Jail Bird (3 page)

1997

Lily King was twenty-seven years old and standing in number one court in the Old Bailey. 1997, and no one believed that the Millennium Dome would ever come in on budget or that Princess Diana was going to be dead within months. Everyone, however, believed that one day soon Tim Henman would win Wimbledon, and for sure everyone believed that Lily King, wife of ‘entrepreneur’ Leo King, was guilty of his murder.

The jury were filing back into the court, and now here came the judge. A low, excited murmur buzzed around the jam-packed courtroom. Lily stared straight ahead, willing herself not to break down, not to cry. Terror gripped her, and disbelief. This couldn’t be happening. Not to her.

The jury had reached their conclusion after just forty minutes of deliberation. Her brief had been reassuring when they’d spoken before the trial, but now when she tried to catch his eye, he was looking away. She’d put her blonde
hair back in a French pleat and dressed in a sober black suit for the trial, on his recommendation.

‘Don’t look too glamorous. Keep it plain, keep it simple,’ he’d said.

But Lily had the strong feeling that she could have been wearing spangles and a leotard, and she’d still be fucked.

The court clerk was taking the verdict form from the leader of the jury, and was now handing it up to the judge. Now there was no excited murmur. The whole courtroom was silent, waiting for the axe to fall.

Lily’s eyes were fixed on the florid-faced judge in his sombre grey wig and robes. He put on his glasses, unfolded the paper and read it. Then he passed it back to the clerk, cleared his throat and started to speak. Lily didn’t hear a word he said, over the roaring tumult in her head. Didn’t
want
to hear what she feared the most.

When he stopped speaking, there was a moment of total silence. Then pandemonium broke out. Suddenly the whole court was in uproar, the press were storming toward the doors, Leo’s family were stomping and yelling in triumph, Freddy and Si were glaring their hatred at her. Becks was sitting there, pale-faced and wretched. Nick O’Rourke was there too, silent amid the noise, as if carved from stone. The judge was yelling for silence, but nobody was taking any notice.

Lily King was going down for the murder of her husband, Leo King. She had blown Leo’s brains out after finding out he was having an affair with Adrienne Thomson. Both motive and evidence pointed to Lily: her fingerprints had been on the gun–no one else’s. Her charmed life was over. Her fate was decided. She stood there, dazed, as hell erupted all around her. Her eyes sought her brief’s again, but he was looking away, tidying his papers.

Bastard.

How the fuck could this be happening?

But it was. A guard appeared on either side of her. She turned numbly. They led her back down to the cells.

Bright and early next morning, Lily was up, showered and dressed. It was either that or sleeping, and dreaming. She dreamed a lot. Last night it had been the court case. No, she’d rather be up and doing than asleep and at the mercy of the dreams.

Becks lent her the pink car and Lily drove over to where she wanted to go. It felt funny, being behind the wheel after so long inside, being free to just come and go—within reason. But it felt good.
Powerful.
She liked it.

She checked in with her probation officer first, a dour-looking, overworked woman with an office pallor, thin dull hair and a fistful of blackheads on her nose.

‘All going well?’ the woman asked, not unkindly.

‘Fine,’ said Lily, and told her about her plans to stay with Becks and to look for a job soon. A lie, but so what? She planned to be too damned busy to waste time becoming a wage slave.

‘I’ll need to visit you sometime soon at that address,’ said the officer, and got out her diary.

Jesus,
Lily thought, but this was the deal, she was a lifer out on licence, this was it for the foreseeable future.

‘Fine,’ she said, and they made an appointment for the following week, then Lily left to press on with the real business of the day.

When she banged on the door of the smart detached house near Romford, Adrienne Thomson opened it and her jaw nearly hit the floor.

‘Fuck!’ she gasped out, and started to shut it again.

Lily stuck her foot in the door and put her shoulder to it. Lots of gym sessions in the nick had made her harder, stronger. She wasn’t weak little Lily any more. That Lily was gone.

‘That’s hardly friendly, Adrienne, is it?’ asked Lily, forcing her way into Adrienne’s neat and painfully clean hallway. ‘Trying to shut the door in an old friend’s face.’

