Winners and Losers (14 page)

‘It was a mistake, Billy.'

‘So enquiring about someone you lot have arrested and are holding isn't affray?' Billy questioned coldly.

‘Come on, Billy, Ned. You both know me, and the rest of the local boys. If one of us had been around last night you would never have been put in here. But all I can do for you now is let you out and say sorry.'

‘Is that an official apology?'

‘You know better than to ask that, Billy,' Gwyn replied patiently. ‘I can't speak for anyone else on the force, especially now that half the Met is stationed in Pandy.'

‘And Lloyd? Was his arrest a mistake too?'

‘Lloyd's been charged with attempted murder, grievous bodily harm and malicious wounding with intent,' Gwyn divulged.

‘And just who is he supposed to have tried to murder, harm and wound?' Billy tossed aside the blanket he'd draped over his shoulders.

‘All I know is what the duty sergeant told me. I haven't seen the charge sheet so I don't know any more. You know the charges against Victor, Joey and Luke?'

‘I was there when they were arrested.' Billy retied the laces he'd loosened on his boots.

‘All four of them are down to be brought before Porth magistrates' court this morning. If you want to be there to support your boys, Billy, you'll need to go home to wash and change into your best suit,' Gwyn hinted.

Billy moved awkwardly towards the door. The cold had seeped into his joints, seizing them.

‘The force hasn't heard the last of this, Gwyn Jenkins,' Ned Morgan threatened. ‘If your father could see what you've become, he'd be ashamed that he'd ever had a son. He was one of the best colliers ever to wield a pick underground and if he was still with us, I know what side of the picket line he'd be on and it wouldn't be the one with the batons.'

‘I'm only trying to earn a living, the same as you, Ned,' Gwyn protested.

‘Fine way to do it, arresting your own kind on trumped-up charges.'

‘Can I see the boys?' Billy asked.

‘Not officially, but ...' Gwyn glanced around before walking to the end of the corridor and locking the door that connected with the rest of the police station. He flicked through the ring of keys he was carrying and opened the door of the first cell in the row.

Billy and Ned looked over Gwyn's shoulder to see Joey and Luke, boots on, stretched out on their bunks, wrapped in their overcoats, caps, mufflers and gloves. Victor was standing, looking up through the iron grille at the darkened street.

‘You boys all right?' Billy said gruffly.

‘As all right as anyone can be in a cell,' Victor answered. Joey and Luke opened their eyes.

‘Dad, what are you doing here?' Joey mumbled sleepily.

‘Same as you, enjoying a night's free hospitality. I'll see you boys in court later on this morning.' Billy turned to Gwyn. ‘Can I send down shaving gear and clean shirts for them?'

‘Send the clean shirts. I'll arrange for them to have soap, hot water and razors. Someone will be along with breakfast soon, boys.'

‘Bread and water,' Joey suggested acidly.

‘Oh, I think we can do better than that.' Gwyn motioned to Billy and Ned. They stepped back into the corridor and he closed and locked the cell door.

‘Lloyd?' Billy reminded.

Gwyn walked to the end of the corridor and unlocked the last cell. As soon as he looked inside his face dropped and he stepped back, crashing into the corridor wall. Billy pushed past him.

Lloyd lay curled on his side on the floor, his face a mass of bruises. His wrists, handcuffed behind his back, dripped blood on to the stone floor. Billy fell to his knees and lifted Lloyd into his arms, cradling him as if he were a child. Lloyd moaned and doubled up, obviously in pain.

‘Get a doctor ...' Billy looked up. Ned was beside him. Gwyn had already charged back down the corridor, keys hanging forgotten in the lock of Lloyd's cell. He was hammering on the door that connected to the rest of the station.

‘You wanted to run errands, Ned,' Billy said grimly. ‘Get Geoffrey Francis. I want him to see this.'

The main door opened. Gwyn disappeared. Ned collided with Sergeant Martin. The sergeant passed him and made his way down the corridor to the end cell. His knuckles showed white as he gripped the doorpost and gazed at Lloyd.

‘Your boys slipped up, sergeant.' Billy's voice was thick, clotted with suppressed emotion. ‘My son is still breathing and if I have anything to do with it, he'll carry on breathing long enough to see you lot in court.'

