in case she had brought Jimmy with her and it meant trouble.

Slipping Susan a fiver, June asked her to go out and get her some cigarettes. Susan went with a heavy heart. She already knew what her mother was going to do and it grieved her. Grieved her and destroyed any hope she’d had of getting away from the man in the kitchen. June was going to try and re-enter her husband’s life and if she succeeded all Susan’s dreams would go out of the window.

As she walked from the house she heard the peculiar note in her mother’s voice that meant she was after something. It wasn’t exactly a whine, more of a low gurgling sound that made her seem girlish, childish even.

Shutting the front door Susan sighed once more.

Life was never what you wanted, Susan McNamara already knew that much.

Joey looked his wife over and smiled. She was all right, his June, he should have looked after her; she was a one off in many respects.

No other woman seemed to want him these days; his drinking, his temper or his lack of money seemed to put the kibosh on everyone he spoke to. He accepted that his June must have cared about him to put up with all that. Fuelled by drink, it seemed a logical as well as a romantic assumption.

Ever since he had first laid eyes on her, she had affected him like no other woman. He knew she was a whore and that bothered him but also excited him. In a strange way, it was half her attraction.

June’s personality and body were overtly sexual and that was the nub of all her man problems. It was what had attracted Jimmy, until he had seen her for what she was. Villains didn’t have to have molls hanging on their arms any more. This was the sixties and people like Johnny Binden and his ilk could take any kind of woman they wanted. Jimmy Vincent wanted this too.

June knew she was now an also ran and she had to salvage something. If it meant that she had to take back her husband then all the better really. At least she would be in an environment she knew, with people who knew her and accepted her for what she was: June McNamara, slag extraordinaire. Battered wife, haphazard mother and Jimmy’s ex-bird.

As her husband made them both tea and toast and they chatted about the girls she felt herself relax. When Joey was like this she loved him. This was the man she had fallen for, this was the man she had wanted more than anything once.

Now she knew that if he took her back there would be a subtle shift of position. After all, she had crossed into the real world of villainy and her husband was aware of that.

She would let him think that she had left Jimmy. That she had gone off him. Joey would believe her, would want to believe her.

She began to talk to him, her voice soft, her eyes moist. As he responded with shy smiles and little gestures, lighting her cigarettes, pouring her more tea, she relaxed.

This was going to be easier than she’d thought. But she would miss her Jimmy, miss him very much. After all, he had shown her another way of life and for that alone June would always be grateful to him.

 

Jimmy walked out of his new amour’s house a happy, happy man. He was glad Junie had taken it all so well. He’d hated hurting her but what could a man do?

She was old news, like a newspaper read from cover to cover. Why keep it?

He would see her off with a couple of grand and promise he would keep an eye on her. And every now and then, when he felt the urge for a bit of strange, he would call on her.

Junie was like that.

He realised now she was as mercenary as him. You didn’t make respectable women out of the Junes of this world. You shagged them, used them, had a few laughs then tossed them aside when the next one ambled into the pub.

But he had loved her, at least for a while he had, until he had seen a different way of life, a better way of life. Realised that women could actually think as well as shag.

As the baseball bat hit him on the back of his knees Jimmy was nonplussed for a few seconds. He thought for a moment he had fallen over. As he hit the pavement and the gun was shoved into the back of his head he realised he had been set up.

And who better to do that than his new woman?

His last conscious thought was that, if he survived, he would take a baseball bat and crack it over Maureen’s head until it was smashed to pieces.

 

Maureen Carter watched the commotion from the bedroom of her house, grinning to herself. Jimmy really thought she would want him? It was laughable.

The phone rang. She picked it up, her heavily varnished nails glinting in the half-light.

‘Yeah, just now. It’s over.’

She replaced the receiver. Then, deliberately smudging her mascara, she walked sedately down the stairs and into the street. Her screaming and carrying on brought everyone to their doors. In a respectable area, the murder of a known villain was unheard of. Maureen was hysterical, the police left her alone, and afterwards her son made her a nice stiff drink. All in all not a bad day’s work.

Jimmy’s death had earned her thirty grand.

Maureen sipped her drink and planned a nice holiday with the money the Davidson brothers had promised her for setting up her new boyfriend. It looked like 1966 was going to be her year.

Chapter Four

June was in shock, complete and utter shock. Even though he had been leaving her, she still couldn’t believe her Jimmy was really dead.

Inside she felt glad, and that frightened her.

