Jail Bird (10 page)

She was holding a cream-coloured cloth bag. She opened the pull-cord at the top and tipped the heavy item inside out onto the bed. It was something wrapped in oilcloth. She sat down on the bed and uncovered it.

‘Jesus,’ she breathed, staring at the thing on the bed.

It was Leo’s Magnum. What had he always said about it? Yeah. She remembered. ‘A hand cannon,’ he’d said. ‘Blow you to fuck, this thing would. And it’s got a kick on it like a mule.’ There were two boxes of bullets there, too. All neatly stashed.

In case of emergency.

Well, wasn’t this an emergency? She was in the crap up to her neck, and that was a fact. If that wasn’t an emergency, then what the hell was? But she had signed the Firearms Act when she got out of nick. If she was ever caught so much as in
possession
of a firearm, she’d be back inside faster than you could say knife.

She stared dubiously at the gun. But Freddy. And Si. She was in danger here.
Real
danger. And here was Leo, reaching out to her from beyond the grave, saying,
Here, Lils. Take it. You might need it.

And she might. She knew she wasn’t supposed even to handle things like this, and she wouldn’t, she swore to herself that she wouldn’t. Unless she absolutely
had
to.

She cautiously rewrapped the Magnum and the boxes of bullets, and tucked the whole thing into the side compartment of the rucksack. Then she looked at the remaining item. It was an old, unmarked videotape. She stared at it, and suddenly heard a motor coming up the drive. Oli’s car, she recognized the engine note. And – shit, that was another car not far behind it. Maybe Jase again?

Quickly, she tucked the tape into the top of the rucksack, ran across the room, unlocked the door, stepped out onto the landing, relocked it. She heard voices in the downstairs hall as she pocketed the key. She hurried back into the spare bedroom where she’d passed the night and threw the rucksack down beside the bed, peeled off her jeans. Footsteps on
the stairs now.
Fuck it, hurry up!
She yanked off her t-shirt and threw herself back in between the sheets. When Oli knocked lightly and then opened the door, Lily was doing a very good impression of someone fast asleep.

‘Um…Mum?’ Oli said softly.

Lily made a great play of waking up. ‘Hm…?’ she asked groggily.

‘Um,’ said Oli awkwardly, looking unhappy and resentful. ‘You…you
lied
to me. You said you were only able to stay at Nick’s flat for a night. I spoke to him and he said you could have stayed there as long as you liked, and he also wanted to know where the hell you were right now…’

‘Ah,’ said Lily.

‘Ah?’ burst out Oli angrily. ‘You
lied
to me.’

‘Oli—’

‘No! I don’t want to hear your excuses,’ she snapped, turning away. ‘Uncle Si’s here. And Aunt Maeve. They want a word with you.’

Lily’s guts clenched. Oh shit. Whatever that word was, she doubted it would be
welcome.

‘You really have got some balls, coming here, Lily King,’ said Maeve.

As she joined Oli, Maeve and Si in the big downstairs living room, Lily could tell that the atmosphere in here was subzero, which came as no surprise at all.

‘Hi to you too, Maeve,’ said Lily, sitting down on one of the couches, beside Oli.

‘And turning up at the wedding like that! You’ve got a bloody nerve.’

Lily shrugged. Whatever verbal Maeve dished out, she didn’t give a shit. She was more worried by Si’s presence. Maeve might yap at her like a terrier, but any
real
threat would come from Si himself. He was just sitting there staring at her, and if looks could kill she’d be toast.

But even while she sat there worrying over Si’s threatening glances, she knew that he wouldn’t start anything major in front of Maeve or Oli. They were her safety net. For now. But they wouldn’t always be there, she was very aware of that; aware that Si would like to rip her guts out
and that one fine day he still hoped to get the chance to do it.

She had the money now. She could function, buy transport, clothes, people, whatever she needed.
Thanks Leo
, she thought.
You old bastard.
So she felt a little less shaky, a bit more as if she was on solid ground. She’d grown used to the cushion of money when Leo had been alive, and without it she’d been anxious. Now, she could settle. Now, she could get on and clear her name.

She thought again of Leo’s Magnum. What the hell was she going to do with that?

‘What you got to say for yourself?’ demanded Maeve. ‘What you doing, showing up like this?’

