A Family Scandal (31 page)

‘Oh yes. He knows heaps about music, and he doesn’t laugh at me when I say I want to learn to play the guitar.’ Rhona sighed. ‘It just isn’t what I’m used to. To be honest, there was never much conversation with other men. I only cared about what they looked like, how they dressed, who they knew and what clubs they were taking me to.’ She pulled a face. ‘I’m shallow, Mavis. I realise that now.’

‘Just because you enjoy having a good time and like … well … sex, it doesn’t make you a bad person. You haven’t robbed anyone, or harmed anyone,’ Mavis assured her. ‘And now, maybe you just want something more.’

‘Yeah, maybe.’ Rhona had to admit there was some truth in what Mavis said. ‘When I was trapped in that cellar, I kept thinking about my life and sort of felt it flash before my eyes. I knew then that something had to change. I just didn’t think I’d end up like this, not knowing what to do about a bloke, and one I have to admit I really like.’

Mavis thought back to when she’d found out about Rhona being attacked and then trapped in a cellar. She’d been horrified at the thought that she might never have seen her friend again, and what a gap that would have left in her life. Rhona could have died from her head injury and no one would have known where she was until it was too late. Perhaps being that close to death was enough to alter anybody’s outlook on life. Another memory surfaced then; of Larry cornering her in the alley, the fear of being raped, the horror of being unable to get away, but that had been nothing in comparison to Rhona’s dreadful experience.

‘What do you think I should do, then?’ Rhona asked now.

Mavis knew the main reason that she had been able to put Larry’s attack behind her was because she’d had Tommy’s love and protection. She hoped that this Jeff was as good a man as Tommy and one who would truly care for Rhona. ‘Why not ask him out?’

‘But what if he says no? I’d be so embarrassed.’

‘You could invite him to join you at a concert, one you know he’d enjoy and then it wouldn’t feel like you’re asking him on a date.’

‘Yes, I could try that I suppose,’ Rhona said. ‘I’ll check the papers to see who’s on over the next few weeks. There’s bound to be someone we both like. Then at least I’ll get a good night out even if he’s not interested in me. Oh, I didn’t mean that, it sounds selfish, but it’s all bravado really. It’s just that I seem to have lost my confidence and I hate feeling like this.’

‘Just do it, Rhona. Ask Jeff out.’

‘Yeah, all right,’ she said, wrinkling her nose. ‘I keep thinking I can smell something funny.’

‘Funny like what?’ Mavis wrinkled her nose.

‘Like oil or something.’ Rhona looked around. ‘I can’t see anything, so I’m probably imagining it. Perhaps that head injury has done something to my sense of smell.’

‘Don’t be daft,’ Mavis said, smiling as she got up and went to a corner of the room to bring something out from behind a chair. ‘I think you can smell this?’

Rhona came closer and sniffed. ‘Yeah, that’s it. What is it?’

Mavis turned it around. ‘It’s a picture of Grace, James and Bobby. Careful, it’s not quite dry, that’s why you can still smell it I expect. It’s been painted in oil and I did it to take my mind off everything that’s going on. It kind of worked, or at least for a while.’

Rhona took a step back in amazement. ‘Wow, Mave, I know you used to do a bit of drawing but I never knew you could do stuff like this. It’s brilliant. It’s almost like a photo but better. How long have you been doing this?’

Mavis looked down in embarrassment. She still felt uneasy when anyone praised her work. All those years of everyone putting her down for being stupid had left their mark. ‘For a while now. I did one of Grace on her own, then one of the boys together, which was really hard because Bobby can’t sit still for two minutes. I can’t bear to think about having to give up this place, so instead of just doing sketches I was thinking of showing these to see if I can get a few commissions. We’ve already pawned everything we had of any value, and now my mum is talking about going back to collecting second-hand goods and selling them on.’

‘Oh no, I bet you thought you’d left all that behind,’ Rhona said sympathetically.

‘With things so tight, there isn’t any choice. We’ll both do pretty much anything we can to keep this place and now that Tommy’s landlord has taken his flat back, he’ll need somewhere to stay when he’s released from prison. Stan and Jenny had to go and get all his furniture and things to put into storage so I’m damned if I’ll let the bank take this house away from us. Until we can arrange to get married, we’ll just have to live together.’

‘I never thought I’d hear you say that.’

‘I’ve changed too, Rhona. I was daft to make Tommy wait so long before I slept with him and I realise that now. I was too frightened to put my trust in a man again, but all Tommy ever seems to think about is my happiness. When I went to see him in prison he even said that if he goes down he doesn’t want me to waste my life waiting for him, and suggested that we split up. I wouldn’t hear of it.’