The sergeant continued to stare in silence at Lloyd. If Billy hadn't known better, he might even have said that Martin looked shocked, sickened and –ashamed.

Betty Morgan lifted the kettle from the hob of the stove in the Evanses' kitchen and poured boiling water into the teapot. ‘Well, what's the damage?' she asked Nurse Roberts, who was manipulating Sali's ankle.

The nurse had just completed a night shift at Llwynypia hospital, but she had examined Sali as if she had all the time in the world. ‘The good news is it's not broken but it's a bad sprain. You'll have to keep off it for a week, Mrs Jones. However, given your other injuries, I'd say you should spend at least that long in bed. You really do need to see a doctor.'

‘I'm not that bad,' Sali insisted.

‘Say it often enough and you might even believe it.' The nurse rose to her feet and studied Sali. The right side of her face was swollen, her jaw was bruised and the skin on the palms of her hands torn and grazed from where she had tried to protect herself when she had landed on the flagstones at the foot of the stairs. ‘I'm worried about your back.'

‘You said if I take it easy, it will be fine.'

‘Provided there's no damage to the spinal column,' the nurse qualified.

‘Sit down and have your tea, Nurse.' Betty pulled a chair out from the table. ‘It will be brewed in a minute.'

‘I'm sorry there's no sugar.' Sali winced as she took a deep breath. ‘But there's milk in the pantry and bread and margarine. I could make you some toast.'

‘You won't be making anything for a while, so just sit there and behave yourself.' Betty had appointed herself in charge of the Evans' household. Alerted by the commotion the police had made when they had broken down Billy Evans' door, she had been the first on the scene and the first to break through the cordon of constables when she had seen Sali land at the bottom of the stairs.

Brushing aside Sergeant Lamb's exhortations to ‘stay out of matters that don't concern you', she, along with half a dozen other women, had stayed to comfort Harry, and care for Sali. The arrival of an audience had curbed the actions of the police, but the neighbours had been unable to prevent the officers from smashing most of the household china and emptying the contents of the cupboards on to the floor. However, they had been in time to witness the removal of several boxes of papers and letters from Mr Evans' downstairs bedroom.

Betty went into the parlour and brought out three undamaged cups from the set that the late Mrs Evans had kept for ‘best'. She poured the tea, handed one cup to the nurse and carried one over to Sali.

‘It's almost half past six.' Betty checked the clock. ‘As soon as I've drunk this I'll go round to the Joneses' house and ask one of the boys to fetch the doctor.'

‘There's really no need. I'm all right.' Sali sipped the tea, wishing they had sugar.

‘It's no thanks to those damned policemen that you weren't killed outright. Pushing you down the stairs ...'

‘Sergeant Lamb said he'd sue for defamation of character if he heard anyone repeat that allegation. And I can't in all honesty say that he touched me. The last thing I remember is tripping over the hem of my nightgown.' Sali's hand shook and Betty took her teacup from her.

‘My Ned swears by the union solicitor, Mr Francis. We need to let him know what's happened here and ask him to find out where my Ned, Billy Evans and the boys are. There's no point in any of us going down the police station to make enquiries. Like everyone else who's gone there in the last twenty-four hours we may disappear, never to be seen again.' Betty glanced at Harry, who was sleeping, tucked up in an eiderdown, on the second easy chair. ‘It's a disgrace that a child his age had to see such things.'

‘He's calmed down now, Betty.' Sali didn't want to be reminded of Harry's hysterics or how long it had taken her to get him back to sleep after the police had left the house.

‘No thanks to the coppers.'

‘There's no need to send one of the Jones boys for a doctor, Mrs Morgan, I'll call in and ask him to visit here on my way home.' Nurse Roberts finished her tea and left the table.

‘I still need to send them up to Mr Francis, and you'll need a carpenter, to sort out the front door and the window in the front bedroom, Sali.'

‘They smashed the window?'

Betty Morgan didn't have the heart to tell Sali that the police had not only smashed the window in Billy's bedroom but the one in the middle parlour as well.

‘I'm off.' The nurse fastened her cape.

‘Thank you for coming,' Sali said gratefully.