Lily looked at her sister-in-law coldly. ‘Wouldn’t you have turned up, Maeve, if you heard your daughter was getting married?’ Then Lily rolled her eyes and slapped her thigh. ‘Oh no.
Sorry.
Forgot. You couldn’t
have
kids, could you? Maybe that’s why you were so fucking happy to grab mine when you got the chance.’

Maeve coloured up. Lily knew she’d hit a sore spot. The family grapevine had always said that Si was a Jaffa – seedless. Maeve had tried hard to get pregnant, but it soon became obvious that it was never going to happen.

‘That’s a damned cruel thing to say,’ shot back Maeve, jumping to her feet and advancing on Lily in a rage. ‘And it’s completely bloody beside the point.
Someone
had to look after the girls when you did what you did and got locked up for it. And now you’ve got the gall to sit here in Leo’s home—’

‘
My
home, too,’ Lily cut in.

‘Yeah, the poor misguided bastard was fair to you, wasn’t he? Put both your names on the deeds, Si told me. And you…’ she glanced at Oli, who was staring down at her hands,
clenched white-knuckled in her lap…‘Well, I won’t say it. It’s evil.
You’re
evil.’

Lily was silent for a beat.

‘Well, that’s true,’ she said at last. ‘That is, supposing I’d done it, of course. Which – by the way – I didn’t.’

Maeve gave a cynical shout of laughter. ‘Oh come
on.
You pleaded guilty, for Christ’s sake. You’re having a bloody laugh.’

‘Am I laughing?’ asked Lily.

‘Look,’ said Maeve, now hovering over Lily with clenched fists. ‘You done your time. Now why don’t you just bugger off? Disappear back into the hole you crawled out of.’

Lily gave the enraged woman a thin smile. ‘
This
is my hole, Maeve,’ she said flatly. ‘This house. Oli has no objection to me staying in it – do you, Ols?’

Lily had to hold her breath at this point. She was shoving Oli’s limits, shoving them hard, and she knew it. It was true that she’d lied to her about Nick’s flat. And about the migraine – and Oli must have noticed by now that she didn’t seem ill at all. She’d lied about quite a bit, actually. She didn’t have a clue how she was going to explain about the master bedroom – or what was left of it, now she’d taken a pickaxe to the wall behind the bed. Lily knew that Oli loved her Aunt Maeve and her Uncle Si; they had been a permanent fixture in her young life when her mother and father had vanished off the scene. She must have grown close to them.

Lily felt a stab of insane jealousy at that. Those fuckers. They’d been here, watching
her
kids grow up, enjoying a family life that wasn’t theirs.

Now Oli was all grown up, and there was Jase, too; Jase had reacted strongly – and badly – to the sight of Lily in the house, had hastened to tell Si, and here Si was to sort her
out. Oli wanted Jase’s love and approval. Would Oli now side with Maeve, with Si, with Jase, against her own mother? Lily really didn’t know the answer to that.

‘I…’ Oli looked around at them all, her expression uncertain. She looked at Si, who hadn’t said a single word since Lily entered the room, then at Maeve. Finally, her eyes came to rest on Lily.

Oh come on, Ols
, thought Lily.
Don’t let me down now.

‘I think I’d like Mum to stay,’ said Oli unsteadily.

‘Oh for God’s
sake,
Oli!’ said Maeve loudly, turning away, exasperated.

‘Motion carried,’ said Lily, standing up. ‘Unless you feel like grassing me up to the authorities, telling them I’ve moved house and not told them…?’

She knew they wouldn’t do that. No one in their circle ever ratted to the police.

‘No. Didn’t think so,’ said Lily.

Maeve turned back to Lily, red-faced with rage, suddenly raising a hand to strike. Instinctively Lily grabbed Maeve’s wrist and shoved herself up hard against the front of the bulkier woman, then hooked a foot in between Maeve’s thick calves and heaved. Maeve’s expression was almost comically surprised as she toppled backwards and hit the shag pile with a thud. Si came to his feet in one swift movement, his eyes fixed venomously on Lily.

Lily froze. Would he really do anything in front of Oli? For a moment she wasn’t sure; he looked furious. Then he turned aside, helped his wife up.