If Adrienne Thomson had expected a visit from anyone, it certainly wasn’t Lily King. No one had told her that Lily was coming out. In the back of her mind, Adrienne had known it had to be soon, but she had shied away from that, tried not to think about it. She didn’t want to go there, not now, not ever. It had been bad enough at the time. The police had questioned her for hours on end and it had all come out at the trial. It had caused terrible ructions with Matt. She just wanted to forget the whole thing, and let it lie.

Only it looked as if she wasn’t going to be allowed to.

Lily walked on into the big, sunny lounge and Adrienne followed slowly and stood just inside the door, wondering what the hell was going to happen next.

‘What have you come here for, Lily?’ she asked urgently. ‘Matt’s only just left, he could have seen you…’

Matt was the firm’s accountant – bent, of course, and
clever as buggery at manipulating figures, moving money and generally keeping the taxman stumbling around in the dark while the boys enjoyed a very comfy lifestyle.

‘I know he just left. I watched him go.’ Lily turned to her old friend with a frigid smile. ‘I know you wouldn’t want him to see me. I respect that, Adrienne. Why rub the poor bastard’s nose in it, eh?’

Adrienne at least had the grace to look ashamed at that.

Lily looked at her with disdain. Adrienne was still a very good-looking woman, Lily had to give her that. Long, thoroughbred legs,
almost
as shapely as Lily’s own, and even longer. Her body buffed and golden, toned and tanned. Hair streaked blonde. Pretty dark eyes; nice straight teeth – due more to a dentist’s skill than nature. Wearing a neat white t-shirt, figure-hugging jeans, a huge plaited leather belt slung low on her thin hips, and a lot of gold jewellery. But her face was a fraction too long for beauty, her jaw too pronounced. And she had a miserable face on her, as if life had proved a disappointment. Well, it probably had, married to a dull man like Matt, with his nose always buried in the accounts and – if the rumours were to be believed, and Lily thought they were – a prick like an acorn.

Adrienne had wrapped her arms around herself, as if feeling a sudden chill. It was warm, though: summer. Sunlight was beaming in on all the carefully dusted and polished furnishings.

‘I…I never got the chance to apologize to you, did I?’ Adrienne mumbled. Her eyes rose and they anxiously searched Lily’s coldly set face. ‘I’m sorry, Lils. Truly I am. That thing with Leo…’

‘Thing?’ Lily gave a bark of laughter. ‘Oh, you mean your
affair
with my
husband?
’

‘I know it was bad.’

‘Oh yeah. But then that was you, wasn’t it, Adrienne? Always ready to put out at a moment’s notice.’

‘That’s not fair,’ said Adrienne shakily.

‘Oh, so now we’re talking about what’s fair?’ Lily came up to the taller woman and glared at her. ‘How about being banged up for twelve years for something you didn’t do, Adrienne, what do you think about that? Do you think
that’s
fair?’

‘But you…’ Adrienne’s voice faltered. She bit her lip and lowered her eyes.

‘But I
what?
’ Lily leaned in close and Adrienne flinched and jerked back. ‘What, Adrienne? Come on. Finish the sentence.’

‘But you…you were found guilty. You…’ Adrienne’s voice trailed away again. She gulped convulsively. ‘You…you killed Leo. They said so at the trial. That he knocked you about and…and had an affair with me…and that night, that same night he’d been with me, he went home, and then…you killed him.’

‘And you believe that?’ said Lily.

Adrienne nodded slowly. ‘You were convicted. You did it.’

Lily nodded. ‘And poor bloody Matt. The poor sod’s still with you, after all
that
?’

‘We talked it through. I said maybe we ought to split, but he didn’t want to. So we made a go of things.’

‘And you never did anything like that again, after Leo?’

Adrienne shook her head. She’d gone almost pale under her fake tan; it was giving her a jaundiced look.

‘Pardon me if I fucking well laugh,’ said Lily. ‘Bet you’ve had more men than I’ve had hot dinners. You always were the gang bike.’

‘Look, you’ve got
no right
coming in here, barging into
my home saying things like that to me,’ said Adrienne, and her eyes were fiercer now, although bright with unshed tears. ‘Your husband wasn’t exactly fucking perfect, you know. And
you
couldn’t have been all that, judging from how keen he was to bed
me.
’

‘You
bitch,
’ spat Lily, and slapped Adrienne, hard.