The police had knocked just after she’d arrived home from Joey’s, full of Scotch and camaraderie, fuelled with the knowledge that if push came to shove she was home and dry with her husband. She had let him cop a quick feel while pretending she was still staying faithful to Jimmy.

She had reminded him that walking out on a big-time villain was not something she could do lightly, and even Joey had had to concede that one. Finally she had hinted that Jimmy was playing around on her and that maybe she had made a big mistake . . . With a parting shot about how she missed the children, she had left.

Though she knew and Joey knew that the part about the girls was pure fabrication, while they were still getting on friendly terms he wasn’t about to pull her up on it. All in all June felt it was a good night’s work.

Now Jimmy was dead, murdered in the street. And she could hold her head up, tell everyone he’d been giving Maureen the elbow and was still her beau. After the police had left, June set about the serious business of the night.

Looking for his money.

Jimmy always kept large amounts around the house and June knew where most of them were. She had arranged to identify his body in the morning, saying she was too distressed at this time. She was hoping she could pick up his effects at the same time then she would have the key to the safe and that was what she really wanted. In there he’d kept his address books, everything. They would be worth a pretty penny to the right person.

Smiling, June poured herself a large Scotch, for her shattered nerves, and then after a long hot bath set about tearing the house apart.

By Christmas morning she had found over two thousand pounds in notes bundled up and stuffed in wardrobes, drawers, even the electric cupboard. She placed it all on the bed and looked at it for a long time.

It was a small fortune.

Stretching like a long-limbed cat, June looked at herself in the mirror. She could do with a make over really but that would have to wait.

Going to the safe, she was amazed and euphoric to see that the key she had found in the bedroom drawer fitted perfectly.

The shock caused her to start trembling all over.

Inside was more money, a few pieces of jewellery she knew she couldn’t pawn in the usual way and his address books, account books and a gun.

Settling herself on the bed, lying on over three thousand pounds, June began to read his books and his simple system was so easy to understand she realised even she could have run it if she’d wanted to.

Jimmy had lent money out then dragged it back with violent threats and intimidation. He’d kept a book with all the debtors’ addresses, phone numbers, and details of family members.

As she lay on the money she began dreaming about what she would do with it. And Joey was in the equation now, only not as he would like to be. That was something she would sort out as time went by.

What she really needed now was Joey’s reputation for violence. After all, no man but Jimmy would have dared to take her on under normal circumstances.

It was all about front and June knew this.

If Joey had had even a bit of nous he could have been a Jimmy himself. God knew he had the other attributes. But Joey’s biggest failing was his complete lack of any ambition or brainpower. He was a thug, simple as that. People paid him to do their dirty work.

As an armed robber he’d been a disaster. He had actually gone into a local bookie’s in the sweltering summer heat to rob them. He had put on a balaclava but forgotten to hide his tattoos, so everyone knew it was him.

Wearing nothing but a pair of trousers and a string vest he had displayed tattoos saying ‘Junie and Joey’ in a large red heart, and ‘ACAB’, meaning All Coppers Are Bastards, on his hands. On top of this he had a large dragon on his belly which he liked to make dance by moving his stomach as a party piece.

Everyone had sussed him immediately, especially the bookie who had given him five hundred pounds and told him to go away.

Joey had taken the money but that night had had a visit from the Davidsons who were paid to protect those particular premises and had had to swallow his knob and go round and apologise.

Even Davey Davidson had laughed.

For weeks afterwards every time Joey went in there to put on a bet everyone fell to the ground as if he was robbing them and laughed their heads off. Even Joey had seen the funny side of it, and that said it all about him as far as June was concerned.

He was as much use as a chocolate teapot.

Still, she would sort out Joey because now she had the money, she was in charge, and if she looked after him then he would look after her.

Finally she hid the money and went to bed.

 

Susan took communion at midnight mass and prayed again to Our Lady to make her father be asleep when she got in. If possible, she beseeched, could he please be paralytic and unconscious too?

She didn’t ask for him to be dead because that might be too much even for Our Lady of Perpetual Succour.

After mass she walked up to look at the nativity scene. It was lovely. As she admired it a hand came down on her shoulder and, turning, she saw Father Campbell smiling down at her.

‘You’re a grand child, you know. You never miss the mass, do you?’

Smiling radiantly, she nodded.

‘Only if I’m very ill. I love coming here.’

‘And how’s your mother? It must be a terrible night for her, God love her, what with the murder . . .’

Susan looked into his face in shock. Was her father dead at last? Her heart constricted in her breast. She could hear her pulse hammering in her ears.