‘Now I’d like you both to get the fuck out of my home,’ said Lily.

‘You bitch,’ said Maeve, gasping and flustered as she scrabbled upright.

Si gave Lily a twisted little smile. ‘This ain’t over,’ he said softly, and ushered a limping Maeve out into the hall.

The two women listened as Si and Maeve crossed the hall and went out of the front door. The car engine started up and they drove away. Silence descended.

‘Holy shit,’ breathed Lily. She looked at Oli. She felt tears start in her eyes, tears of sheer relief. Oli had defended her, had come down on her side, not Maeve’s. She held out a hand to her daughter. ‘Thanks, Oli. Thanks for supporting me.’

‘That don’t alter the fact that you lied to me,’ said Oli, standing up, her face sullen and averted. ‘Look,’ she said, ‘you can stay here, but I don’t want to talk to you. Okay?’

And she pushed past her mother, ignoring Lily’s outstretched hand, and left the room.

Next day Jack collected Lily in his beat-up old car (‘Good for surveillance work,’ he told her when she did a double-take at the rusty old heap) from The Fort. Jack did a double-take of his own when he saw the house, the gates, the security system.

‘You live here now, yeah?’ he asked as she got in the car.

‘Right,’ said Lily.

‘The bill for my services just went up.’

Lily looked at him.

‘Joke,’ said Jack, and started the engine and drove them over to the Lime Trees Clinic.

Alice Blunt, one-time mistress of Leo King, looked like a puff of wind would knock her clean off the Lloyd Loom chair she was sitting in. She was stick-thin, wearing a shapeless white dress and a cream-coloured cardigan; there were muddy white trainers on her big, bony, naked feet. Her hair, once no doubt vibrantly blonde, was like bleached straw. Her face was blank, her nose beaky, and her eyes – a pretty China blue, the only remnant of the woman she must once have been – were without interest or expression
as Lily walked into her room with the buxom dark-haired nurse.

‘Visitor for you, Alice,’ said the nurse cheerily. ‘You remember Lily, don’t you?’

Don’t think she remembers too much
, the nurse had told Lily when she’d arrived.
Don’t get any visitors apart from her mother and brother. You’re an old friend, you say? Been abroad for some time, you lucky thing? Oh, Australia? God, I could use some of that, soak up a few rays on Bondi. Well this is good. Maybe this is what she needs, a different face, give her a little jolt.

But Alice didn’t look jolted. She went on staring out of the window, out across the manicured lawns down to the big lake with its huge massed shrubs and grasses that danced in the sun and the wind.

Lily began to feel bad about this. It was obvious the woman was out of it. She was glad now that she’d left Jack Rackland, freshly paid and pretty damned happy about it too, sitting down in reception. She felt embarrassed on this woman’s behalf – squirmingly so: there was a snail-trail of food stains down the front of the white dress. And unless Lily missed her guess, that was an adult nappy bulking up Alice’s lower regions. The room smelled sour, of sickness and bad ventilation.

‘Hi Alice,’ said Lily. She could feel a stupid talking-to-an-invalid grin pasting itself all over her face, but she couldn’t help it. ‘I’m Lily, remember me?’

Of course she don’t
, thought Lily.
She’s never clapped eyes on me in her life before. And look at her. The poor bitch don’t even know which way is up.

Lily looked doubtfully at the nurse, who would have ejected her straight from the room if she’d known what she had
really come here for – to find out if Alice Blunt had shot Leo. One look at the wreck in the chair made it clear she wasn’t going to find out a damned thing, not here. And seriously – could this slight, pathetic piece of human flotsam ever have had the strength in her, the
passion
in her, to fire a single shot?

‘Take a seat and talk to her,’ said the nurse. ‘Might jog her memory.’

‘How long’s she been like this?’

‘Oh – ten years or so. Since before I came here, anyway.’

‘What, she just sits here like this? All the time?’

‘Sometimes she’s a little naughty, aren’t you, Alice?’

No answer.

‘Sometimes she goes off down to the lake by herself, but that’s okay, we always know where to find her. Alice likes the lake – don’t you, Alice?’

Alice said nothing.

‘Messes up her trainers, gets them all muddy. She was down there after tea yesterday: look at the state they’re in. I seem to spend half my life cleaning off Alice’s trainers.’