‘I would say it was my pleasure, but I hope I don't see you in this state again, Mrs Jones.'

‘I don't know what Mr Evans is going to say when he sees the house,' Sali said after Nurse Roberts had tiptoed around the wreckage in the hall and left.

‘He's going to say, what the hell happened here?'

Sali and Betty turned to see Billy and Ned in the doorway.

‘Well, you two crept in quiet as cockroaches, I must say. I suppose you'll be wanting tea.' Betty carried her own and the nurse's cups to the sink, so Ned wouldn't see her tears of relief.

‘Are Lloyd, Victor and Joey all right?' Sali asked immediately.

‘Joey and Victor are fine. Lloyd's another matter.'

‘He's hurt?' Sali cried out in pain as she rose to her feet.

‘He looks as though he's had some of the same treatment as you, but he was conscious and talking when I left the police station.' Billy helped her back into her chair. ‘Bloody police, I'll get a solicitor and throw the book at the bastards. I take it this is their doing.' It said something for his state of mind that he swore in front of Sali, Betty and Harry, albeit that Harry was still sleeping.

‘Is Lloyd badly hurt?' Sali's voice wavered tremulously.

‘He has a couple of cracked ribs, too many bruises to count and concussion, but the doctor said he'll survive. It appears that he was clumsy enough to fall down the stone steps to the cells, although he doesn't remember it that way. And you?'

‘Looks like falling down stairs is catching,' Betty said cynically. ‘We'd better put out a warning that the police are spreading the disease.'

‘I'm fine, Mr Evans,' Sali protested unconvincingly. ‘And I really did fall down the stairs.'

‘You're about as fine as Lloyd.' He glanced around the kitchen that looked as though a cyclone had hit it, for all that Betty and two other neighbours had spent most of the night clearing it. ‘What the hell did go on here?'

‘The police said they were searching for evidence. I asked them if they had a warrant -'

‘Did they?' Billy interrupted.

‘Not that I saw.'

‘Sit down, Billy, you're making the place look untidy.' Betty's poor attempt at a joke fell flat. ‘I'll pour you a cup of tea, although brandy might be better.'

‘It would if we had any,' Billy agreed laconically.

‘You all right?' Betty asked Ned.

‘Better than you by the look of it, love.'

‘The police took boxes of papers from your room, Mr Evans. I couldn't stop them.' Sali saw Harry move and she flinched in pain as she went to him. Before she reached him he settled back to sleep.

‘Sit down and let me see to things for a change.' Billy's face darkened as he looked at Harry. ‘Did they go upstairs?'

‘They went everywhere,' Betty revealed. ‘But they didn't break anything up there that I can see, and we've put everything back into the wardrobes and drawers, although you might have trouble finding some of your clothes for a while.'

‘The beds?'

‘Have been remade,' Betty informed him.

‘No arguments, Sali, I want you and Harry to go up right now so you can catch up on some sleep,' Billy ordered.

It was as much as Sali could do to remain on her feet. ‘I want to see Lloyd and there's the soup kitchen -'

‘The doctor promised that he would bring Lloyd home in his new car as soon as he's been released from police custody. And when he comes home, like you, he'll only be fit for bed. As for the soup kitchen, it will have to do without you for a while. Father Kelly will understand.' Billy lifted Harry, who was sleepily rubbing his eyes with his fists, out of the chair. ‘Come on young man, you're going up to bed with your mam.' Billy looked back at Betty.

‘I'll stay as long as I'm needed, Billy.'

‘Thanks, Betty.'

‘I've a couple of old doors in my shed that I've been drying out since the floods to use as kindling,' Ned said. ‘We could use them to board up Lloyd's empty house next door and you could fit the doors and windows from there, into this house until you can afford to buy the materials for Victor to do a proper job.'

‘Thanks, Ned,' Billy went to the door. ‘Looks like we're finding out who our real friends are.'

‘You and the boys have more friends than you realize, Billy,' Betty said warmly. ‘Half of Tonypandy came round last night when they heard what was going on here. The only pity is that we couldn't stop the coppers from ransacking the place.'

‘I hope you're right, Betty, because we certainly need all the friends we can get at the moment.' Billy carried Harry out of the door and up the stairs.