Songbird (14 page)

Leaving her trolley outside, she collected only the items she would need — cleaning cloths and such, and the mop and bucket.

The nurse was the same one the Sister had instructed earlier. “Oh Connie, I’m so glad you’re here,” she said, when the cleaner popped her head around the door. Seated by the bed, she was holding Alice’s hand steady while she drank from a cup. “I need to check another patient, and I’m already running late. Would you mind just helping Mrs. Mulligan finish this tea?”

Connie wasn’t surprised. The nurses were in such short supply that they were doing the work of ten. “I don’t mind at all,” she offered. In fact, it was the ideal opportunity to talk to Alice. “I’ll just give my hands a quick wash.”

“Don’t tip the cup up too far,” the nurse told her. “Let the patient take the liquid in her own time.”

After promising she would be no longer than ten minutes at the most, the woman was quickly away, hurrying to her next patient.

Helping Alice to drink was a slow and painstaking task, and while Alice drank, Connie spoke to her. “You’re a lucky woman,” she said warmly. “They tell me you’re on the mend.”

Alice concentrated on her drink.

“Just a little more, then you’re all done.” Connie hoped the nurse would stay away until she’d had a chance to talk with Alice. At the moment though, the injured woman was finding it difficult to swallow, let alone get into a conversation.

A moment later, Alice pushed the cup away. “Enough.” She gave a weary sigh. “No more, thank you.” Lying back on the pillow, she asked Connie, “Could you close the curtains, please?”

As the cleaner pulled the curtains against the bright morning light, Alice spoke in little breathless snatches. “I know I am lucky. I should… be dead!” She momentarily closed her eyes; when she opened them again, they were immensely sad. “They told me… about Jack.”

Connie wasn’t sure what to say, so she simply answered, “I’m sorry. A friend, was he?” She had not heard the name Jack when listening to the news, but she assumed it must be one of the men who were shot dead.

Alice gave a sad little smile. “A good man, so he was. A kind friend.” The events of the night rode through her mind. Where was Maddy now? Was she safe? She hoped the girl had kept her promise and got as far away as she could, or
he
would track her down, sure as day followed night. Please God! Let her be safe.

“Mr. Mulligan? “Alice, are you all right?” Fearing she had tired the sick woman, Connie made to stand up. “I’m sorry, I’d best go now.”

Alice reached out. “No! Please… I need you to stay.”

“Now don’t be wearing yourself out,” Connie said with a kind smile. “Or Sister will have my guts for garters.”

“I have to… to… get out of here.”

“Oh, you can’t do that!” Connie was horrified. “You’re nowhere near ready to go home. They’ve only just taken the drip, and who knows? They might have to put it back if you can’t take your nourishment.” She saw how pale and ill the other woman looked. “I should not be here, talking to you like this. Whatever would Maddy say?”

Alice gave her a strange look. “How do you know about Maddy?”

“I saw it all, on the news,” Connie answered carefully.

Sensing that something was not right here, Alice asked her straight out, “What do you want from me? Why are you really here?” She began to shake. “Did Steve Drayton send you? Are you here to find out where Maddy is?” She was beginning to falter. “Please, tell me the truth.”

Seeing the frantic look in Alice’s eyes, Connie attempted to soothe her fears. It was time to come clean and explain her mission.

“Look, I had a phone call this morning. It was from my friend Ellen Drew — the new singer at Drayton’s club.”

Alice bristled. “The one who took Maddy’s job?”

“Yes, but she’s a really nice girl.” Increasingly concerned for the other woman’s well-being, Connie suggested, “Maybe we should talk later. Right now, I think you need to rest.”

“No! Please — tell me now.”

And so Connie told her everything — how Ellen was a longtime friend, and that she had spoken about Maddy. “Apparently, Maddy is staying with her. She’s very worried about you. She just needs to know you’re all right, that’s all. Then she’ll leave London. She wanted to come to the hospital but Ellen said it was too risky. That’s why she asked me to find out if you were okay.”

Relief echoed in her voice as she patted Alice’s hand and said, “So now I can call her back and tell her that you’re on the mend, and that with any luck, you’ll be out of here before too long. She’ll probably pop in to visit you…”

“
No!
” Grabbing the cleaner’s hand, Alice gabbled, “She can’t come here! You mustn’t tell her that I’m on the mend. He threatened her, you see — I heard him!” She shuddered. “He said, wherever she went, he would find her. And he will! He will!” She began coughing and weeping, clutching at Connie’s hands.