Nothing.

‘Go on,’ said the nurse, ‘talk to her. I’ll be right along the hall if you need me.’

The nurse left the room, leaving the door wide open. Lily took off her backpack but held it close to her. It was still stuffed with all the money and with the videotape. The Magnum – that damned thing scared her half to death – she’d concealed back at the house. She had considered hiding the money there too, but she was too anxious about it, too reluctant to be parted from it, to do that. If she got stopped by the Bill, the money would be hard enough to explain, but the Magnum would be impossible. She didn’t want to fall
foul of the law, but it was sort of nice to know it was
there
, just in case.

Alice was still staring out of the window. Lily wondered if the woman was even aware that someone else was in the room. She cleared her throat. She had a prickly feeling that the nurse was listening out there in the hall somewhere, worried in case anyone upset her patient and earned her a verbal kicking from the suits in charge.

‘You remember me, don’t you?’ she tried. ‘I’m Lily. And…and you knew Leo.’

At the word ‘Leo’, Alice blinked.

Lily leaned forward in the chair and said the name again, more softly. ‘Leo.’

Another blink.

‘Do you remember him, Alice? Leo King?’

Lily felt excitement building in her gut. Although Alice’s expression hadn’t changed, she thought that maybe she
did
remember Leo. And now she wanted to ask more, much more, such as,
Did you blow my husband’s brains out, did you flip and kill him and let me take the rap for it, you stupid cow?

‘Look,’ said Lily, and she dug out the snap of Leo that she had lifted from the study while searching for the key to the master suite – Leo in his prime, taken on a Lanzarote golf course, Leo wearing white golfing gloves and a sun visor, his five-iron held casually over one meaty shoulder, Nick and some of the other guys there too, all grinning in the sunshine. She held the snap out to Alice, pointing out Leo among the group. ‘See that, Alice? That’s Leo.’

Alice extended one bony hand and took hold of the photo. She stared at it. Then she clasped it to her chest.

What Alice did next was the last thing Lily expected. She
opened her mouth wide – she looked like one of those crazy-golf clowns, scary wide-open red mouths painted on hardboard around a gaping black hole. Lily had time to think that; the ones that swallow your ball and look like they would swallow you too, given half a chance – and then Alice started to scream like a fire bell.

Lily almost fell off her chair.

‘Holy
fuck!’
she gasped out, while Alice just went on screaming.

Instantly the nurse was back.

‘What happened?’ she demanded, running to Alice. ‘What did you
say?
’

‘I just…’ Lily was almost in shock. The noise, the freaking
noise
the woman was making, it was deafening.

The nurse was shaking Alice’s shoulder. ‘Alice?’ she was shouting.
‘Alice?’

Suddenly, just as abruptly as she had begun, Alice stopped screaming. Instead she started to cry, great wracking childlike tears, turning in her chair and clutching at the front of the nurse’s mint-green uniform, pouring snot and salt water all down the front of it.

‘There, there, Alice. There, there,’ cooed the nurse. She turned suspicious eyes on Lily. ‘She hasn’t done anything like this before. Not in ten years.’

Well maybe it’s time she did
, thought Lily. Maybe this was a watershed for Alice Blunt. Maybe the sight of Leo would pull her out of the strange state she was in.

Lily stood up. ‘Look, I’m sorry if I upset her.’

The nurse’s eyes softened, just a little. ‘That’s okay. I’m sure you didn’t mean to.’

‘I hate to ask, but Alice’s relatives – could they get in touch with me?’ she asked. ‘It’s just…I’d like to know
what happened to Alice, if they can fill in the blanks? When I knew her she was so different. I’d like to talk to them, if they’re agreeable. Could I give you my phone number, and could you ask them to call me?’

The nurse was staring at Lily. Assessing her. Finally, reluctantly, she nodded. ‘Yes, okay’

Lily stood up, gathered up her backpack. The nurse found a pad and pencil and noted down The Fort’s number with a promise to get one of Alice’s relations to call. Lily left the poor sad shell of Alice Blunt sitting there, clutching the nurse, as a child would clutch a mother. She didn’t ask Alice to give back the photo; she didn’t think Alice
would.