Adrienne grabbed at her burning cheek, and suddenly she looked frightened.

She didn’t recognize this person. This wasn’t the Lily she’d known years back.
This
Lily looked as though she really could kill someone in cold blood.

‘You know, you ought to watch your step,’ said Lily, pushing in even closer. ‘You think I’m a murderess, remember? I do things to people, ain’t that what the judge said? I’m a danger to society! You ought to remember that, next time you feel like reminding me of you and my old man dancing the horizontal tango.’

Now Adrienne was sweating. ‘Look, I didn’t mean…’ she backtracked hastily.

‘Yes you did. You meant every word. And to think he tried to deny it. Did you like the flowers, and – oh yeah – the Tiffany bracelet, the one he never gave
me
?’

Adrienne looked blank. ‘What Tiffany bracelet?’ she asked.

‘Oh, don’t give me all that old pony.’

‘Leo never gave me anything like that.’

‘Bollocks!’

‘He didn’t! What would have been the point? I couldn’t wear it, could I? Matt would have spotted it straight away and asked where it came from, and I never wanted to upset Matt, not really, he was so good to me.’

‘He was a bloody fool. Turning a blind eye to all your goings-on because he liked a nice, quiet, cosy domestic life.’

‘Matt’s a
good man,
’ retorted Adrienne.

‘Yeah, but boring as fuck. Or else why were you crawling into
my
bed and shagging
my
husband, Adrienne? With Leo constantly denying everything, telling me I was going nuts, and you know what? After a while I actually started to think he was right, I was just going crazy, I was paranoid, just like he said I was. When all the time I was
right.
Him and you were getting cosy, and all the time there I was being made a fool of. You and him. It makes me feel
sick
just thinking about it.’

‘It wasn’t like that,’ blurted Adrienne, tears spilling over and streaming down her face, making ugly tracks in her foundation. ‘I loved Leo. I’d have left Matt for him, I told Leo I would, but he didn’t want that.’

‘And what about
me
in all this?’ shouted Lily in rage. ‘Leo was married. To
me.
And he had two little kids. How the hell could you have done that, split up my marriage?’

‘For God’s sake!’ Adrienne erupted, throwing her arms wide. ‘You didn’t even love him! You never got over your infatuation with Nick bloody O’Rourke, did you? So can you
really
wonder that he looked elsewhere?’

You didn’t even love him,
thought Lily.

‘You know I’m telling the truth,’ said Adrienne, pushing home her advantage when she saw Lily’s sudden uncertainty. ‘And it’s not as if I was the only one.’

Now Lily stood frozen in shock.

There was a long, long silence.

Then she said: ‘
What
did you say?’

‘I
wanted
to be the only one.’ Adrienne swiped irritably at her cheeks, leaving blotchy streaks in her make-up and mascara stains under her eyes. ‘I wanted him to love me like I loved him. But he didn’t. There were
others…
’

Others,
thought Lily in a daze.
What the fuck…?

‘What are you talking about? There were no others,’ she said, drawing back, looking at Adrienne incredulously.

And suddenly Adrienne was laughing. ‘Oh, Jesus,’ she gasped.

‘If you’re getting fucking hysterical I’m going to give you another belt round the chops,’ Lily warned her. ‘Now shut it. And tell me what you’re on about.’

‘Oh Lily, and you talk about
Matt
being a fool. You were so innocent, so bloody little-wifey-indoors that you didn’t even know what time of day it was, did you? You
still
don’t. You seriously believe it, don’t you? You seriously think I was the only one.’

‘You’re telling me you weren’t? Straight up?’

‘No
way
was I the only one,’ said Adrienne, and she wasn’t laughing now – in fact she looked sad. ‘Sodding Leo.’

‘Tell me about the other one, then,’ said Lily flatly. She felt as though she’d just stepped into a new nightmare.

‘Other
one
?’ Adrienne shook her head and let out a guffaw. ‘God’s sakes, Lily! Other
one
! That’s priceless!’

So Adrienne went on to tell her about the rest of Leo’s ‘girls’, and how she’d hated that there’d been others.