“Hush now, hush now. Be calm.” Alarmed by the sick woman’s outburst, Connie asked, “So, if you don’t want me to tell her you’re on the mend, what
do
you want me to say?”

“Tell her I didn’t make it.” Alice gulped. “Tell her… they did their best, but they couldn’t save me.”

Connie was astounded. “I can’t say that!” she protested. “It would be an outright lie; it would tempt Providence. No, I can’t do it — I’m sorry.”

Desperate, Alice tried another tactic. “Are you fond of your friend Ellen?”

“Of course. When we worked together she was more like a daughter than a friend. Lately though, we’ve both been working so hard it’s been difficult to keep tabs. But now she’s contacted me, we’ll soon make up for lost time.”

“And how would you feel if she got killed,
because of you
?”

“What are you getting at? How could Ellen get killed because of me?”

“Listen to me —
please
. You don’t know who you’re dealing with. Den Carter might be a wrong ’un, but Steve Drayton is worse! He’s a monster. Life means nothing to him. Maddy’s carrying his child, but he’ll snuff them both out… without a second…” Falling back into the pillow, Alice lay still, her breathing labored and her skin gray and moist.

“Hey!” Panicking, Connie was all for calling the nurse back. “Don’t you die on me!”

Drained by the whole encounter, Alice’s voice was barely a whisper. “Please.
He’ll kill them all
.” She took a labored breath. “Promise me. Tell them… I didn’t make it. Tell them…
Promise!
” She closed her eyes, leaving Connie to decide on her course of action.

She was already out the door and about to speak with the officer, when the nurse arrived. “She got a bit agitated,” Connie hurriedly explained. “But she seems quieter now.”

Blaming herself, the nurse pulled a screen around the patient and quickly checked that everything was in order. “It’s all right,” she told Connie quietly. “She’ll be fine now. I’ll stay with her. Finish up in here now and be as quick and as quiet as you can.”

For the next few minutes, Connie did exactly that. On her way out, she glanced back at Alice, who was looking at her with her heart in her eyes, as if to say,
Don’t let me down.
Her unspoken plea only made Connie all the more nervous.

What Alice had asked her to do went totally against her moral code. Connie had been many things in her life, but never a deliberate, outright liar. How, in God’s name, could she tell Ellen such a terrible untruth? And what would it do to Maddy, poor girl, if she was told that her friend had not survived?

Dreading her return call to Ellen, she arrived at her own little headquarters three floors down, where she emptied the bucket down the drainhole, before rinsing it out and spraying it with disinfectant. Then she washed her cleaning cloths and soaked them in the sink.

That done, she hurried the short distance to the kitchen and made herself a cup of tea, which she took to the farthest corner and sat down with a cigarette to reflect on what Alice had said.

So Drayton would kill them all. Those were Alice’s exact words. In her mind, Connie went over the entire conversation again and the more she thought on it, the more she knew that whatever the consequences, she could not go against her own values. But if she didn’t do what Alice had asked, what would happen to Maddy and her unborn child — and what about Ellen? Would they really be murdered, or had Alice exaggerated the situation for her own ends?

Torn every which way, Connie tried to get it all into perspective. But the look in Alice’s eyes burned in her memory like a beacon.

Connie had to ask herself, “If I was to go against my conscience and lie, could I live with it for the rest of my life?”

To deliberately claim that someone was dead when you knew they were not, was a huge burden on the conscience. Moeover, it was akin to opening Pandora’s Box… letting loose all the bad things along with the good. At best, lives might be saved, yet she only had a stranger’s word for that. At worst, somewhere down the years, such a deliberate deceit could have dire consequences, for all concerned.

In all her life, the plump little woman had never been in such a dilemma.

Pacing up and down the small front room of the house in Bethnal Green, Maddy was beginning to jump at every sound.

“Sit down, Maddy. You’re wearing the carpet out.” Ellen was also anxious.

“She’s not going to ring, is she?” Maddy began to bite her nails; an old habit that she had been rid of these past two years, and now with all the troubles, it was back again. “What’s happening? Why hasn’t she got back to you?”

“The phone won’t ring any sooner with you looking at it every two seconds,” Ellen said quietly.