‘Of course not, and anyway he’s sure to be found not guilty.’

‘That’s what I told him and if the worst happens, which I can’t bear to think about, Tommy is the man for me and if I have to wait for him until I’m old and grey, I will.’

‘Let’s hope that doesn’t happen,’ Rhona said worriedly.

‘Tommy said there are innocent men who have been convicted and I’m so scared, Rhona. What if that happens to Tommy?’

‘That isn’t going to happen,’ Rhona said firmly. ‘You wait and see, he’ll be home soon and then you can start planning your wedding. I hope you’re going to ask me to be a bridesmaid.’

‘Of course I will,’ Mavis said, pushing her fears to one side. ‘I haven’t got any sisters and Grace is too little.’

‘Mavis, I only suggested that to cheer you up. With my reputation, you won’t want me as a bridesmaid.’

‘I don’t give a damn about what’s said about you,’ Mavis said. ‘You’ve been a good friend to me through thick and thin. When Tommy gets out we’re going to have a wedding that nobody will ever forget and I want you there, right behind me. Do we have a deal?’

‘Deal,’ said Rhona, giving her friend a big hug. Then she sat back and looked at the oil painting again. ‘Mave, I don’t know much about this sort of thing but your picture really is terrific, it really is. If you show it, I feel sure you’ll get loads of commissions.’

‘I don’t know, Rhona. I know this flat is a fair size, but there isn’t a proper studio so I can’t ask anyone here to sit for their portrait. Not only that, I’ve seen how the other mothers look at me now when I go to collect Grace from school and it gave me second thoughts. There’s so much gossip about Tommy being accused of murder, and orders for sketches of children have all but dried up. I think it’s doubtful that anyone will want me to paint their portrait now so I think I’d better stick to helping my mum with selling second-hand goods.’

Rhona stood up and placed her hands on her hips, arms akimbo. ‘Yeah, right. Do you really want to go out hoicking stuff about now the weather’s getting colder? Come off it, Mave. And people will be a damn sight ruder too, looking down their noses at you. You’ve got a talent, a proper one, and you’ve got to use it.’ She went across to her friend and stared intently into her eyes. ‘Don’t you want to make Grace proud of you? You once said she’s showing signs of talent too and she might just follow in your footsteps, as an artist, not as a bloomin’ hawker.’

‘That’s a bit below the belt, Rhona.’

‘I’m just trying to make you see sense. It’s not just you, or even the house, it’s for Grace and James too. They don’t want to be seeing you flogging tat down the market or wherever. You can do a lot better than that.’

Mavis squirmed under her friend’s serious gaze. ‘It’s so hard, Rhona. It’s just me and that box of paints … and now with all the gossip, I don’t have the confidence. I wish I was more like you. You wouldn’t take any nonsense from anyone, but I’m really down after all this with Tommy. I feel sort of raw inside and don’t want to give people an excuse to hurt me even more.’

Rhona backed off a little, sensing she was pushing Mavis too hard. ‘OK, OK,’ she said. ‘But at least think about what I said. If you show your oil paintings, I’ll come with you if you like to boost you up. And in the meantime I might ask a few people if they’re interested, just in case. You wouldn’t mind that, would you?’

‘No,’ Mavis admitted.

‘Well, then.’ Rhona stood up. ‘We’re going to get you out of this mess, Mavis. You just wait and see.’

‘Mavis not here?’ asked Stan, bending down to fend off Bobby who’d rushed towards him as he came in through the front door. ‘Blimey, Lily, this boy’s going to be a rugby player, he nearly brought me down with a tackle there.’ He rubbed his knees. ‘You knew we were picking up James for the afternoon, didn’t you?’

‘Come on through,’ Lily invited. Stan, Jenny and Greg followed as Lily led the way into her sitting room with furniture she’d been so proud of only a few months before. Now she could only look at it and calculate what she might get if she put it up for sale. Pete was sitting silently in the chair beside the window, staring morosely into space.

‘Isn’t Mavis here?’ Stan asked again.

‘You’re a little bit early and she’s just popped to the shops. She doesn’t go far nowadays because every time she goes out, she thinks people are talking about her behind her back. I don’t like to tell her, but she’s right. Everyone’s gossiping and pointing the finger, like we’re all criminals now.’

‘Oh, that’s awful,’ Jenny said.