‘I tracked them down,’ she said, and there was a glint of triumph in her eyes as she said that. ‘I tracked them
all
down. I even had a list of their names and addresses.’

Freddy King was in the pub with his brother Si. There was an empty place at the table they always occupied in their local. It was Leo’s place, and Freddy nearly choked with emotion every time he saw it.
No one
sat there, unless they wanted to start wearing their arse as a neck ornament.

‘She’s out,’ he said to Si.

‘I heard,’ said Si, who was older than Freddy, and wiser. He watched Freddy, who was now tapping a beer mat on the table,
tap tap tap.
He was on edge, and who could blame him? She was
out.

‘So what we gonna do?’ asked Freddy.

‘Do?’ Si lifted a finger and caught the barman’s eye. He indicated their table. The barman nodded. ‘What do you mean?’

Freddy leaned forward. ‘You know fucking well.’
Tap tap tap.
‘That cunt wants sorting.’

The barman came hurrying over and put two more pints on the table.

Si nodded his thanks. Took a leisurely mouthful of beer. Looked at his brother. ‘She’s done her time,’ he shrugged.

‘She ain’t anywhere near paying for what she done, and you know it,’ spat Freddy angrily. He threw the beer mat down and it skidded off the wet table. ‘Twelve years? What the fuck is that? – it’s taking the piss! Our brother’s
dead
; he ain’t coming back and walking free like that bitch is.’

‘All in good time,’ said Si. He leaned in and lowered his voice. ‘What, you want to get yourself banged up? Do anything right now and the Old Bill won’t have far to look, will they, you tosser? You’re always in a fucking rush, that’s your trouble.’

Freddy’s face worked, his jaw clenching and unclenching. He knew Si was right, but that made it worse. Like he had no control over any of this. Like that cow was in charge, not him, not the King boys.

Si reached out and clasped Freddy’s meaty forearm.

‘
Look,
Fred,’ he said urgently. ‘Wait a bit. That’s all I’m asking. Give it a year, two years; you can do the bitch any way you want, but right now? Forget it.’

‘Forget it?’
Freddy leapt to his feet and shouted the words. Heads turned. Si gave him a ‘shut up’ look. ‘No,
you
forget it, Si. I fucking well won’t.’

And he was off, barging across the bar, bumping into punters in his headlong rush for the door. A bloke with a pint slopped all down him said, ‘Hey! Watch it, mate,’ and that was enough.

‘I ain’t your
mate!
’

Freddy started in, punching the man hard in the jaw. Glass and beer flew into the air. The man reeled back and Freddy piled in on him, punching, kicking, red-faced with fury. Si was there in a second and grabbed his brother, dragging him back, shoving him hard towards the door.

‘Get
out
of it, you silly bugger,’ he snarled, and Freddy
went, the red rage still gripping him – but this was Si, and he always took notice of Si.

They lurched, panting, out into the car park, wary punters skirting around them, shouts and curses following them out.

‘Just keep walking,’ said Si, hurrying towards the car, jumping in, starting the motor. He’d had three pints, but who gave a toss? Laws were for other people, not for him, not for the King boys. Freddy jumped in too. In minutes they were a mile away and Si was just clipping on his seat belt and telling his brother to calm down.

‘You want to keep a lid on that temper,’ said Si irritably.

He felt like he’d been saying that to Freddy ever since the silly git turned two years old. Freddy had never understood the word
subtle,
but Si did. Si knew that sometimes you just had to think things through and bide your time. He didn’t want Freddy blundering about upsetting Saz and Oli. The bitch was their mother, after all. He had to tread carefully. He
would
act, but discreetly, choosing his moment with care.

‘Hey! I got every right to be mad,’ said Freddy. ‘She’s out, and now you’re telling me there’s not a thing I can do about it.’ Freddy swore to himself that he was going to sort that cow. He owed it to Leo. Usually he paid attention when Si made his feelings clear, but not this time, no way.

Si sent his brother a sidelong glance as he tore through the lanes.
Crisis over,
he thought. Freddy seemed calm again. For now. And thank fuck for that, because tomorrow was the wedding, their niece was getting married. Si was giving her away. The last thing any of them needed right now was Freddy kicking off.