Maddy had a bad feeling about this. Her heart told her to get to the hospital as quickly as possible; her head urged caution. Either way, all this waiting was unbearable. She glanced at the mantelpiece clock. “Look at that. It’s already midday.”

Ellen shook her head. “That clock is always five minutes fast. Look — how about making a pot of tea? Oh, and don’t forget — I have two sugars.”

Realizing it would drive her crazy if she didn’t busy herself, Maddy went into the kitchen. No sooner had she put the kettle on than the shrill sound of the telephone ringing made her almost leap out of her skin.

Rushing back into the sitting room, she anxiously waited, watching Ellen’s every expression, every sign, with her heart in her mouth.

“Oh Connie, thank goodness.” Having picked up the receiver, Ellen listened with interest to what her friend had to say.

“She’s conscious and stable.” Connie had searched her mind and soul and had not been able to tell the lie Alice wanted. “They say she’ll be well enough to go home within a matter of weeks. But listen to me, Ellen. There’s something else…”

Before Ellen could question her she went quickly on. “Alice was on to me fairly quickly,” she admitted. “She knew I wasn’t just there to do my job. In the end I told her the truth — that I was there on an errand for you and Maddy — that Maddy was desperate to know how she was. That got her all agitated; she started panicking when she knew Maddy was with you. She said she had hoped Maddy would be long gone from London by now.”

The words tumbled out in haste. “She asked me to do something that went right against my nature. I can’t do it, Connie, I just can’t. It was awful. She begged me to let Maddy believe that she was dead! Oh Ellen, you should have seen her. She was really worked up. At one point I was worried she might have a fit and die on me there and then.”

“What’s she saying?” Anxious, Maddy moved forward. “Is Alice all right? Ask Connie to tell her, if she’s worrying about me, I’ll go in and see her. I know I promised not to, but she’ll understand, I’m sure.”

Fearful that Maddy might hear what Connie was saying, Ellen put her hand over the mouthpiece, “Be patient.” Her mind was racing. “It’s a bad line — I can’t hear what she’s saying.”

“Sorry, Connie.” Returning her attention to the phone call, Ellen lied, “I didn’t quite catch that last bit, can you repeat it?” She had heard clearly enough, but she couldn’t believe it.

Connie repeated it — how Alice had begged her to tell Maddy that she had not survived, because she knew that the girl would come to the hospital to see her. “…She said that if Maddy didn’t soon get away, you would all be killed, that’s what she said. Oh Ellen, I’m so afraid for you both. And the baby… I didn’t know. I’m sorry, but I couldn’t bring myself to fool Maddy into believing her friend was dead! How could I say a thing like that? It doesn’t bear thinking about, does it?”

Ellen could not disguise her shock at Connie’s unforeseen news. “Thank you, Connie,” she answered softly. “I’ll tell her. I’ll do what’s right, don’t you worry. I’ll see to it.”

Maddy had seen the look of shock on Ellen’s face. “Is something wrong? Alice is all right, isn’t she?” Her heart trembled. “What did Connie say?” More afraid than she had ever been in her whole life, Maddy’s heart turned over. “Tell me, Ellen. I need to know.”

In those few anguished seconds, Ellen had to make the most difficult decision of her life. Tears of regret flowed down her face as she spoke the treacherous words. “I’m sorry, Maddy…” She slowly shook her head. “I’m so sorry.”

For a long, shocking moment while she struggled to take in the enormity of Ellen’s words, Maddy was unable to speak. She stood transfixed, the color draining from her face as she saw the pain in Ellen’s face.

Alice was dead.

Pounding her fists against her temples, she crumpled into the sofa.

“It’s all my fault,” she wept. “If I hadn’t fought with
him
— if I’d stayed on at the club, he would never have poached you from Carter, and none of this would have happened. Oh Ellen,… Alice… what have I done?”

Just minutes ago, Ellen had believed that she was doing the right thing, but seeing her friend like this was so hard, she almost confessed to the deceit. But she didn’t, because after all was said and done, Alice was right. She truly believed that with every bone in her body; and her respect for Alice was tenfold.

“None of it was your fault,” she told Maddy. “You went away because he was giving you a difficult time and you needed to think. And I accepted his offer because I was not told what had happened between the two of you. I don’t believe we had any part in what happened between those two. It was always on the cards that at some time or another, they would face each other; two bad people wanting what the other had.”