‘James is getting a few things to take with him. He’ll be down in a mo, but in the meantime take the weight off your feet. Greg, you can go upstairs to hurry him up ’cos no doubt he’ll be lost in his own world as usual.’ She sighed as the boy dashed out of the room, followed by Bobby, who couldn’t bear to be left behind.

Jenny stretched her legs in front of the electric fire where one lone bar was burning dull orange. ‘God, Lily, who’d have thought it. I don’t like to say anything in front of Greg but this just gets worse and worse.’

‘Fancy a cuppa?’ Lily tried to act the polite hostess but her heart evidently wasn’t in it.

‘No, don’t bother. We’ll have to be off as soon as James is ready.’ Jenny shook her head. ‘I can’t get over it, you know. This doesn’t make sense, keeping Tommy locked up, and yet … and yet …’

Stan looked at the ceiling as if willing her not to say it.

‘What, Jenny?’ Lily stared at the younger woman.

‘I can’t get that night out of my head,’ Jenny confessed. ‘You know, when Tommy told us he had a bit of business to do and left before six. He didn’t turn up again until just after we were all in the pub and was I the only person to notice what he looked like? He was all sweaty and he was in a really strange mood. He kept trying to make jokes that weren’t funny and it wasn’t like Tommy at all. Come on, Stan, you know exactly what I mean.’

Stan rubbed his hands in discomfort. ‘That doesn’t mean he pushed that bastard off the cliff,’ he muttered. Then he met his wife’s stare. ‘All right, yes, of course I noticed. He was out of breath when he got to the bar. Said he was too unfit to run, but he’d been out playing football all week and never got out of puff. I knew something wasn’t right, but it doesn’t mean …’

‘It doesn’t mean anything,’ protested Lily, trying to give Tommy the benefit of the doubt. ‘Fit or not, people can get out of breath when they run. Take me, for instance, I can hardly get up the stairs to Mavis’s flat if Bobby’s been running me ragged some days. But I know what you mean, he wasn’t himself. It was peculiar and it’s been bugging me, but I didn’t like to say.’

Pete grunted. ‘Can’t blame a man for having a funny mood.’

Lily glared at him. ‘I’m just saying. Something wasn’t right, you know that as well as I do.’ She folded her arms and turned towards the meagre warmth of the fire.

‘I haven’t told the police about it, and I’m not intending to,’ Stan reassured them, ‘but something about Tommy’s story isn’t right. There’s something fishy about it, though I hate to say it.’

‘Say what?’

Nobody had heard Mavis come in, and they turned to see her standing in the living room doorway, her arms full of bags of painting materials. Her hair was wild, as if blown by the wind.

‘Say what?’ she repeated. ‘No, don’t bother. I heard some of it. I can’t believe it. Not you as well? Surely, even if the rest of South London is against Tommy, you don’t think he’s a killer too?’

Jenny’s hand flew to her mouth and Stan flushed beetroot red. Lily, however, hastened across to her daughter. ‘No, no, you’ve got it all wrong,’ she said. ‘We were just wondering what was going on with Tommy that last night.’

‘Don’t.’ Mavis stopped her with one word. ‘Don’t you badmouth Tommy. He’s a good man, and he had nothing to do with Alec’s death. If you don’t believe that, you’re no family of mine.’ She whirled around but Lily caught her by the arm.

‘We don’t think he killed the man, but if we can’t say what we saw with our own eyes within these four walls, then where can we?’ Lily flashed. ‘We all noticed something was up with him, that’s all.’

‘So what?’ Mavis cried. ‘So he was a bit agitated, and he admits he saw Alec on those cliffs, but that doesn’t mean he killed him! I know in my heart that he’s incapable of murder, I just
know
. He … he’s my soul mate, and I’d know if he lied to me.’ She dropped her bags to the ground with a dull clatter. ‘Tommy is a good man, you all know that and we’re all he’s got. We have to stick together to get him out of there.’ Her chest heaved and she fought to take a breath. ‘He’s innocent. You know it in your hearts as well as I do so don’t talk about him as though he’s guilty.’

‘Mavis, don’t take on so,’ Lily appealed.

‘But, Mum, there isn’t a shred of truth in those accusations, and somehow we’ve got to prove it. He must be set free, he just must, and then we’re going to have our big wedding, you see if we don’t.’

It was Jenny who gave way to tears. ‘Mavis, despite what you heard, I don’t for one minute think that Tommy is guilty. I know my cousin and I too know he’s incapable of killing anyone.’